I'll let Ms. Gilmore do most of the talking as her piece is excellent. Just to make it clear: she is an actual investigate journalist with accreditation and real training.
She is not some citizen journalist. She went to school. She works in the field. As mentioned, she has press credentials which means she actually gets access to media rooms, conferences, press galleys, etc where real journalists can ask questions. Citizens journalists do not do that nor can they.
Unlike journalists and the accredited media, people that produce
non-news television programs and movies aren't held to the same
standards when it comes to bias. Mr. Mastin's job and that of the CMPA
is to lobby governments in Canada for monetary support for local
productions.
To sum up the issue first.
Conservative influencers and some elected Conservatives shared a screen shot with the words "we have your back" claiming this came from the news media to Mark Carney and the Liberals. Their claim was that this was the proof that the news media was biased.
It sure looks and sounds damning!
First, the clip was not scrubbed from the internet. It was put in the CPAC public archive where anyone can view it. This is standard practice for CPAC. That first line is a lie.
Second, the speaker is a man named Reynolds Mastin and he doesn't speak for or represent the news media. He is the President of the Canadian Media Producers Association. That association is for independent producers of scripted television and movies. They have nothing to do with journalism, news broadcasts, news papers, etc.
Unlike journalists and the accredited media, people that produce non-news television programs and movies aren't held to the same standards when it comes to bias. Mr. Mastin's job and that of the CMPA is to lobby governments in Canada for monetary support for local productions.
So, the news media doesn't have an official group that just endorsed the Liberals. That never happened.
There is a group called the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) and they do monitor journalists and news services of their members. They have strict ethical guidelines on reporting. This group is for accredited journalists.
Your citizen journalists and content creators are rarely members of the CAJ. You can tell that because they are clearly advocating for a particular political party and they use techniques that the CAJ would consider violations of their ethical Code of Conduct.
I'm going to close this post with something for people on the political right to consider: this kind of content is becoming more and more common from right wing creators. I follow a lot of right wing media, main stream media, and leftist content. I'm familiar with a lot of media.
This, though, crosses a line that should anger conservatives and Conservatives.
You should be furious at these people that purposely tried to manipulate you.
No, you don't have to change your vote to Liberal or NDP or Green or whatever. You should still vote Conservative if that's where your ideology lands. But you have a duty and responsibility to hold the people on your side accountable and some of them just did their best to manipulate you. They crossed an ethical line.
At the very least, if it was your MP that re-posted the meme you should contact their office and say, "You were wrong. You need to issue an apology and un-follow that creator on social media."
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