Media management: welcome to the future

Liberal MP Glen Pearson has a very nicely written blog post this morning in which he gently suggests that the media may be getting tired of the message-control tactics of the Harper government. 

if a government is determined to keep its own dealings in hiding from the Parliamentary process itself, and opposition parties remain powerless to crack open the door of accountability, then only the media can alert the country to the danger to which we are descending. Put simply: if the media can’t get access and accountability, then democracy no longer has efficient oversight. The culture of secrecy and deceit is a threat to the media’s own estate and to the welfare of any open society. We require good journalism now for our very survival and it’s my sense the fourth estate is coming to grips with that reality.

A glance at National Newswatch today would show that some columns bear out Pearson's forecast. Carol Goar, in my own paper, for instance, or Barbara Yaffe. Other columnists, however, seem to have shrugged and moved on to subjects that make Conservatives less uncomfortable.  

I hate to sound pessimistic, but for a while now, I've been more or less convinced that any future government, whether it's Liberal or New Democrat or Green or whatever, will simply not be able to resist the type of media-handling, even media-bullying tactics that the Conservatives have employed. Why? Because they work. By and large, reporters in Ottawa have simply stopped complaining about what would have been outrageous a few years ago (no access to ministers, vital information kept secret, vetting of questions at press conferences, etc.) It's just like the negative ads. They're working too, as Nik Nanos reported this week. 

So someday, when the Conservatives are replaced (sorry, partisans, democracy does tend to replace governments from time to time, unless martial-law is part of the plan too), we'll be stuck with the kind of media-management that we grew to accept over the last five years. I've heard senior Liberals  talk in  grudging admiration of how Harper has whipped the media into line. So down the road, when it's imitated, almost inevitably, we won't have anyone but ourselves to blame. 

Comments

[Just Say No[t]]

Well, it's not too late to put a stop to it, and stop enabling them. Just form a pact among the major news orgs. that you won't enable their abuse of democracy or capitulate to the PMO's terms, anymore: just stop going to pressers & photo ops & signing ceremonies altogether; and don't slightly rewrite their InfoAlerts anymore... don't even cover them on their own messaging, period, until they consistently allow you to ask unfiltered, unpreapproved questions... and more than just 3 per language.

[Debbie]

Thing is Susan we know what every paper and how every journalist will respond to the HOC, Parliment, and Political Parties. By all of you giving the readers the, same old same old, we no longer take any stock into what you say and write. Not only does the gov't contol the message so does the media. Put new glasses on and challenge what you see vs what you think you see.

[MCBellecourt]

@Just Say No(t), you hit it bang on.

Thumbing through the news sites Sunday and now (beginning of Monday AM), I read about sanctions against Libya, and what do I see? Pretty pictures of Harper all over the place, nicely contrived, angles all perfect, carefully scripted.

But no relevent questions quoted and no spontaneous answers.

No reporter should ever settle for having to obtain permission to ask questions. That reduces reporters to nothing more than cheerleader squads. The only things missing are the bobby socks, the pleated skort uniforms and the pom-poms. It's enough to make me want to hurl.

I've always held the press in high regard, I count many journalists as friends, and I was even married to one.

That high regard has been severely tested lately.

ENOUGH!!