Rare Sighting
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Inside: NOT HAVING IT ALL: Motherhood and a career in national television don’t mix RARE SIGHTING: Look quickly because this is one of the rare occasions you’ll find Prime Minister Stephen Harper talking to journalists on the Hill THE CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF JOURNALISTS SPRING 2007 • VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1 • $3.95 L’ASSOCIATION CANADIENNE DES JOURNALISTES– CBC TELEVISION CBCCBC NEWSWORLD TELEVISION CBC CBC RADIO NEWSWORLD CBC.CA CBC CBC RADIO NEWS EXPRESSCBC.CA CBC NEWS EXPRES B C TELEVISION CBC NEWSWORLDCBC CBC TELEVISION RADIO CBC.CA CBC CBC NEWSWORLD NEWS EXPRESS CBC RADIO CBC.CA CBC NEWS EXPRESS CBC News Anytime. Anywhere. Delivering the news through more services than ever before, CBC News is the source Canadians turn to for the whole story. CBC TELEVISION CBC NEWSWORLD CBC RADIO CBC.CA CBC NEWS EXPRESS cbc.ca Spring 2007 Volume 13, Number 1 Publisher Nick Russell INSIDE Editor David McKie DEPARTMENTS Books Editor 4 First Word The imbalance at The National between work and family. Gillian Steward By David McKie Legal Advisor Peter Jacobsen 5 JournalismNet Hunting for videos and information on social network sites such as MySpace can be (Bersenas Jacobsen Chouest tricky.But there are ways to make your searching more efficient. Thomson Blackburn LLP) By Julian Sher Designer 6 Business CanWest's decision to cancel its liaison with Canadian Press won't be the end of the Bonanza Printing wire service — not by a long shot! & Copying Centre Inc. By Scott White Printer Bonanza Printing 8 Update When the Edmonton police chief was fired after a sting operation that targeted Edmonton Sun columnist Kerry Diotte, that should have been the end of the & Copying Centre Inc. controversy. Hardly. By Mike Jenkinson Editorial Board Chris Cobb, Wendy McLellan, 10 Inside Ottawa Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a "pathological hatred" of journalists Sean Moore, on Parliament Hill. Catherine Ford, By Richard Brennan Michelle MacAfee, Lindsay Crysler, John Gushue, FEATURE Rob Cribb, Rob Washburn 14 CAN WOMEN SUCCEED Not if you happen to be a mother of young children. IN NATIONAL TELEVISION? By Hélène Buzzetti Advertising Sales John Dickins 16 TAKE YOUR PICK Being a national television reporter — sadly — means making a choice between family and career. Administrative Director By Catherine Ford John Dickins (613)526-8061 Fax: (613)521-3904 E-mail: [email protected] DEPARTMENTS MEDIA is published three times 18 Opinion The media outlets may have let the Harper government off the hook on the a year by: childcare issue. Canadian Association of By Dianne Rinehart Journalists, 1385 Woodroffe Avenue., B-224 20 Legal affairs The British House of Lords' decision may help Canadian journalists seeking Algonquin College the public interest defence in defamation cases. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2G 1V8 By David Crerar and Michael Skene Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is 22 The fine print A new weapon in the fight against defamation suits. The Canadian courts should strictly forbidden follow the British lead and allow "responsible journalism" as a legitimate defence in libel suits. By Dean Jobb Media is a publication of the Canadian Association of Journalists. It is managed and edited 23 Computer-assisted reporting Google now offers a spreadsheet program that's worth testing out. independently from the CAJ and its By Fred Vallance-Jones contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the Association. 24 Writer’s toolbox You should always keep your listeners, viewers and readers in mind when writing stories — not your sources. Subscriptions: $14.98 By Don Gibb (GST incl.) per year, payable in advance 26 Ethics Media outlets should be sensitive to concerns over coverage in the Pickton trial, Indexed in the Canadian but they must not let that concern drive the coverage. Periodical Index. By Stephen J.A. Ward Canada Post Publications Canadian Mail Sales Product Agreement 30 The Last Word Should journalism be a profession? The answer to this question is being debated No. 182796 by some of the top thinkers in the business. ISSN 1198-2209 By Alan Bass Cover Photo CP/Fred Chartrand FIRST WORD BY DAVID MCKIE Balancing work and family The dilemma has always been the same for many women who choose to become journalists t's difficult to open a newspaper or listen to a Shifting from the pressures faced by some Vancouver based media lawyers David Crerar program these days without hearing women to the business pressures endured by and Michael Skene carry that argument forward Ireferences to the need to balance work life and media outlets, we examine the relationship in their assessment of the decision's potential family. Indeed, working life for many Canadians between Canadian Press and CanWest. The latter impact on Canadian