Is The Daily News biased toward STV?
It was a sincere question. Is The Daily News biased against STV?
“If so, I think you owe it to your readers to say so.”
That was what a reader had to say after reading our coverage of the Chamber of Commerce-Daily News forum on the single transferable vote. The basis of the comment was that she felt the story gave more space to No-STV president Bill Tieleman than it did to the Yes side represented by Nick Loenen.
I didn’t think the story was biased but I never take anything for granted so I pulled out my ruler and measured up the amount of space given to each speaker. They came out pretty much dead even except for a couple of paragraphs in which audience members clearly opposed STV.
That, no doubt, tipped the scales in that reader’s perception of bias. I can tell you there was no intention to portray bias. While editorials and columns are all about bias, I still believe news stories should be neutral.
Reporters have personal opinions like everybody else, but they are capable of setting aside their own bias in the way they tell their stories in print. I have no idea what the majority view would be in our own newsroom, but I know some of our staff are passionate Yes supporters, and others think it’s the dumbest thing ever.
As for myself, I don’t like STV, but I waited until the forum was over before commenting on it, as I didn’t think it would be fair for the forum moderator to come down on one side or the other before the two sides had their say.
And, if I do say so myself, I think the forum — which was well attended — provided an excellent opportunity for the public to understand the arguments for and against. Unfortunately, most other voters will got the polling stations still having to guess whether STV is a good idea.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Allen Larsen raises a valid point, though I disagree with his conclusion. All reporters write through the filter of their personal experiences but they’re trained not to allow those inherent biases to infect their reporting.
They’re also trained to sort out the wheat from the chaf and insert the key information arising out of a story in an order that assists the reader to understand what has happened. They are not secretaries, and must make choices about what is the most relevant information for readers.
This process is imperfect, since another writer, or reader, might have different views on what’s key. But that’s an entirely different matter than injecting one’s own political, cultural or religious beliefs into a story.
The information consumer’s best defense is to make his/her own determination about which information sources one can trust, and to select a good menu of those sources. Mel.
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Is the Daily News biased on the subject of the STV referendum? You and I are free to decide ourselves and don’t need help from the Daily News. Your readers need all the skepticism they can muster because the daily News is a part of the news medis and along with television con put its opinions into all of our homes all day, every day.
Although I believe that all of the media opinions have at least a kernel of truth I also believe that the originators of those opinions are just men and women who, unless they are as pure as God,, have biases. This is easily apparent from which arguements are left out and the way they are expressed. In that way the media is very similar to politicians. Both groups incesantly emphasize what will help them acchieve their goals and ignoe those that would harm them.
For example the Daily News has compared the STV voting system to some sort of vegtable soup or fruit salad without any mention of the fact thet both soup and fruit salad are better balanced nutritionaly than a watermelon or a cabbage, or who represents your interests if the first past the post watermelon proves to have a rotten core. At least we can throw out or isolate a bad piece of fruit salad and still have some nutrition, or a bad politician and still have some representation.
Personally I choose my politicians on how they answer difficult questions. Evasive answers lower my opinion and reduce my desire to be represented by that individual.
My opinion of the media is that it is the deciding influence in any political question. I don’ trust its motives and believe that it should be prohibited by law from expressing or promoting its opinions on any qruestion put to the voters on social issues.
I know which side of the STV question I supportt and why. I also believe that I can spot biases when I see them.
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