Media merely acted as a megaphone
Re The PM and the press, Public Editor Oct. 24 While I agree with everything that Kathy English said in her column last Saturday, there was one glaring omission. It is not the prime minister or the Prime Minister’s Office that decides which statements will be broadcast or appear in print. That is the right and responsibility of the media.
As her article reported, Stephen Harper instituted “iron-clad control over the flow of information, with the Prime Minister’s Office often acting as the gatekeeper for what the public will be told and when.”
However, the media plays the key and final role in that information flow. The PMO is not the gatekeeper. That is the role of the media.
All too often (particularly on TV) the sound bytes offered by the PMO were broadcast as given. The media merely acted as a megaphone and left it up to the public to decide whether a claim was true or not, without providing any background or counter argument.
The media was playing by Harper’s rules.
The result was nine years of Harper’s reign.
The Ottawa culture might change politicians, but that culture must not change the questioning role and the publishing role of the fifth estate.
Democracy needs open and factual information in order to properly function and Canadians need the media to separate fact from fiction. It also needs the media to decide what to print or broadcast.
Finally, one should not confuse gatekeeping with censorship.
A censor will attempt to block or delete something from public view. A gatekeeper will insist on honesty or truthfulness before permitting passage. Dennis Choptiany, Markham