Playing Favourites?

It's one thing when a blogger uses the web to communicate their personal thoughts and feelings, but it's quite another when a public news source, such as the Calgary Herald uses their website to foist their own thoughts and opinions on the voters.

Now, I'm not talking about editorial columns or clearly marked opinion pieces, but I'm referring to a nice little election utility that they post - it's quite obvious that it is meant to be a basic non-partisan information piece. Only it's not. Take a look at it here. Isn't it a nice map showing the candidates running in each ward? Such a pity that they neglected to identify a number of candidate's websites (although they are identifying others). I guess they don't have the same resources such as google and Wikipedia that the rest of us are able to access. It's amazing to me that if I can locate a campaign website on the first screen of a google search that they are incapable of doing the same thing. After all, it is very difficult to find a website for Bob Hawkesworth - just type in the name "Hawkesworth" - it's the fourth entry down on Google, and if you supply a first name, i.e. "Bob Hawkesworth" it appears first.

But that's not what set me off. What really set me off was when I was idly clicking about. How nice, they list everyone in alphabetical order. And Linda and Diane who were acclaimed, they have noted this along with a photo. I thought this was a nice touch.

Then I clicked on ward 4. I was greeted by a huge photo of Ric McIver. Significantly larger than the photos of either Linda or Diane - and it actually made the name Nick Halfyard half fall off of my screen when I clicked on it. (Notable that they were unable to find Nicks' website - although I must admit that it was a bit difficult even for me to locate).

It is wrong when a news source presents information that is half-baked and incomplete; and it's worse when that information is presented in a manner that is deliberately in favour of a specific candidate.

If you're looking for some non-biased information on candidates, can I send you to Grant Neufeld's website; he does a great job of listing the options without bringing his opinion into play. (Although he does supply a bit of commentary if you go looking under the tab marked "Opinion".

Perhaps the Calgary Herald ought to have labelled their "Voter Resources" section with the simple label "Opinion" rather than trying to mask it as a nonpartisan resource.