Detailed Report

Factual Reporting: HIGH
Country: Canada
World Press Freedom Rank: Canada 16/180

History

Founded in 1883, The Calgary Herald is a Canadian daily broadsheet newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The current editor is Lorne Motley.

Read our profile on Canadian government influence on media.

Funded by / Ownership

The Calgary Herald is owned by PostMedia, which owns several right leaning media outlets throughout Canada. According to a report in the left leaning CanadaLand, PostMedia has directed its publications to be more “reliably conservative.” The newspaper is funded through advertising and subscription fees.

Chatham Asset Management, a New Jersey based hedge fund holds a large equity stake in Postmedia and majority ownership of American Media Inc. which owns the National Enquirer. David Pecker, who owns American Media, Inc. joined the Postmedia board, and then resigned from the board of Postmedia in 2018, due to his involvement of hush payments on behalf of his “friends” including President Trump and Harvey Weinstein.

According to the National Observer, PostMedia is in a downward spiral. After Postmedia announced a $1.4M loss for the last quarter of 2018, Paul Godfrey stepped down as CEO of the Postmedia Network and was replaced by Andrew MacLeod, as of 1/10/2019. Godfrey, will remain as executive chair. Godfrey was also criticized for cutting 800 full-time jobs across Postmedia in 2016, while earning an annual salary of $1.7 million. For a list of directors and upper management please see here.

Analysis / Bias

In review, The Calgary Herald covers local news through journalists with minimal bias in wording such as this: Sharif found guilty of attempted murder in Edmonton truck attack. National news is derived primarily from the Canadian Press, whereas world news comes from multiple sources such as Reuters, Washington Post and Bloomberg. In general straight news reporting is factual and presents with minimal biased wording, however story selection tends to lean right.

Editorially, there is a clear right leaning bias with commentaries such as this: Editorial: Alberta must not be thrown under the bus to save Trudeau and this Andrew Coyne: Justin Trudeau has become the problem with the Liberal brand. While the Edmonton Journal does offer opposing viewpoints, on a whole more editorials favor the conservative right.

A factual search reveals they have not failed a fact check.

Overall, we rate the Calgary Herald Right-Center Biased based on story selection and editorial positions that favors the right. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact check record. (D. Van Zandt 11/12/2016) Updated (10/25/2019)

Source: https://calgaryherald.com