Volume 10, Number 4

BUDGETS OF '96: HOW TELEVISION
REPORTED THE PROVINCIAL BUDGETS

The majority of Canada's 10 provincial governments, regardless of ideology or political risk, have endeavoured to balance their budgets. Three years ago, only Alberta, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick effectively ran their governments without deficits. The following year, the number of governments balancing their books had increased to six, with Manitoba, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island added to the list. And last year, Nova Scotia tabled its first balanced budget in 25 years.

National television news reported these achievements, but without context or consistency. The National Media Archive examined all CBC and CTV national television news coverage of budgets, both federal and provincial, throughout 1996, and discovered some startling results (see Box A: MAJOR FINDINGS ON PROVINCIAL BUDGETS

British Columbia's budget, whose surplus turned deficit called into question the integrity of BC's recently re-elected NDP government, received less criticism on CTV than Newfoundland's austerity budget.
Quebec's "sovereignty" budget, which reduced program spending by $1.3 billion, was accorded the most balanced coverage of any provincial budget on CBC, and was the only budget to receive no criticism on CTV.
Budgets tabled by governments with rookie premiers were subject to far greater scrutiny than the budgets from governments of seasoned first ministers.
British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland, the four provinces that failed to balance their budgets in 1996, together received three to five times more press than the total media attention to the six provinces who were fiscally sound.
Nova Scotia's first balanced budget in 25 years was totally ignored by the "CTV News," and simply mentioned in a 21-second anchor clip on CBC's the "National."box A).

This issue of On Balance profiles network attention to the 1996 budgets and suggests some of the possible reasons behind such seemingly arbitrary media coverage.


Click here to view CBC Attention to Provincial Budgets, January 1, 1996 to December 31, 1996
and CTV Attention to Provincial Budgets, January 1, 1996 to December 31, 1996


Budgets not assessed on performance

The Budget Performance Index (BPI), developed by The Fraser Institute, provides a broad perspective on the fiscal performance of each province. A comparison of Performance Index figures for 1996 to positive media coverage shows that good performance does not generate good reviews.

Click on the Province name to view its Budget Performance Index Rank:
New Brunswick
British Columbia
Manitoba
Nova Scotia
Alberta
Ontario
Prince Edward Island
Saskatchewan
Quebec
Newfoundland


The two top performers, as ranked by the 1996 Budget Performance Index, were Saskatchewan's New Democratic government, headed by Roy Romanow, and Manitoba's Conservative government, headed by Gary Filmon. These budgets received almost no attention on the either CBC or CTV national television news.

Newfoundland's budget placed fifth out of ten in the Performance Index, but received the most negative coverage of any budget on both CBC's the "National" and the "CTV News." Meanwhile, Quebec's budget, which ranked seventh on the BPI, received positive reviews on CTV and mixed reviews on CBC.

Only two budgets, Alberta's and British Columbia's, were assessed in accordance with performance. Alberta's budget ranked third in the BPI, and received generally positive assessments, particularly on CBC, while BC's budget, which ranked last in the BPI, was highly criticized.

Ten governments, ten budgets, ten standards?

Government budgets are standard news fare; they offer an annual check-up which enables government, opposition, and media to focus on the "big picture." Is the government fulfilling its mandate? Are there unkept promises? What is the plan for the coming year, and how is that plan resonating with the public?

In their reports, the press attempt to balance the views of fiscal conservatives with the convictions of social democrats. As such, it is standard practice for a reduction in government spending to be both praised and condemned within a single news report. At the same time, the media tries to reflect public opinion. If the public expresses near consensus on a given issue, such as the belief that B.C. Premier Glen Clark purposely misled the electorate by promising a balanced budget, then media reports should reflect these sentiments.Poll conducted by Marktrends for HELP-BC (Help Eliminate Lying Politicians)

The media must also decide which stories to report. In the case of national news, one of the overriding considerations is whether the story will interest Canadians from coast to coast. Our study found that the more curious the story, the more likely national television news would cover it; such factors as financial impact or national significance seemed to be secondary.

