Obituary: Manitoba Press Council

The Manitoba organization that hears complaints against newspapers is dead because the papers refused to continue paying for it.

The Winnipeg Free Press, the council’s largest member and the chief architect of its demise, noted its passing.

Although the meagre five comments today on the paper’s website suggest that interest is limited, we should care that press councils are going out of fashion across Canada.

A quick online survey reveals signs of life only in the press councils of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

Most Canadian press councils, including Manitoba’s, sprang up in the 1970s and 1980s, sponsored by newspapers desperate to demonstrate that they could police themselves (and maintain their high profits) without government interference.

The newspapers’ owners were outraged and terrified by recommendations from the Davey and Kent inquiries that the federal government impose some control over concentration of ownership.

Their ploy worked. The feds shrank from imposing the suggested regulations – and that’s probably a good thing.

Since then, not much has change in the world of press councils.

The standard model contains equal representation from newspapers and the public, with an independent chair.

Councils hear complaints about any content in a paper—advertising, news stories, pictures. They act as appeal boards in cases where someone is not satisfied with a newspaper’s response to an original complaint.

Member newspapers promise to publish every press council ruling about them.

Four years ago Don Sellar, a former Toronto Star’s ombud, lamented the decline of press councils.

More recently Brian Gabrial, director of the MA Journalism program at Concordia University, proposed remedies including broadening the mandate of press councils to include other news media and giving them a vital online presence.

His suggestions make a lot of sense – as long as governments do not sneak into the business of regulating news media content.

It’s not as if press councils have waged war against the newspapers.

The Manitoba body dealt with five cases in the last two years, John Cochrane, its chair, told me on Jan. 5.

That’s not a lot of activity. But the very existence of a press council imposes a discipline on member newspapers. If the papers don’t treat complaints seriously, they risk having them adjudicated in a more public forum, and being required to publish decisions that may criticize them.

Now the Winnipeg Free Press, the Brandon Sun and the Manitoba Community Newspapers Association owe their readers and advertisers an explanation of how they propose to replace the Manitoba Press Council.

If, on the other hand, those newspapers believe that their handling of complaints is always correct and never needs to be reviewed, they should say so – on their front pages.

Student freedom-of-information warriors

Here are the Creative Communications Journalism majors whose work you can read in Open Secrets, the annual co-operation between Red River College and the Winnipeg Free Press.

Thanks to Free Press staffers Mary Agnes Welch and Wendy Sawatzky for guiding and shaping the students’ work.

Photo by Wayne Glowacki, Winnipeg Free Press

Ho, ho, ho

Three rocks to which I flee for refuge from the annual orgy of hypocrisy and greed that threatens to drown us, even as our leaders espouse law and order except as it applies to them: yes, in a word, Christmas:

Hollywood is making a few movies for grown-ups, and one of the finest is The Descendants. A real story without special effects or car chases but with plenty of explosions, the psychological kind. Also, best portrayal of a woman a coma since Million Dollar Baby.

The Secret Mask by Rick Chafe, which premiered in November at Winnipeg’s Prairie Theatre Exchange. Wonderful acting and terrific writing that refuses sentimentality.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt: Call it cowboy noir, revisionist western or “aching celebration of miscreantism,” it’s a ride just as insane as anything by my favourite crazy, Jim Thompson. And it’s great to see book publishers paying to create arresting cover art.

On the horizon, a couple more potential rocks: The Antagonist by Lynn Coady, Oliver’s Twist by Craig Oliver, Margin Call.

If those rocks crumble, I plan to crank up Satan is Real by the Louvin Brothers.

The News is dead. Long live the news

“I saw it on The News.”

“Which news?”

“Umm … I don’t remember.”

“CNN? Fox? CBC? CTV? The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Best F#@king News Team Ever?”

”Umm …”

(In an Instructor Voice) “There is no The News. Maybe there was, once, somewhere. Now there is just news.”

Bringing the wars home

Reading the Creative Communications Remembrance Day assignments is a highlight of my year as an instructor.

Students write short stories about a Remembrance Day ceremony. Many of these include interesting and touching details, such as an elderly woman fainting at one Winnipeg service.

Each student also writes about a person who has been affected by conflict. These stories are often memorable.

Instructors encourage students to interview members of their families. Often it’s the first time a grandparent – or aunt or uncle, even a brother – has spoken about the most tumultuous periods of their lives.

Together, the student and his or her family member or friend, or perhaps someone they had not met before this assignment, build new memories.

It’s up to the students to maintain these memories because often, the people they interview are in the last years of life.

Several of the students have made these experiences public by blogging.

Here is a sample: Good work by Allison Bench, Jackie Doming, Monique Pantel and Corinne Rikkelman.

For frustrated editors

Reached your politeness limit as an editor?

Wish you had a tool to express your frustration with the flabby and the mundane?

Here you go.

Courtesy of Armin Wiebe, who has polished a few nuggets in his time.

Ambassador Gary Doer, streaming Nov. 1

Gary Doer, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, will speak to Red River College Creative Communications students at 10 a.m. Central Time tomorrow.

Join us by viewing the live stream of this event.

Please note that this is a Flash-based stream and is not viewable on Apple portable devices such as iPod, iPad or iPhone.

Thanks to John Pura for setting up the streaming.