The (Ottawa) Citizen's Agenda

Usually newspapers try to present themselves as being objective while having an ideological biased. Heck, that is one of the main reasons us political bloggers exist - to comment on the opinions that mainstream news organizations spout as fact. For this reason, it is refreshing that the Ottawa Citizen has decided to be open with their views. Today's editorial has the Citizen coming down decidedly in favour of Trina Morissette and the Progressive Conservatives in Ottawa Centre. As you may have read on this blog, Trina Morissette is not a factor in this riding. Conservatives rarely have a chance in Ottawa Centre, and having a next-to-invisible candidate does not help (or maybe it does if you are a Conservative). Therefore, describing the race as "very competitive between the three major parties" is an exaggeration. It is a competitive race between the Liberals and the NDP.

Yet, the Citizen endorses Trina in spite of herself:

Ms. Morissette is a bright young woman and a solid candidate though her answers can sound a bit rehearsed. At an all-candidates meeting at the Glebe Community Centre, her train of thought faltered, almost as though she had forgotten the script.

This corresponds with my impression of her at the Glebe all-candidates debate, and reflects comments of several others: she is pleasant, but not very articulate. She is an ineffective speaker. This is also reflected in on her website. To paraphrase her bio, "After law school, Trina worked for the Liberals in opposition, but she didn't like it. So she jumped shipped to the Tories and worked for the Minister of Energy during the screw-up of the privatization of Hydro Ontario. Then, Trina worked as a lawyer in the Niagara region before returning to Ottawa."

Describing Liberal Candidate, Yasir Naqvi, the Citizen states:

Like most Liberal candidates, Mr. Naqvi had trouble justifying the Liberal stand on faith-based education.

I am not the person who will first jump to the defense of Liberals, but this statement is a fallacy. The Liberals, Yasir included, have done well in communicating their position on this issue.

As for Will Murray and the NDP, the Citizen likes him, just not the NDP:

The NDP candidate Will Murray is an accomplished man. A lawyer, he was schooled at the London School of Economics and has worked in the field of human rights law.

Mr. Murray shows great leadership ability and has an impressive mind accompanied by excellent speaking ability. However, he and his party support a public policy that is heavily dependent on big government to the detriment of business and individual taxpayers.

Mr. Murray is a strong candidate running for the wrong party.

The assertion about the NDP being a party that supports "big government to the detriment of business and individual taxpayers" is one of the strongest examples I have seen of a major news organization in Canada showing its ideological stripes. Their comment is simply a reflection of the right-wing stereotype of the NDP and the Citizen does nothing to substantiate its assertion. In its efforts to support the Progressive Conservatives the Citizen is forced to make leaps in logic in concluding that "Will Murray is the better candidate, but vote Trina Morissette."

When discussing the biases of editorials, I yearn for the French system where writers actually sign their names to the editorials. I would much prefer to take issue with what an individual writes instead of taking the entire media organization to task on poor writing and bad logic.