journalism. has become busier. The extra leisure time that is ending its association with CP. There was a And speaking of defamation, Edmonton Sun some experts had predicted has yet to materialize. time, argues Scott White, when this decision columnist Kerry Diotte is suing that city's police For executives, it may be a case of working long would have been devastating, prompting panic, force. The defamation suit stems from an hours and weekends, having little time to indulge soul-searching and massive layoffs. No such incident that occurred on the evening of Nov.18, in healthy hobbies. For workers in the lower thing. CP's editor-in-chief argues that while the 2004, at a Canadian Association of Journalism- ranks, it may also mean putting in the extra pull-out will have an impact, it will not be as large sponsored event in Alberta's capital city. Diotte, hours, either to get ahead or to keep pace with the as people think. who had recently written columns in the Sun demands. Career ambition, it seems, is still "A quiet revolution has been going on at CP critical of the force, became the target of a sting dominating the centre stage, except when it over the last five years, which has meant not only operation in which the police seemed involves young women attempting to balance a transformation in the way our reporters do their determined to catch him driving home drunk child care with the exigencies of deadlines in the from a bar called Overtime. There was public world of journalism. outrage, the force's police chief was fired, and In her piece about women who have left CBC that should have been the end of the matter. But Television's The National, Hélène Buzzetti "Feminism brought it wasn't. Diotte's former colleague, Mike discovered first-hand the incompatibility between Jenkinson, updates the continuing saga. In his the program's deadlines and child-rearing. equality of opportunity, piece, Jenkinson tells us about the public and Buzzetti, an Ottawa-based Parliamentary police reaction to a story Diotte wrote about the correspondent for Le Devoir and herself a young but being female means force's questionable actions involving aboriginal mother,spoke to a number of high-profile women there is no equality of sex-trade workers. The feedback included letters at The National to find out the exact nature of the from readers who felt Diotte was biased against problem that seems to be more pronounced than child bearing." the police. it is at other networks in French and English "Wrote one reader in a response typical of the Canada. negative reaction: 'It's obvious to me that all of "… exactly why are so many female reporters your police bashing stories are simply due to the running away from The National after becoming jobs but a major ground shift in the co-operative's fact that your panties are still in a bunch over the mothers?" she wonders. "The answer is contained finances and customer base." Diotte/Overtime thing, and you are only out for in one word: schedule. About every person The business of journalism has also been the petty revenge.'" interviewed for this story, in Ottawa and focus of the courts in London and some media And finally, a word about our cover: Prime throughout the country, would only talk lawyers as of late. For the first time in a while, we Minister Stephen Harper holding court with anonymously. They left because of the crazy have decided to give a little bit of extra space to journalists on Parliament Hill. The scene is rare, hours they were asked to put in to be part of The matters of the media and the law. In his column, as strange as that may seem. It turns out that not National's team." Fine Print, Dean Jobb draws our attention to a much has changed from the spring of 2006 when In light of Buzzetti's anonymous conversations, recent decision of Britain's House of Lords in the we first drew your attention to the sad state of we asked Media editorial board member case of Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd. that relations between Harper's "new" government Catherine Ford to reflect on what the women had could have an impact in Canada when it comes to and the press gallery. to say. Ford, who is a retired columnist for the defamation suits. The British top court ruled that In his update, Parliamentary press gallery Calgary Herald, begins her piece by pointing out "responsible" journalism can be a legitimate president, Toronto Star reporter Richard that when it comes to young women attempting to defence against companies, governments, or Brennan, tells us that journalists are subjected balance home life and work, nothing has really individuals pursuing journalists for defamation. to bullying and intimidation. So we thought it changed. The ruling is not binding on Canada's courts was worth drawing your attention to this issue "Feminism brought equality of opportunity, but media lawyers here have begun citing by, once again, putting it on the cover.