Paul Berton: We can only report, not promote, cougar stories and Trump conspiracies

Journalists are often criticized for bias.

Bias against one political party, one side in a dispute, one advertiser, anything you can imagine, and then some ...

But what about bias toward customers - viewers, listeners or readers?

That is essentially - and shockingly - what happened when Fox News hosts endorsed election fraud falsehoods following the U.S. presidential election in 2020.

It turns out the network and hosts knew Donald Trump and his associates' claims of a stolen election were false, but some continued to air them without incredulity - because they worried they'd lose viewers if they didn't.

The information comes because of a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network by Dominion Voting Systems, and the deposition of Fox News boss Rupert Murdoch. I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight," he said under oath, according to documents released this week.

Behind the scenes, Tucker Carlson, the veritable star of Fox News, expressed apparent outrage that ratings data showed viewers were leaving Fox for other networks more sympathetic to the conspiracy theory.

In text messages released earlier as part of the lawsuit, Carlson said Trump lawyer Sidney Powell is lying" and a nut," a sentiment shared by other hosts, producers and executives at Fox.

But little of that incredulity made it to air. Instead, some hosts promoted the idea that the concerns had merit.

To be fair, all news organizations strive to give customers what they want. Crime, sex, scandal, lottery winners ...

And we have better data than ever before telling us.

But to promote conspiracy theories is something else entirely.

This week, The Spectator did two stories on alleged cougars in our midst. We are 99.9 per cent sure there are no cougars in the area, but people were talking about it, and we felt obliged to address the issue, which we did, responsibly, I believe.

Our stories remind readers that most reports in Ontario are just big house cats caught on security cameras, dogs, lynxes (rarely), or, on occasion, cougars that have escaped from a zoo or, inconceivably, a home. Real cougars don't live here.

And yes, we're not beyond reporting a UFO, but always with a view to debunking it, even if the sightings are mysterious.

Many of our readers want these stories to be true. And frankly, an actual UFO story, or even an actual cougar story, would be great for business, if only it were true.

We give readers what they want, but only up to a point.

Paul Berton is editor-in-chief at The Hamilton Spectator. Reach him via email: pberton@thespec.com