by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
June 23, 2004
Election campaigns wouldn’t be election campaigns without televised debates and this year’s federal election campaign was no different. after a lot of hype, English language and French language debates were held on June 14 and June 15 respectively. The media and not the political parties had total control over how and when these debates were presented.
a media consortium comprised of the major news networks that would carry the debates (CBC, CTV, Global, and CHUMCity) met and made the major decisions as to the format of the debates. The media decided how long the debates would last, when they would be held, who would moderate and which journalists would make up the panel of questioners. The media representatives also decided which political parties would be allowed to participate as well as the categories and types of issues that would be explored. Should the media have had the final word in the format that these debates took?
There has been some criticism in the role of the media in making the key decisions regarding the debates. One is that the purpose of the debates is to inform the public as to the important issues and help them decide who they think is the best party to vote for. But the issues that are important to the media are not always the ones that are important to the voters. When Conservative candidate Rob Merrifield commented that women who contemplate an abortion should be required to undergo mandatory counseling, the media jumped on abortion as an election issue. Paul Martin’s scaremongering notwithstanding, bringing in laws to restrict a woman’s right to choose had not been an issue in this country for years and the Conservatives had no intention of making it one. More importantly, it was not an issue that candidates were confronted with when knocking on doors. abortion was of interest to the media elite but not to the voters. This is but one example.
The media also decides who participates in the debates and who doesn’t. although the Green Party currently holds no seats, they are a viable alternative to many voters and they are running candidates in all of Canada’s 308 ridings. a valid argument can be made that the leader of the Greens should have been allowed to participate. and as amusing as Gilles Duceppe can be, his appearance in the English language debate served no useful purpose.
The media also chose the moderator, the CBC’s anna Maria Tremonti. While there was no apparent bias in the way the ultra left journalist moderated the English language debate, a better non-journalist moderator could have been found. at times Tremonti had difficulty controlling the candidates.
Political parties should have more of a say in how these debates are structured. The main function of these debates is to inform, not to entertain.