As revealed by the CBC this week, the Conservative cabinet has been looking to tweak the country’s copyright laws to give political parties free access to broadcast news clips so they can be made into political advertisements.
This follows a consortium of broadcasters standing up to the practice last May, refusing to air any ad that used their content without permission.
Broadcasters were rightly applauded for this.
Not just because their reporters’ hard work becomes manipulated and warped for selfish purposes, but also because it is part of an odious trend in politics.
Permanent campaigning and year-round attack ads don’t just malign the politicians they target. They turn people off from their government and politics in general, further eroding engagement and accelerating the plummet of voter turnout.
Self-serving politicians will tell you it is important to have access to the footage in order to inform the public about how nasty and unworthy their opponents are.
In political jargon, it’s called “messaging” and if it had the same meaning as truth, they wouldn’t have to come up with a new name for it.
They forget that it is news media’s job to dispassionately and impartially present the news to the public who, we are glad to say, have the ability to make up their own damn minds.
Political regimes come and go at the whim of the electorate but news outlets (mostly) outlive them to continue to inform the public.
Let’s not blur the lines between the two.
