How to Report on a Federal Election
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Hear that humming? That choral buzz in the late-August heat, that sound that only arises on a multi-year cycle?
No, not the cicadas. I mean the collective groan from everyone covering yet another federal election.
While I am not, nor have I ever been, a political reporter, I have produced politics podcasts. So I have no insight on what this election means, whether it is good or bad, or why it’s happening at all. All I have is the knowledge that at least they had the grace to do it on the eve of a Jewish holiday, unlike last time, when it fell on the actual day of a Jewish holiday.
But when it comes to political podcasts, I know that producers and hosts alike will be in for a wild ride.
This week on The Big Fry, we’re speaking with the team behind Canadaland’s The Backbench, a biweekly politics show that goes out on Tuesdays, weekly during the election. The Backbench is hosted by Fatima Syed and produced by Tiffany Lam, who, full disclosure, is a good friend from journalism school.
For those who haven’t listened yet—The Backbench is a panel show hosted by Fatima, with a rotating cast of eight panelists: Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Jason Markusoff, Drew Brown, Emilie Nicolas, Jaskaran Sandhu, Murad Hemmadi, Leena Minifie, and Stuart Thomson.
They joined me for a Q&A about producing a panel show in the pandemic and how they approach political journalism. We did not speak to composer and sound designer Tristan Capacchione, but we wanted to shout out his post-production work on the show. He and Tiffany made the show’s VERY fun opening sound collage that I thoroughly enjoy, with input from panelists and other people at Canadaland.
A note before we get into things—in depressing but familiar journalism news, 17 people got laid off from Vice and Refinery29 this week, which fucking sucks! Solidarity with the workers who were laid off.
A big, big thank you to the wonderful Emily Latimer for writing this newsletter over the last two weeks. Am I ever lucky to get to work with such superstars!
This interview has been lightly edited & condensed for length and clarity
This is the first federal election since The Backbench launched earlier this year. What are you most looking forward to exploring on the show?
Fatima: This is the second federal election that I'll ever vote in. The first time I voted in a federal election was 2019, because of my Canadian citizenship situation. I don't care what we talk about, I'll talk about anything, as Tiffany knows. For me it’s how we're going to talk about it. I am incredibly proud of our first election episode, because I think we had the best conversation I've heard on Afghanistan and affordability, and it was so fun to be in that [virtual] room, ask all my questions, hear panelists’ perspectives and hear them bouncing off each other and disagreeing.
The Backbench has always been about having the best in-depth, nuanced conversations. And I'm excited to bring that to election coverage, which is often really hard to do, because elections are so quick and everyone's tired. [In a daily news cycle] you just want to talk about the sound bite and get it over with. Whereas we're like, no, let's go beyond the soundbyte. What else was said? What else is in the platform? Let's dig deep.
We don't care about polls, we don't care about the horse race. We really just care about the issues. We care about building understanding of the issues and teaching people how to have good conversations about politics.
One of the tricky things about a weekly news analysis podcast is that sometimes a conversation can feel stale by the time release day comes around. How does your team handle that? Do you just have a crazy production schedule?
Tiffany: We record one day and release the next. But when we have our editorial conversations, we try to look at what people are discussing throughout the week or the past two weeks, and also look ahead at what is coming up.
Fatima: The framing of the conversation is important. I try to make sure that the conversations are framed so that it almost stays evergreen.
One thing I'm really proud of about our first election episode is I think that those conversations will last for the entire election, and even beyond that. Anyone could come back and listen to the conversation on affordability and learn a lot from that. What should housing policy include? What should our foreign policy look like?
How would you describe the energy of the conversation?
Fatima: Our panelists jump off each other so well. Their reactions to each other, their responses to each other... It's so fun. It's so collegial, it's so friendly.
Tiffany: And that's why the local voice memo recording is even more important, because when you're recording on Zoom, when there's cross talk, it just breaks up and you lose that feeling of everyone being in the same room. It’s all about the vibe.
Fatima: We’re going in it for the vibe. Honestly, the most humbling response that I think we've gotten is when people say, “we feel like we're part of the conversation.”
How much of your own political leanings enter your journalism, and how do you account for that?
Fatima: I try very hard not to share my views on politics. We try to let the panelists drive the conversation. My job as host is to connect them, bring them together, and add relevant pieces of information.
Tiffany: I have a lot of political ideals, but not necessarily a party that I believe stands for what I stand for. In that way, I think it is easy to look at all the different parties and what they're saying with a more critical lens.
