About PG Unspun

Why it exists

Local news matters most where there is least of it, and Prince George has fewer places to argue about its own affairs every year. Comment sections have narrowed alongside the newsrooms, and readers have increasingly found their contributions turned down without explanation — sharpest on the stories where the questions are hardest and the appetite for public disagreement seems thinnest.

A comment section that quietly discards what it dislikes teaches people that the disagreement was never wanted. That is a worse outcome than a difficult argument conducted in the open. PG Unspun exists to keep that argument open.

What this site does

Each entry in the ledger is a short account of a story, with a link to read the original at its source. We do not reproduce other outlets' articles — reporting costs money to produce, and the people who produced it should get the traffic and the credit. Follow the link.

Alongside each summary we add our own context: what the story leaves out, questions it doesn't answer, or reporting we think is missing — then open it to comment.

Some entries are marked Original. Those are written here rather than summarized from elsewhere. We expect that category to grow: alongside commentary on other outlets' coverage, PG Unspun will publish its own original investigative reporting on local issues, not just responses to reporting done elsewhere.

We're aiming for one to two pieces a week, alongside articles submitted by readers. That's a target, not a guarantee — some weeks will have more, some less, depending on what's happening locally.

PG Unspun also accepts original submissions from readers — reporting, analysis, or informed opinion on Prince George. See Write for us for details.

How moderation works here

Comments are read before they appear. Criticism is welcome, including criticism of this site. When a comment is turned down it does not vanish. A notice stays in the thread recording that a comment was withheld and the reason it was withheld, so the decision can be judged even though the text is not published.

Every moderation decision is written to an internal log that records who acted, on what, when, and why. The full rules are on the moderation policy page.

How corrections work here

Published pieces get things wrong sometimes, and the fix has to be as visible as the mistake. When a factual error in a published piece is corrected, the correction is appended openly at the bottom of the piece — noting what was wrong, what has changed, and when — rather than silently edited away. The original text is not quietly rewritten to erase that a mistake was made.

Corrections and complaints go to the contact and corrections page. We would rather hear that we got something wrong than leave it standing.

Who runs it

PG Unspun is written and edited in Prince George, British Columbia, by NJ Perham, who lives and works in the city. The byline is drawn from their own names, and letters under it have appeared in the Prince George Citizen. The site is independent of the Citizen and of every other outlet whose reporting it summarizes.

Funding: PG Unspun receives no outside funding, carries no advertising, and is not sponsored by any individual, business, or organization.

Conflicts of interest: PG Unspun and NJ Perham have no financial ties, business relationships, or affiliations with any candidate, elector organization, third-party sponsor, or local business named or discussed on this site. Where that changes, or where a specific conflict exists relevant to a particular piece, it will be disclosed in that piece.

Social media

PG Unspun publishes only on this website. We keep a small number of accounts elsewhere, used solely to share our articles and answer questions; any account we use is listed below. We have no other social media presence, and any account claiming to represent PG Unspun that is not listed here is not affiliated with or endorsed by us.

Accounts we use: Reddit — u/PGUnspun