It's Unserious To Believe That Mainstream Media Isn't Relevant

It’s also unserious to believe that indies aren’t legit.

Photo by Filip Mishevski on Unsplash

“Mainstream media is on its way out.”

“Mainstream media is dead.”

I hear this a lot in the independent Journalist world. Over and over I’ve had this discussion with indies. Meanwhile, many of my colleagues in the mainstream world don’t take us seriously in the indie world, despite the fact that more and more money is being concentrated in the hands of indies, and more stories are coming from indies that are deep, and often better researched than what you’ll find in the mainstream.

There’s a cold war– maybe a guerilla war– between the two camps. Some people are able to work within both worlds with the utmost respect such as my good friend and colleague Gabrielle Brassard-Lecours, whom you all know.

After the chaos at the federal leadership debate at Radio-Canada’s Montreal headquarters (I was there), many mainstream people went on the record saying that militant independent media were destroying the foundations of good journalism because they were akin to activists. Recently, a piece came out on the CBC about who gets platformed on CBC and why, arguing that platforming people who might be considered problematic is a way to ensure good journalism and balance.

Then Gilbert Rozon, the founder of Just For Laughs, a man who is in court on sexual assault allegations and rape allegations, asked LaPresse to publish him. Instead of making the obvious correct choice, they published his article, which claimed that he was “not that guy,” resulting in a widespread criticism of LaPresse for platforming someone who seems to have committed sexual assault and rape.

Then Patrick Légacé said that it was justified because of the right to rebuttal which all neutral and balanced newspapers believe in, that’s why they platformed this disgraced man.

Marie-Elaine Guay published a piece in the Rover responding to Légacé, and confronting this false equivalency and for claiming neutrality and balance when they only published the rich predator, and not the women who are fighting in court for their dignity and justice.

This sort of misfire on the part of a major company such as LaPresse is fuel in the fire that the old ways of journalism are dead, and we need to move on. However, It’s perhaps somewhat reductive– but the mainstream constantly berates indies for having thoughts and independent ideas; for not being balanced enough.

A couple months ago I was invited on every Radio-Canada station across the country (except Montreal?) and they fundamentally misunderstood what was going on with indies– they were interested in picking my brain in response to one of their own, Alexane Drolet, striking out to make a career on her own terms. In our French interview, the interviewer, a great journalist, asked me if it was appropriate that indies sometimes mix opinion with factual work. Of course, my response was simple.

I asked her where mainstream news gets all of its money from.

Their biggest articles are never the news– it’s almost always op-eds and personal essays. It’s why most papers now have tons of guest writers every day as opinion writers. They make all their money from these op-eds. Some people have full time jobs or major contracts as opinion writers, and so long as you work for a mainstream media company you’re considered to be a “legit journalist” by mainstream outlets. (By the way, I’m trying to pressure Noovo to let me write a weekly column this fall, so if you think they should let me write for them, email them. Go, email them. I’ll write stuff like this.)

If you express an opinion as an indie, you’re a militant activist.

Of course, I personally prefer good old investigations, and although I’m open about my views, I try not to shove them down everyone’s throats. I do my best, and sometimes fall below the threshold, to give people excellent news. Occasionally I try to write an opinion piece that will be engaging and thought provoking.

I wish I could be on the field constantly. Currently this isn’t possible because I don't have the resources. For resources to grow for people like Gabrielle, Christopher Curtis and whomever else, we need to work with the communication networks of mainstream media, and for them to partner with people like myself.

I think we should keep calling the mainstream out when they’re full of it, but we need to build bridges, not decry their work. I’m not saying we need to lie down and pretend they’re perfect, and that journalism is simple and easy, I’m saying that we need to work together, because indies are rad. They’ll have to be way less prideful and start noticing that we’re doing something really damn cool over here.

The bad news for the media (this is a pun) is that their work isn’t always the deepest. But information doesn’t always need to be insanely deep; a daily paper such as CTV or CBC needs to fulfill a social contract with the citizens of the country; it needs to provide a large quantity of information that is accessible to people at all times. It is a major ingredient in a robust democracy; to remove as many barriers for people to access information as possible.

Independent journalists tend to be making the deepest think pieces, the largest investigations into particular subjects– it’s the bread and butter of independents that they make these types of investigations and they nail it, time after time after time.

But also they rely on the mainstream media to do research.

Media structures tend to be so utterly disinterested in working together because of the way that the corporate structures within media. A byline is the way to get to the top– I do it all the time. Who is the ideal byline to achieve my goals? How can I be the most well known journalist? What prestige will allow me to push my career forward?

We are in an economic crisis, and have been for a long time. People all over are suffering. The rich are growing richer, and democracy is being splintered away by bad actors and billion dollar donor classes that want to line their pockets. Look at Carney.

So let’s make a new media ecosystem, where we’re building things together and not constantly trying to one up each other.