Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW
He also offers his thoughtful perspective of Stephen Harper’s last 10 years in his recent eBook, The Harper Decade.

Categories: Capital Read, Inkless Wells

The gallery and the politicians: an Inkless bleg

by Paul Wells on Monday, October 5, 2009 6:22pm - 63 Comments

Folks: on Oct. 29 I’m going to be addressing students at the Glendon School of Public and International Affairs, at York University. I’ll be speaking in general about the quality of political reporting in this country. I’ll be saying, in general, that when politicians complain about political journalism, they sometimes have a point and sometimes not. And to the extent they have a point — that the depth, seriousness, level of understanding that reporters bring to bear isn’t up to what you might hope — I’ll be pointing out that there are broad, systemic reasons that explain some of this. Collapsing newsroom budgets, shrinking staffs, exploding newsholes and so on.

Anyway, the folks at Glendon have asked whether there’s anything I’d like the students to read or watch before they hear from me. One of the great things about Glendon is that the students are bilingual, so I’ll be sending a chapter from Allan Levine’s underappreciated book Scrum Wars: The Prime Ministers and the Media, and if I could I’d urge them all to watch Jean-Claude Lebrecque’s fascinating documentary À Hauteur d’Homme, which followed Bernard Landry’s losing campaign in 2003 and presents, in excruciating detail, the unlovely spectacle of a press bus full of reporters who smell a loser. (Can’t find a clip online, but here’s a bunch of Radio-Canada radio coverage from around the release.)

But over to you: Do you know an article, analysis, video clip, radio debate, blog post, or other bit of media, in either official language, that captures or illustrates the assorted debates about how well we do our jobs? One senses, reading the comments around here, that many of you have strong opinions on these matters. I’m not going to be able to take all your suggestions but I’d be curious to see them and grateful for your contributions. Thanks.

Tags: Glendon, Jean-Claude Labrecque

More by Paul Wells

http://intensedebate.com/people/StephenGordon StephenGordon

<img src="http://worthwhile.typepad.com/calvin_economy.gif"
width="6" h00eight="190">
http://intensedebate.com/people/StephenGordon StephenGordon

This, maybe?

(I couldn't figure out how to make the image show up in the comment)

http://intensedebate.com/people/PoliticalPundit PoliticalPundit

Fantastic cartoon.

Paul Wells should be able to use it in his PPT presentation. A cartoon is worth a million words!! And the brilliant students just love them!!

http://intensedebate.com/people/Ed_Sweeney Ed_Sweeney

Strong opinions? Us?
http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

It is a bit dated but this article gives a good overview.

http://www.glocom.org/special_topics/colloquium/2…

If I had my way, journo schools would be abolished and reporters/columnists would care more about publishing scoops than they do about staying in loop. It appears sometimes journos are in cahoots with pols to keep hoi polloi ignorant.

http://intensedebate.com/people/hellomike hellomike

Your comment has a spectacular number of Os in it.

I just wanted to point that out.
http://intensedebate.com/people/YYZ YYZ

One of the things that drive journalists to cover things the way they do is they hate being scooped. Take Maclean's who published the rumor first published by the Star on floor-crossing. The result is you get shoddy journalism repeated because of the fear of being scooped. Focusing on a scoop alone isn't enough….I actually think it starts with a strategy on how issues are going to be covered, and ensuring not all political reporters are embedded in the Ottawa machinery. You need some people covering political beats that do in-depth analysis, and aren't beholden to Ministerial press secretaries for anonymous sources.

Now….why do you think journalism schools should be abolished?

wilson

No links, but I'm sure you have some thoughts on:
How did good investigative jounalism (Adscam) morph into bad gotcha journalism (wafergate)?
http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

By the government becoming more "transparent" and shutting out the media almost entirely.
http://www.intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

By the government becoming more "transparent" and shutting out the media almost entirely. Disabling the government database that journalists used to find stories. Making FOI requests take forever and a day. Redacting everything that might be a noun, verb, or number.. what else was left?

http://intensedebate.com/people/YYZ YYZ

The political coverage has become much too reactive. It is editor-driven pure and simple. If the editors-in-chief had a better strategy for political coverage, we'd get better journalism, pure and simple. Also, where was the editor who refused to publish the wafer story? It wasn't a story at all and it never should have been published.

