Why would any Conservative talk to the Toronto Star?
Richard Brennan is a reporter in the Toronto Star's Ottawa Bureau. Though reporters are humans with political leanings of their own, it is a job requirement to maintain a measure of non-partisanship. And not merely as a facade, but a real and honest attempt to make sure that all sides of a story are treated with fairness. Not doing so undermines that reporter's ability to be perceived as a fair reporter, and so limits his or her ability to gather story information.
So why would Richard Brennan agree to be interviewed for a hard-left online magazine, and use the opportunity to attack the Conservatives using language worthy of the most partisan NDP supporter? Worse yet, he speaks on behalf of his colleagues in the press.
Update: Read about another time Richard Brennan switched back and forth between reporting on the news and making the news.
Richard Brennan is a reporter for the Toronto Star's Ottawa bureau.
As a reporter, Brennan has a responsibility to maintain a certain level of even-handedness. That doesn't mean a reporter has to like everyone, but there has to be an attempt to present an image of fairness.
One thing is to avoid the propaganda used by politicians.
So when Richard Brennan allows himself to be interviewed by the hard-left online website Harper Index, why does he sound like an NDP attack dog?
HarperIndex.ca: What do you think of today's story in the [Toronto] Star that the PM is planning his own media centre and why?
Richard Brennan: It comes as no surprise that PM Stephen Harper would take a page from the Republican handbook and want set up his own media studio where he could produce unfiltered messages disguised as news.
It comes as no surprise? You can sense the tired resignation in Brennan's answer. Just the sort of thing we have to put up with since the Conservatives accidently got themselves elected.
HarperIndex.ca: What are reporters saying to you about it?
Richard Brennan: Reporters are appalled, but again not surprised. The reporters on the Hill are used to the PM's bully tactics by now.
I'm amused that Brennan doesn't add even a token "I wouldn't presume to speak on behalf of my colleagues..." at the beginning of his answer.
I don't know if the Toronto Star has clearly defined policies on this sort of thing. But at the very least, you would expect the following sorts of rules:
- Reporters are not to be interviewed by other publications.
- Reporters are not to become news stories unto themselves.
- Reporters are not to make statements that undermine their ability to present themselves as unbiased reporters.
- Reporters are not to act in a manner that would undermine the ability of the Toronto Star as a whole to deal with politicians on all points of the spectrum.
- Reporters are not to provide sound bites that could be used by one political party or another in partisan material.
In case you're not aware, the Harper Index that interviewed Brennan is a publication of Straight Goods News, which describes itself to be Canada's leading independent online magazine. It is, of course, a socialist rag:
Welcome to Straight Goods' Future of the Left homepage. This is an ongoing project to promote on-line discussion of the future of social democracy and Canada's democratic left. The project is sponsored by the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation and Straight Goods.
The Douglas-Coldwell Foundation?
If you were asked to name two great leaders of Canadian Socialism, it is likely that Tommy Douglas and M.J. Coldwell would come to mind. Their life-long contributions to social democracy in Canada and around the globe are well celebrated.
One dream they shared was to create a Canadian equivalent to Britain's Fabian Society, an independent left-wing group unobligated to any other organization or political party.
In 1971 this dream became a reality with the establishment of the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation with Tommy Douglas as it's founding President. In the words of Tommy Douglas, the foundation would be "a gadfly to provoke discussion…to keep the movements on the left-whether the co-operative movement, the trade union movement or the political movement- from getting in a rut."
Now does being a socialist mean not being allowed to run a newspaper? Of course not. But you would think a reporter like Richard Brennan would know better than to publicly present himself as a hard-left demogague, then show up for work the next day, knocking on the doors of the offices of Conservative ministers, asking for an opportunity to present their point-of-view in a news article.
You might wonder if the editors at the Toronto Star might be worried that this sort of partisan language used in a published interview in a socialist newspaper hurts Brennan and, by extension, the Toronto Star itself, making it more difficult to pursue stories.
Indeed, with reporters like Richard Brennan, is it no wonder that the Conservatives once considered building its own media centre?
Update: Read about another time Richard Brennan switched back and forth between reporting on the news and making the news.
Skew my story on Skewz.com
Rate political news for their bias, read related stories, and leave your own skewed commentary
Search for more opinions from Canadian bloggers on these related keywords
Richard Brennan Toronto Star Harper Index Straight Goods News socialism Canada Stephen Harper Conservative Party
Sphere presents related news articles and blog posts
Sphere It!
Comments
Richard Brennan is not a mere "reporter" who should maintain at least a pretense of objectivity, he's also the President of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, which may explain some of the venom and vindictiveness some in that group show towards this government and the Prime Minister.
In any event, the story regarding the Conservatives' plan to set up their own media centre was given short shrift in an interview with Patrick Gossage, who was Trudeau's press secretary, on Don Newman's Politics program. Watch the interview.
Posted by: Gabby in QC at October 16, 2007 09:08 PM
P.S. Forgot to mention that your blog is featured in the same broadcast by Kady O'Malley, who does a weekly roundup of what blogs are talking about.
