How much of a say does a company's selfish interest play in the choice of a lead for a local newscast? The question comes after watching Friday night's 6 PM news on various stations. 

Here were some of the main choices:

-A triple shooting involving young people under 18 in one of Ontario's biggest tourist attractions in Niagara Falls. The suspect is still at large. 
-A student from India studying in Toronto is gunned down for no known reason outside a Toronto subway station. The victim has been identified for the first time. 
-A train station in Ukraine is attacked by Russian forces, killing at least 50 people, including a number of children. 
-The crowds gather for the first Blue Jay home opener in three years. 

You're the producer - which one do you lead with? 

Here's what the main TV outlets in T.O. did on Friday night:

CTV: The shooting in Niagara Falls.

Global: The subway shooting with new reaction from the bereaved family back in India

And City TV, owned by Rogers? You guessed it, the Blue Jays home opener, with fans singing "Take me out to the ball game." That was so important, it led the show. 

The odd thing about this is that I bet a friend just before the news began that City would lead with the baseball team owned by its corporate masters, even though it could be argued there were more important stories on the go. Turns out, I won that wager. And I can't say I'm the least bit surprised. 

The second yarn on CTV was COVID's continuing spread, while Global then dealt with the Niagara murder. Neither one got to the home opener until almost 10 minutes in. 

I just have to wonder if Rogers didn't own the team, whether that item - where nothing had even happened yet - would have occupied the first 7 minutes(!) of the show. 

Not that it hasn't happened before. I have a friend who used to work at City TV in the days when it was owned by CHUM. On the night of the MuchMusic Video Awards (with Much also owned by CHUM) they would be forced to lead with the pre-show preps from the City TV parking lot, even if something more important was taking place. 

"It's not that we were ever told we HAD to lead with that," I remember him saying. "It's just that if we didn't, we knew we were going to hear about it." Remember that nothing had actually happened there yet, and no rock stars had even arrived at 6 PM. But it was the lead anyway, simply because they were doing it. 

I wonder what those who gather here think of all this. I suppose it could be argued the Jays home opener for the first time since the pandemic began is a worthy lede. But if you define that as "the most important story of the day your viewers need to hear about," maybe it's not. 

When I see stuff like this, I often stop and think how much of what we see as our "top story tonight" is generated by importance - and how much because the suits want you to do it - or else.