Canada’s Debate

I read something interesting in Maclean’s yesterday.

Ok, now that you’ve had time to register your shock and surprise, I should explain. Paul Wells, who Andrew Potter (see blogroll) has been having an intellectual affair with for months, wrote in the September 26th issue of Maclean’s that Stephen Harper is basically afraid of the newsmedia; or at least is wary of the perceived “liberal bias” in the Canadian news industry. Here’s what he wrote, parsed to keep my ass from getting yelled at:

Last week I ran into a Harper adviser I’ve known for a decade. Howabout lunch? The guy’s eyes grew haunted. “Well, they’re pretty strict about us talking with the enemy.” [[The media]] Harper guru Tom Flanagan, a cheerful Calgary academic who used to be fun to chat with, now scuttles along Sparks Street occassionally, shoulders hunched, eyes hidden behind wraparound shades. His coversations with journalists last eight seconds and end with the words, “No, sorry.”

Now lets take a close look at the news media. There are two major decisions that every news organization makes, bar none, in which bias is capable of sidetracking good journalism.

1. What news to cover,
2. How to cover it.

I won’t claim to be an expert because I’m not, but I am smarter than at least 50% of the general population, so I feel qualified in a exploring bit of conjecture here. As far as I see it, there are two major factors which influence editorial decisions; the opinions of the consumer, and the opinions of the editorial staff. Now, assuming that these news organizations understand basic economics, which factor do you think would influence the editorial bent of a newspaper (for example)? The easy answer is “the editors.” The correct answer is, “the readers.”

In effect we have two seperate myths being propogated by the Conservatives (who have borrowed a page from the Americans in this regard), and one cannot make sense without the other. First, they are trying desperately to convince people that the media is bending everything they say because they are liberal. Secondly, they are trying (albeit in a more subtle manner) to convince people that they themselves are misinformed and unrepresented by the media. Neither one holds to any scrutiny, but the fact remains that the first cannot stand without the second, and the second doesn’t stand up to the facts in any way. Let me address them in turn however; mostly because it’s fun to slag Conservatives.

Liberal Bias in media: The liberals are given a free pass right? The Conservative Party is chewed to shreds by irresponsible editors and unscrupulous journalists. Hmmm… Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Liberals have been repeatedly excoriated by the National Post and Sunmedia, and even respected newspapers like the Globe and Mail, and yes, that last bastion of liberal commie pinkos, The Toronto Star. Macleans has two featured articles in this week’s issue criticizing the Prime Minister and his Cabinet directly, and even offered an off kilter compliment for a Ralph Klein economic initiative. This for the man who makes Boris Yeltsin look like a teetotal. I’d go back and dig up previous issues (this house is like an international wildlife refuge for magazines), but I have bad gas from eating tongue for dinner, and my stomach will start rumbling as soon as I move from this spot. Lets take a look at today’s National Post editorials page. We’ve got two editorials criticizing the federal government and one attempting to aid a “conservative rise to power.” We’ve also got five letters that are decidedly conservative in content. Not satisfied? Lets check out the Sun. The only editorial I could find in their online edition today criticizes, you guessed it, the Federal government. He even adds that, Of course, all brilliance has its critics. Gordon O’Connor, the Conservative defence critic and a former soldier himself, says: “The problem is once you start abandoning the competitive process, you have no guarantee you’re getting the best price. I can’t check the Globe and Mail since all of their editorials cost money, and I have none to give. The Star actually has no letters directly criticizing the Liberals or their government, but at the same time I see letters supporting Mulroney and criticizing Newman. I see no effort to subvert or repress the Conservative version of the truth, just no blind subscription to it.

People are really conservative: This one requires no long elucidation. Lets just look at the facts. Newspapers can be “rated” on two vectors: readership and advertising content. Readership speaks for itself. “Advertising Content” refers to the quantity and quality of advertisements. Now, readers don’t like advertisements, but they are in direct proportion to the readership and efficacy of a newspaper’s operations. So lets look at the order of newspaper readership between the Toronto Star, Sun, Globe and Mail, and National Post; and advertising:

1. Toronto Star*
2. Globe and Mail
3. The Sun Newspaper group
4. National Post

1. Toronto Star*
2. Toronto Sun*
3. Globe and Mail
4. National Post

There are only two ways to interpret these numbers. The first is that people actually want news that is moderate and meaningful (or in the Toronto Sun’s case easy to read and jockular), or that the National Post is so poorly run that thousands of people who want to read it are simply unable. Now, which seems more likely? Don’t get me wrong, the National Post is poorly run, but it still has a fairly isolated position in the market.

Fortunately all these absurd theories and talk about incompetence brings us full-circle back to the Conservatives and their consideration of the media. Occam’s Razor seems to make a pretty clear case for describing the Canadian response to Stephen Harper’s message; they just don’t like it. There is no strong evidence that the media itself is biased or misrepresenting what they have to say, they’ve made great strides in communicating directly with Canadians (poor commercial acting aside), and nobody buys their message. So they blame the press anyways.

Now let me ask you this: Does this sound more like the elucidation of a political party, or the bad prose of a crestfallen teenager who just got turned down by the dowdiest girl in High School? I’ll let you ponder.

* - Only distributed in the GTA.