Posted by: Gabby in QC at October 16, 2007 09:13 PM
Kady mentioned me? Cool!
Posted by: Steve Janke at October 16, 2007 09:17 PM
Just watched the clip. That was nice. I also laughed when Don Newman asked who I was. Back when Jack Layton was propping up Paul Martin in return for those budget goodies, Don Newman read my "Who's your daddy?" gag on the show.
Posted by: Steve Janke at October 16, 2007 09:40 PM
"Don Newman read my "Who's your daddy?" gag on the show."
Oh? I missed that one.
Posted by: Gabby in QC at October 16, 2007 10:40 PM
It was on the old blog, now gone. It was a take on the Mastercard commercial. Jack Layton was propping up Paul Martin in exchange for several billion in government spending (after Ralph Goodale had said there was no room in the budget). But Jack Layton said "More!", and Paul Martin said "How much?"
It went something like this:
Keeping Paul Martin in power by funding socialist programs no one voted for: $1.2 billion
Taking the question to the voters in an election: $250 million
Watching Jack Layton bark at Paul Martin, "Who's your daddy?!": Priceless
Posted by: Steve Janke at October 16, 2007 11:05 PM
It is laughable to hear the crocodile tears from left-leaning (meaning most of them) reporters about how the Conservatives deal with them. After years of demonizing the right (they're scary... they have a hidden agenda... etc), you'd think the press gallery would have the brains and guts to realize they brought it on themselves. But I guess being a lefty reporter means never having to take responsibility for your past.
Posted by: Larry at October 17, 2007 11:52 AM
The press galleries constant reference to PMSH being a bully, and using bullying tactics makes me laugh. Do I feel like a bully when I squish an insignifigant ant? Do any of you feel like a bully when you use mouthwash and kill bacteria?
Posted by: Greg at October 17, 2007 12:26 PM
Hmmm. Why WOULD any Conservative talk to the Star? Masochism, maybe? Or perhaps said Conservative has been naughty and feels the need to be punished?
Posted by: Brian in Calgary at October 17, 2007 12:29 PM
It's not called the Toronto "Red" Star for nuthin, you know...
Posted by: Bruce at October 17, 2007 01:40 PM
If Brennan's comments are considered an attack what do you call Peter Mansbridge's Afghanistan question during his Dion interview on the National a while back (Why haven't you visited Afghanistan?)? I call that a MUGGING when you consider no other opposition leader has either!
Posted by: bob at October 17, 2007 01:41 PM
That seems like a legtimate question to me, bob. Did Mansbridge call Dion a "bully", or "scary", or a racist or a bigot (like Elinor Caplan did right before the 2000 federal election...)?
Posted by: Bruce at October 17, 2007 01:45 PM
It is terribly unfortunate that something as integral to a working democracy as a free and fair media is so sadly missing in Canada. To our detriment. And our journalists shame.
Posted by: bones at October 17, 2007 01:46 PM
Richard Brennan has always been a thinly-veiled hate machine for anything remotely "conservative". Consider the source. Nothing new here.
How ironic that he's criticizing a move by the PMO to set up resources for the government of the day to speak directly to the people (who are perfectly capable of forming their own impressions after hearing said message) rather than have that message selectively filtered and reported the way leftist slappies (like Brennan) have become accustomed to doing.
Looks good on them (him). Seeing Richard Brennan so petulant and and pouty and "small" in response makes me happy. Harper is obviously doing the right thing if this is Brennan's response.
Posted by: slgam at October 17, 2007 02:06 PM
Most news organizations will allow their reporters to be interviewed by other media outlets, but the request is seldom made. In his role as President of the Press Gallery, Brennan has a voice for other reporters who cover Parliament and was obviously chosen for that reason since Harper's action is to further avoid any potential any unscripted moments with the real media. Having his media centre simply means that he is becoming more Bush-like. No surprises there.
Posted by: wayne at October 17, 2007 02:37 PM
I think you people are idiots. He's clearly talking about the ability that reporters have to do their jobs. It's like a plumber saying it's getting harder and harder to unclog the drain when he's prohibited from standing anywhere near the sink.
Not only that, as the poster above points out, the guy is head of the Press Gallery. Are conservative conspiracy theorists suggesting that the head of an organization shouldn't be allowed to speak on behalf of the people he is chosen to represent? What is this? Myanmar? Clearly Brennan belongs in a dungeon or some sort of labour camp.
Get over yourselves.
Posted by: mark at October 17, 2007 03:21 PM
If Don Newman can pretend to be an unbiased reporter, why would anyone think Richard Brennan isn't unbiased? Is it because he states the obvious or is it because it obviously doesn't bolster the right.
Last I heard it was still a free country, and if there is no opposition, the government could do whatever they want. And that is either a left or a right government.
Posted by: at October 17, 2007 04:14 PM
Ah, I see. Being a social democrat (or in your words "hard left") is verbotten. But openly espousing proto-fascists beliefs ŕ la almost every writer for the National Post is presumably a-okay.
