The 2015 election marked a dark chapter in Canadian journalism history.
It saw the front pages of many newspapers across our great nation sold as advertisements that looked more like endorsements for one particular political party. A far cry from the unbiased coverage we in the industry pride ourselves on delivering. It is not our job to tell our readers which party to vote for. It is our job to provide all of the information we can so the public can form their own educated opinion.
We won’t speculate on who was responsible for that decision, although we suspect it was not made at the local level. We will say that the impression it gave Canadians, that our editorial content can be bought, is a stain on all of us that will not easily be forgotten. It means those papers, and the rest of us, will have to work to regain the trust of our readers - and the trust of our readers is something we do not take lightly.
Black Press made the decision early on in this election that no political party would take over our front page news.
It is you, our readers that regularly thumb through our pages, taking the time to read our painstakingly crafted prose, that inspire us to pour our hearts into our work everyday. It is the readers that make all of our blood, sweat and tears worth it, and trust us there has been plenty of blood, sweat and tears shed in the process of putting together these pages.
The thought of whether or not we have done a person and a story justice keeps us awake at night. Our word choice leaves us perpetually searching for perfect phase, something that we never can seem to find. But most importantly it is your stories, the ones we share with others, that inspire us to keep persevering.
We don’t know what the future will hold for the journalism industry, like much of Canada’s political future, it is up in the air until new policies begin to materialize.
In the meantime we will continue to hone our craft, carefully abiding by the Canadian Press guidelines that demand accuracy, coherence and the highest level of quality. Without our integrity there will be no future for the journalism industry.