kcm

My take on the media [ hardly original ] follows pretty much the losers/winners slant. I'm not much of a believer in outright bias. [ at least not most of the the time ] But the notion of the media – and the public – picking up on the 'losers' blood in the water can set of a bandwagon effect. I don't think there are any particular moral lessons to draw from this – it appears to be the way of the world. Right now Ignatieff's perceived to be a 'loser', the worry for him will be if this becomes engrained in the publics mind, it may be awfully hard to shift – however unfair it may be.

http://intensedebate.com/people/PoliticalPundit PoliticalPundit

Harper was also hounded by the media when they believed that he was nothing but a Right wing nut crank.
When he morphed himself into a moderate neo-conservative (keeping his Christian values conservatism tightly under wraps) he soon became the darling of the media at the National Post, the Globe and Mail, the Montreal Gazette, the Edmonton Journal, Macleans, etc etc
The media is gushing over his piano performance as if he was a newly found prodigy of Glenn Gould!! WOW!
it is all more amusing than the Cirque du Soleil even when the boss performs from outer space.

http://intensedebate.com/people/TJCook TJCook

You should see his act with the ping-pong balls…

kcm

A subject of as much immediate interest as the role/capacity of the media, would be political advertising in recent years – particularly since adds outside of the writ period are now all the rage. How has this impacted the media? Can we expect to see the MSM increasingly sidelined because of this and the rise of independant blogging voices. I know this may be another topic, but frankly the possiblility of the media becoming increasingly politicised or over-stretched, isn't a remote one. And as the lines betweeen professional and semi – professional/amateur become ever harder to discern should news consummers and citizens be concerned?

http://intensedebate.com/people/YYZ YYZ

The "MSM" has to offer what a blogger can't – that's way the days of the Jane Tabers of the world are numbered. Any blogging hack can come up with what she comes with. However, there is a major market for indepth analysis on important issues. I don't have the source but I heard recently that Economist and/or New Yorker have both done pretty well in recent years. They provide long, indepth anaysis on important topics and people.

The more the "MSM" tries to compete in the news cycle, the worse off they will be.

And by the way – they all need to start charging for the content. Thank you Maclean's – you have yet to make a cent from me and I've not once clicked on one of your advertiser's links.

Bill D, Cat

Oops other media , my bad .
http://phantomobserver.com PhantomObserver

Honestly? You can't go wrong with the stuff on Jay Rosen's PressThink:

http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressth…

http://intensedebate.com/people/PoliticalPundit PoliticalPundit

Great link! Keep them coming!!

Orson Bean

I agree. The subject (or at least part of the subject) of that article is what so often enrages me when I read newpaper coverage, or watch TV coverage, of current events. So often, all the reporter does is assemble regurgitated quotes from the "players" in the story, with no effort made to dig any deeper than that. Because that would take effort AND a certain modicum of critical thinking skills. Often, I find there are obvious questions raised or begged in the article or TV news clip, and the reporter doesn't seem to grasp this, or doesn't care, I'm not sure which. But in any event, it makes for absolutely inane coverage. Only a few publications or outlets rise above this level, and they're usually not daily newpapers or regular TV news shows, e.g., the Atlantic Monthly, The Economist.

http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

Not about this country but much of the message is transferable, I think.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22960

There is a lot left unsaid and certainly national characteristics are different.

http://intensedebate.com/people/PoliticalPundit PoliticalPundit

Fantastic reference! I missed it while away on holidays in August.

Just what Heer Dr. Dr. Wells needs to wow the Glendon students.

The new media are global and their impacts, while slightly different due to cultural differences, have been the same around the world. When and where ever you travel this is the first things that you notice.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Ed_Sweeney Ed_Sweeney

I think the more pressing question is: does Wells still expect a Fall election?

On a serious note, I think the best book I read on the matter was from the 80's, I believe the title was something like Mass Communication and Modern Society. It would probably be hard to find now, though.
Foreigner

Manufacturing Consent is still the standard, as far as I'm concerned.

Orson Bean

If you're talking about the standard for overpriced toilet paper, I agree.

Mulletaur

Quite. Linguistics professors should stick to linguistics i.e. what they (possibly) know.

Foreigner

Right. It's so presumptuous for a linguist to address the topic of communication.
Foreigner

Right. It's so presumptuous for a linguist to address the topic of communication.
http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

Right. Even if they do copious research in support of their writings they
should just stfu.

