OPINION
In January 2022 The Current published an editorial under this title. It condemned both the Valley Gazette and The Eganville Leader for hiding from their readers details of the court case against Madawaska Valley Township and members of its former Council. To remind you, the lawsuit made serious allegations about the conduct of the Township’s elected body, as well as its CAO. They were accused of conducting a malicious vendetta against The Current, motivated by its investigative reporting as well as the editor’s recent success in a Human Rights Tribunal claim against former Councillor Ernie Peplinski and the Township. LINK: Public interest news and information suppression in Madawaska Valley is a disgrace | Madawaska Valley Current
Surely it is indisputable that when such serious claims against elected officials are the subject of court proceedings, it’s a matter of public interest and concern to residents – and as reported in the earlier editorial, the owners of both newspapers actually attended the first court hearing, demonstrating that they accepted that premise. However, when The Current and its owners came out on the winning side and the application for a gag order against The Current was denied, it suddenly became no longer a matter of public interest so far as they were concerned.
That unacceptable position has continued over the years since Justice Doyle’s Decision was released in August 2021. That Decision, which was made public, included findings that The Current had been the victim of a vendetta supported by fabricated accusations by the CAO. A large proportion of the local population have also been prevented from learning that the Township lost its appeal against Justice Doyle’s Decision, as well as disclosure of the massive sums the Township persuaded its insurer to pay to two Sault Ste. Marie law firms to defend the indefensible. The Treasurer recently revealed the extent to which ratepayers have been penalized by this through the substantial increases in premiums and deductibles.
The Current has written to both publishers asking them to explain their conduct, particularly when their archives reveal that they have not hesitated to report on far less serious examples of elected officials’ conduct in the past. No responses have been received.
The Leader receives funding through Canada’s Local Journalism Initiative
The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) provides funding to community newspapers to help them ensure that underserved communities are not disadvantaged through news coverage. NewsMedia Canada outlines the obligations it imposes on recipients as a condition of receiving such funding on its website. Those that are relevant to the subject of this article include:
“The LJI Reporter’s journalism
- ‘covers the activities of the country’s civic institutions or subjects of public importance to society.
- The LJI story must be localized, showing the local impact to make it immediately relevant to the local community.
- Examples of civic institutions include ‘cityhalls, courthouses.
- The purpose of the LJI is to inform citizens about local issues. Your publication’s role in investigating and independently reporting on local issues is crucial.’”
It is difficult not to conclude that The Leader’s publisher is accepting federal funding under false pretences. The Current has written to him asking for an explanation, but has not received a reply.
It has been suggested that this conduct flows from resentment following the arrival of a competitive local news source which has received praise for the extent and quality of its truth to power reporting. This included an effusive compliment from The Leader’s current Madawaska Valley LJI reporter and former professor of journalism, Barry Conway. You can see what he said if you read the comments following the editorial referred to and linked above.
The Current itself is a member of Canada’s self-regulatory news media body, The National NewsMedia Council. Any complaints about a publication’s reporting may be directed there. The Eganville Leader is also a member.
Image: Arranews
I can relate a similar situation with the editorial bias of the Eaganville Leader. As a former freelance writer for both the Ottawa Citizen and to a lesser extent the Toronto Star, I never had an opinion piece rejected by the assignment editor.
However, over the past five years I have periodically submitted a reaction to a news item in the Eaganville Leader. Examples of rejected letters include my reactions to an unlicenced grow -op, trees being unnecessary cleared along Golden Lake following a storm, and the charges laid against Cross Town Construction . I never broached the forestry crisis as the editor is a stanch supporter of the industry and it’s political affiliations which help fund the newspaper. It’s common for news outlets to downplay controversy over real estate development as the developers threaten to pull advertising, as do businesses like Cross Town. (It’s strange, however, that the Leader initially ran that story). Conversely a letter of mine questioning the use of the Bonnechere Airfield for a drone testing facility was published. This demonstrates the bias of the publisher which keeps the public in the dark. One glaring example was the tax payer funded retrofit a few years ago of the Ben Hokum & Sons saw mill in Killaloe Ontario . The paper boasted the numbers of jobs following the upgrade, but failed to mention the number of employees laid off following the retrofit.
I’m not familiar with the editorial policy of The Valley Gazette, but after having had experiences with The Eganville Leader, the subject of this editorial in The Current comes as no surprise. I had written several letters to the editor of that paper over the years, and they were always published. And then I wrote a response to certain comments that one of their columnists had made about native people, and that letter never saw the light of day. After going through the letters that I had written that were published, comparing them to the one that wasn’t, it was clear that I had violated the print-only-what-we-agree-with mentality that drives the editorial policy of the Eganville Leader. It’s naive and unrealistic to expect objectivity from a news source in which it has no interest.