Categories: Capital Read, Inside the Queensway

Meanwhile, in Winnipeg … and Laval

by kadyomalley on Friday, October 10, 2008 12:03am - 0 Comments

Earlier this evening, Colleague Geddes gave us his impressions on how the Conservative campaign reacted to that now-maybe-soon-to-be-infamous-or-possibly-forgotten-by-Saturday Mike Duffy Live segment:

In Winnipeg, the Tory campaign went a little weird with glee over Stéphane Dion’s awkward interview moment. They rolled out a TV to show tape of Duffy’s treatment of the episode to the media on the tour. Stephen Harper came out to do a quick scrum on the subject. And, holy cow, Kory Teneycke even announced that the usual rigid rules with respect to asking the PM questions would be lifted for this very, very special event.

And now, the National Post’s Don Martin has weighed in, as only he can:

Giddy Conservatives delayed their campaign jet’s departure from Winnipeg, declared the encounter worthy of a Saturday Night Live skit without having seen it and hauled out a television so a cluster of reporters could view the puzzled expression on Mr. Dion’s face as he tried to fathom the question.

Aside from the questionable ethics of CTV airing a segment when both Mr. Dion and interviewer Steve Murphy twice agreed to restart the interview to clarify the question, this is a damning insight into how desperate the Conservatives have become in their battle to belittle a Liberal leader they never dreamed could pose a threat to their government. [...]

To use his first spontaneous media appearance of the campaign to declare Mr. Dion the most unworthy of the two candidates for prime minister based on a minute of misunderstanding is not the most flattering reaction for the prime minister.

In the end the incident they hoped to use to define Mr. Dion as a confused ditherer may actually provide more telling insight into the character of Stephen Harper.

Finally, Colleague Wherry reports back from the Dion campaign:

And while all of this is happening—as Dion appears only to be raging against the proverbial dying of the proverbial light—messages from the beyond are coming in. People with access to television have seen the clip. And the consensus has turned entirely. Now it is not so much the pivotal, pathetic pratfall of a clumsy candidate who was doomed from the moment he appeared. Now it is a low point in the history of journalism. Cross words and unflattering adjectives are being swapped.

Back on the bus, someone pulls up the clip on a laptop. Those who see tell those who haven’t what they saw. Interpretations vary. There is some debate over who said and heard what and how. More messages from afar. The Prime Minister has reacted. Indeed, the Conservative tour delayed its departure from wherever it was so that he might.

On the bus and then on the plane, the discussion continues—who said what and why and what, whatever the answer to those questions, this means for the fortunes of the two men who seek to lead the country.

Tags: CTV, duffygeddon, great moments in metajournalism, shamelessly promoting my awesome colleagues (and don ma, Stéphane Dion, what a night

More by kadyomalley

http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

So you agree, Jim, this is nothing like what I do when I liveblog.
sf

Dennis F, you and I wrote identical posts at the same time.
http://unambig.blogspot.com Raphael Alexander

Don’s comments are completely beyond the pale. How one can turn the baffling inability of a federal leader to comprehend a simple hypothetical question into an attack on Stephen Harper is, quite frankly, amazing.

Truly Don Martin crossed the threshold on this one into the land of sippy cups with blue stuff in it.
http://secondthots.blogspot.com Dennis F

sf, that is WEIRD!

You know what they say about great minds, right?
http://unambig.blogspot.com Raphael Alexander

I just have to add that if someone asked me:

“What what you have done differently from Mr.Harper if you were Prime Minister to brace against the coming economic crisis?”

I would not have asked about timelines, how long I had been PM in this hypothetical world, or what the score of the Canucks game is in this bizarro world. I would have answered the question.

Unless I didn’t have an answer ready. In which case I would feign an inability to understand the question, ask for a do-over, and then blame it on English being only my first language.
Jim

Kady, as I stated on other threads, your colleague attacked Duffy and CTV unfairly (IMHO) and you agreed with your colleague.

I believe that if you had something damn interesting on your camera, it would appear on your blog.
kody

Raphael Alexander is officially awarded the comment of the night.

Bang.

On.

Brother.
http://seeingredinthesouthwest.blogspot.com Deb Prothero

Harper taking advantage of CTV’s ethical slip shows more about his mean spiritedness than it does about Dion’s ability as a leader. One blogger has a tape which shows them agreeing on tape not to show the first two segments and to restart the question. CTV crossed the line by showing all of it. Mike Duffy acts foolish and is giddy about – he’s lost any integrity as a journalist. Harper leaped like a fool led by Kory whatisname and the Conservative War Room.

To belittle is to BE little.

Same as the Chretien incident in 1993.