Foreigner

No, I wasn't talking about the standard for toilet paper. I was talking about a book, A B-O-O-K.

Orson Bean

While it's a U.S.-based book, and obviously dated, I still think Timothy Crouse's classic "The Boys on the Bus" has a lot of excellent observations (by Crouse) about what makes a great political reporter vs. a mediocre one. Overall, it's one of the best books ever written about political reporting. Believe it or not, Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" (written around the same time) also has some observations by HST which ring true.

But on the question of bias/why so much coverage sucks, I think there are two basic causes, which are both intractable and will be with us forever: #1, most journalists are mediocre, just as most members of any vocation or profession are — therefore, most journalists turn out garbage (just as most writers to); only a few rise above that — it's just the nature of the bell curve. #2, the oft-observed fact that the people who run media outlets think that conflict sells, and that's why we get the inane "gotcha" stuff that passes for political coverage most of the time.
Orson Bean

Oh yeah, on the subject of covering the loser's campaign bus, I still think the greatest quote ever on that came from a journo who was on Audrey McLaughlin's ill-fated NDP bus in the early 1990s — someone asked the journo what it was like being on that bus, and the journo's response was: "It was like watching a dog die." Priceless.
http://intensedebate.com/people/VinceClortho VinceClortho

http://www.drfoth.com/books.htm#birds

while the above book covers the 88 election, there were articles in the 84 election about the press singing "chick chick chickie goodbye" at teh back of the airplane…..Turners University nickname was "chick"

Love to see the Landry Doc….yes when they smell a loser it is brutal….refer to Coyne's columns with the Hindenburg in last Paul martin election.

http://www.intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

"yes when they smell a loser it is brutal"

A great example of this is unfolding right now in UK. PM Brown was asked during interview recently if he was on meds for depression/mental disorder.

Brown is supposedly wound fairly tight on the best of days but he's now starting to lose his equilibrium. He was stropy the other day in a couple of tv interviews. His last few months in office are going to be slow-motion car crash.

http://intensedebate.com/people/VinceClortho VinceClortho

Yes! I saw that and immeadiately thought that was it….it is like one of those animal shows when a new pack leader gets chosen….the poor one, if it isnt killed, is exiled and looks forlorn……however, Brown will hang to the bitter end it seems. Politicians are poker players, or better yet Euchre or Bridge players, they'll make you play the hand just in case you play your cards out of order, even if they are in a horrendous position….fair nuff if the other guy cant do it.

I spoke with a senior guy who was on the 95 Harris campaign…..he said it was a karma thing….you arent doing anything different but good things happen from small things….like them throwing the football around, they did it everyday, good days and bad….but one dayit appeared on the front of the Star as incation of how well things were going. He didnt think anything was different, but "the press" decided it was…..it isnt a conspiracy, it just is.

http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

I am convinced that Prime Ministers/Premiers have shelf-life of 8-10 years and then public turns on them with contempt and mockery. As you say, nothing you can do about it. It is what it is.

http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

"yes when they smell a loser it is brutal"

A great example of this is unfolding right now in UK. PM Brown was asked during interview recently if he was on meds for depression/mental disorder.

Brown is supposedly wound fairly tight on the best of days but he's now starting to lose his equilibrium. He was stropy the other day in a couple of tv interviews.
http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

Ever since I read a blog post about Ben Hecht the other month I have wanted to read his autobiography A Child Of The Century. In one section he writes about his life as a journo in Chicago during 1910s/20s and it was astonishing how different journalism was then compared to now. I wish reporters today had even half the gumption that reporters had way back when.

Hecht on first weeks of new job at newspaper in 1910:

We entered a large barn-like room full of desks and long tables, piled with typewriters and crumpled newspapers. There were many men in shirt sleeves. Some of them were bellowing, others sprawled in chairs asleep, with their hats down over their eyes. … The smell of ink, the drunks coming in with seven A.M. hangovers and sucking therapeutically on oranges, the clanging of a mysterious bell above Mr. Dunne's head, the air of swashbuckle — hats tilted, feet up on top of typewriters, faces breathing out liquor fumes like dragons — these matters held me shyly spellbound ….

