Let's be clear: the award from the Canadian Newspaper Association is not for Free Press reporting of the Winnipeg races for city hall during the election campaign.
In fact, it is not for the quality of the presentation or reporting, at all.
It is for merely doing, not for excelling.
The award is in "the digital innovation category" in the "Great Ideas competition", for streaming video of election results and commentary on one night only, October 27.
That is as far removed from a prize for actual reporting or superior production of a newscast as you can get.
It is a newspaper industry award for 'best new gimmick'.
And while "staff writer" trumpets "THE Free Press's online coverage of civic election night has won a major industry award", it is in fact, the last one of a half-dozen categories announced.
http://www.ocna.org/node/12484
"Earlier this week, Newspapers Canada announced the winners of the 2011 Great Idea Awards. The competition showcases creative marketing materials and campaigns developed by daily and community newspapers across the country in six different categories including newspaper marketing and promotion, promotional campaigns, print advertising, special sections, magazines and digital innovation. "
So the FP pats itself on the back not for winning an award with any actual connection to journalism, but for being voted slightly more clever than their partners in the dying dinosaur industry, by streaming voter tabulations online.
As the NNA did not actually review the 'telecast', news consumers can perhaps rely on the assessment of longtime Winnipeg political analyst Phil Walding:
Wow the standards must be really low if that stuff they had on merits an award. I wouldn't have thought Curtis Brown tripping over his words and overstating the obvious would have ranked so high.
The only NNA award category having anything close to a connection with journalism is the special sections category.
The Calgary Herald won in the Daily Newspaper (Large Market) competition, for a story about -- The New Mavericks: A Citizen Journalism Project.
That kind of award winning JOURNALISM story would of course have been impossible for the Free Press to duplicate.
The Free Press editor, Margo Goodhand, detests citizen journalism so much she insisted to Red River College president Stephanie Forsyth that The Great Canadian Talk Show on 92.9 Kick-FM be silenced for exposing the missed stories, flawed and biased reporting, and gatekeeper protection of the pet projects of millionaires and NDP government -- especially during the Winnipeg civic election last fall.
One of the citizen journalists who contributed greatly to our program, provided a succinct rebuke for online readers who lauded the Free Press for their work before election night, and set the record straight about who the media leader was, all through the fall :
Huh? Where was the Free Press during the election? The Great Canadian Talk Show outshone the Free Press 2:1 during the 2010 Civic Election.
That was the only outlet that interviewed Judy-W for over 3 hours total and the only media outlet covering the alleged Ross Eadie-NDP campaign financing. That is, alleged by Mr Eadie himself.
The Free Press's silly Orlikow-Kowalson non-existent-fight coverage and lack of due civic reporting was duly noted last fall.
The fact that bike lanes were treated as a rolling-eyes and laughable "typical Winnipeg" small-time election issue should speak to how this publication views civic issues at large.
Graham Hnatiuk
progressivewinnipeg.blogspot.com
-- Whether it was bike lanes on Berry St, Sherbrook, Assiniboine, Nassau, Grosvenor (thanks to blogger John Dobbin) or the suspended plan for McDermot, the alternative media exposed the Free Press either missing the story or slanting their coverage.
-- Trees being chopped down on Berry, the report confirming the failure of the model for bike lane planning - Argue Street, lack of public consultation resulting in a lawsuit by Assiniboine Avenue businesses ?
We led, the Free Press sometimes followed, or ignored the news that did not fit their desired narrative.
-- Parents with genuine worries about dangerous narrow traffic circles in East Kildonan and the effect on emergency response units, were first heard on TGCTS. As was the inside story of how the bike lobby co-opts civic officials and double-crosses the public to advance their agenda. Councillor Harvey Smith's call for the firing of the Active Transportation co-ordinator was made on our program, live to a rush hour audience.
That news was never reported on by the Mountain Avenue bunch.
-- Council candidates ignored by the vast FP election team or dismissed as "gadflys" were able to state their platforms and answer questions from the public at length, without any comments from us about their neat hairdo or how Greg Selinger should recruit them to run for the NDP in the next provincial election.
-- 42% of downtown parking meters needing repair, the bullying practices of the parking authority, holding councillors seeking re-election to account for their record, extensive first person reporting on candidate forums, were all part of the practice of election journalism on TGCTS.
The result? Kudos and well-wishes from hundreds of listeners and participants, starting with the Free Press' favorite Mayoral candidate, Judy Wasylycia-Leis herself.
http://tgcts.blogspot.com/2010/10/candidate-judy-and-other-post-election.html.
We cared about ensuring the witnesses who filed official complaints about Ross Eadie's campaign in Norquay had a voice.
Only in Winnipeg is the alternative media under siege for reporting the truth about complaints filed regarding a civic election campaign financing scam and holding the mainstream media to account.
Campus radio citizen journalists cared about freedom of expression, not censorship.
Innovative? yes. Award winning? no.
We don't care about awards. We care about the people.
When you have nothing worth listening to on your radio dial at 4 PM, ask yourself, who did the Winnipeg Free Press care about last October ?
Posted by: Graham2
April 15, 2011 at 1:36 AM