PETERS – Elected officials can’t separate their private and public personas online

Posted on June 15, 2019 in Local Voices, Page One, Peters // 1 Comment

(Image: CFJC Today)(

PEOPLE CURSE OTHERS OUT and resort to abuse on social media. That’s no surprise.When it’s a city councillor doing the cussing, though, it’s worth some scrutiny.Kamloops Councillor Dale Bass made several arguments in speaking to CFJC Today about her profane tweets this week.

Argument #1: that she is not a councillor 24-7, and when she is not commenting on city-related issues, she is free to express herself as a private citizen.

The problem with that is, she may be the only one parsing herself like that.

While the separation may be clear to the tweeter, it is not so clear to every reader – especially if they only know you in the context of your elected role.

Bass says a lot of people know her from the public profile afforded by her previous career, but those former newspaper readers certainly don’t know her as the person who cusses out people with whom she disagrees.

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James Peters is the radio anchor at CFJC, coming to Kamloops in 2006. He anchors the afternoon news on B-100 and 98.3 CIFM, and contributes weekly editorials to the CFJC Evening News. He tweets regularly @Jamloops.

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• Dale Bass

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ArmchairMayor.ca is a forum about Kamloops and the world. It has more than one million views. Mel Rothenburger is the former Editor of The Daily News in Kamloops, B.C. (retiring in 2012), and past mayor of Kamloops (1999-2005). At ArmchairMayor.ca he is the publisher, editor, news editor, city editor, reporter, webmaster, and just about anything else you can think of. He is grateful for the contributions of several local columnists. This blog doesn't require a subscription but gratefully accepts donations to help defray costs.

1 Comment on PETERS – Elected officials can’t separate their private and public personas online

1. John Noakes // June 16, 2019 at 8:16 PM // Reply

   It seems that politicians have very loud voices when they are in their campaign trying to get elected.
   That voice can become quite small, even silent, after the election is over. This is especially true when a potentially “difficult” situation arises. What could be so difficult about a dark line on a roadway?

   I think what happened with Dale is something different.

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