Angelo Persichilli currently has a reputation as a Tory apologist, thanks to his unrelenting criticism of the Libranos. This is something he acknowledges in his latest Toronto Star column — and something for which he makes no apologies:

I don’t understand why if you write stories unfavourable to the opposition you are, in this case, Conservative, while if you write stories against the government you are a good journalist.

One of the most respected Canadian journalists, Val Sears of the Star, talking to his colleagues in 1962, reportedly said: “To work, gentlemen, we have a government to overthrow.” Not knowing the context of this statement, I can’t express a direct opinion on it. But, in general, while I agree that members of the media have to be vigilant about any wrongdoing by the government, I also believe they should never try to fill the opposition’s institutional role.

In fact, I believe that the major problem with our institutions is not the government, but the way the opposition parties do their job.

Persichilli points out that, at the moment, there is no clear alternative to the Conservatives, and much of the blame for that lies at the feet of the Libranos themselves; there’s no such thing, in our individually-empowered society, as “alternative-by-default” (which seems to be the thinking of the Librano brain trust these days).

He’s also quite right to point out that journalists have just as much an obligation to cover the Official Opposition as it does the government. Naturally the Opposition’s job is to oppose, but our political discourse demands a rationale of opposition: you can point out logical or legal flaws in a given policy, you can point out potential negative outcomes if it’s followed; if you agree with the intended outcome, you can propose alternatives. Calling a policy names can make for good sound bites on the supper-hour newscasts, but if you devote all of your effort towards delivering a good bon mot then you’re going to wind up sounding awfully shallow.

It also has to be pointed out that there are plenty of pundits out there all too willing to create negative stories about the Harper government. Heather Mallick, Susan Riley, Jeffrey Simpson, Thomas Walkom, and so on. Meanwhile, there are pundits who are willing to take a pro-Tory stance on occasion: Kelly McParland of the Post, Chantal Hebert, Rex Murphy. So it’s not as if Persichilli has a monopoly on Canadian political viewpoints here; he has competition for his opinions, and therefore no need to tailor them.

As to this understanding about “stories against the government = good journalism,” well, that’s pretty much been the case ever since journalism started. We have to remember that newspapers started as partisan sheets, and it’s almost always easier to find some aspect of government that isn’t working than to explain one that does. Because journalists depend on readers as the ultimate medium for their revenue (readers’ eyes = advertisers targets, and advertisers are the source of revenue), they play a role in the public discourse by setting out which item gets the front page — and by extension, which item merits attention from the government. This agenda-setting is why the profession of journalism likes to refer to itself as the “fourth estate” — an unofficial function of the governing process. (The coming of the blogosphere and especially social networks like Facebook have delivered another channel of information that can potentially create another link between government and the People, bypassing journalism altogether and rendering traditional media potentially obsolete. Which is why you’ll still see some grumbling about blogs in mainstream media.)

If the Librano brain trust wants their coverage to improve, the solution is simple enough: change the way you’re currently doing business. Of course, they haven’t changed that since last spring; I wouldn’t want to make odds on them changing now.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 06:14 and is filed under Libranos, Media Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.