Dear Sir, about your biased news article

If you don’t think some media outlet staffers bring a bias to their daily chores, think again.

This is not a new point, but since it confirms a couple of years of occassional blogging on the matter I thought I’d share it with you nevertheless. May you never have to live it first hand; but I keep suffering the same lesson, over and over. It’s as though I’m in an endless after-school detention. Fortunately, our backwater blog and its 6.9 million annual hits and 117,000 unique visitors (YTD) provides a forum for some responsible and facutal reporting of my own.

At the risk of repeating myself, I think the Dead Tree Media have their own agenda most days, and will report even banal of events through the prism of their subjectivity. With the industry in financial tatters, you might expect such behaviour in an effort to attract eyeballs back from the celebrity tabloids. But I guess I just have higher expectations of professionalism.

Just yesterday, the Toronto Port Authority announced that it had taken delivery of a new, larger passenger ferry. Basic nuts and bolts of running a business.

For those who’ve used the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport over the past three years, you’ll have travelled on a dual purpose 150 passenger ferry called the TCCA-1. And, if there was ever a mechanical failure with that boat, relegated you will have been to a 1950s barge called the Maple City, which can carry perhaps a third as many people. And you’d be standing outside, on the open deck.

With the popularity of Porter Airlines, the TPA concluded in the summer of 2008 that plans needed to be made to build a reliable ferry back-up, and an Ontario shipyard won a competitive process to build a 200 passenger vessel in January 2009. Fuel, catering, ambulances for the Ornge Medevac services, they all rely on a clockwork ferry system. Pretty straightforward, and the sub-$5 million cost is entirely financed by passenger levies. The TPA itself is a profitable agency which actually pays an annual royalty to the federal government.

Over at The Globe and Mail, even the simple event of the arrival of a new ferry serves as a new chance for reporters to pick up their mallets once again, and pound away at the TPA (see prior representative posts “Barber’s Blazing Beretta” Jan 28-09 and “‘Public Service’ — easier said than done part 4” Jan 29-09). Read this piece, by cub news reporter Josh Wingrove, and decide for yourself:

The Toronto Port Authority took delivery of its newest toy this month – a heavier, pricier ferry to shuttle passengers to the island airport.

The airport is served by a 100-foot, 219-tonne ferry that was bought for $3.5-million just three years ago.

But with the rapid expansion of the privately held Porter Airlines, the TPA felt it was time to replace it, airport director Ken Lundy said. The new ferry will enter service next month.

The new ferry has a passenger cabin twice as big as the current one. It can carry 200 people, 50 more than the older ferry.

The new ferry cost $5-million, covered by airport improvement fees paid by passengers, Mr. Lundy said.

Do you see what I see? Even with just 117 words of space available, Mr. Wingrove got his licks in.

A “toy”? Why would he call an airport ferry a toy? Since he’s working on the Christmas Eve edition of the paper, perhaps Mr. Wingrove’s never been into a toy store in his life. And, if this is the TPA’s “latest” toy, name the other ones they’ve acquired. To use the word “toy” is to imply a callous treatment of other people’s money, which is one of the worst stings to register in the media business.

Did the journalist at least garner this perspective from a source he interviewed, unnamed or otherwise? Nope. But it made its way into the news article regardless.

How can that happen in the world of professional reporting? Reporters are to “report” on what they see and hear, after all, not introduce concepts into articles for which they’ve got no independent foundation.

Not to mention the facts of the short piece…he got the story wrong, even with so little space to do so. The new ferry isn’t “replacing” the “old” one, it was acquired to ensure there is a modern-day backup for the 80,000 monthly passengers who use the BBTCA. Didn’t Mr. Wingrove do some basic research and find the press release announcing the construction?

In the world of accountability, I thought I would write to Mr. Wingrove and ask him these questions. Why not? The media is accountable for their work; the Supreme Court declared it so earlier this week. And since I’ve answered hundreds of TPA questions from the Globe, the two-way street rule should also apply. Or so I hoped:

Mr. Wingrove

I write in reference to the above-noted news article.

To start with, I’d like to understand what it is about a passenger ferry that merits the description of a “toy”. According to Oxford, when used as a noun, a “toy” is (1) “an object for a child to play with, typically a model or miniature replica of something, or (2) a gadget or machine regarded as providing amusement for an adult.”

Second, as this is referred to as “the newest toy” at the Toronto Port Authority, which “toy” do you believe preceded this one?

As per the January 2009 TPA press release, the new, larger ferry was acquired to accommodate increased passenger volumes and to ensure that the current ferry had a reliable back-up. The then backup ferry was a 1950s barge. As such, the existing ferry wasn’t being “replaced” as your wrote in the piece. The TPA was arranging for necessary redundancy. These are very different concepts, which was somehow misunderstood during your research into the matter. Please let me know what steps you took to validate that the new ferry was replacing the TCCA-1.

As this was a news article, how were you able to get comfortable using pejorative terms in your reporting as you cited no other sources of information or perspective in your piece beyond Ken Lundy, a TPA official?

Thanks, in advance.

I may be writing on the matter and would appreciate a response at the earliest opportunity.

Here’s his reply, which did nothing to address my straightforward questions:

Thanks for the note, Mark, though I must admit it surprised me. I believe the brief item you cite was reflective of the same tone as my conversation with Ken and the press release – that there’s something, to be blunt, cool about a new ship that’ll become a waterfront staple. In any case, I believe your best option at this point would be the letters page, letters@globeandmail.com.
Cheers and Merry Christmas,
Josh

What have we learned, class? That Mr. Wingrove likes his boats, perhaps. But just ’cause he thinks they are “cool”, doesn’t mean this Plain Jane ferry is a “toy” for the TPA to play with.

Even in the most basic of news stories, journalists find opportunities to weave in the accepted agenda of their publication. I’ve made this point on countless occassions, particularly about the Globe’s biased TPA news coverage, but even other media outlets have taken notice. As a columnist at Toronto Life Magazine wrote last year about the Globe’s coverage of the TPA and the BBTCA:

No one has it in for Porter Airlines like the Globe. Ditto for Porter’s landlord, the Toronto Port Authority….

I’m sorry to report that I couldn’t get Mr. Wingrove to answer the questions, so I can’t share with you why, exactly, he felt comfortable using pejorative words and tone in such a short news bit. Isn’t the news supposed to be just that? The “news”!

One thing is for certain, at least the Globe’s consistent! But it sure fails the tests of ethical journalism.

MRM
(disclosure – this blog, as always, reflects a personal opinion and in no way represents the views of the TPA, its Board/Staff or the federal government)