Who said Canadian politics wasn’t interesting?

It’s so amazing to be seeing this political crisis through the lens of media. In all my years of study, I would have never thought I would be in the middle of lean and sometimes mean, message-making machine during a year of incredible highs and lows (mostly lows). Being able to be in the fray during two Canadian elections (federal and civic…the civic one being way more fun than the federal), one historic American election (which would be the said “incredible high”), the economic downturn, and now the political shenanigans that are taking place on Parliament Hill.

The funny thing about being part of the media while this happens is that it can make you…apathetic. Someone asked me recently how partisan it gets in the newsroom, story meetings…and frankly, people for the most part, don’t care enough to be partisan. Or the likelihood is, they’re just plain jaded.

In some ways, this is a good thing. The “always trying to be fair/two sides of the story” kind of strategy. But I’m also left wondering, how objective are we, REALLY?

Sometimes I feel that the quest for objectivity often gets in the way of presenting what’s factually true and reasonable. Think about the climate change controversy of years past – clearly, there was no question that global warming is happening (according to the most esteemed folks from the scientific community, e.g IPCC). But in following the “two sides of the story” agenda, many news channels put complete wacks (ie. Junk scientists) on the air just cause they had a different opinion. And admittedly, from my brief experience in mainstream media, I feel that we often place too much weight on just getting some different opinion – even when it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

One thing that I’ve learned though…that I certainly won’t complain about, is the need to question everything. Ask people how they know what they know. Be critical…and don’t be afraid to push buttons (strategically).

Anyways, my rant ends here. More on the current political crisis later :)