Toronto Media's Uncomfortable Coziness with Police
Toronto Media's Uncomfortable Coziness with Police
Why are the very people tasked with holding law enforcement accountable proudly schmoozing with the police chief?
In a PR stunt for the ages, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) held a funeral procession for Bingo, a canine killed during an altercation in which a human being was shot by police.
It was the first Toronto police canine to be killed, which might warrant a couple hundred words on a slow news day, but the wall-to-wall coverage that the dog’s death received calls into question the ease with which media uncritically echoes police narratives.
While initial media coverage focused on the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) launching an investigation into the shooting of a murder suspect, police staged a major propaganda coup by shifting attention to Bingo’s death.
The framing that a dog, who is unable to consent to police conscription, was “killed in the line of duty” made its way from a TPS news release to media reports, which glossed over the fact that police shot a suspect, presenting it as retaliation for the cold-blooded murder of a dog based on “preliminary information” provided by police watchdog the Special Investigations Unit (SIU).
It was copaganda catnip. Media outlets examined every conceivable detail of the story, from Bingo’s death to his funeral procession and end-of-life care at the University of Guelph, the suspect the police shot being charged with murder, and the Toronto Police Association’s bizarre demand that Mayor Olivia Chow denounce Bingo’s killing, with nary a question raised by reporters.
A search for the words ‘police’, ‘dog’ and ‘Bingo’ reveals that from July 26 to July 30, CTV News dedicated 10 pieces — five online articles and five video segments — to the dog’s killing. CP24 — CTV’s sister network — did six stories on the canine’s death. CityNews dedicated five stories to it, as did Global News.
Just over a week earlier, Global reported on the SIU’s decision not to recommend charges against a London officer who deployed a police canine that bit off a suspect’s ear, an incident the watchdog called “highly regrettable” while declining to press charges.
Yet no skepticism was expressed about the SIU’s suggestion that police officers were shot at and didn’t initially shoot back. Nor was the question of whether the dog was killed by friendly fire raised. Not a single one of these stories on the dog’s killing included a critical voice.
The way Toronto media served as a conduit for the police’s preferred narrative is a product of a close relationship between the TPS and local media.
Crime Stoppers, which until 2020 offered cash rewards to those who report information leading to an arrest, exists at the nexus of policing, the media and corporate power.
Touting its “history of success,” the organization says that since its 1984 inception, it’s received 154,771 tips resulting in more than 11,250 arrests and 37,875 charges. It doesn’t indicate how many of these charges were thrown out of court, nor how many wrongful convictions their efforts have resulted in.
“Toronto Crime Stoppers is a partnership between the community, the Toronto Police Service and the media,” the organization boasts on its website. Despite its auxiliary role, Crime Stoppers funding isn’t included in the police budget, so it depends on private donations to keep the cash flowing.
One of its chief fundraisers is the annual Police Chief Dinner, which occurs every May at the Parkview Manor banquet hall.
When it comes to police, all notions of journalistic impartiality are off the table, with reporters, producers and editors openly schmoozing with police leadership at the annual gala.
The 2023 event was emceed by former Toronto Sun and CTV News crime reporter, and former Durham College journalism instructor, Tamara Cherry, who now runs the PR firm Pickup Communications.
Last year, Cherry spearheaded the #TPSTrust campaign, which attempted to showcase to the public “a side of police officers they don’t usually see” through a series of one-on-one interviews with cops. If you’re wondering which side that might be, the first episode featured salsa dancing from TPS Const. Kevin Machado.
The Crime Stoppers event has different levels of sponsorship, which are pitched as a way to “align your organization's corporate and social responsibility directly to a charity that resonates well with the public to enhance community safety.” All sponsors receive a table with varying degrees of prominence at the event and ad placement, as well as varying numbers of tickets to a pre-dinner VIP reception.
The event’s “platinum sponsor” was Scotiabank, which paid a cool $25,000 to have its logo featured on all promotional materials.
Bell, which owns CTV, CP24 and BNN Bloomberg, paid $6,000 to be a “community sponsor.”
Uber provided $7,500 to be an “MC sponsor,” which got them a table visit and photo op with Cherry. The police union, the Toronto Police Association, Seneca College, Scotiabank, TD and CIBC paid $5,000 each to be “entertainment sponsors.”