Prime Minister Dion sounds better every minute.
http://secondthots.blogspot.com Dennis F

Deb, if it’s not a hearing problem, as some Liberals were initially trying to suggest, then isn’t Dion’s comprehension of English a legitimate issue?

I still think it’s more than that, btw. Just raising that one issue.
Jim

My excuse for posting at this hour is that I’m in Pacific time. I notice that there seems to be a lot of sleepless Liberals in Eastern time tonight.
Patricia

Denis,

Sorry but I watched the clip for a third time and the question isn’t clear. The reporter asked “if you were prime minister right now, what would you have done about the economy…” He’s using both immediate and past tense which is totally confusing in English let alone to a Francophone. He should have completely rephrased the question but again said if you were prime minister “right now.”

The more I watch, the more I see Dion’s confusion; is he being asked what would he have done to set the economy on the right path in 2006; throughout the election campaign when the crisis hit; or after being elected.

The woman clarifying in the background is also speaking in English and is not certain what is being asked either. She says the reporter is asking “when Harper has been prime minister” and then she says “at any given time” which does nothing to clarify the point. After this exchange Dion seems to think they are asking what he would have done if he’d been elected in 2006 and says, ok, we’ll go there.” And then the interview continues. You may not find his answer very clear but if you listen he touches on his immediate plan as well as the long-term preparation for economic downturns that could have been in place before now.

Anyway, I feel stupid spending so much time on this. Dion has already answered all possible interpretations of these questions many times. He has told Canadians he would not have squandered the surplus, allowed the manufacturing sector to tank, supported sustainable energies….the list goes on. Whether you agree with his economic line of argument or not, to say he would not have had an alternate plan is place to deal with the economy in 2006 is quite ludicrous, especially given the Liberals track record on managing the economy.

The liberals have clearly been staking the ground of the party that believes in intervention. Harper has been saying all along he does not. Everyone should get the contrast by now I hope.
Sammy

I can’t believe there are people here claiming this was a hard to understand question.

The question was is English for pete sake, not Manderin or Finnish or Arabic. I’m sorry we can’t slow the country down to half speed just so Dion can catch up with people functioning in real world time.

What part of “Now” is hard to grasp?

Now is (for me) 12:34 AM Oct 10 2008. That is what now is, there is no other “now”.

Dion understood the question, he just didn’t have an answer to it. I don’t believe for one minute he didn’t understand what was being asked.

Because if this man couldn’t understand a simple question like that, he truly is a simplton.

I was literally awe struck when I watched it, I just thought “My Gawd this country is in deep doodoo if he becomes PM”

Wow!
simple solution

That was a cheap shot by Duffy, if CTV has any integrity they will fire him, if they don’t boycott the Mike Duffy show and advertisers on CTV until CTV learns that Cheap shots are not appropriate.
Ike

Now means immediate. If you ask someone to do something now you want them to do it immediately. If you ask someone what they are reading now, you don’t mean what they will be reading in six days. The only way Dion would be PM now is if he had taken office sometime in the past.

He might properly have answered as if he had been PM since 2006. The fact that he had a problem with this question underlines his shortcomings in one of the official languages – English. Would those who speak French across the country be inclined to vote for a leader who had trouble with a simple question in French? Obviously Conservatives didn’t think so as far back as when John Crosbie ran for the leadership.

Canadians made it quite clear that the ability to speak both French and English is a basic qualification for being a party leader and running for PM. Why should Mr. Dion be exempt from scrutiney in this regard?
Jim

Politicians get judged on answers they give in loud (and confusing) scrums all the time. There are no “do overs” for those.

This was a one on one interview. The reporter wasn’t hostile.

Mansbridge on CBC does his sitdowns… does he give “do overs”? I should hope not.

Dion had a wonderful opportunity to tell Canadians what he would do differently than Harper were he PM. He didn’t have an answer ready.

It isn’t like he’s a newbie!

He’s been running for PM for a few years now.
Sammy

By no means was this a cheap shot by Duffy, this is fundemental, this is what news reporters should do. We don’t want our news oganizations to be filtering the news or sanitizing the news, we want it raw, unfiltered and unbiased and then let Canadian decide the significance.

The reporter prefaced the question by pointing out the criticisms Dion has had with Harper over the financial meltdown and then went on to ask, what would you have done differently.

Dion made some bumblings about had he been elected in 2006 he would have had different policies in place as if that would have averted a mortgage and credit crisis in the U.S. that has been years in the making. As if he would have adopted policies that would have prevented a world wide credit and banking collapse.

The fact that he even started down that road before he asked for a second or a third do-over told me how ignorant the man is on what is really happening in the financial world today.

