AWNA responds to FDA media study on election

AWNA responds to the Foundation for Democratic Advancement (FDA) media study on Albera’s election with its recommendations that the media should be regulated and advertising spending limits should be imposed. Below is a letter from President Murray Elliott, to Mr. Stephen Garvey, Executive Director The Foundation for Democratic Advancement (FDA) Calgary, Alberta, of June 1, 2012.

Attached is the FDA media study advisory as PDF file. This file contains a link to the Media report, which is hosted on Slideshare.
Direct link to the online Slideshare presentation is HERE
Or if you prefer, a MSWord transcript of the text is downloadable HERE Points 36 and beyond in particular offer the study’s conclusions.

June 1, 2012

Mr. Stephen Garvey, Executive Director
The Foundation for Democratic Advancement (FDA)
Calgary, Alberta

Dear Mr. Garvey:

As president of the Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association (AWNA), I am responding on the association’s behalf, to your recent media advisory regarding political coverage during the recent Alberta provincial election. Notably, your assessment of fair and democratic processes did not include a large part of the Alberta electorate served by weekly newspapers. Readership studies quantify our importance. Electoral maps confirm our influence.

We reflect the communities we serve. My market, like many in Alberta, remains a conservative stronghold. Despite our best efforts–numerous phone calls and emails to candidates and party headquarters, it was challenging to contact and include the opinions of parties outside the two conservative contenders. Without background, our collective coverage may seem lopsided as well. To suggest it contributed to the outcome is misleading.

To recommend government-imposed media conduct, and spending limits seems counter to a free press, free enterprise and democracy. Should editors be muzzled for taking a political stance or endorsing a candidate? Does a politically biased editorial not hold the same weight as a well-funded advertising campaign?

Premier William Aberhart and his Social Credit party sought government intervention to counter perceived bias from all-too-powerful media. The Accurate News and Information Act was a statute passed by the Alberta Legislature in 1937. It would have required papers to reveal all sources, provide the government with equal space and placement to counter any criticism, and even the names and addresses of reporters if requested. Aberhart believed power was in the hands of too few.

The AWNA and its daily brethren quickly aligned to counter the assault on press freedom. Reporters from major dailies including the Chicago Tribune and New York Times arrived at Edmonton to cover the Alberta legislature. On March 4, 1938, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the Accurate News and Information Act unconstitutional. The Edmonton Journal received a special citation of the Pulitzer Prize for its efforts to counter the Aberhart muzzle. Other dailies and weeklies, including the Fort Macleod Gazette, also received Pulitzer citations.

We recommend your next study not only include community weeklies, but examine the decision making behind the pages and coverage you suggest prove bias. We serve a valuable role as government watchdog. To hinder this right is anything but democratic.

Murray Elliott
President, Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association