Media impartiality questioned

[kimmy]

Conservative MP John Reynolds suggested some members of the press gallery were slanting coverage in favour of the Liberals Friday and that "too many media people are right in bed with the Liberal government, and that's scary."

It is the second time this week Reynolds has weighed in on what he views as unfair coverage by the press.

In a scrum on Wednesday, Reynolds openly suggested that some in the press gallery were aiding Liberals attempts to divert attention from a member of prime minister Paul Martin's staff lobbying for a sponsorship grant for a Martin fundraiser.

Politics Watch, Oct 22

Reynolds made the comments following question period after  CanWest reporter Anne Dawson peppered him with questions about Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's comments last week when he cited Belgium as a possible model for federalist reform in Canada.

Reynolds' comments come the same week  The Hill Times reported that Dawson's husband, former  Toronto Star reporter Derek Ferguson, was hired this summer by the National Liberal Caucus Research Bureau as a director general. Ferguson coordinates policy and communications. He worked in the Liberal campaign war room during the election campaign.

Politics Watch, Oct 20

Reynolds decision to speak openly about it the issue to reporters comes after a large defection from the Parliamentary Press Gallery over to the government in recent months.

The people who have cross over to what reporters like to call the higher-paying "dark side" include a former veteran CBC Radio political reporter who covered the Conservatives, Susan Murray, and the former bureau chief of the Globe and Mail, Drew Fagan.

And no fewer than three others who were press gallery reporters less than a year ago now work for Liberal cabinet ministers.

These reporters were blasted this week in a column by one of their former colleagues, National Post columnist Don Martin, who opined, "Being a journalist on Parliament Hill is supposed to be a job, not a job application."

Politics Watch, Oct 22

Do members of the Ottawa press gallery see their careers in reporting as their in-road to a 6-figure salary working for Cabinet Ministers? And if they do, how likely are they to be unbiased?

-kimmy

[August1991]

Do members of the Ottawa press gallery see their careers in reporting as their in-road to a 6-figure salary working for Cabinet Ministers? And if they do, how likely are they to be unbiased?

I am not sure which job is more secure: ministerial staff or journalist.

I suspect that these people just got tired of working all the time and decided to come in out of the cold and work more normal hours. At a more boring job.

As to the charge of bias, I figure it's true but then wonder, "so what?" Vic Toews and John Reynolds should know that shooting the messenger will get them absolutely nowhere.

Stephen Harper, for example, has several zillion variables to consider before he makes a public pronouncement. One of them is the press who will report it. There's nothing new there. Good politicians know how to get their message out. And if they can't, or the message isn't popular, maybe they shouldn't be politicians.

[Newfie Canadian]

Do members of the Ottawa press gallery see their careers in reporting as their in-road to a 6-figure salary working for Cabinet Ministers?

Ask Senator Jim Munson.

Only they know if they go looking for it, but I don't blame them if it's offered and they take it. I would.

I think I agree with August.

Harping on and blaming the media for their troubles doesn't improve their image, at least in my opinion. Ignore it, get on with it, keep plugging at the Liberals.

The Conservative party is a government in waiting, so everything they say and do is fodder, and let's be honest, they have been pretty loose in the tongue in the last 9 months.