When it comes to police, all notions of journalistic impartiality are off the table, with reporters, producers and editors openly schmoozing with police leadership at the annual gala.
Global News anchor and producer Tracy Tong, who’s worked in various roles at CTV News, CP24 and CityNews over the past decade, posted a photo of herself, Global crime reporter Catherine McDonald, assignment editor Samantha Berdini and managing editor Sherri Clark with Toronto Police Service chief Myron Demkiw.
(Disclosure: I briefly interned with Berdini at the Toronto Sun in 2015. We got along fine.)
“Brought a little ✨️ razzle dazzle ✨️ to the @torontocrimestoppers Chief of Police Gala last night,” wrote Tong.
So here we have the face of Global News, the people in charge of deciding which stories to pursue and their crime reporter all posing with Toronto’s police chief, demonstrating the degree to which media’s coziness with police leadership has been normalized.
Can you imagine the lectures reporters would receive from their bosses about the sacrosanct virtues of journalistic impartiality if they were posting photos of themselves at a Black Lives Matter fundraiser posing with co-founders Sandy Hudson and/or Janaya Khan?
Madison Fitzpatrick and Fil Martino, CityNews reporters who co-host the Tracking a Killer: The Cold Case Files podcast also posted photos on social media from the Chief of Police Dinner.
Fitzpatrick, who’s also a producer, thanked Crime Stoppers board chair Sean Sportun, who’s also a member of the Canadian Associations of Chiefs of Police, despite not being a police chief, “for working so closely with Fil and I on our podcast.”
She added that “it was a joy finally meeting so many faces tonight after years of speaking with them only over the phone” and congratulated Demkiw “on his first of many Chief of Police Dinners to come!”
Martino posted a photo of herself with former Toronto police chief and Conservative Cabinet minister Julian Fantino. “It’s always nice to see Julian Fantino,” Martino exclaimed.
According to her bio on City’s website, Martino “has received media awards for her coverage of crime stories and police programs from the OPP and York Regional Police.” Two paragraphs down, it notes that she’s a “volunteer with York Regional Police.” How is that not a glaring conflict of interest?
Can you imagine the lectures reporters would receive from their bosses about the sacrosanct virtues of journalistic impartiality if they were posting photos of themselves at a Black Lives Matter fundraiser posing with co-founders Sandy Hudson and/or Janaya Khan? Or if they were found to be volunteering for BLM?
This, I must caution, is a thought experiment, not an effort to draw false moral equivalence.
None of the active journalists and editors mentioned in this story responded to requests for comment. This piece will be updated in the event that they do.
Desmond Cole, a Toronto-based journalist, activist and author of The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power, told The Orchard that the close relationship between media and police on display at the Police Chief Dinner is partially due to a general disposition in media circles of “worshiping authority.”
But, Cole added:
A large part of it as well is that local police help news broadcasts feel more authoritative.
When you have an ongoing relationship every day with your local police — you call them about traffic, you call them about car accidents, you call them about a homicide investigation, you call them about really anything and you get a cop as an official source — that makes your news team real and professional.
You don't want to piss these people off because you want them to give you the info that you need to make your news look official.
This dynamic creates a collegial, rather than adversarial, relationship between police and media.
“The media is not there to hold the police accountable. They work together and they don't really hide it,” Cole noted.
Those who provide more critical reporting on policing aren’t going to have cops’ cooperation when they’re looking for information on a homicide investigation, for instance. “It is all about access,” Cole said.
The cost of entry to the Crime Stoppers gala isn’t cheap. Tickets for next year’s gala, which are already on sale, cost $300 per person or $3,000 per table. In Bell’s case, they paid double for proximity and advertising.
Other media outlets are either being given complimentary tickets or they’re purchasing tickets from an organization so closely connected to the police that the chief hosts their annual event.
Either scenario calls into question the ability of media figures who attend the ball to report fairly on police misconduct. But it does provide valuable context for the absurd media spectacle following a police dog’s death and other routine copaganda exercises.
Some ‘humans’ just can’t be humanized so turn to the dogs. And of course Cherry cherry picks. 😡