Fatima: The Backbench is a political podcast being shaped by two young women [one of whom is an immigrant and the other who is first-generation Canadian]. But we're not the political punditry or the political hosts that Canada is used to, or Canadian politics or Canadian media is used to. I think our approach to the world is different because of who we are and where we are in our lives.
There’s a segment in each episode called the “Point of Order.” It generally consists of panelists bringing something up to you and the panel. No one on the show ever seems to get the “Point of Order” right. Fatima, when you’re asking for a Point of Order… What exactly ARE you looking for?
Fatima: The reason we called it the Point of Order is, if you ever watch Parliament, no one really uses the point of order as it's designed to do. Point of Order is a very specific parliamentary mechanism that is designed to allow people in Parliament to correct the record. It's a very formal means of…
Tiffany: ...Questioning whether you’re doing something correctly.
Fatima: Or to question procedure. But when you watch Parliament, Point of Order is used for the craziest stuff. It’s to interrupt, call out stupid things… I don’t know if you remember the bagel incident. That was a Point of Order! ‘Point of Order, the Prime Minister is eating a bagel,’ or something like that. It’s misused by everyone.
So we designed it to allow the panel to bring up whatever they're watching or thinking about. It's worked out really well. And we actually got a real Point of Order about our episode this week [when listeners tweeted in a funny correction].
In the Point of Order section in this episode, Jaskaran [Sandhu] suggested that if Jagmeet Singh had a surge, we should call it Jag-mentum or Singh-sation, to which Jason Markusoff replied that if O’Toole has a surge, should we call it O-mentum? Little did we know, doctors and nurses listen to our podcast. Two of them very kindly tweeted us to tell us that omentum is actually a medical term that describes the fatty tissue around the gut.
The podcast will be hosting a Twitter Spaces event on Election Day—follow @CANADALAND and @backbenchcast on Twitter for details to come.
You can follow Fatima on Twitter at @fatimabsyed and Tiffany at @tlmsy.
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Canadaland is hiring a senior producer for their flagship Monday podcast, CANADALAND. They’re looking for an experienced audio journalist to work on increasingly ambitious episodes. The salary range is between $60-$70k and applications are due at midnight on Sunday, September 12.
Pink Triangle Press, the publisher of Xtra, is looking for a new Chief Content Officer. This is a leadership position that will help guide content strategy and production. My favourite line from this posting is that they’re looking for someone who “delights in a delivery of a job well done.” My second favourite line is that the salary range is $160k-$180k. You could rent your very own apartment in Toronto! The deadline to apply is September 30, 2021.
Newfoundland job alert! AllNewfoundlandLabrador.com is hiring reporters. The starting salary is $38-75k depending on experience, and the job is based in St. John’s.
CBC Roundup:
The Current is hiring a producer. This is a full-time position for one year, and can be based from any CBC location across Canada. Apply by midnight tonight, August 27!
Day 6 is hiring a temporary host for a one year, full-time contract. Apply by August 30.
CBC Newfoundland is hiring a producer/host for Crosstalk, their daily radio phone-in program. This is a full-time, permanent position, and you have until EOD August 31 to apply.
And people on Twitter need help!
Okay, how hardcore do these Gimlet job postings look, one on top of the other:
Apply for the Head of News & Knowledge, Head of Crime & Justice, and Head of Production here. If you don’t currently live in Brooklyn and don’t want to move there, they’re also hiring a Supervising Editor for Reply All, and that job is remote-eligible throughout North America.
Want $20 to take part in a study? Of course you do! A research team at the University of Waterloo is looking to talk to people in the GTA born between 1980 and 1995 who work in media, mostly from home. That’s me! Is that you, too? Read more about the study here.
Freelancing with Tim is coming back! Way back in the early days of the pandemic, Tim Herrera, the former editor for Smarter Living at the New York Times, ran weekly panels about freelance journalism. These were so valuable to me when I was figuring out what a freelance career could look like.
Earlier this week, freelance culture writer Meira Gebel asked a question on Twitter: what is one tip you 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 give to freelancers who are just starting out?
A lot of the responses in the thread and in quote tweets are truly *chef’s kiss*. My favourite comes from Ed Zitron:
This week on Building Good, Brian K. Porter joins us to talk about Indigenous architecture, and how to involve Indigenous communities in the construction and development process. This is a way of building that people are hungry for… so maybe Indigenous architecture is the future of building.
We want to hear from you! What are you looking for in your podcast news? Let us know on Twitter, Instagram, or by email at info@vocalfrystudios.com.
Thanks to Emily Latimer for editing this newsletter, and to Katie Jensen for designing it.
We’ll see you again on September 3rd. Until then, here’s an update from producer Max’s cat, Cynthia.
Yours in friends and fries,
Michal
