Le Citoyen spins a good story in NDG

Le Citoyen replaced the old Savoir Faire and first saw the light this past February. For many residents, still reeling from the Monitor’s loss as a print newspaper, this new publication was simply salt in the wound.

With the Monitor ceasing publication and continuing to exist as an online-only edition, the timing couldn’t have been better for the borough to come out with their own newspaper, something that I’m sure they hoped would be confused with a legitimate, non-partisan, unbiased source of information. Tough chance that was going to happen! In all my years of reporting, I have never seen a more vigilant civic-minded bunch of residents than the people who call this borough home. They really don’t like it when their official representatives attempt to hoodwink them.

A number of long time readers immediately wrote to me a week ago incensed that Applebaum's administration was using public money to print a propaganda pamphlet that portrayed his team in the best possible light.

Am I surprised by the borough’s move? Not really. Public relations publications and press releases aim to sugar coat, but even a cynic like me had to chuckle when I saw the front page of the Le Citoyen.

Putting Applebaum in a hockey sweater and a toque on the front page of this publication (which, by the way, also features a glaring typing mistake in its headline “Côte-des-Neiges wins it’s bet”; with all the money being spent, you’d think they could afford proofreaders!) is just asking for people to get aggravated with you. The theme being “Winterfest”, one would surmise the borough photographer would have had no shortage of cute pics of kids in snowsuits and yet, this picture was chosen instead. Perhaps it’s a sign of how out of touch Applebaum and his team are with general discontent in the CDN-NDG borough that he (and the team surrounding him) would think it ok to place that particular photo on the front page….

The reason my opinion piece is appearing on our website now (a week after I first heard about Le Citoyen and four days after I spoke with The Gazette’s Henry Aubin, who wrote a very accurate opinion piece in today’s daily “Fluff replaces substance in the West End”, is that I was only able to finally get my hands on the borough’s newsletter today. There was simply no way that I was going to comment on something I myself had not read.

While the Monitor used to receive multiple copies of Savoir Faire at our office, that does not seem to be the case anymore with Le Citoyen, which begs the question: why? Why are we no longer on the distribution list? As an online community news source, do we not continue to cover the West End and should we not continue to receive all press releases and documents from the CDN-NDG borough? Perhaps it got lost in the mail…

I pride myself on being fair, so this is what I have to say after leafing through Le Citoyen. Does it replace the Monitor as an unbiased source of information? Not even close! It contains, for the most part, the kind of information that in the world of public relations and politics is referred to as “spinning”. What Winston Churchill used to call “terminological inexactitudes.” It’s not exactly lying, but it’s blatantly using a communications tool placed at your disposal for your own benefit.

Years ago, in my capacity as journalist, I chewed out the borough of Verdun for publishing a glossy pamphlet (at taxpayers’ expense) explaining how it had been instrumental in preserving the Nuns’ Island forest. The information contained in the pamphlet was not per se erroneous, but the way it was communicated (including the highly misleading maps of green spaces published in the pamphlet) subconsciously gave a vastly overrated impression of the actual contributions Verdun was truly responsible for.

The way something is communicated, is just as important as what is communicated. To the untrained eye or to a citizen who isn’t paying attention, borough press releases like Le Citoyen can masterfully skew the truth, presenting the image the spin doctors aim for. If citizens don’t remain vigilant or don’t have a free and unbiased press watching, the spin doctors get away with it and most people don’t even realize they’re being taken for a ride. It’s sadly common practice.

Does that make it ok? No. Is it illegal and/or unethical? I’m not a legal expert, but I would definitely claim it’s the latter; especially when taxpayers’ money is being used to put a positive spin on everything these six councillors are doing.

Let me make one thing clear here. Le Citoyenis no better or worse than other municipal newsletters I’ve come across. For the most part it provides readers with basic (and useful) information on municipal services like snow removal, garbage collection, culture, sports and recreation. Where it veers into dangerous territory is when it tries to portray itself as an unbiased community newspaper and then fills its editorial space with self-congratulatory messages by an administration that will most likely be seeking re-election before the year is over.

Here’s a blatant example. According to the newsletter, Marcel Tremblay leaves his current position with a “sense of mission accomplished.” Not since George Bush have I heard the expression “mission accomplished” used to communicate such an utter lack of success. There is simply no way that a reputable news source in Montreal would ever use the expression “mission accomplished” to describe Marcel Tremblay’s track record with snow removal. To paraphrase a popular song, “Marcel fought the snow and the snow won”. So why even pretend otherwise? As an editor, the number one rule I live by is “never underestimate your readers”. Perhaps Le Citoyen’s editorial staff (whoever they are) should start living by that rule, as well.

While it’s incomprehensible to me that during a time of financial belt-tightening and cutbacks the CDN-NDG borough voted to spend $73,500 of public money to print the first three issues of Le Citoyen, what’s even more incomprehensible to me is that they thought they would be able to get away with printing blatant pro-Union propaganda and no one would ever notice. Guess what? Les Citoyens did.