Quebec's "sovereignty" budget ignored

For example, Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard tabled his government's first budget on May 9, 1996. Given that Finance Minister Bernard Landry billed it as a budget to "prepare Quebec for sovereignty," the national significance of Quebec's budget is apparent.

Yet the Quebec budget received less than 10 percent of CBC and just 6 percent of CTV total attention to provincial budgets throughout 1996-less coverage than Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta or Newfoundland on both networks. The rest of Canada, at least those depending on national TV news, were not a given a sense of how Quebecers felt about the "sovereignty" budget and its deficit reduction targets.

In contrast, Newfoundland, with former federal Liberal cabinet minister Premier Brian Tobin now at the helm, amassed over 20 percent of CTV provincial budget coverage, second only to Ontario. Newfoundland's budget also attracted the attention of CBC TV's national news, accounting for 10 percent of the public broadcaster's coverage of provincial budgets.

Networks focus on Newfoundland

Why was a budget from Newfoundland, Canada's second smallest province with just 1.9 percent of the population, given more coverage than 8 other provinces on CTV and 6 other provinces on CBC? The answer lies partly in the fact that Premier Tobin is a national personality and partly in the strong reaction to the budget exhibited by the people of Newfoundland.

CTV's Lloyd Robertson introduced the May 16, 1996 report: "The government of Newfoundland's new premier, Brian Tobin, brought in its first budget today, and the former star of federal politics is making some tough decisions for the people who elected him."

Newfoundland's budget had the dubious honour of receiving the greatest proportion of negative commentary on both CBC and CTV. Seventy percent of CBC's and 90 percent of CTV's coverage was critical of Newfoundland's budget cuts, primarily those reducing its civil service.

However, neither networks' scathing review of Brian Tobin's inaugural budget mentioned that Tobin's predecessor, Clyde Wells, had balanced the budget in 1995. Although Newfoundland's 1995 budget stated that a balanced budget must not be a "one-time achievement," CBC and CTV ignored the fact that Newfound-land's 1996 deficit was unanticipated. Further, while CTV reported that the government was attempting to "deal with a $300 million deficit," CBC's budget report failed to mention the deficit situation altogether.CBC's Newfoundland reporter Tonda MacCharles did produce a report 4 days before the budget release which discussed the Newfoundland's deficit, but made no mention of the deficit the day the budget was tabled

When do provincial budgets make the national news?

The budgets tabled in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Newfoundland were the only provincial budgets which both CBC and CTV felt warranted a full report. In BC, the biggest story was the "balanced budget" which wasn't, and whether or not Premier Clark lied during the election campaign. In Alberta, the story was a $1.2 billion dollar surplus from the 1995/96 fiscal year, and how to spend it. In Ontario and Newfoundland, the combination of rookie premiers and strong public reactions ensured that their respective budgets received national press.

Contrary to the "standard news fare" described previously, national television news did not judge provincial budgets on either merit or success in fulfilling a mandate. Unique circumstances dictated whether provincial budgets made it on the nightly news-circumstances often unrelated to the actual impact of the budget itself.

Spending cuts unrelated to budget coverage

Media attention to the budgets of Ontario and Newfoundland focused primarily on civil service and program cuts. However, if government spending cuts were the media's primary concern, then Nova Scotia's budget would have received far more press. In 1996, Nova Scotia reduced spending by 7.2 percent over the previous year, the deepest spending cuts of any provincial government. Yet, Nova Scotia's budget received very brief mention on CBC and no attention on CTV.

Similarly, although Saskatchewan and Manitoba ranked second and third in terms of the highest proportion of spending reductions, national television news provided minimal coverage of either province's budget.

On Manitoba's budget, tabled April 2, 1996, CBC's Peter Mansbridge merely said: "Manitoba tabled a new budget today, a budget with a surplus, the second in a row. But to stay in the black, the province is making some new cuts. The deepest ones are to health, agriculture, and family services programs."