Posted by: Will Stewart at October 17, 2007 04:24 PM
Castigating a reporter for showing a bias not to your liking, don't make me "larf".The National Post and Globe and Mail are full of them. The Star is in good company
Posted by: Keith Birch at October 17, 2007 05:02 PM
Whatever about your little playground bun-fight in the press gallery (and 7 year old girlish it is), your universal rules truly suck.
1. Reporters are not to be interviewed by other publications.
Really? Never? No matter what they do, what they saw, or to whom they did something? OK, as reporters, not persons, because the press should never be reported on? A reporter breaks a big story and you can't ask her/him how and why and how it went? If so, pretty poor reporting.
2. Reporters are not to become news stories unto themselves.
See above. And in my experience, many reporters would almost die for the chance of becoming news themselves.
3. Reporters are not to make statements that undermine their ability to present themselves as unbiased reporters.
Yeah, like there is such a thing as an unbiased reporter, but anyway, that's not the claim, this is more about the necessity of Ceaser's wife appearing to be pure. In Brennan's case, he is actually being interviewed not as a reporter, but as a functionary of an institution, namely the Press Gallery, but just because he is also a reporter he should be immune from questions?
4. Reporters are not to act in a manner that would undermine the ability of the Toronto Star as a whole to deal with politicians on all points of the spectrum.
Replace "the Toronto Star" with "the Press" and you end up having to be nice and present NPOVs to insane fascists and genocidal monsters, lest you piss them off and will no longer be allowed to cover them. They teach you that as good practice in Journalism 101?
5. Reporters are not to provide sound bites that could be used by one political party or another in partisan material.
For a hardened political and media boy, that is just insanely naive. If you speak into a mic for more than three words, you will almost certainly say something that can be edited into a politically biased sound-bite.
Posted by: Orv at October 18, 2007 12:20 AM
Brennan is President of the Press Gallery. It is reasonable to assume that he speaks for his colleagues on the Hill, especially since they elected him.
Posted by: at October 18, 2007 07:55 AM
Brennan is President of the Press Gallery. It is reasonable to assume that he speaks for his colleagues on the Hill, especially since they elected him.
I didn't mention his role as president for three reasons:
1) It doesn't matter. He's a reporter first.
2) If I said that as PPG president he has a obligation to report on the opinions and feelings of other reporters, then all the more reason to be circumspect, since now he's painted all these reporters with the same brush.
3) If you believe that as PPG president he ought to be saying these things and giving interviews, then don't you think it follows that he ought to stop filing news reports?
Posted by: Steve Janke at October 18, 2007 11:47 AM
How about getting over the "fair" and "unbiased" reporting crap. Nobody is unbiased, and reporters are no different. Everything they see and write is filtered through their biases. Trying to be "fair" or "unbiased" only does a disservice to the public, because each reporter has to decide what it means, what to include and what to exclude. Let's just allow these people to report, and be smart enough as journalism consumers to be sure to find a nice variety of biases among the reporters we chose to read to find our own balance.
Posted by: at October 18, 2007 12:21 PM
Sorry Bruce I didn't know that Elinor Caplan was a working journalist. I thought she was a Liberal politician. Are they not allowed to talk about Conservatives either?
Posted by: Bob at October 18, 2007 02:40 PM
Harper's a "hard left" journal. Boy you need to get out more.
As the late Senator Davey Stewart (a Liberal, but certainly not a liberal) once said to me, "throw a rock into a pack of wild dogs; the one that yelps the loudest, that's the one you hit."
Boyo, ye need more sun.
Posted by: Steven Megannety at October 18, 2007 04:24 PM
The best mp3 player is within your grasp. You've saved for many months, you've watched everyone buying mp3 player, but you wisely waited until you were sure you would get the best mp3 player in the world. mp3 players mp3 player mp4 player cheap mp3 players best mp3 player mp4 players mp3 portable players mp3 mp4 player mp3 player zubehoer mp3 player mp3 mp4 player portabel mp3 player MP3 PLAYER 2GB MP3 PLAYER 4GB MP3 PLAYER 8GB mp3 player kaufen mp3 mp4 mp3 players mp3 player lecteur mp3 lecteurs mp3 baladeur MP3 baladeurs MP3 digital mp3 player By learning from the feedback of other people, you can more easily find the pros and cons of those mp3 devices. After all, the best rated mp3 players have been approved by thousand of people out there.
Posted by: fdth at April 23, 2008 09:39 PM
Abstract paintings
Angel painting
animal paintings
ballet paintings
beach painting
Boat painting
building painting
Children painting
Christ painting
church painting
City painting
Cottage painting
Dancer painting
field painting
Floral paintings
Garden painting
Hunting paintings
impressionist painting
Knight painting
Lady painting
Landscape painting
Lighthouse paintings
Music painting
Nude painting
Oriental paintings
Piano painting
Seascapes paintings
Still Life paintings
street painting
sunset painting
Tropical paintings
Venice paintings
Village painting
wine paintingsalvador dali paintings
thomas kinkade paintings
pablo picasso paintings
vincent van gogh paintings
claude monet paintings
diego rivera paintings
Posted by: aswkin at July 17, 2008 08:17 AM
 
|
|
