After reading the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun and other dailies some journalists have become so bias that there is no longer discretion about being neutral when presenting the news.
We do not fault them for taking a stance and we have always known that news organizations take a position on different subject matters or political leaning, but of late it has become so blatant that it’s hard to imagine that this is coming out of some of our major dailies.
When taking such a strong stance becomes the normal way of news reporting, it can only divide the public because objectivity is no longer there and most important trust is gone.
The lack of being impartial has been evident during the last federal and municipal elections where some news organizations were predicting poll numbers favoring one political party over the other with such strong conviction.
We are unsure as to exactly why, it could be due to political affiliation or agenda driven, who knows exactly, but this kind of behavior should be toned down. We already know it won’t stop.
Two examples here in Toronto and the GTA where taking such a strong stance seems to be the norm are with the transit agenda and mayor Rob Ford.
If you read the Toronto Star and Toronto Sun, you will know exactly where their position is on this important issue and the mayor. We know as we have seen, depending on which side of the fence you are sitting on you can spin the transit agenda whichever way you are leaning.
However with regards to the mayor, despite his many shortcomings, we believe that his office is an important one and also the mayor should be accorded with more respect.
Remember we look to our mayor first as a representative of the city as we look to our premier for the province and prime minister for the country, irrespective of whether you voted for them or not.
What these major news organizations, and we are talking about major news organizations here to be clear, do not realize or have forgotten is that once the trust is gone it’s hard to get it back. Now whatever comes out from these news organizations is suspect.
The general audience who relies on impartiality will be turned off and go look for other sources of information.
The major dailies must come to terms with that it is a bad thing for their business and it is a bad thing for news. The only audience left will be the ones that take the hook, line, and sinker because it is a reflection themselves.
Unless our major dailies aspire to be reporting on the Fox News standard, they should be doing a better job and presenting the news as impartial as possible. Otherwise, their replacement is just around the corner whether that be Huffington Post Canada or another.
