Over the past several months, you hear those phrases fake news and alternative facts being used a lot, especially in the United States. It is not easy being media: often times people will question your work just because it doesn’t fit their ideology. GayCalgary ran into this issue several times over the years the magazine first started.
Rob and I faced a balancing act, making sure certain advertisers were always happy, and avoiding saying anything negative in fear they might pull their ads, or maybe bar us from their establishment. Non-profit groups could cancel the sponsorship we have with them. With the LGBTQ community being so small – and mainstream businesses were not coming on board to advertise – we needed to keep people happy.
Did keeping things positive start hurting our credibility? Yes, it did. We weren’t printing fake news or alternative facts, we were just trying not to hurt peoples’ feeling or egos. But when we stopped sugar coating what was going on in the community, we started to see some true colours reveal.
For example, when Apollo Western Cup moved its dance over Hotel Arts for the first time. Around 10pm, they were already at venue capacity. I personally noticed people being told that the event was sold out and being turned away. This was a great achievement for the community; it brought people out to something different for one night of the year. Well, once the event was over, one of the advertisers questioned us: how dare we say that the Western Cup dance was sold out? Even though they did not attend the dance, or even sponsor the event, they came up with their own alternative facts, saying that the dance must have been only half-way full because, as a Facebook event, it only showed about 100 people attending. They did not believe that we witnessed people being turned away at the door and that the venue, which holds around 1,000 people, was full.
Western Cup is not your typical event. For those 400 to 500 people that are there to play the sporting events from across Canada, why would they make sure they marked off that they were attending the WesternCup dance on Facebook? They are ordering a weekend package and registering to play directly from the organizers. I know it sounds trivial but, when you are dealing with egos, it means a lot to them and each time things like this happen it adds to the problem.
Rob and I have witnessed, as well as recorded, several different people making claims that they are donating a lot of money to a non-profit group or charity. These people get up in front of an audience making their claims. The audience claps, cheers and hollers. We find out that the money was only partially given, or none is given at all. When you question that person that did the grandstanding, they continue either misleading people that they did, or come up with reasons why they did not. When things like that happen, we start to suspect that the individual was only doing it for the instant ego gratification, and image they will portray in the community.
Sadly, because people believe what they have heard is fact, when you try to explain to them the truth, they don’t believe you. They think we are fake news, even though we have talked to the non-profit groups or charities, and have it on record from AGM’s or interviews that it did not go down the way it was hyped. The person’s celebrity or reputation precedes the truth, and the magazine is disseminated.
Gay media have been barred from one establishment because another gay publication, including ourselves, were starting to question some of their alternate facts. For example, they were discrediting a non-profit group, claiming it was not a registered group. The non-profit group faxed over government documents proving otherwise.
It boils down to: if you make me look good in the press, I will advertise and give you access. Start questioning what I might be doing, I will threaten to pull advertising revenue, or deny you media access. If questioned with facts, then claim they must be fake news, because I must keep the image I portray. You printed the facts, well you are now barred because you are fake news. Tell everyone not to trust that media, and to only trust what you say. Use alternate media that won’t ask the questions.
I have heard those phrases: trust me or would I lie to you?. At the start of running the magazine, I was saying yes, I trust you. We were new, wanting to keep the peace, and trying not to show that the gay community in Alberta had fractured. But after a while, you realize that when someone in power tells you that, you need to question if its just profit aims, ego or an attempt to discredit someone else speaking.
Rob and I have could write a book on these types of power and control grabs over media. We always keep documentation on hand just in case it is needed. My email archives go back to 2000, before the magazine started.
I know it doesn’t help media reputation when there are plenty that will sensationalize article titles and content to get traffic to their websites, or additional viewers, because it helps ad sales. We see it all the time on Facebook: there is a post from a friend or a friend of a friend, and you just go why did you share that? Did you check Snopes or a political fact checking website before reposting? I remember there was an image out there of supposed damage caused by a specific shampoo that looked like huge buds coming out of your skin. People were sharing it over and over without checking the facts. It turned out that someone had photoshopped the top of a lotus flower onto a picture of a person’s shoulder, tongue, nipple or other body part. It looks gross and grabs people’s attention, and they share it.
It’s hard to control stuff like that. After the U.S. elections, and seeing how misinformation was spread on both sides, it’s good to see that some checks and balances are being put back into place. At the start of the elections, media was more into letting things play out, leaving it to the public to point out what was alternative news or not. Now a lot of them are fact checking during interviews and not letting things slide as they would have in the past.
Sadly, if your impression is already set in stone because of something you have heard, then this column won’t help you. I have a feeling that some of the major media outlets in the U.S. and Canada are having to go through a lot of the same checks as Rob and I needed to over 10 years. The media landscape has changed, and this only just one part of it.
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Contributor Steve Polyak |
Locale Calgary | Edmonton |
Topic Publisher's Column |
