Journalism 101: The Windsor Star And The Border

I so much like reading the Windsor Star. At least on issues that I know about, I find their coverage and how they time stories and write Editorials fascinating. Frankly, if I knew a journalism teacher in a University, I would tell the Prof to require students to get a subscription to the paper as part of the course.

Take Saturday's Star as an example. We should have a debate some time whether the Star is performing a service to this Community as the major media outlet in town or a disservice. Are they providing the news or making it or manipulating it for their own purposes?

Remember what I remarked on, given what the Star's Editor said, in the context of stories about the Ambassador Bridge [BLOG April 19, 2006 "Between A Pepsi And A Lemon Juice"]:

• "Now I think I get it. Now I think I know the reason for the two news stories about the hazardous goods crossing the Ambassador Bridge...
  
  [Windsor Star executive editor Marty] Beneteau credited the news team for helping to bring about positive change through its coverage of the Lori Dupont slaying at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital.
  
  "I think we can take partial credit into calling an inquest into the nurse's slaying," Beneteau said. "We did things that newspapers can do to bring about change, positive change. I think we got a lot of results this year and this now validates the results we got."
  
  So shall we insert "Ambassador Bridge" in place of "Lori Dupont" to explain the coverage? Is the Star on another mission to change things, like building a public bridge perhaps?"
  
  

To start the debate, let's take a look at Saturday's Star: 2 news stories and an Editorial:

1. Manning widening set
2. Security expert warns of complacency
3. The border: Kwame's tunnel vision

MANNING ROAD

With the first story, as you know, the Press Release was issued days ago but no story was published until Saturday. It was pretty factual. A similar pattern was followed in the Masse-Comartin story where they conceded that the DRIC road would be picked as the route to the border, thereby breaking Eddie's united front. Days later, the story was published and then Eddie's threat of a lawsuit against the Feds.

Now what has fascinated me is that after this story there is no threat of a lawsuit against the Feds. This project is clearly part of the Fed's border strategy that favours the County and will put trucks on EC Row. You remember the famous "snub" of the Mayor and Council back in April 2005 when one of the plans that the Senior Levels had was "Upgrading Manning Road from Highway 401 to County Road 22, including the 401 interchange." Our tough Mayor was fuming we were told at the time "Francis was convinced government leaders were poised to use the expressway in some fashion as a border truck route -- as called for by provincial and federal bureaucrats -- and was telling media the city was poised to take legal action to thwart the plan."

So he threatened lawsuit before over Manning Road, one over the DRIC road but now no lawsuit over the actual start of the Manning announcement (granted it is NOT the full upgrade, yet). Why not?

SENATOR KENNY

He's back again, foaming at the mouth about the Ambassador Bridge and ignoring the Tunnel. I had better add him to my Bloglist so he will understand the realities down here.

Now I wondered why the Senator started fulminating again about the border and more particularly about the risks at the Ambassador Bridge. In my newspaper search, I did not see any other stories in other newspapers about the Bridge, only in the Star. It's old news after all.

Oh I understand the hook "9/11 and complacency" to justify the story. However, the Star really had to do some digging to get the quotes about the Bridge. The good Senator is on a round-the-world junket paid for by taxpayers "to learn about the dangers to our nation and what others are doing to defend against terrorism." The Star tracked him down in Europe. He made his comments "in an overseas phone conversation Thursday from the Canadian embassy in The Hague, Netherlands."

The Star went all out to get the negative Bridge comments didn't they from the Senator. That long-distance call must have cost a few dollars after all. Why the urgency--if it was for a 9/11 story, it would not have been reported on 9/9 and he would have been contacted in Canada, long before. There was a reason for the story.

There was a positive element to the story however. The Senator supported reverse customs: "He also cited the feds'...the refusal to introduce vehicle inspections before they get on the bridge or enter the tunnel...it's dumb you don't get inspected before you cross," he said. "You don't need a higher education to understand that."

So we have a desperate effort on the Star's part to create a news story when there was none to slam the Ambassador Bridge again and to advocate for reverse customs, something that Eddie must have at the Tunnel to solve its "unique" security concern before it is shut down.

What's it all about you ask. Now we come to the Editorial:

THE BORDER: KWAME'S TUNNEL VISION

Here are the key lines in the Editorial about the Tunnel and the reason for all of this.

• "However, Kilpatrick's willingness to give control of the U.S. side of the Windsor-Detroit tunnel to Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun has been a surprising exception...But Kilpatrick's judgment on the tunnel should continue to be questioned and challenged on both sides of the border."

But there is more than this with the Star's agenda: "public ownership" and later exproporiation of the Bridge Co.

• "As we have argued, the critical importance of the border -- in terms of both our national security and economic security -- requires that the next crossing be fully financed and owned by the public. It's still too early to call for the end of a privately run border crossings, but leaving one private company with a virtual monopoly on border truck traffic isn't in the best interests of this community or our American neighbours."

It's just like the Joint Councils meeting earlier in the year. It is nothing other than a sales pitch to make Eddie the partner of Detroit in a Tunnel deal and to try to prevent the Bridge Co. from doing so. All of the Star's power and prestige used for a commerical deal for heaven's sake!

Someone must have heard that something is going on with the Tunnel on the other side or thinks it is so. Obviously, people have been reading about the mess that the Tunnel has become both financially and from a security aspect under this Mayor's watch on the Windsor Tunnel Commission both as a Councillor before and as Chair now.

Here is another fascinating part of the Editorial:

• "On this side of the border, the city, Transport Canada and the former federal Liberal government have all raised concerns with Detroit over the possibility of one company gaining control of both the tunnel and bridge entrance into Canada."

That goes back to Deputy PM Anne McLellan. She was used to thwart the porposal of the Bridge Co. the first time around. She "sent a letter to Mayor Eddie Francis to emphasize there are no plans to move Canada Customs officers to Detroit -- as called for in the bridge proposal...There are also "serious concerns" about redundancy by creating one customs bridge-tunnel superplaza at North America's busiest border crossing, she said."

CONCLUSION

So if I were the Professor quizzing the class of journalism students about the Saturday Star, I would give an "A+" to the student who answered and raised the following points:

• This is NOT journalism as it is traditionally known but a newspaper doing "things that newspapers can do to bring about change, positive change."
• Whether this is "positive change" may well be debatable
• The Manning Road story, like the Masse-Comartin story, was not reported right after the story occurred allowing a position to be developed
• No threats of a lawsuit came out of the Mayor's office after the Manning Road story as it did after the DRIC story because this time the Mayor needs the Feds to do his dirty work as they did before to stop the Bridge Co. The Mayor has to pretend to like the Feds this time around, and he desperately needs them, so he cannot threaten them as he did before with a lawsuit.
• The Star went out of its way to create a non-news story with Senator Kenny, where there was not one, around the Ambassador Bridge and reverse customs
• The entire effort culminated in a Star Editorial to stop the Bridge Co. from doing a Tunnel deal, cause a rift between the Mayor and Council in Detroit, to support a public bridge and to try to make the Feds act as before to do the job the Mayor cannot do on his own and dares not (after receiving a letter from the Bridge Co's lawyer last time around, a story the Star did not publish).

Oh well, it is a one newspaper town after all. Remember what I said before:

"THE MEDIA IS THE GOVERNMENT"