CPC and Media Bias (en francais)

Inspired by Andrew @ Bound by Gravity

The CPC must find innovative methods of reaching out to Canadians and delivering their message without it being filtered by the media.

Blogs are a good start, but they cannot be the whole answer because Joe Canadian is not an avid blog reader. Likewise, the RSS feeds on Conservative.ca are excellent tools, but very few people know what RSS is.

So, how do we bypass the media to deliver our policies to voters so that they can make an informed choice on election day?

I don't claim to know the answer, however I suggest that the next time that you are about to bang out an angry post blaming the media for the CPC's woes, you instead spend some time thinking about alternative methods of selling the CPC platform to the Canadian electorate.

Here's an idea.... think about this issue right now. If you have ideas on new approaches the Conservative Party of Canada can try, please leave a comment.

1. Local Newspapers
Adam Daifallah on CP News and Local Papers
Local papers rule. Most Canadian do not read the Toronto-Star, Globe and Mail or the National Post, they read their local paper. Letters to the editor have a large impact.

2. What is the preparation/training like for our rookie MPs and their staff?

I'll relate a story told to me by a local reporter recently. The CPC were having a roundtable discussion in our community. The Press Release announcing this was sent out an hour AFTER the event started. In spite of this the journalist decided to go down and check things out. Needless to say, he was the only reporter to show. Was kept cooling his heels for over 1 1/2 hours. At the end of that time, just before the MPs came out the EA approaches the reporter to tell him the MPs will not have any time to talk to him as they have to do a local-call in show. Considering the call-in show was on his station, the reporter decided to check. Nope- no idea what the EA was talking about. When MPs come out, reporter approaches them. Turns out real reason is one of the MPs has a flight to catch and little time available. Lucklily this reporter knew one of the MPs from a previous reporting stint in a another city, so got 5 minutes and the story. Had he not got this story, what do you think the story might have been? He still had to file something.

More training for local staff in media relations. At the very least, read the CPC campaign manual on media relations.

3. Local call in shows. Wide local reach.

4. Every MP/Candidate must have a website - CPC Headlines included, RSS feeds from those sites. Duplication works. (10 Conservatie MPs currently don't have websites) 42 Bloq MPs don't have a website, 33 Liberal MPs - opportunity exists there.

5. Weekly/Biweekly/Monthly podcasts from Ottawa. New medium that will grow

6. Conservative Courier is good - expand reach, frequency. Weekly quick blurb.

7. Local Outreach - smaller weekly newspapers, community newsletters, community cable TV.

8. Ridings without a Conservative MPs need a better 'local' response from the CPC on stories. Many small communities have been going to the same person for years for the CPC comment - and frankly - many of these people are lacking in media skills. Fault of the party as well - do they have a list of people in these ridings and send them things like the message of the day etc. Message, Message, Message.

9. Householders- how many CPC MPs got 4 householders out this year vs the Liberals/NDP? Is design help offered to these MPs, if not, it should be.

10. Stop whining about it and start working hard at it. Preperation is key. If you know a paper is biased, make it more difficult to report with that bias. Provide ALL of the relevant facts, links, sources etc. Establish a relationship with that paper's/TV/Radio stations reporters. This doesn't guarantee a non-biased story - but it certainly makes it more likely, especially on the local level. Make yourself available - even for the tough times when you might not want to comment.

Just a few points off the top of my head! :)