Fred Ryan's editorial was judged Quebec's best general-topic editorial of 2006 at the Quebec Community Newspaper Association's annual awards gala, May 25, 2007, in Montreal. It won the Bob Phillips Award, and first appeared in the Aylmer Bulletin, March 25, 2006.

A marketing expert suggested recently we re-brand the Bulletin. What's wrong with our brand, I wondered. The Bulletin is the sole newspaper that reports the events of both the majority and minority populations of Aylmer, Quebec: "Together in harmony" is our brand -- where's the problem?

He was on another tact altogether.

"What's the feeling you want associated with the Bulletin? What's the emotion you're selling? How do you want your market to feel about your product?"

Feeling? Emotion? We are providing news to our readers, and providing readers to our advertisers.

At our recent community newspaper convention in Montreal, the judges in the competition for best articles insisted that a winner must evoke emotions, must touch the feelings of the readers, even if the story is about a business start-up or a municipal contract being awarded without tender.

Sure, closing Aylmer's neighbourhood rinks evoked plenty of emotion, but it was the act that evoked them, not our articles. And strong feelings were only part of the reaction -- thoughtful argument has been more convincing.

On the evening TV news, the top national story was a mother's grief for her daughter-soldier killed in Afghanistan. The camera followed a tear rolling down the mother's cheek - for one third of the story. Another third was the funeral procession.

A story on water in a native community focused on the anger of the residents, not on the political decisions which led to the water system breakdown.

On it goes, emotion after emotion. That was the CBC. Private broadcasters literally wallow in stories about grief, anger, outrage, and loss.

It is certainly easier to write or film emotion -- teens crying over a lost classmate or a senior's anger over poor bus service - but is this news?

Is it news that a wife loves her slain child, that funerals are sad, or that people denied basic rights get angry? In what non-trivial sense is this "news"?

Have we become a nation of blubberers?

Are we unable to separate private grief from public accountability?

Has news become blended into entertainment?

Or is it a matter of corporate economics - the media conglomerates saving money by firing reporters, leaving an under-staffed newsroom which must grab the quickest and flashiest story in order to make the next deadline?

CBC has faced cuts, as have the newspaper chains. But are we just to swallow this dumbing-down of one of our democracy's most important constituents, access to informative and analytical news?

The key to making democracy work is not merely having a choice in the voting booth every four years. It is crucial that we be knowledgeable voters, that we understand the issues and the events which are shaping our society and our lives.

Emotions, like religious views, are ours to have, but they are private matters. We have no more need of media telling us how and what to feel, as how and what to believe.

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Copyright © 2007 Fred Ryan/Log Cabin Chronicles/06.07