Canada’s been given a very rare opportunity to see what the future may hold should this man become PM. I just pray Canadians are paying attention and choose wisely.
Don Mitchell

comment by Kady O’Malley on Friday, October 10, 2008 at 12:11 am:

Jarrid, do you think the question was what he would do now, or what he would have done if he was elected in 2006?

So Mr Dion was able to (by all accounts from the media and post debate polls) to handle the cut and thrust, multiple voices and quick quips in the english debate. But is unable to understand a simple question in a TV studio? C’mon Kady it was a crystal clear question of what would you do if you were the PM right now. All he had to do was say the following: I would be having meetings with the Bank of Canada and CEO’s of the Chartered Banks. I would be assuring Canadians that their savings are safe and that we are working with industry to keep them viable. That would have satisfied the questioner and it all would have been another forgetful interview.

The media has constantly focused on the PM’s sweater, lack of warmth with his children, callousness for bringing in his mother, cold heartedness in advising people to buy in a bear market, etc. You have disected every nuance, posture, hair style and glance of the PM with a maliciousness not seen since Nixon and there is not a moment where the media questions themselves on their ethics. Then Mr. Dion makes an error in understanding a question which puts him in a very bad light and is reported by one of your collegues. There is this great handwringing among yourselves about the ethics of the reporters actions. Quickly followed by disapproving comments towards the conservatives and the PM in their actions regarding Mr. Dion’s trouble. I have yet to see any empathy towards the PM for his gaffe’s and I don’t expect any. But you folks have set the reporting tone for the election, the least I ask for is a level reporting field.
Tam

Isn’t that what taping is all about? Take and retake to get it right? Remember the bloopers shows, the outtakes? Those are for humour, meant to be shown later in jest. This is not one of them. Mean, petty, cruel, nasty, underhanded. However, what goes around, comes around?
SERENDIPPITTY

One can only bemoan the fact that an event, arising from a poorly worded question, can eclipse the seriousness of an election campaign.

Most Maritimers, be they ex-pat or current residents, like Mike Duffy. They are slowly becoming aware Mike has allowed himself to be the willing participant in a Let Mikey Eat It contrivance.

Should he ever become lost in our neck of the woods, and find the ‘bridge too far,’ I reckon he’ll be P.I.E.’d before he gets to P.E.I.
Geiseric the Lame

So what? Harper won’t even listen to questions his aides haven’t vetted.

Harper’s a hypocrite.
http://rjjago.wordpress.com/ Robert

I don’t get how people are making the question out to be rocket science. It’s a mixed conditional. Back in Africa, I taught that to 9 year olds. Dion clearly heard the question, he’s just really really bad at grammar. I don’t know what, if anything it says about his economic competence – but it does show that he either hasn’t been making a real effort to learn English, or he’s a slow learner.
Geiseric the Lame

because the interviewer kept interupting him when he wouldn’t play hypothetical?

I don’t think so and the penny isn’t going to drop in Harper’s favour on this one.
Murray Littlejohn

I spoke to Steve Murphy last year when he was interviewing Peter C. Newman before a live audience in Saint John New Brunswick. Both men took swipes at Stéphane Dion on the stage during their ‘fire-side chat’. Their view was the standard conservative “Dion is not a leader” – He does not have ‘it’”. His linguistic skills were brought up for particular criticism. Speaking to Steve Murphy after the event, he reiterated his view of Dion to me with even more conviction. His dislike of Dion was palpable. I walked away from the conversation wondering how Dion could ever get a fair hearing from such a journalist. There is no doubt in my mind that if Mr. Murphy could have set a linguistic trap for Dion he would have. Surely the incident would have brought sheer delight to Murphy. That CTV ensured the release and immediate distribution of the ‘outtake’ speaks for itself.
Just visiting

I understand that insiders would want to chatter on about this, and that this is the right place to do it (what with this blog being called “Inside the Queensway” and all).

However, I can’t see this issue being central to many voters. To the extent it makes Dion’s English look weak, it underscores an existing concern some voters may have. To the degree that exploiting it makes Harper look mean, then it underscores concerns about how he conducts himself.

Pretty well a wash, I’d say.

In terms of journalistic ethics, however, I think it was wrong for the interviewer to agree to do a re-ask and to then to run the tape with the original question and dialogue and the reask all included.

If the interviewer and CTV thought Dion not understanding the question was legitimate news, then the interviewer should not have agreed to do a reask. Having agreed to the reask, it was highly unethical to then air the tape they way they did.

- JV
LeslieE

“Kory Teneycke even announced that the usual rigid rules with respect to asking the PM questions would be lifted for this very, very special event.”

Now, that is a telling comment.