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Monday, November 07, 2005
From the newsroom to the backroom
Every time a Liberal cabinet minister gives a high-paying job to a Parliamentary reporter, it not only thins out the pool of talented snoops, it has the effect of making press gallery reporters a little softer, wondering if too much digging and pressing risks disqualifying them from the Liberal's journalist-retirement plan.
The latest: The Sun's Maria McClintock, who I hear has just been appointed to be Belinda Stronach's chief flack. McClintock's always been a tough reporter, but no one knows better than Belinda that everyone has their price. But exactly how long has McClintock been in negotiations over this gig? Up until today, she was filing stories for the Sun on the Gomery report and the rumoured election. On Wednesday, she was on a Mike Duffy panel, when she uttered this Belinda-ism:
MCCLINTOCK: Well, Stephen Harper is between a rock and a hard place here. He doesn't have the numbers. He has to be careful about being seen too close to separatist Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe and...[ellipsis in original]
So, if the McClintock thing is true—and my sources are good—that adds her to the growing list of journos who have been successfully assimilated. Here's just a sampling: Jason Moscovitz (from CBC to the BDC), Drew Fagan (from G&M to Foreign Affairs), Susan Murray (from CBC to Scott Brison's office), Ian Jack (from FP to Industry Dept), Jim Munson (from CTV to Senate), and Michaelle Jean, of course (RDC to GG). There's more here.
But what's McClintock thinking? What's she gonna do this time next year when Belinda's out of a job, after being canned by the furious voters of Newmarket-Aurora? Oh well, maybe she can go from politics back to journalism. It's not like there's much of a line left between the two anymore.
UPDATE: Someone sent me a recent piece from the Hill Times, in which columnist Tom Korski smartly sums up the assimilation phenomenon.
"Many journalists prefer the rich glow of influence that is only reflected in cufflinks and chauffeured cars. There have been more journalists named to the Senate--59, in total--than doctors, bankers or financiers."
Read more by clicking the link below (Sorry—not the whole thing. Copyright and all):
The Hill Times, October 10th, 2005
POLITICAL REPORTING
By Tom Korski
Many political journalists have a warmer regard for the elite personalities they cover than the public they presume to serve
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
. . .
We pride ourselves as the gritty champions of the underdog. "There is a cyclical effect to media in this country which I think is healthy," Joe Clark said once. "Their bias is generally against the guy who is up."
Clark was mistaken; real underdogs make for drab company. Many journalists prefer the rich glow of influence that is only reflected in cufflinks and chauffeured cars. There have been more journalists named to the Senate--59, in total--than doctors, bankers or financiers.
Ottawa media appear to favour Liberals only because they are the party in power. If the Russians ever took over, some journalists would buy samovars. When you're predisposed to the elite, any elite will do.
Sun Media's Val Sears wrote recently that he has an autographed picture of Brian Mulroney on the wall of his den. Mulroney was "fun" and "caring" with "an unfailing concern for friends," Sears enthused.
In Maclean's, columnist Paul Wells revealed he once wept over a speech by former governor general Adrienne Clarkson. "Before it was over I was in tears," Wells confessed. It was Clarkson's 1999 installation speech, the same address in which she used the pronoun "I" 22 times.
In any other trade this behaviour would be considered odd. How many pipe-fitters or hairdressers do you know who covet Mulroney portraits and weep over Clarkson's I, I, I? Yet emotional partiality is so pervasive in media that journalists aren't even ashamed of it.
. . .
Posted by Kevin Libin on November 7, 2005 | Permalink
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Comments
Then there's this story about the Liberal's intention to use a "friendly media outlet" in order to smear Flaherty and Baird.
http://cybermenace.blogspot.com/2005/11/vulgar-emails-suggest-media-is-just.html
I don't know why there aren't more people concerned about this very cozy relatioship between this country's natural governing party and the political press.
Heck, last spring media outlets were practically issuing Liberal press releases about Harper working "hand-in-hand" with the Bloc. I guess it never occured to them that they were working "hand-in-hand" with the Liberals in spreading anti-Harper propaganda. It's quite amazing, actually.
The Liberals keep winning elections. Members of the press keep bolting to Liberals. Opposition parties routinely get hammered by the same press. Something's wrong with this picture.
