Before I get into the heart of this post I want to say I am a fan of The Now Newspaper and everything they do here in Surrey. They have covered my charitable efforts and I am forever grateful. I have dealt directly with Amy Reid and Tom Zillich and they are wonderful people who care about this city.

The Now Newspaper is edited by Beau Simpson, you may remember him from his unsuccessful bid for Surrey City Council in 2014 as a part of Doug McCallum’s Safe Surrey slate. During the campaign I asked Beau if he would return to the Now as editor should he fail to be elected. His said no. Here’s our Twitter conversation from November 2, 2014.

I know what Beau is going to say. He’s going to claim he misread my question. I say BS. Having a local paper with an editor who was recently defeated in a civic election makes me uncomfortable, and you should be too. As editor Beau sets the tone at the Now. He’s in charge. Today I asked Beau if he was back as editor and he said yes, he was. I mentioned to him that this conflicted with what he said during the campaign and this was his response.

Will Beau Simpson subtly steer the Now towards stories that highlight Surrey’s crime problem? Will Beau run in the next civic election? Judging from a recent tweet it seems like he’s already campaigning.

Beau Simpson puts the Now in an awful position. I can’t say I’m surprised based on Safe Surrey’s election tactics, I just hope he knows he’s affecting the public’s perception of everyone writing about politics for his paper.

Scott.