OTTAWA – Political party leaders can’t fish for votes wherever they like on television, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled yesterday.
The CBSC received a complaint over an episode of Going Fishing that aired on Global on September 29, 2007 was a partisan pitch for the Conservative Party.
Host Darryl Cronzy was shown fishing with John Tory, the leader of the Ontario Conservative Party. During the program, Cronzy asked Tory about the Conservatives’ policies on various fishing, hunting and wildlife management issues, and then said “Listen, I’m not telling you who to vote for”, but contradicted his verbal statement by pointing at John Tory “in an obvious and exaggerated manner..” said the decision.
The CBSC concluded that the broadcast was improper and unfair because it aired during an Ontario provincial election campaign. The CBSC’s National Conventional Television Panel examined the complaint under Clauses 6 and 7 of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics which, combined, require a fair and proper presentation of public affairs.
In its decision, the Panel pointed out that the requirements are more rigorous during election periods and that broadcasters must provide equitable treatment of candidates and issues; although “equitable” does not mean “equal”, the provision of airtime to parties must be fair and just.
(Ed note: Can’t you just picture Tory, Premier Dalton McGuinty and NDP leader Howard Hampton all in the same boat trying to bait a hook and talk angling!?)
“(C)are should be taken not to advantage one political party or candidate over other equivalent contenders… The policy exposure opportunities afforded to the leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party and the overtly partisan perspective of the program host combined to provide an inequitable advantage to that party,” says the decision.
