On being … the five Ws

By Ingrid Sapona

For months now I’ve tried hard to avoid mentioning Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in this column. The reasons for that are many, including the fact that my mother taught me that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all. But, a news story I saw about Ford on Saturday on CBS This Morning inflamed my inner journalist to the point that I realized I’d have to break the promise I made to myself about not mentioning Mayor Ford in On being….

Intrigued by the fact that CBS had assigned a reporter to file an actual story on Mayor Ford’s withdrawal from the race – in other words, it wasn’t just a headline the anchor read – I immediately hit the record function on my PVR. After seeing it, I was glad I recorded it because I knew I’d want to re-run it to see if it really was as incomplete as it seemed on first viewing. Unfortunately, my initial take on it was correct.

I transcribed the report, and here are the facts as CBS reported them: The anchor introduced the 90 second video report by saying: “Rob Ford, Toronto’s mayor, won’t be seeking re-election after all. Ford is being treated for a tumour in his abdomen and announced Friday he is dropping out of the race.” The anchor then threw it over to the reporter. 

After a clever intro referring to Ford as a zeppelin that has fallen to earth, the reporter quoted Mayor Ford’s statement from his hospital bed: “My heart is heavy when I tell you that I’m unable to continue my campaign for re-election.” The report then talked about the mayor’s “well chronicled history of substance abuse” and showed various now infamous clips of him. The reporter concluded with: “But that’s not the end of this story. Ford’s older brother Doug is taking his place on the ballot as a candidate for mayor. And, the mayor himself may now seek a City Council seat in Toronto’s election next month. Oh, Canada.”

Except the very last item, the statements in the report are 100% true. But, the report is very misleading because it doesn’t mention a number of crucial facts: for example, 2 p.m. Friday was the deadline for candidates who wish to be on the ballot in the upcoming election. The mayor’s medical test results, and proposed course of treatment, will not be known until well after that deadline. The deadline, therefore, precipitated the Ford brothers’ actions.

The last statement was inaccurate because there’s no question about whether Rob Ford will run for City Council. Given the Friday deadline, Rob Ford had to make that decision too – and he did. Other facts that CBS made no mention of and that present a clearer picture is that Doug currently holds a seat on City Council – the seat that Rob Ford held before becoming mayor – the seat that Rob Ford is now seeking. Without this additional information, viewers can’t possibly understand that, to Ford and his supporters, brother Doug is a viable candidate, not to mention the likelihood that Rob will return to City Hall one way or another.

After watching the report and realizing how irritated I was by it, I began trying to put my finger on why. A wee bit of it has to do with the fact that I’m tired of the Ford family’s antics drawing attention to my beloved Toronto. (I’m not one of those who subscribe to the theory that any publicity is better than no publicity.) After months of having a mayor whose behaviour has been fodder for all late night comics, it didn’t seem too much to ask that when a truly newsworthy event related to the mayor makes it onto a U.S. newscast, the story would be accurate. I don’t mind that the report ended with a clever play on the title of our national anthem – but how about you try to cover the five Ws (who, what, where, when, and WHY) first.

I’m a fairly skeptical consumer of news and I’m always on the lookout for bias and obvious inaccuracy – and there’s certainly a lot of both of those things in mainstream media. And, I try to get as much context as possible, because it’s so crucial to understanding. But how can you gauge whether the context provided is thorough and accurate? In this case, I knew the missing facts – but in most stories, I don’t know whether important information has been left out. Therein lies what troubles me so much about the story: if a reporter can’t get a story out of Toronto quite right, what are the odds that we’re getting a true and accurate picture of what’s going on in other places in the world?

© 2014 Ingrid Sapona