The people and the press

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 3:52 PM - 21 Comments

The Boston Globe compares what Barack Obama was asked about during yesterday’s Twitter town hall with what journalists asked during the last two weeks of White House press briefings.

A similar experiment here would likely produce similar results: comparing, for instance, what Michael Ignatieff was asked about during his various town halls with what the departed Liberal leader was asked about during scrums would probably find the same disconnect.

You could theorize all sorts of reasons to explain that disconnect, but it is perhaps worth wondering whether something should be done to shrink the gap.

From the American standpoint, Matthew Yglesias sees the “leading failure of the press”

It’s all fun and games until someone demands an answer

By Erica Alini - Monday, July 4, 2011 at 11:10 AM - 9 Comments

John Allemang profiles Terry Milewski.

“I happen to think that Canadians can be a little too complacent and pacific,” says Mr. Milewski, the lone-wolf outsider slotted in among the power-lunchers at Hy’s Steakhouse. “Our job as reporters is not to meekly accept whatever answer we’re given, but to challenge and provoke and press.”

Mr. Milewski was, somewhat famously, shouted down by Conservative partisans during a media availability with the Prime Minister during the last campaign. He has since been singled out for not showing proper deference to Mr. Harper.

Fans of irony will note that a decade ago it was Conservative MPs—including Stephen Harper—who rallied to Mr. Milewski’s cause when the CBC journalist was hounding Jean Chretien.

The Twitter effect

By Philippe Gohier - Friday, May 6, 2011 at 3:18 PM - 21 Comments

This speech from Hugh Winsor is a few months old, but likely remains relevant, perhaps even as an inadvertent commentary on the election just passed.

University of Guelph historian William Christian once wrote that “Parliamentary democracy is what you can get away with.” In many ways, the media establish the limits of  what the government of the day can ‘get away with” and so there is a direct correlation between the vigour, intellect,  judgement, relevance and financial stability of the media and the quality of our civil society.

My concerns about media’s inadequate scrutiny  of the current government and the current Parliament are inevitably tangled up with  the massive structural changes that are coursing through the media industry … Those structural changes are not my principal thrust, however. Rather, it is  changes in attitude and philosophy that concern me more, regardless of the format. One of the biggest impacts of the new platforms is the massive ramping up of the pressure for immediacy … The emphasis on  immediacy means that coverage is essentially episodic, dealing with the here and now, with little context and almost zero followup.

From the magazine

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, April 8, 2011 at 6:17 PM - 2 Comments

A dispatch from Jack Layton’s campaign.

The plane emblazoned with his name is taxiing down a runway in Halifax and Jack Layton is talking about sheep. Specifically, he is talking about Dall sheep: a species adept at mountain climbing and often seen perched on high, steep cliffs. He saw some during a trip to Nahani National Park some years ago. And the NDP, he figures, is like the Dall sheep, forever running uphill. “If you put us on a flat surface, we’d fall over,” he laughs. “We’d be in a completely foreign environment.”

The fourth estate

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 4:23 PM - 40 Comments

Walter Wymer considers the role of the press during an election campaign.

The point is that reporters who cover politics know the politicians, their style, and their priorities.  Rather than covering an election as if it were a horse race, educate voters on the leadership style of candidates, their political beliefs, and policies they will promote.  Buyer’s remorse among voters leads to apathy, an unrepresentative government, and a weaker democracy.

Media relations (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, April 1, 2011 at 8:30 AM - 16 Comments

Michael Ignatieff promises more access.

“I’ve been a working journalist. I’m not going to sweet talk you. I’m not going to say we don’t have an adversarial relationship. You’ve got a job to do, I’ve got a job to do. But … we have to do things differently. I just find the atmosphere poisonous.”

So what would the Prime Minister’s Office do differently under Mr. Ignatieff? “Do what we’re doing now. Sit down and talk,” he said. “I mean, I don’t want to spin you about this. We’ve got a message to get out. We want to shape the debate. Every government wants to do that; that’s legitimate. But you’ve got to have access. You’ve got to be able to hold me accountable.”

He says he’ll be more available than Mr. Harper, to hold more scrums and answer more questions. “I don’t want to sound like a Boy Scout. We’re going to have scrappy moments,” Mr. Ignatieff says. “Why not? Why not? That’s the other thing to say, why not?”

Media relations

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 5:40 PM - 104 Comments

The reporters travelling with Mr. Harper’s campaign used some of their few questions today to ask Mr. Harper why he permits so few questions. Mr. Harper typically takes five questions each day: four from the reporters travelling with him, one from a local reporter. For the sake of comparison, Jack Layton took 22 questions by my count this morning. My notes for Mr. Ignatieff’s media availability in Montreal four days ago list 13 questions.

