Media hypocrisy that is driving people away from traditional news sources into the lap of bloggers
Paul MacNeill, Publisher, Eastern Graphic peicanada.com – The devil, they say, is in the details.
The Legislative press gallery should have remembered that old adage before ousting controversial blogger Stephen Pate.
In their daily jobs gallery members are charged with getting the details right and ensuring proper process is followed.
They didn’t do that with Pate. Instead they rushed to turf him without benefit of proper procedure. And in the process only made the press gallery look weak.
Last year Pate applied for accreditation to cover the legislature. He was accepted by the Speaker’s Office.
After another blogger applied, Legislative Clerk Charles MacKay, a very good public servant, suggested the media organize a gallery to control who is and who is not approved. It is a good idea.
A couple of weeks ago the founding meeting of the press gallery was held and Stephen Pate was unanimously elected secretary. It took literally only hours for that election to cause upset within Island media circles and the Speaker’s Office.
Of primary concern is an article Pate penned two weeks prior to his election as secretary. Government announces solution for disabled access to Confederation Library
He calls it satire. The media gallery and the Speakers Office call it a fake press release.
The article is the only specific example cited by the gallery in its notice to turf Pate. That meeting was held last week.
Rather than focus on the specific issue and follow a specific set of guidelines the meeting turned into a litany of charges, some of them accurate and some of them just silly, being thrown at the blogger.
In short, Island media used the opportunity to pile it on.
And why not?
Pate is loathed in many media and political circles. Much of what he writes consists of over the top mean-spirited personal attacks. In many cases he is just flat out wrong. On the flip side, some of what he writes is very good and relevant.
All of which is irrelevant to this issue. This is not a story about respecting or hating a blogger. This is a story about due process.
The press gallery did not do its homework and first establish a set of bylaws that would govern how it deals with issues such as turfing a member. It did not establish rules to govern who can and who cannot be a member and what professional credentials they must possess.
In the absence of such bylaws, perceived accuracy is now established as precedent for throwing someone out. That precedent is based largely on the unproven opinion of the accusers.
That is the irony of Pate-gate.
Think about the continued controversy swirling around the Provincial Nominee Program. It centres on issues of fairness, transparency and whether proper rules and procedures were followed.
How can the media hold government to one standard, but be unwilling to hold itself to the same?
To say bloggers are not reporters is inane.
If that’s the case why do Island daily newspapers and the CBC allow bloggers on their websites?
And yes, some of those bloggers are paid staff journalists. Do they not now qualify for legislature accreditation?
To say there is limited space in the legislature is an excuse. To claim that Pate is a lobbyist ignores the fact that the Canadian Association of Journalists is a lobby organization.
It’s the type of hypocrisy that is driving people away from traditional news sources right into the lap of new media, such as bloggers.
Traditional media may wish for the old days back, but it won’t happen. It is akin to the telegraph industry not worrying about the impact of the telephone.
What Island media did last week is paint all bloggers and new media with the same brush. The reality is not all are as confrontational and polarizing as Stephen Pate.
But all – including Stephen Pate – deserve to know what the rules are.
Paul MacNeill is Publisher of Island Press Limited. He can be contacted at paul@peicanada.com
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