Desmond Cole Calls Out Legacy Media’s Obsession with Objectivity

Desmond Cole in conversation (Ryerson Review/Twitter)

Former Toronto Star columnist Desmond Cole outlined how the concept of objectivity is a tool used by legacy media companies to silence journalists who seek to challenge powerful institutions, at a discussion organized by the Ryerson Review of Journalism on Tuesday.

In April 2016, Cole was called into a meeting with John Honderich, the chair of Torstar Corp., who allegedly told Cole that he was writing about race too often. His column was soon cut from weekly to once every two weeks.

A year later, he disrupted a Toronto Police Services Board meeting, in protest of their refusal to destroy carding data. Cole was soon told by the editorial page editor, Andrew Phillips, that he had violated the Toronto Star’s ethics code by playing “the roles of both actor and critic.” Two weeks later, he gave up his bi-weekly column in protest.

Cole compared his treatment to Catherine Porter’s experience, who lied about an interaction between Ezra Levant, a Rebel News Network reporter, and herself in her own Toronto Star column in July 2015. Porter’s climate justice activism was publicly supported by her editor, whereas Cole’s activism against carding was deemed unacceptable by the very same outlet.

Cole said the concept of objectivity was used against him, because he was focusing on an issue which threatened the “white, male, cisgender patriarchy which dominates the Canadian media industry.”

He ended the discussion by urging the next generation of journalism students to focus on challenging power and standing up for the vulnerable people in society. Cole said this is the only way which journalists can gain enough power to protect those in the industry who face repercussions for “speaking truth to power.”

Kevin Taghabon, a Ryersonian reporter, said that in his own career, the concept of objectivity has been used as a tool to make challenging power a difficult task. In his view, good journalism is activism, as it means challenging powerful institutions and refusing to automatically take them at their word.

He quoted former Chicago Evening Post journalist, Finley Dunne, in saying that the role of journalism “is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”

Vicky Mochama, a former columnist for the Toronto Star and StarMetro, said “objectivity is a concept which is becoming less relevant in this age of journalism.” In her view, Cole has been treated unfairly by the Canadian media industry, by viewing passion for a subject he covered as proof that he is incapable of fairly representing all sides of a story.

Mochama wants to see Cole have a second chance in the media industry, at an outlet which views the blending of activism and journalism, as being necessary for maintaining high journalistic standards.

Katyra Bolger, the editor of the Ryerson Review of Journalism, a watchdog organization that critiques the Canadian media industry, said the overwhelming focus on objectivity by journalism schools prompted the group to organize the discussion, called “Journalism x Activism: In Conversation with Desmond Cole.”

The discussion was moderated by Ashley Fraser, the podcast editor for the Ryerson Review of Journalism. She said Cole challenges the traditional view of objectivity in the Canadian media industry, and “blurs the line between journalism and activism.”

This article was published on Medium on Nov. 21, 2019.