July 14, 2003
"Watching" the media has become more popular in recent times. A few weeks ago the National Post began its CBC Watch and readers were asked to write to the paper about anti-Israel bias on CBC radio and television. In the United States, the Media Research Center has a Times Watch to monitor the New York Times. Times Watch began in 2001, shortly after Howell Raines was promoted to the position of executive editor. Raines, who described himself as a white liberal from Alabama who gave black reporter Jayson Blair more chances than he should have, is no longer with the Times.
Media Research Center’s rationale for watching the New York Times is that the Times is the most influential newspaper in the media capital of the United States--New York City. The Times is also widely read throughout the United States and it provides much of the information that broadcasters use for news programs.
A lot of what Media Research Center says about the New York Times can be said about the Toronto Star in Canada. The Star is Canada’s highest circulation daily and its influence is felt far outside the City of Toronto. Although many newspapers have a leftward tilt, (and a few have a rightward tilt), the Star is unabashedly both small and capital "L" liberal. Other than Americans and conservatives, it is difficult to think of a group of people that the Toronto Star does not try and portray as victims.
Most importantly, The Toronto Star has, in the words of the Toronto Sun’s Peter Worthington, a "pathological obsession with race." Last October the Star came out with its "race and crime" series to show that the Toronto police racially profile blacks, especially young black men. In the name of crusading for social justice, the Star divided the city, creating a great deal of anger by the black community which was directed at the police. Where there had been tensions between blacks and the police in the past, those prior difficulties were usually precipitated by an action by the police that was at least perceived to be racially motivated. On this occasion the Toronto Star, instead of reporting the news, became the news. The Star saw absolutely nothing wrong with reporting statistics on black arrests while supporting the view that actual crime statistics, broken down by race, should not be made public.
No matter what members of the public think about the relationship between the Toronto police and the black community, most Star readers thought that the paper went way too far in its recent article about the Toronto Blue Jays. With the headline, "The White Jays?" appearing on the front page of a Saturday Star, followed by pictures of the Jays opening day roster, the paper implied that the Blue Jays general manager, J.P. Ricciardi was somehow racist because the number of non-white players has declined since he took over as GM in 2001. The Star thought that it was just terrible that Toronto’s baseball team didn’t reflect the diversity of the city. Baseball fans, used to watching players like Carlos Delgado and Vernon Wells without paying particular attention to what colour they are, were outraged.
In the face of the anger that the article generated, the Star backed down. The paper’s ombudsman, while supporting columnist Geoff Baker’s use of statistics, admitted that the headline and the headshots of the opening day roster, was inappropriate.
The Toronto Star should be watched for the same reasons that "watches" have been developed for the CBC and the New York Times. In is unfortunate, but there are many people who know virtually nothing about the world around them except for what they read in the Toronto Star. In future Media Report columns, we will be monitoring the Star for bias. If you find something that you feel is biased, please let us know at cfp@canadafreepress.com.