For a number of reasons, disputes between politicians and journalists are rather fraught and problematic. In this case, Conservative Senator Michael MacDonald is siding with the the man who appointed him to the Senate. One of the reporters named by Sen. MacDonald is defending her profession.

But regardless of profession, partisan affiliation or distrust for either journalism or politics, perhaps we could agree that, as an objective observer of Canadian politics once observed, “Canadians’ freedom is enhanced when journalists are free to pursue the truth, to shine light into dark corners, and to assist the process of holding governments accountable.”

The list of acceptable topics for discussion

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 4:17 PM - 70 Comments

The reporters travelling with Stephen Harper have one less subject to consider asking him about each day.

Conservative officials later announced the national Harper tour would no longer take questions on local campaigns. ”There are 308 local campaigns and local campaigns can speak to what they are doing locally,” Conservative campaign spokesman Dimitri Soudas said.

The bubble

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 5:45 PM - 37 Comments

Mark Kennedy reports from the Harper campaign.

After the announcement, Harper holds a news conference. He only provides one news conference per day, and it is specifically designed to ensure that it is not freewheeling. Journalists who are travelling with his campaign are, as a group, only allowed to ask four questions. One more question goes to a local journalist at the news conference.

Bus lag

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 28, 2011 at 11:05 AM - 10 Comments

Susan Delacourt reflects on the lessons of campaigns past.

Reporters will make “fit to govern” judgments based on how well the tour buses perform  in the area of feeding and accommodating the media. Campaign buses that get lost or break down or fail to provide three square meals a day to reporters will be pronounced abject failures at political leadership/competence.

Who's to blame if no one cares?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 10:55 AM - 87 Comments

That the public is generally disinterested in the business of Ottawa is something I blamed for the current state of the House of Commons. Scott Reid blames, in part, the press gallery for the fact that so few are interested.

We can begin with a Parliamentary Press Gallery that, increasingly, is dazzled by political tactics, bored by substance and disinterested in the awkward obligation of challenging authority. With too few exceptions — and one fewer with the sad passing of the Star’s Jim Travers — reporters seem more interested in sounding like in-the-know party strategists than detached observers.

It is they, in particular, who tell us repeatedly that “no one cares.” And all too frequently, there is little, if any, suggestion that part of the media’s function is to serve as a check on abuse of authority. Put another way, if Woodward and Bernstein had followed the same method we sometimes witness in Ottawa, they would surely have shrugged off Deep Throat, explaining that no one cares about such a technical, complicated story and that, in any event, Nixon’s triumph over McGovern rendered the matter moot.

Taking attendance

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 9:02 AM - 31 Comments

The Globe frets that too many MPs are failing to show up to cast (the preordained) votes (that follow the debates no one pays attention to). The editorial board scolds.

House attendance is just one of the tasks of a politician, but, in the past decade, the House has never sat more than 130 days in a single year. MPs have enough time to attend to their parliamentary duties. MPs should let the sunlight in, and the House of Commons should actually levy the fines that are supposed to be slapped on the worst truants. MPs could learn from their unelected counterparts in the Senate, where attendance records are released monthly.

This seems a fair enough proposal. But like the frequent laments for civility and decorum, this complaint also seems to deal with a symptom, not the disease. Continue…

The circle of life

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 3:32 PM - 45 Comments

After speculating extensively about the possibility that an election might be called this spring, the Globe and Mail reports that MPs are tired of election speculation.

Today in wild guesses

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, January 28, 2011 at 12:03 PM - 10 Comments

The NDP is willing to endorse a Conservative budget! The NDP is split on whether it will endorse the next Conservative budget! The NDP is almost certainly going to reject the Conservative budget!

Last year’s budget was tabled on March 4 and, after the defeat of two amendments, passed the House the following week. Assuming roughly the same sequence, we can look forward to another 41 days of this.

When former chiefs of staff tweet

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 1:02 PM - 15 Comments

Having departed the Prime Minister’s Office with a gracious salute to his employer, Guy Giorno is now airing his grievances with various media entities.

@dsmartin56 Still trying to justify your false, market-moving story on potash? Pathetic, Don. Just apologise and move on.

Where’s Globe&Mail opus “Stephen Harper’s Autumn”? @johnibbitson touted big essay on Autumnus Horribilis of PM (and me). Instead we did well

NSW great, but rest drivel from pompous, little man www.tinyurl.com/27v6n28 Ignores Canada’s Economic Action Plan, strategic brand building.

