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One interview, two headlines: a political lesson in media spin
For me, politics was a huge learning curve. I was recently reminded of three lessons I learned about the media when the location of the route for the “Toll Highway” between Oxford and Truro was being debated. At the time, I was interviewed by a reporter from The Chronicle Herald.
There were two main proposals at the time “ the Eastern alignment and the Western alignment ” and emotions were running high on both sides. The provincial authorities made it clear to me that it was their decision to make, and they did not want outside input… especially from me. So, for this interview with the Herald reporter, I chose to stay neutral in my remarks and did not show any preference for either route.
The day after the interview, I was picked up by a provincial official who drove up from Halifax to Amherst. We were driving down to Tatamagouche together for a public meeting on issues unrelated to Highway 104. As we drove along, the official handed me his copy of The Chronicle Herald. I opened it and saw my interview featured on page two. The headline read “Casey Supports Eastern Alignment”.
I was very surprised. That wasn’t what I said at all. I had made a point of staying neutral during the interview.
When we arrived at the meeting in Tatamagouche, I immediately sensed a frosty reception from some of the attendees. When I asked why people were upset, someone pulled out a copy of The Chronicle Herald with the same article, but with a very different headline: “Casey Supports Western Alignment”.
The two Chronicle Herald articles were exactly the same, word for word, but with opposite headlines.
Up until that moment, I did not know that The Chronicle Herald had two versions of the newspaper every day. One was the “City” version, and one was the “Provincial” version. The one I read in the car coming from Halifax was the “City” version, and the one that the people in Tatamagouche had was the “Provincial version.”
I called the journalist who conducted the interview, and he absolutely agreed with me that I had not made a commitment one way or the other, and he apologized for the headline. He also pointed out that the actual article reflected exactly what I said.
He then told me the journalists do not write the headlines, but editors read the article and try to create the most provocative headline that they can come up with.
The City editor had read the interview and decided I supported the Western alignment, while the Provincial editor had read the exact same article and concluded I supported the Eastern alignment. No one asked the journalist… or me.
I learned a few lessons that day:
There were two main proposals at the time “ the Eastern alignment and the Western alignment ” and emotions were running high on both sides. The provincial authorities made it clear to me that it was their decision to make, and they did not want outside input… especially from me. So, for this interview with the Herald reporter, I chose to stay neutral in my remarks and did not show any preference for either route.
The day after the interview, I was picked up by a provincial official who drove up from Halifax to Amherst. We were driving down to Tatamagouche together for a public meeting on issues unrelated to Highway 104. As we drove along, the official handed me his copy of The Chronicle Herald. I opened it and saw my interview featured on page two. The headline read “Casey Supports Eastern Alignment”.
I was very surprised. That wasn’t what I said at all. I had made a point of staying neutral during the interview.
When we arrived at the meeting in Tatamagouche, I immediately sensed a frosty reception from some of the attendees. When I asked why people were upset, someone pulled out a copy of The Chronicle Herald with the same article, but with a very different headline: “Casey Supports Western Alignment”.
The two Chronicle Herald articles were exactly the same, word for word, but with opposite headlines.
Up until that moment, I did not know that The Chronicle Herald had two versions of the newspaper every day. One was the “City” version, and one was the “Provincial” version. The one I read in the car coming from Halifax was the “City” version, and the one that the people in Tatamagouche had was the “Provincial version.”
I called the journalist who conducted the interview, and he absolutely agreed with me that I had not made a commitment one way or the other, and he apologized for the headline. He also pointed out that the actual article reflected exactly what I said.
He then told me the journalists do not write the headlines, but editors read the article and try to create the most provocative headline that they can come up with.
The City editor had read the interview and decided I supported the Western alignment, while the Provincial editor had read the exact same article and concluded I supported the Eastern alignment. No one asked the journalist… or me.
I learned a few lessons that day:
- Journalists don’t write the headlines… editors do.
- The Chronicle Herald had two separate editions.
- Editors exhibit a lot of flexibility when it comes to writing headlines, and they can interpret the same information very differently.
It was a great reminder of how important perception is and how easily one stance can be interpreted in more than one way.