Posted by: The Cyber Menace | 2005-11-07 3:33:35 PM
Cyber I emailed that story to Mike Duffy today but I will be very surprised if we hear anything about it. When you have the G and M, the Star, CTV and CBC all in the governments corner, its not hard to find a liberal friendly media.
Posted by: MikeP | 2005-11-07 4:03:28 PM
Could also explain why the CBC hasn't bothered to report on the NCC/Brison dust-up?:
http://www.cbcwatch.ca/?q=node/view/442
Posted by: Ceebie Jeebies | 2005-11-07 5:13:54 PM
Maria McClintock was one I would not have suspected of being Liberal "lickspittle".
One more to add to my list.
Sorry to see Maria throw in her lot with the corrupt Liberals camp.
Posted by: Joe Molnar | 2005-11-07 5:47:10 PM
Well, that's too bad, but enough jawing. Back to work boys and girls! All that money to pay for ex-journalists' fat salaries, cushy benefits and gold-plated government pensions has to come from somewhere, and I don't see how we can support all these people with tax dollars if we just sit around here all the time just talking about it.
Must...work...harder...
Posted by: Boxer | 2005-11-07 6:06:28 PM
Ronald Reagan had a good concept in AIM(accuracy in media).
People who care about bias in media should promote the blogosphere. Yes there is bias on blogs but blogs which allow comments promote the marketplace of ideas.
Let the best ideas prevail.
Democracy in motion.
Posted by: Speller | 2005-11-07 6:55:41 PM
As they say, "Good enough for government work". If McClintock had any journalistic commitment she'd end up in the US.
But because competition within the Canadian media is so limited (government regulation of foreign ownership or allocation of broadcasting rights) if a journalist is not a "star" it makes a lot of personal sense to join the government and get the good pension. Rationality in the third world.
Mark
Ottawa
Posted by: Mark Collins | 2005-11-07 7:36:17 PM
If this keeps up, the parliment hill gang will no longer be qualified as journalists.... they'll simply be urinalists.
Let's see, the list of appointments for media types grows, from GG to backroom shakers and movers to CBC boards to Trudeau Foundation boards... nice work if you can get it. I suppose one should start a school of Urinalism.
Posted by: Debris Trail | 2005-11-07 7:49:16 PM
Does anyone know how to access failed Parliamentary Bills (I am looking to read Mulroney's failed abortion legistlation of 1990)
Thanks
Patty
Posted by: Pattywhack | 2005-11-07 8:42:41 PM
"And I, for one, welcome our new Liberal overlords."
At least Kent Brockman admits he's a fawning toad.
Posted by: Kathryn | 2005-11-07 9:01:29 PM
Hmm,
If this is the Ian Jack that I am thinking of, his working for the Liberals is not a surprise. If he is the Ian Jack I knew, he was pretty liberal when he was an editor of The Varsity, the U of T newspaper.
I would be surprised if the small l-liberals in the media *didn't* go to work for the big-L Liberals, actually.
Posted by: Rick Hiebert | 2005-11-07 10:09:07 PM
Perhaps the Western Standard should institute an annual "Pamela Wallin Award" for excellency in LPC journalistic sycophancy. I picked Pamela because she even brags about it:
http://www.pamelawallin.com/
Criteria could include frequency of half truths, misleading headline impact, mixing editorialising with reporting, and, of course, the general quality of the resulting Liberal patronage sinecure.
Posted by: Bart F. | 2005-11-07 11:13:46 PM
Canadian journalism at its best:
"This country is turning into half a dozen cities and a whole lot of bush in between."
A direct quote from the inimitable John Ibbitson of the Globe in an interview May 7 on CFRA, Ottawa.
The Ibbitson quote as audio is available at the end of this clip:
"Monday, November 07, 2005: The Polite Revolution - Part 2
http://www.cfra.com/interviews/index.asp
Must still be a few good people out there grubbing about in the bush. Urban, post-national, diverse, multicultural Ibbitson at his arrogant apex.
One wonders what they would think of his view in Gravenhurst, Ontario, where he was born.
And this from Jim Travers, "A depressing case of déjà vu: Time hasn't eased dilemmas for voters", Toronto Star, Nov. 8:
"So the ballot question in those pivotal southern Ontario ridings again becomes: How scary is Harper? Is he too angry, doctrinaire and cold even to be trusted with a minority government controlled by parties to the Conservative left?"
