WTITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, SEPTMBER 9,1987, PA(GE 5 The time: January, 1980. The place: everywhere arou nd Toronto. Joe Clark (remember him?) is Prime Minister of Canada. (A.nybody would be better than Trudeau, right? Hla) The occasion: a federal election. The scene: Jose Clark visits the offices of Inland Publishing in Mississauga, as part of his election cam- paign. As part of the hoopla, he meets the editor of each Inland newspaper. The background: Inland Publishing was at that time controlled and owned by the Bassett family, who stili con- trol ÇFO41V. Inland was bought in 1980- by TorStar, which also owns The Toronto Star and Harlequin Roman- ces; TorStar combined -Inland and Metrospan weekly newspapers to form Metroland, which 'owns a few newspapers in the Metro Toronto area. The story: Éà ch Inaldn editor personally gets to meet Joe Clark. A photographier has been commissioned for the day. Each editor is dutifully photographed with the Prime Minister of Canada. Each sits in the same ,chair; Clark holds the same pose for each of the editors. In the backgrounld, the same cheap print dominates the wall. The result: Each Inland newspaper carried, as Page one news, a color picture of the newspaper editor with the electioneering Prime Minister. I bring the matter up because we are today on the eve of an election here in Ontario, and because in one of many all-consuming discussions recently about politics, the sub- ject of objective news reporting came up. "Did you notice that (newspaper X) came out and told people to vote for (Candidate A)? " I was asked. No, I hadn't. "Well, I don't think that's right. I mean, newspapers have too much say now. They should just report the news.) WITH OURO FEET UP hv Bill Swan Political poses There was a time when newspapers did exactly the op- posite: they were created and purchased and run -precisely for the political clout they carried. Go back a hundred years and read some of the news columns. No ef- fort was made to be objective. And since each community usually had competing newspapers, one Tory and one Grit, any reader could subscribe to the paper of bis choice. At least you knew what you were getting. But then came the day when Tory newspaper publishers realized that Grits read advertising, too. In the scramble for market dominance, newspapers eventually turned to "objective" reporting, especially in politics. The theory held that news reports would appear on "6news"e pages and, opinions would be kept on the "leditorial" page. The idea was to offend neither nobody. For news columns, this was improved the product; but on the editorial page tGrowth in Whitby, as expected, hasn't shown* any 'sign of a slowdown with permits approved in August for almost $10 millionworth of construction.. The actual value of permits issued by ithe Town so far this year is $95,829,120, accordi ng to the mon- thly building permit report issued by the public works department. In August, $9,513,941 worth of permits were issued. Residential permits totalled $5,094,116. -'ý,But it,,was,,the combination of cômmecial'and industrial permits tthat Mayor Bob Attersley noted in tis month's report.. 'ý.'hsis tremendous. The best we have ever had," said the mayor. In August, commercial permits totalling $1,439,325 were isued. In- dustrial permitstotalled $2,630,000. According to Attersley, the corn- Il were for a variety of industries. In the commercial sector, a $soo,ooo permit was issued for work. on the new medical building at the corner of Centre St. N. and Dundas St. W. and a $740,000 permit was issued for further construction at Brooklin Cycle located at Perry St. and Dundas St. W. According to the mayor, $140,000 of the $740,000 permit is for the building of a restaurant in a section of the completed addition while a $600,00 permit is ftr a further ex- tension to the west of Brooklin A Whitby man escaped injury af- ter the car he was driving mounted a curb and struck a mobile adver- fisina sign Mnndav. Sept. 7. No slowdown in growth as permits top $95 mill[lion A $300,000 permit was also issued for cntuto of a gas bar-car wash at the corner of Champlain St. and Thickson Rd. S. Two industrial permits, one valued at $990,000 and the other at $740,0, were issued for construc- tion of two buildings on Wentworth St. (Uses for the buildings are not yet known.) "We are really proud of those totals," said the mayor. Last year at this time, $68,977,887 in permits had been issued. Damage to the sign is estimated at $2,000. No charges were laid in the incident. $598,522 in building permit fees. everything turned to mush. In practice it came out something like this: Vote as you please, but please vote. 0f this was born the tradition of the "objective" news report in election campaigfls. Undoubtedly exceptions do thrive, but by and large we are served extremely well by ail newspapers when it cornes to election coverage. If the. truth be known - don't blush now, dear reader - newspaperS carry rather more election news than readers would lîke. And most of that coverage is 'lobjective."-,0f course, as politicians, got to understafld more and more about how news media collect and edit political, news, they altered their camnpaigflifg to get better coverage. So now, most good coverage of election campaiglS includes analysis, and reads as though it were written by a» drama critic. Fair enough; it's part of the game. The key point about such coverage being: is it fair? Does it give everybody (the parties with a reasonable chance) roughly the same space, the same treatmeiit? On the editorial page, well, that's another matter. Traditionally, that's where the newspaper's real colors corne out . But to put it in perspective, I would like to, see a law which required news media _ radio, television and newspapers - to declare how much the owners have con- tributed te each party. You know, a "Put your mouth where your money is" sort-of-deal. But unlike the friend I mentioned a few paragraphs, back, I arn happy te see newspapers endorse a specific partY. Tbat's wbat the editorial page is for. The best papers will clearly declare their choice. The very, very, best will make sure they have columnists with differing opinions. 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