Fair election coverage does not mean equal
In a municipal election in which 35 individuals have registered to run for mayor and 241 people have stepped forward to vie for your votes for 25 city council positions in Toronto’s 25 new wards, what is fair news coverage for candidates and citizens too?
What’s fair is firstly, understanding that fair does not mean equal. That is not how this all adds up. Fairness does not demand that every candidate running in the Oct. 22 election receive equal coverage. As in any election campaign, news organizations best serve their audiences by making critical news judgments about what you need to know before you cast your votes.
To that end, the Star’s coverage will focus largely on those contenders considered to be serious and legitimate candidates based on such facts as whether they are running campaigns that suggest they have some significant chance of success with voters and the ideas they bring forward about the future of the city.
In the mayoral race, that means the Star will tell you primarily about the two people now considered to be the major candidates: incumbent John Tory and challenger Jennifer Keesmaat. In recent days, the campaigns of human rights lawyer Saron Gebresellassi and safe streets activist Sarah Climenhaga have also merited some measure of news coverage in the Star and other media outlets based on their participation in public debates and the ideas they present.
“The polling data tells us that John Tory and Jennifer Keesmaat are the serious contenders in the race for mayor now,” said Doug Cudmore, the Star’s senior editor of urban affairs, crime and justice coverage. “Our goal in serving readers is to first look at what the next four years in the city might be so we need to focus our coverage on those candidates who have the most realistic chance of shaping that future.
“If we want to discuss where transit, or another critical issue is going to go in those next four years, we have to provide readers with the voices that have the best chance to effect that change.”
I agree the newsroom needs to set these coverage priorities and to the extent possible stick to them to serve readers with relevant information. I worry about these plans being disrupted by one fringe candidate who seems intent on hijacking media coverage with antics calculated to draw attention to herself. I am talking of course about the controversial white nationalist who managed to get her photo taken with Ontario Premier Doug Ford last weekend, and thus dominated headlines for several days. And yes, I am deliberately not naming her here.
Both Cudmore and city hall bureau chief, David Rider, are aware of this risk. That is why it matters that the newsroom has a coverage plan focused on the significant candidates and their platforms on the major issues that have impact on Toronto citizens.
“We have criteria for our coverage and she and the other so-called fringe candidates do not meet it in any way, shape or form,” Rider told me. “If we tried to give equal voice to every one of those candidates, we would not be serving our readers.”
That coverage plan has by necessity evolved in recent weeks amid the chaos of Ford’s bombshell July decree to change the election wards midstream and the court challenges that followed. When that was resolved in an Ontario Court of Appeal decision last week, and nominations in the city’s 25 wards closed, the Star’s city hall bureau did much deadline work to provide readers with what I regard as public service journalism — essential information that citizens need.
City hall reporter Samantha Beattie pulled together an extensive report that detailed all the candidates in each ward, the ward boundaries, the ward’s demographics and the names of the MPs and MPPs representing those areas.
In covering the 25 new wards over the next three weeks, the Star will provide readers with profiles of each ward that will outline the major issues and the platforms of the front-runners. It will also cover the significant mayoral debates and the platforms of the two main candidates. That is a significant allocation of the newsroom’s resources involving the four-person city hall bureau and several other reporters.
“Public service is very much the intention,” Cudmore said. “Our plan is to give readers the information they need to make informed decisions about the future of their city and feel impelled to get out and vote. “That is the basis of our democracy.” Indeed, serving citizens with relevant information during election campaigns is one of the core reasons why journalism matters.
Kathy English is the Star's public editor and based in Toronto. Reach her by email at publiced@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @kathyenglish