A national journalism association says the Ontario Progressive Conservatives are trying to “bypass journalists and avoid tough questions” after the political party posted their own TV-news style video to Twitter on Monday.
The video in question was posted under the handle @OntarioNewsNow. It shows Lyndsey Vanstone, a former journalist and current communications advisor to Premier Doug Ford, speaking into a microphone while photos of Ford’s activities since his inauguration cast over. The professionally taken photographs show events such as Ford’s meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other Canadian premiers.
The video also includes a segment where Ford addresses the campaign promises he says the party has already achieved.
At the end of the video, Vanstone signs off by saying “from Queen’s Park, I’m Lyndsey Vanstone.”
The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) issued a strongly-worded statement after the release of the video, saying they are concerned that the PC government is “ducking questions from journalists.”
“To be clear, Ontario News Now is not a real media outlet and shouldn't be used as an excuse to bypass journalists and avoid tough questions. It's a social platform run by political party operatives,” CAJ vice-president Evan Balgord said in a statement. “Journalism is a necessary service in our democracy that holds governments accountable, must remain independent, and helps the public understand the government's actions. Journalists regularly expose government waste, and preventing journalists from doing their jobs will cost the people of Ontario.
Andrea Horwath, the leader of the official opposition, called the videos ‘inappropriate.’
“Not a single penny of public dollars, not a single tax dollar, should be utilized in the partisan advertising and partisan promotion of a political party,” she told reporters.
A day after the video was released to the public, PC members were criticized by the media for having political staffers clap during news conferences, effectively drowning out journalists’ questions. Reporters say this was a widely-used tactic during Ford’s election campaign.
Horwath said that if politicians are holding a news conference, “it’s supposed to be for the press, not for a group of hangers-on to create a ruckus.”
Horwath: It’s completely inappropriate. Not a single penny of public dollars, anot a single tax dollar, should be utilized in the partisan advertising and partisan promotion of a political party.
PC MPP Lisa MacLeod, who had staffers clap at a news conference on Tuesday to address welfare reform, later apologized for the incident.
“You know what, it was my first press conference like that. So I just want to apologize if that offended anybody,” she told reporters on Wednesday.
Deputy Premier Christine Elliott told reporters that while she doesn’t see anything wrong with having staffers at news conferences to applaud “really important” arguments, “it should not be used to drown out journalists.”
“That is something that I think we need to discuss because I think that reporters have a right to ask questions and they should be able to do that uninterrupted.”
Ford’s team began releasing TV-news style videos and promoting them on social media when he was running for office. During the course of the campaign, the Liberals asked Elections Canada to investigate the ‘Ford Nation Live’ video series, alleging Ford was trying to pass off “political advertising” as media coverage.