Seasoned premiers less sexy

The acts of governing and the personalities of our political leaders are rarely, if ever, distinguished in the news. One of the most likely reasons for the networks focusing on Ontario's and Newfoundland's budgets is that these were the first budgets to be tabled by governments with new leaders.

Provinces with newly elected premiers, namely, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland, received three times more coverage on CBC and five times more coverage on CTV than did provinces with seasoned premiers. The budgets tabled by governments headed by long serving premiers Roy Romanow, Gary Filmon, and Frank McKenna barely received passing mention on national television news.

Fiscal responsibility a non-starter on the news

However, as it was precisely the provinces with new premiers who failed to balance their budgets in 1996, it is difficult to know which factor played the greater role in these provinces' budgets domination of CBC and CTV news reports. With the exception of Alberta, provinces with budget surpluses received minimal attention on television news.

Of particular note is Nova Scotia, which balanced its budget for the first time in 25 years. CTV did not report Nova Scotia's budget and CBC relegated the story to a 21-second anchor clip, the thirteenth item of the day. On April 25, 1996 Peter Mansbridge said: "Nova Scotia has balanced its books for the first time in 25 years. Today's budget projects a small surplus against last year's deficit of $181 million. Also, Nova Scotians can look forward to income tax breaks, but there are more controversial cuts ahead, including cuts to health and education spending."

Quebec budget handled with kid gloves

The networks' handling of Quebec's budget is notable both for lack of coverage and lack of criticism. CBC's reports on the Quebec budget provided the most balanced coverage of any provincial budget on either network, with an equal number of positive and negative comments. CTV's coverage of the Quebec budget is also noteworthy, although not for objectivity; CTV provided no negative assessments of Quebec's budget.

What did this budget do to merit diplomatic immunity from one network and, in essence, an endorsement from the other? Quebec did not refrain from the spending cuts that earned Newfoundland's budget its negative reviews. In fact, the Quebec Finance Minister was quite forthright in his explanation that budget cuts were a necessary first step on the road to independence. Positive reviews seem to be the result of the unique combination of an austerity budget by a separatist government. On May 9, 1996, CBC's Tom Kennedy began his report with the statement: "Everywhere in the budgetary documents, it pops up: the Quebec consensus, the Quebec model, the Quebec way of doing things." Apparently there is a "Quebec way" of reporting Quebec's budgets on English Canadian TV news-uncritically.

Conclusion

Canadians relying on national television news to stay abreast of provincial politics are likely to receive a skewed view of Canada-one based primarily on superficial factors. This study found that television news values novelty above impact, failures over triumphs, and that the sensational usually preempts the significant. -Kate Morrison and Tracey Nicholls



The Klein Revolution: Local Newspaper Coverage of the 1997 Alberta Election Campaign

Since its inception, the National Media Archive has analyzed 6 federal and British Columbia election and referendum campaigns. This issue of On Balance marks the seventh in the series, this time with an examination of the Alberta provincial election campaign. This election was very different from those analyzed previously in British Columbia and federally. Most obviously, there were very few scandals, and the premier is well liked and respected by most Albertans. The opposition parties were caught in disarray when the election writ was handed down. All that remains is to question the type of media attention that the parties would receive in such a one-sided contest.

Click here to view cartoon

To answer this, we examined all the stories appearing in the front section of the Calgary Herald, including both news stories and editorials. We excluded from our sample non-news stories such as riding profiles, trivia, the leader's tour, and election countdown segments. The Herald was chosen because it was indicative of the type of attention that was paid to the election campaign. Since, by all accounts, the media coverage was not expected to dramatically affect the outcome, it was deemed unnecessary to examine all the media in the province.

March was a slow news month

The story of the election campaign was the difficulty in getting a story. As Calgary-based Globe and Mail columnists Barry Cooper and David Bercuson quipped: "Three months ago, Premier Ralph Klein said it would be a dull election campaign. So far he has kept his promise." (Globe and Mail, March 8, 1997, p. D2).

