Whenever there is a large, growing, human interest story that has a sweeping effect across all provinces, you can bet your bottom dollar that we in the media will cover it. Hey, it's what we do.
These days, however, it feels like the lines are being blurred between what is classified as 'news' and what's classified as 'opinion piece'. Now more than ever, people are asking questions left and right over the role of media and whether or not they've become biased because of their ownership, their management team, and the content being produced that some may feel leans way too left or far too right.
When those lines become too blurred and there are endless questions over the legitimacy of your news and your platform, that's when it's time to start worrying about the role media plays during certain moments in time.
Take the 'Freedom Convoy' as the latest example. The goal, at least on paper, was simple enough. A rolling lineup of truckers from seemingly all across Canada headed to Ottawa to address the Prime Minister about COVID mandates and restrictions when it comes to getting goods and products across the U.S. border.
Now, that was what the intended goal was and depending on your viewpoint, it may or may not have been carried out. What many Canadians saw on their nightly news and on a thousand different media websites, however, strayed from this main objective. Instead, we saw the negative side of things being carried out by a handful of people that apparently painted everyone with the same brush. It's incredibly unfortunate, but it's true - the actions of some can impact the message being spread by all.
I've seen it on my Twitter timeline and I've seen it on my Facebook feed; people that I've known for a very long time believing this one side of the story because of the stories being pumped out there. They'll take a link to an article, post it on their social media, and give their own opinions on it. I'm not saying those peoples' opinions don't matter and I'm not saying they're right or wrong with what they're saying to begin with, I'm only saying that in many cases, what you're seeing and what you're reading is only a certain percentage of the story. But hey, that's social media in a nutshell and I don't see things ever changing in that regard.
The truth of the matter is that the story involving all of those truckers is massive, ongoing, and it's full of far too many twists and turns to get at the epicenter of it all in order to truly capture it. In my opinion, it's become very sad that the actions of some have vilified seemingly all of them, at least according to my contemporaries in "Big Media", as well as several notable radio DJs. I don't "vilify" anyone necessarily, but I do expect people to be held accountable for their actions. Everything in life, good or bad, can become a learning experience.
From my view, I believe that many of the stories being told about this convoy were only one half of the overall picture. As media, our intuition is to go where the buzz is instead of digging a little deeper and telling a better, more well-rounded story. No, we go where the clicks will be big.
However, in doing so, you may appear to out yourself as a supporter of a particular side/party, etc. In my 15 years of writing community news, I've always believed that when you're on the job, your own viewpoints or personal biases should never enter the conversation and you should be - from a professional point of view - sitting on the proverbial fence. Here are THESE views, and here are THESE views, published for people to read and take in however they do. It's what I've always abided by, and no one has ever accused me otherwise.
Somewhere along the line, too many of us in the media have gotten away from that practice. We've moved away from simply writing stories to injecting ourselves into them, believing that we should somehow be involved in the potential outcome of a story. The ego that comes with this belief has got to be the size of Texas, I can only imagine. WRITE your story, don't BE your story. A painter looks at a subject and paints it, he doesn't inject himself right in there beside Mona Lisa.
At some point, that blurred line has to become more in-focus and razor sharp. If it doesn't, then everything being said about media bias will only turn out to be true.
Judging from the last couple of weeks, and from content that I've read, I'm only left to surmise that the viewpoint held by Canadians of particular media outlets carries substantial weight and that not all of their outcry about the media's intentions and content is vapid and hollow. I know good journalists and I know great ones too, but it seems as though such a lesson in Basic Journalism 101 may need to be taught to some of those bigger, more national brothers and sisters.
And here's another thing: I know it's probably frustrating to some of you reading this from a guy like me. You want to know what my politics are (they don't exist), and you want to know my personal stance on THIS or THAT in order to try and box me in as someone to either trust or distrust. The problem is that I don't disclose that information to anyone because of what my profession is. In my book, my professional life is my most visible one to the public, and my personal life is visible only to me and a select few. My intention is that it'll remain that way until the day I die.
Finally, I know that I'm but a rural area, weekly news journalist who covers a very specific part of Saskatchewan, but I would absolutely love to speak with anyone who motored down to Ottawa to have their voices heard on what they believe to be a legitimate issue for Canadian truck drivers.
I swear, there'll be no fence-hopping from me looking to inject myself in this particular painting.
For this week, that's been the Ruttle Report.
