Media / Media Bias
The Toronto Star — is this news?
By Arthur Weinreb
2/15/05
There were two headlines in last week’s edition of the Saturday Star on the front page above the fold. On the left side was the headline, "Life of a Playwright" and the more prominent headline on the right read "Canadians split over same sex marriage". You would expect that the headlines that appear on the front page of Canada’s major circulation daily would contain actual news. But it seems this is not so.
The Life of a Playwright was about Arthur Miller. As Miller had died just over a day before the headline appeared, an article about his life and/or death naturally constituted news. But the fact that Canadians are split over same sex marriage is hardly news. It seems what is news to the Toronto Star is something that they have just decided to pay attention to.
Canadians, of course have been split on the issue of same sex marriage since provincial appellate courts began ruling that restricting the definition of marriage to a man and a woman was unconstitutional. But when an Ekos poll came out showing that 42 per cent of Canadians favoured extending the definition of marriage to gays and lesbians while 40 per cent were opposed, the Star seemed surprised.
The reason for the surprise is that the liberal elites at the left-wing newspaper have been consistently ignoring those people who honestly believe that the institution of marriage should be restricted to a union between a man and a woman. And when they weren’t ignoring these Canadians, they were marginalizing them.
The Star took the position that their Liberal Party buddies take; that same sex marriage is a matter of human rights and anyone who opposes such unions is either a homophobe or a Christian fundamentalist zealot. The Star has consistently pointed out that the Conservatives oppose same sex marriage while being silent about the significant number of members of the Liberal Party caucus that oppose the change to the definition of marriage.
The fact that Canadians are split on same sex marriage may be news to the Toronto Star. But it is not news to ordinary Canadians.
Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Arthur can be reached at: aweinreb@rogers.com
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