Herald coverage pays most attention to incumbent Conservatives

During the four week provincial election campaign, the Calgary Herald provided more coverage of the incumbent Conservatives than of any of the challengers. Half (49.2%) of the stories focused primarily on the Conservatives. The Liberals received only one-quarter of the attention (24.1%), while the New Democrats received 15.2 percent of the coverage. The Social Credit Party placed a distant fourth with only 11.5 percent of the stories focusing primarily on them. This finding does not come as a surprise since most elections focus on the record of the governing party. Challenging parties tend to receive attention roughly in proportion to their standing in Parliament or in the public opinion poll surveys.

Liberals receive brunt of negative attention

In a departure from our regular practice of just examining the news stories, this study examined the overall direction assessment of news stories and editorials. News stories were judged favourable, unfavourable, or neutral according to the direction of the opinions of sources. The Herald's news writers did not analyze the events in these stories. Columns and editorials were judged positive, negative, or neutral by the overt opinions expressed by those writers.

Click here to view Figure B: Direction of Stories

As a proportion of total coverage, the Liberals received the most unfavourable attention to their leader, platform, and campaign strategy. Of the stories assessing the Liberals, twice as many were critical as supportive of them. Although we are quoting the aggregate numbers for editorials and news stories, it should be noted that there was no statistical difference between the direction of opinion on the editorial pages from the direction of news coverage about the Liberals. In other words, the Liberals had both twice as many stories that provided more negative assessments of their policies and issues as they had editorials critiquing their performance and platform. The only difference was that in the news stories, the criticism came from other party members, leaders, or the public. For example, on page A8 of the February 22 issue, a story headline read: "Grits borrow half of campaign fund: Tories say good leader, policies, help raise money." Edmonton Journal reporter Ashley Geddes did not personally critique the Liberals, but quoted PC campaign manager Marvin Moore as saying: "It's easier to raise money if you have a leader and good policies." The story then went on to contrast the deficit in the Grit coffers with the surplus in the Tory accounts.

While the Liberals were slammed by the media, the Conservatives also received more negative than positive attention overall. In fact, fifty-seven percent of the Conservative coverage was unfavourable. Much of this attention spotlighted the campaign, particularly the candidate controversies that dogged the Tories. Conservative candidate Mike Nasser's political troubles and his subsequent resignation, along with allegations of Tory candidate Wayne Cao's communist past dominated front page stories. These controversies resulted in more than twice as many negative than positive news stories about the Conservatives. On the other hand, the editorial pages were nearly twice as supportive as critical of their platform, which tipped their overall coverage to being only slightly more negative than positive.

In contrast to the criticism levelled at the Liberals and Conservatives, the New Democrats received balanced coverage. However, they did not receive nearly as much attention as the two other parties on the news pages. No editorials predominately featured the New Democrats. However, of the stories that emphasized them, just as many were favourable as unfavourable.

Campaign trail single most discussed issue

The typical media practice in most election campaigns is to focus on the leaders, the party strategies, and any scandals that emerge during the campaign. The Herald's coverage of this campaign was no exception. Forty-one percent of the total stories focused on the campaign. The majority of those stories emphasized Conservative campaign problems. One quarter of the campaign coverage focused on following the leaders, and the issue of leadership. The horse-race component of the campaign clearly favoured the Tories with headlines reading: "Klein Revolution lauded poll suggests" "Ralph's Team Senses a Blood Bath" "Great Tory love-in blooming" "Landslide for Tories, says poll" Alberta's Love Affair: Poll shows 70 percent of decided voters have confirmed their approval for Premier Klein."