Governing as sport

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 10, 2010 at 1:19 PM - 28 Comments

Last year. “For anyone who believes that our governments should be honest, open and accountable, this is a travesty. But it’s devilishly clever.”

This year. “But there is a certain Machiavellian logic to it, despite the apparent idiocy of ever using the ‘p’ word again.”

Our democracy runneth over (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 2:23 PM - 22 Comments

Rob Silver calls for the outing of misleading sources.

I have lost count of how many stories in Canada over just the last 12 months have been mirror images of this case. Writer puts forward juicy story based on unnamed sources, PMO denies any truth to the story, life goes on as if the story was never filed. It is certainly not confined to The Globe as pretty much every paper has been “burned” this way.

There are two solutions – and only two solutions – to this problem. Either papers should stop relying on unnamed sources and given the impossibility that this will happen, the other option is this: When a source burns a paper – when they put something out that turns out to be patently false – the affected paper should immediately refile the story with the names of the sources relied on included.

Alex Panetta points out what Canadian Press did five years ago when it felt it had been misled.

Touche

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 12:26 PM - 26 Comments

Glen Pearson questions the reliability of the narrator.

Following Jim Prentice’s retirement, I recall reading some articles about how certain MPs stay on too long and it’s best for them to step aside because they are too set in their partisan opinions. I found myself wondering today if that might not also be true of some pundits.

A mutually destructive relationship

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 4:35 PM - 22 Comments

Two weeks ago, Ken Dryden lamented for the press gallery, leading Susan Delacourt to lament for Mr. Dryden’s tone, which apparently prompted Mr. Dryden to respond.

You see the country; you talk to people; you are in the incredibly privileged position of being able to knock on almost any door, phone up almost anybody, and have them talk to you about what they’re doing, feeling, hoping.  My point is that political reporting, for the most part, day-to-day, whether because of dictate, habit, tradition, evolved instinct, ease – I don’t know why – doesn’t reflect this.  Instead, it’s about Harper charges this, Ignatieff complains that, and as much as we – politicians and political media – find all this fascinating, most Canadians do not.  Who’s to blame is not the point.  I think, in fact, we – politicians and political media – bring out the worst in each other.

Unrelatedly, but relatedly, Jeff Jedras sighs in all directions.

All is politics

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 5:00 PM - 0 Comments

Ken Dryden laments for the press gallery.

Political writers, almost irresistibly, make everything about politics, and for the great majority of Canadians the conversation dies. The tone of political stories is so grim; so transactional and cynical. This book is about Canada. It is about us, and what we have in us to be. Ours is a big, exciting story. The people at the events in Ottawa and Montreal got that. The people who wrote blurbs on the cover of the book – Canadians who have lived intense Canadian lives and expressed Canada in their work – they get it too.

Susan Delacourt responds.

The Ottawa Political Industrial Complex

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 22, 2010 at 3:58 PM - 0 Comments

In August, the Sun reported the findings of a “secret government survey.”

A day later, a CBC report, citing the government agency that conducted the survey, cast doubt on the relevance of the survey.

This week, the Sun, citing government sources, linked its reporting of the “secret government survey” to the government’s new immigration reforms.

Everybody wins.

On the question of cameras in the House of Commons

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 9:15 AM - 0 Comments

Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities John Baird is seen on the screen of a video camera THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Back, very belatedly, to this. Some months ago, Max Fawcett resurrected the suggestion that the key to civility in the House of Commons is the television camera—specifically that Question Period would benefit from a complete lack of cameras.

The theory goes that our current mess can be traced back to the introduction of television cameras in the late 1970s. That since then the urge to play for the cameras has reduced our democracy to professional wrestling. That before that it was somehow better.

Almost all pining for simpler times is misguided, but even if we accept that this is at least somewhat true—that the presence of cameras has contributed significantly to our present incivility—that we would do away with the cameras has always struck me as a terrible idea and the worst kind of solution. Continue…

'This unintended educational experience'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 10:49 AM - 0 Comments

Max Fawcett considers the state of the census debate.

Look, it’s not as though I don’t think the media falls down on the job from time to time, and that they tend to do so more often than not when they get within 100 metres of an elected official. But in that spirit, it’s also important to give them their due when they do a good job, and I’ve yet to see a compelling argument that they’ve done anything but in covering the census.

Send in the strategists and psychics

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, August 16, 2010 at 4:53 PM - 0 Comments

Grant Burns considers the state of the census debate.

It’s worrying to see the way the media debate is evolving.  Isn’t the census debate more important than pollsters predicting elections, “for it” or “against it” polarizing, jaundiced speculation, and humour that inspires cynicism?