Complaints about election bias unjustified
By Lethbridge Herald on May 13, 2023.
OUR OPINION
The Herald is biased in favour of the NDP, The Herald is biased in favour of the UCP. We have too many photos and stories about Rob Miyashiro and Shannon Phillips on front page. We shouldn’t be giving Danielle Smith space on the front page.
Yes, it’s election season and the accusations fly from both left and the right. As campaigns heat up in this highly polarized province, supporters of the right and left are looking for any opportunity to claim bias in the media. And we know it’s not just us. Every media outlet comes under the microscope during elections, be they municipal, provincial or federal.
We all know what to expect when we check email or social media – someone will make an accusation of bias on a daily basis. We’ve had several such complaints just this week alone.
Here in Lethbridge, the NDP is regularly making announcements of one kind or another.
Their provincial leader had two events in a 15-hour period this week including a rally at the Galt Museum and a press conference with local media. We were chastised for having Rachel Notley on the front page but a visit by any party leader is A1 material. That includes UCP, Liberal or the Alberta Party.
The NDP is extremely media savvy and love them or hate them – and many can say they have either sentiment about them and ditto for the UCP – the NDP does an excellent job at getting its message across.
If the NDP has issues with UCP governance on any matter, you can be assured they will hold a press conference here. And all media will cover it – that’s our job.
If the UCP in the past four years had ever felt compelled to respond to NDP criticism of its government’s work at media events here, we would have covered those, too. And given Nathan Neudorf front page coverage just as we’ve sometimes given the NDP. But how many times did the UCP MLA for Lethbridge East stage media events to take on the Opposition party’s comments? Zero, maybe? That’s not on us, that’s on the UCP.
If the UCP held as many media events as the NDP, they would be getting that same front page coverage people complain the NDP have gotten. Maybe confrontation and attacks aren’t the UCP strategy but that’s not the fault of any media outlet, including ours.
On Wednesday’s front page above the fold, we had a story about a UCP plan to make streets safe with comments from Neudorf.
We made sure that was our lead story to provide balance to the Notley event.
We had on our front page last week a story on a forum staged by Volunteer Lethbridge in which Cheryl Seaborn, UCP candidate for Lethbridge West, was prominently featured.
One recent front page was dominated by the completion of construction at the new Fresh Start facility that was funded by the UCP.
Another front page was mostly taken up by a story on the UCP announcement on the expansion of the renal dialysis program at Chinook Regional Hospital, the only other story being a second one on the UCP government releasing a climate plan.
The day prior to that we had on Page A2 Nathan Neudorf announcing increased surgical capacity at CRH. Why was that not on front page? Because we had a story about the impact of the drug crisis on downtown Lethbridge, a matter which is of huge concern to Lethbridge and which deserved to be our top story.
And the day prior to that we had on our front page premier Danielle Smith outlining her vision for the economy to the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce.
In mid-April our lead story was the UCP announcing design funding for a cath lab at CRH.
Complaints about media bias aren’t new and they will always continue if people don’t see their preferred party getting the coverage they feel they deserve by any media outlet. It’s the nature of the beast.
If Danielle Smith cares to visit Lethbridge to support Nathan Neudorf and Cheryl Seaborn during the campaign, we will splash their photos and the story prominently on front page which is where such a story belongs.
And we know some NDP supporters will cry foul over that. Guaranteed that will happen. Just watch and read.
22-21
Hear, hear!
no, “read read”….
This serve serving pat on the back by a dying paper which, through neglect perhaps more by design, has fallen into disrepute as a mere shill for the Left marks a sad end to its journalistic credibility.
What a load, JustObnoxious. Do you have anything good to say about anything, or do you just fart and leave the room all the time?
oh Lumpy Lumpy Lumpy…you poor grade school lump of humanity. When you pass gas I fear your IQ drops 10 points and based on the comments Ivs eeen you must be approaching net zero at an alarming rate.
Are you capable of rebuttal by anything other than insults ? No…I didnt think so….
drool on my little friend, drool on….
why are some people just so angry about open-mindedness, sharing, and tending to the well being of as much as we can. instead, one finds their purpose to be most about “mine”, which is akin to the maturity of the 2-4 four year old.
This is a laughable comment coming from the source of the problem in the first place.. Even a casual reader can observe over a period of time that the frequency and placement of articles favorable to the NDP consistently are given priority. The Lethbridge Herald , let’s face it, is a left wing rag. Today’s front page comment from the so called ” finance critic Shannon Phillips, who is unfortunately an economic illiterate , over raising corporate taxes shows that she has no understanding of cause and effect. Another case of NDP ” Tax and Spend” philosophy.