Editorial: Broken News - TFC and the Toronto Press

There have been some odd turns in the Toronto mass media recently when it comes to the reporting of Toronto FC and its supporters. The club, despite its terrible run of results until the New York match, has escaped any scathing criticism and were even lauded in some circles after Mo Johnston's "press conference" last week. On the other end of the spectrum, TFC's supporters have been subversively painted as ungrateful for not jumping at the chance to pay through the nose to see a friendly, and power-hungry for their efforts to protest and change shoddy management practices and bad results. The existence of so many blogs, fan forums and websites has even been called into question in relation to supporter's expectations.

To call the state of Toronto's mass media coverage of football "journalism" is generous at best. There is very little investigative journalism around the club and the majority of stories that make it to major print and/or TV are simply match reports that give little insight into the club apart from what happened on the pitch or the rare sensationalized account of fan violence. Your search for anything MLS-related outside of TFC would be even more fruitless. Now, there are some very good journalists covering the TFC beat but their often quality articles are relegated to the online blog versions of their respective papers. Stories that do make it to print rarely give the serious supporter anything they haven't heard before.

It may be that in the third year of Canada's first truly major football club, we are expecting too much too fast. Surely when the Expos and Blue Jays came to Canada there was a learning curve before truly insightful baseball journalism appeared on a daily basis. It does not seem to be the fault of the reporters however, responsibility more likely rests at the feet of the hockey addicted sports editors of the city's newsrooms. Football is most definitely still fighting a battle here to overcome the North American stigma of that "niche immigrant sport". There is also an alarming ignorance to the supporters role with football clubs around the world. On a continent where fans are meant "to be seen and not heard", fan protests and movements are being admonished rather than analyzed. It is shocking that a sport with such global importance and such growth potential in this city doesn't garner more research.

The fact that the sporting juggernaut MLSE owns the club may also be a hindrance. Is it possible that access and good relations to its higher profile franchises is putting off criticism that may be truly due to Mo Johnston and his backroom staff? It could perhaps explain the alarming turnaround in some of the more vocal reporters' opinions who write a piece questioning TFC's direction only to sing it's praises a week later when very little has changed. It must be a fine balance when one ownership group has so much influence on your livelihood. The purchase of cable soccer network GOL-TV by MLSE is also a double-edged sword. Yes, there will be better access to TFC information and MLS games which is fantastic but it is at the cost of another independent football voice. A negative or insightful word will never be uttererd about TFC while Richard Peddie & Co. are at the switch.

Overall, football coverage in Toronto has never been better. It wasn't long ago that 2 1/2 hours on a Saturday morning with Graham Leggat was all we got. There is indeed a wealth of games from around the world and more options in general, on a club level with TFC however, more needs to be done. Perhaps the team itself isn't the only one in need of a DP. A couple of sharp football reporters with some influence with their editors would be a start. Until then, the much maligned blogs, forums and websites will fill the void and keep feet to the fire.