Province's fiscal health top election issue

Despite the fact that the opposition parties were de-emphasizing the Tory deficit elimination success story, the province's fiscal future was the top public policy issue. One-quarter of the stories about the campaign focused on the issues of debt, deficits, the budget, and to a lesser extent, taxation. While the opposition parties slammed the Tories for going too far and too fast, editorial coverage was laudatory toward the Conservative government's achievements. Contrast the rhetoric of the Liberal and New Democrat parties with a sampling of columnist opinion (see Box B
The Partisan Critics

When you run a government without a plan, the results are exactly what we have now. After historically high deficits, we now have huge surpluses. A properly planned budget would have neither.
-Pam Barrett, ND Leader,February 28, 1997, p. A 13

The slashing hasn't ended. I know these people [the Klein government], they've lied in the past and they're doing it again right now.
-Pam Barrett, February 19, 1997

The big difference is we won't be paying off the debt as quickly, you don't pay off your mortgage in three years by starving your kids.
-Grant Mitchell, Liberal Leader, February 20, 1997, p. A12

Editorial Opinion

But while Klein's revolution had a sort of cathartic effect (at least for conservatives), it was not an end in itself. Rather, restructuring, deficit elimination and debt reduction have simply given Albertans the means toward an end: we have corrected past excesses and now have some measure of financial flexibility, which in turn gives us more options.
-Peter Menzies, February 13, 1997 p. A20

No tax increases. No new taxes. Modest increases in spending where Albertans have expressed concerns. As a statement of guiding principles for the next four Tory years, it has some staying power. In saying that ["Every commitment in the budget is paid for...unlike the lofty promises of others"] Dinning wasn't just trash-talking the opposition. He was making the very valid point that he and his Tory caucus colleagues have actually done what the Grits insisted was impossible. By moving far and fast during the past 3 years, they focused everyone's immediate attention on the problems-and now can turn to implementing workable solutions.
-Peter Stockland, February 12, 1997, p. A18box B).

Health care maintains spotlight

The second most discussed policy issue was health care. Eighteen percent of the Herald's stories focused mainly on health care. Initially in the campaign, the health care story was about the effects of the Conservative government's cuts to health care during its previous mandate. Their campaign promised to reinvest money into the health care system, including hiring 1,000 more nurses and reducing waiting lists for life-saving surgeries. Opposition parties also made vows to restore funding to varying levels of the health care system. For example, the Liberals promised an increase of $191 million in annual health care spending just to keep one Calgary hospital open. They wanted to make a legislative commitment to the Canada Health Act and provide an "adequate" number of long-term-care beds. They also vowed to give nurses the right to strike and mandate a 48 hour maternity stay.

The NDP health care platform included outlawing private clinics, putting doctors on salaries instead of paying them on a per-service basis, and creating a free prescription-drug program. These plans were estimated to cost the Alberta taxpayer $1 billion. In stark contrast, the Social Credit platform was to open health care to competition by making the government a health-insurance provider and establishing an elected board made up of health-care providers.

In the final weeks of the campaign, health care dominated the headlines when the nurses were set to vote on an illegal strike. The 11th hour settlement wiped the nurses issue off of the electoral map.

Education ranks as third election concern

Rounding out the top three election issues was education. Similar to the health care debate, this issue was also linked to the debt/deficit focus. The coverage again concentrated on the impact of the cuts and the parties' plans for the future of education in the province. The theme of the Tory race continued to be modest reinvestment in education. The Social Credit platform was to create a voucher system for education. In contrast, the Liberals wanted to increase public education by hiring 1,000 more teachers, placing a 20 percent cap on post-secondary tuition fees, and expand apprenticeship and internship programs. The NDP also wanted to increase funding to the public school system by hiring not only more teachers but teachers' aids as well.

Alberta election campaign deals with morality issues

A number of moral issues surfaced throughout the 28 day campaign. Randy Thorsteinson's Social Credit party attempted to place abortion on the agenda. As reported in a February 14, 1997 front page story, Ralph Klein quickly squashed the issue when he took up the challenge by saying that he didn't consider abortion an election issue: "The issues are really those of the economy."

Among the moral issues discussed during the campaign, prisoners' voting rights received three percent of the election coverage. This issue was the result of an inmate's appeal to the courts to be allowed to vote in the provincial election. While observers predicted that the courts would side with the plaintiff, in fact the courts ruled against Prisoners' Voting Rights in the province.

Video Lottery Terminals also made headlines as a moral issue as the province grappled with communities' varying degrees of acceptance and rejection of gambling. -Lydia Miljan

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