“There is nothing that’s more important in a democracy than a well-informed electorate. When there’s no information or, much worse, wrong information, it can lead to calamitous decisions and clobber any attempts at vigorous debate.”
MacKenzie McHale, The Newsroom
Season One, Episode One
The quote to open this post comes from a show that captured my imagination earlier this summer about my chosen profession and has acted as a call to arms for the way I want us – The Voice – to cover this upcoming municipal election.
I simply love The Newsroom. The cadence of the dialogue is remarkable. Its examination, not only of current events, but also of the way those events are conveyed to the public by the media, is of obvious interest to me. The show has served as a booster shot of journalistic idealism and focus.
There are issues, policies, myths and philosophies that need to be flushed out leading up to this municipal election. You can’t cover them all in one newspaper per week and you certainly cannot provide all the required context and perspective within that medium. Also, there are limits to how much you can add one’s personal insights or opinions in the newspaper.
Newsprint also, most definitely, limits the facilitation of on-the-record interaction between those seeking elected office and those who would put them there. We need more of that.
Hence the blog. Look at me go. Would I rather be blogging about hockey or, say, 1980s pop music or the brilliance of Bill Murray? Why yes, yes I would. However, a quick poll of the ladies in the office indicate they are not willing to pay me for that subject matter. So next week, my lot in life will be as a political blogger.
It leaves me better equipped to address online innuendo, gossip, rumour and half-truths that shouldn’t go unchecked, but cannot be given adequate space in our newspaper.
I’ll also provide some personal opinions about the topics and projects that people are most talking about, as well as exploring some that should be garnering more attention. I will be careful to differentiate between fact and opinion and educated guesses.
Feel free to disagree – that’s what democracy is about – but let’s do our best to disagree in a civilized fashion and never lose sight of the main point.
We are going to have chats with candidates at set times where you can come with us for coffee, if you like, or check in while we live blog their responses to your questions. We will be fact checking statements made in advertisements, in press releases and during the candidates forum on Oct. 7 at the Royal Canadian Legion.
I think I can add something to the election discussion. I am the longest-serving journalist in this town at more than nine years and this will be my fourth municipal campaign to cover. I served on the Citizen’s Advisory Group that penned the Community Sustainability Plan. I’m an active volunteer. I am a business owner and a homeowner. I have no axe to grind and no agenda beyond common sense, common decency and common good.
I will endorse no candidate, but I will not be shy about endorsing ideas and solutions regarding the challenges and opportunities facing our town, regardless of whose idea it is.
Our goal is to increase the level of dialogue in this town so that we not only get a clearer understanding of what candidates have in mind on particular issues, but also so the candidates get a better idea of what we all think about those same issues.
We also want to try and help engage the public better in an attempt to increase the abysmal voter turnout numbers, which have been in decline for decades and hover somewhere just above 30 per cent.
We think the best way to do that is to give a sounding board for the majority of Hinton residents, whose political tastes fall within the middle of the spectrum and who want more information or discussion, but don’t want a shouting match that descends into personal attacks or belittling.
Moderate voices are welcome here. And, actually, there are a handful of moderate opinion makers on various local Facebook forums for whom we have the deepest respect. They manage to be the voices of reason on even the most contentious of issues.
Because, in the end, it’s our community that wins or loses, not only through the decisions we make, but how we frame and conduct the discussions to reach those decisions. Effective democracy is a functional marriage between both style and substance.
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