Angry in the Great White North

We now know that the CBC had decided that the allegation that a CBC reporter had written out questions for Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez to read out at the Commons ethics committee hearing was supported by the evidence.

Brian Mulroney was forced to answer questions concerning the upcoming wireless spectrum auction.  That had nothing to do with Karlheinz Schreiber.  Despite this, Liberal MP Paul Szabo, the chair of the committee, quickly agreed to let the question stand. 

As it turned out, Brian Mulroney was not answering a question posed by Pablo Rodriguez representing his constituents.  Brian Mulroney was answering a question posed by CBC reporter Krista Erickson.  Unlike an actual interview, Brian Mulroney did not have the option of saying "No comment".  As far as Mulroney knew, Rodriguez was acting in role as an MP.

If he had known that Rodriguez was acting on behalf of the CBC, Mulroney might have declined to answer.  The fact is, if the committee as a whole, but in particular if the Conservative and NDP members, had known that Pablo Rodriguez was allowing himself (and by extension, the entire committee) to be used as a front for the CBC on a fishing expedition, it is likely that Pablo Rodriguez would not have been allowed to ask his question.

He might have been thrown off the committee altogether.  Not that Pablo Rodriguez is even a member of the committee, by the way.

That Rodriguez was acting as a front for the CBC is essentially no longer a question for debate.  Krista Erickson has allowed herself to become a news story.  Her actions have compromised the ability of the CBC to claim to be truly impartial.  The CBC has seen fit to remove Erickson from her current posting in Ottawa and send her to Toronto.

She is lucky to still have a job.

As for Pablo Rodriguez, he has no comment.  He denies all the allegations, and insists that he wrote his own question.  He also has no comment about the punishment meted out to Erickson, calling it an internal CBC matter.

Krista Erickson gets punished for secretly working with Pablo Rodriguez, and Pablo Rodriguez can't even be bothered to say that the punishment is unwarranted.

Given that the Liberal Party position is to deny everything and to let Krista Erickson suffer the punishment without any mention of support at all, you have to give Jason Cherniak credit.  Jason Cherniak isn't buying the Liberal Party line, and he's demanding action on Erickson's behalf:

As most readers will know, the supposedly big issue is that a CBC reporter asked a Liberal MP to ask Brian Mulroney a question. She was pursuing a story and without an MP asking the question of a man who no longer grants interviews, she never would have had the opportunity to do so herself. Many online journalists have made it clear that this is a normal journalistic tactic, used even by the CanWest National Post. Nevertheless, Conservatives went out on the attack. The Conservative Government even wrote a nasty fundraising letter that attacked the CBC for pursuing this story.

Jason has even created a Facebook group to Support Krista Erickson.

Kudos to Jason.  Of course, his reasoning is pure unadulterated nonsense.  This isn't about a reporter's story that the government didn't like.  We don't even know what the story was.  This isn't about the upcoming budget being used to punish the CBC.  Wouldn't the Liberals save the CBC by voting down such an evil budget and fighting an election on the issue of saving the CBC?

This is about an MP and a reporter hatching a plan to use the power of parliament as a reporting tool, and how that undermines the roles of both the state and of the free press in maintaining a transparent democracy.

But put aside Jason's silly ideas for the moment.  Jason Cherniak is bucking the Liberal Party line!

Did you ever think you'd live to see the day?  I really expected Jason to repeat Pablo Rodriguez's line about how he writes his own questions and how the Liberal Party has no position to take on Krista Erickson.  I mean, clearly the Liberals want this story to go away, instead of acting as a distraction in the Schreiber affair.

Let's all give a hand to Jason for keeping Krista Erickson and her actions front and centre.

Addendum: I was invited to join Jason's group, but I declined.  I'm curious if Jason has sent any invitations to Liberal MPs, and if any plan on joining.  Clearly Pablo Rodriguez won't be joining anytime soon. Is it possible for Jason Cherniak to be part of anything that Liberal MPs would deliberately avoid? Apparently so.

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