Mark
Ottawa
Posted by: Mark Collins | 2005-11-08 6:45:08 AM
So ...the Liberal Party are THE BORG?
Headline could read "Journalists become Drones!"
"Resistance is futile! Submit and be assimilated.
Lets face reality folks journalism schools crank out graduates in Moral Reletivism like Magna Corp cranks out car parts.
The majority of journalists in North America are predisposed to be more comfortable with liberal ideology and like most liberals are also inclined to assume that they are the most enlightened, most correct and that we could not function without their wisdom.
Oh my! What would we ever do without our enlightened oracles to guide us through this world?
Fact is that too many journalists spend their lives regurgitating crap for the people who pay them. If a whorenalist wants to go work for the evil empire of the liberal party so what?
There is a slim chance that the one that gets hired to replace the ascended drone will have integrity.
Posted by: PGP | 2005-11-08 12:40:46 PM
So Paul Wells is supping from the liberal trough too eh? Surprise surprise... Maybe he will be appointed Canada's minister of jazz.
The MSM in Canada has been turned (bribed) into a coerced multi-headed TASS.
The solution is to treat them just as wel should treat lobbyists (sp?). Register them and ban them from taking any government position or appointment for two years after they have left the (registered) media.
Perhaps Stephen Harper should have put that in his recent lobbyist/corruption guidelines... I wonder how the MSM would have reacted to that?
Posted by: Gord Tulk | 2005-11-08 4:02:59 PM
A star has fallen. A red star, that is.
Watch the obits spew the ink. Where is Conrad? Free advice, Connie, old buddy: Buy, now. >>>>
Legendary Toronto Star publisher, Beland Honderich dies
CBC British Columbia (Audio), Canada - 1 hour ago
Beland Honderich, the gruff newsman who built the Toronto Star into the biggest daily newspaper in Canada, died Tuesday at the age of 86 from the effects of a ...
Posted by: maz2 | 2005-11-08 7:42:24 PM
Free Western Canada NOW!!!
Posted by: Duke | 2005-11-09 9:03:17 AM
True justice would be to see Belinda lose her seat in the upcoming elections.
My guess is that she will find a way to buy herself another term. After all, She presides of an Ontario riding ... they are really stupid in that part of the country as I have observed for some time now.
How long must we in the West be governed by the stupid and corrupt.
Posted by: Duke | 2005-11-09 9:13:50 AM
Belinda was snubbed this past week by not being on the inside in dealing with Gomery (could it be they don't trust her?)
What would truly be sweet would be if she in the upcoming non-con vote crossed the floor to sit as an independent claiming that the corruption and undemocratic ethics of the liberal party were unrepairable and then voted the LP down.
OH if ONLY!!
Nuclear waste is easier to handle than Her.
Posted by: Gord Tulk | 2005-11-09 9:51:48 AM
Canadians don't want an election. CBC said so yesterday. Sorenson did a piece yesterday on the National, baldly portraying Harper and Layton as grinches who are "egging each other on for an eggnog election" but who don't have the guts to ruin Christmas for all Canadians.
It's not just Christmas, though, it's the weather too. "Neither Mr. Harper nor Mr. Layton seems really ready to pull the trigger on THIS" -- cut to a stock footage of a highway in a terrible winter storm -- then adds "check the weather in southern Saskatchewan today" -- cut to a man walking near the cenotaph in Regina; there is about an inch or so of snow on the ground, and a few flakes are gently falling -- "...just a hint of what's to come if there's a winter campaign."
The real kicker, though, was immediately after the report. Mansbridge, right after introducing Keith Boag, said snidely:
"You gotta love these guys, Keith."
On CBC. Coast to coast.
I feel it necessary to clarify here that I am not making this up. Those words are Mansbridge's, verbatim.
Posted by: EBD | 2005-11-09 8:52:29 PM
Relax EBD. It's the CBC. No one is watching it.
http://www.bbm.ca/en/nat10242005.pdf
Posted by: Justzumgai | 2005-11-09 9:08:14 PM
re: winter election
Big deal! I'll be working thru holidays. It'll only take 45 minutes to vote if necessary. I live in the country to boot. It be a Xmas gift if the media shuts up about it for one day.
Posted by: govard | 2005-11-10 2:45:48 PM
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