… before another week was done, I was a curious combination of ruffian, picklock and enemy of society. Mr. Finnegan, handsome and smiling, sent me forth each dawn to fetch back a photograph of some news-worthy citizen — or die. The citizen was usually a woman who had undergone some unusual experience during the night, such as rape, suicide, murder or flagrante delicto. … The picture chaser was thus a shady but vital figure. It was his duty to unearth, snatch or wangle cabinet photographs of the recently and violently dead for his paper. While maturer minds badgered the survivors of the morning's dead for news data, … I scurried through bedrooms, poked noiselessly into closets, trunks and bureau drawers, and, the coveted photograph under my coat, bolted for the street ….

…. They sat, grown and abuzz, outside an adult civilization, intent on breaking windows. There was, I am sure, neither worldliness nor cunning enough among the lot of us to run a successful candy store. But we had a vantage point. We were not inside the routines of human greed or social pretenses. We were without politeness. There was a feast all around us. We attended it as scavengers. We picked up and examined the debris of murders, suicides, family explosions. Our noses were full of the odors of chicanery and human fatuousness …..
Ted

Paul:

Sometime last winter or perhaps spring there was a long article in Newsweek I think from a journalist on the inside of the campaign plane during US primaries through to the presidential campaign.

It was supposed to be one of those longer think pieces that, by arrangement between the publication and the campaign, won't be published until after the campaiging is all over.

I'm forgetting all of the details – which I am guessing is not all that helpful to you, but maybe this jogs someones memory and I'll try track it down – but the journalist got so jaded with the campaigning but moreso with his fellow journalists that he quit part way through, as I recall, and the resulting article was a think piece his colleagues did not fully appreciate.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Inkless Inkless

That sounds interesting. I'm familiar with the general form — the campaign blow-by-blow that we've frankly swiped for the Maclean's election specials. But if the guy gives up partway through, that's new. I wouldn't mind taking a look at that.

http://www.sortofpolitical.com Springer

A blog/column by one of your colleagues, Charles Adler, that, IMHO, is bang on the money…

http://www.charlesadler.com/2009/07/wafergate-wake-up-call-a-national-joke.html

Speaks to a serious credibility problem within the media regarding federal politics.

BCer in Mtl

Using Adler as a poster child for credibility is quite a stretch. Couldn't you find any material from Lowell Green?

http://intensedebate.com/people/madeyoulook madeyoulook

If WE THE PEOPLE consuming the media's output cared more, we would reward those who produced higher quality stuff. We the people generally don't do that. Oh sure, there are a bunch of us hotheads who hang out at places like this, who (when we're not calling each other names) actually give a damn about government policy, party platforms, etc. You know, the issues. But y'all in the media keep getting rewarded when the people care more about Harper covering the Beatles decades later (#5 worldwide on Youtube, says Bob Fife on CTV News tonight).

Don't be too hard on the media, Paul. If we let ourselves be more spellbound by Michael Jackson's casket procession or John Travolta's kid, then the media is only giving "us" what we want. The problem lies at the consumer end.
knick

It seems to me that the greatest threat to the quality of political reporting in this country and elsewhere is the elimination of independent community-based news outlets and the concentration of news outlets in the hands of a few powerful individuals. This makes front-line journalists focus on beating the other guys to print/film with little or no research about stories that often turn out to be nothing more than gossip and rumour. Don't know that there's anything in print about it, but there should be.
kcm

What about some of that news stuff that Ira Basen did for CBC radio? There were 4 or 5 programmes, and while i can't speak to the overall quality/originality of the programming, the piece on political spin that i listened to was very good.
http://www.intensedebate.com/people/john_g2708 john g

My biggest complaint has always been with the selection of news, more than the reporting of news. I'd really like to understand more about what goes into some of the decisions of what the media do decide to run with, versus those stories which I'm sure they know about, but either don't run with or intentionally bury. How do they decide what gets left on the cutting room floor? What kind of factors or agendas are at play when making these decisions?

I hope you will address this in some way.

This sounds like something I would love to see/hear. I don't suppose there is any chance you would share your presentation with us all afterwards?
http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

Not there yet .. not even close … but where the world might be going …

http://www.amazon.com/Bloggers-Bus-Internet-Chang…

kcm

Couldn't help noticing:
Idiot America: how stupidity became a virtue.
Great title. Wonder if it's any good?
It reminded me of that memorable Obama phrase while discussing some of his more obtuse critics.
' It's like they're proud of their ignorance.'