Some nasty stuff has been going on at CTV News. Michael Harris writes:
Bob Fife blew the whistle on the sad state of affairs inside CTV, when he reported in a June 27, 2023, story in The Globe and Mail that Wade Oosterman, a top Bell Media executive, urged his news team to avoid “negative spin” in coverage of the network’s parent company.
According to The Globe, Oosterman said on an audio tape obtained by The Globe that there was a lack of “balance” in the network’s coverage. Although The Globe reported that he said he was not asking reporters to “shill” for Bell in its coverage of the company, that is exactly what his words sounded like. “But for God’s sake,” he reportedly said, “If there is a choice between helping and not helping—help.”
The Globe reported that Oosterman gave an unsettling example. When Bell reported flat revenues and an eight per cent profit, arguably obtained by cuts, he didn’t like the way CTV played the story.
The network reported the heart of the business story: that revenues were flat, not the single digit improvement in profits. “Why would we take that negative spin instead of the positive spin?” Oosterman reportedly asked.
And what did Oosterman do to solve the problem? He replaced Lisa Laflamme:
Some said that her crime was letting her hair go grey, which the company denied.
But The Globe reported that two former news managers at CTV said that Oosterman thought LaFlamme’s newscast was too “favourable” to the federal Liberals.
Laflamme's exit was only the beginning:
Then came the disturbing termination of two of CTV’s finest Ottawa bureau assets: bureau chief Joyce Napier and reporter Glen McGregor. Along with Napier and McGregor, Bell also iced the network’s chief international correspondent, Paul Workman.
Napier had been a correspondent for Société Radio-Canada before joining CTV. McGregor was the investigative print journalist who broke the robocalls scandal along with his then-colleague Stephen Maher. And Workman spent most of his long career as the CBC’s Paris-based correspondent.
With their departures, invaluable experience walked out the door.
If you have a ratings problem, seasoned journalists like Napier, McGregor, and Workman with proven track records are exactly the people to turn that around. Instead of letting these people go, BCE might have considered investing more in the Ottawa bureau. Instead, they have chosen to chastise, hobble, and diminish it.
Fife, who himself had been Ottawa bureau chief for CTV before joining The Globe, made an incredibly important point in his story. It could be persuasively argued that Oosterman’s reported attempt to inject more balance into CTV’s coverage by lecturing news managers runs contrary to BCE’s own journalistic independence policy.
As Fife reported, the policy is clear: “Any interference, either direct or indirect, actual or perceived, undermines the principles of news independence and can erode the credibility of Bell Media News, which is critical to maintaining the trust of our viewers and listeners.”
Money has corrupted our politics. It is corrupting our journalism. There is controversy about the source of the quotation. Nevertheless, its truth is undeniable. "In a time of universal deceit — telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
Image: YouTube
14 comments:
Copy editing is in parlous state as well. In the first 'graph, it's unclear whether "his news team" refers to CTV News or the Globe & Mail. Oosterman being identified as a Bell Media exec doesn't help either, unless one knows that Bell owns CTV.
The source of the editing problem is likely the same as the journalism problem, cuts driven by executives more interested in profit-linked bonuses than a quality product. This leads inevitably to what Cory Doctorow calls platform "enshitification":
First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
CTV News is well on its way.
Like the corporate raiders of the 1980s, Cap, they destroy their businesses for profit.
Like the corporate raiders of the 1980s, Cap, they destroy their businesses for profit.
Bell is not too smart. I was around in the 1990's when Bell undertook a massive downsizing. It looked good on paper. It worked so well that a lot of ex-Bell employees ended up as Bell contractors at double the cost.
Still this is standard corporate behaviour. Do a cost-benefit analysis based on close to zero knowledge of how the organization actually functions and go broke. How to "not" succeed in business: Hire a Harvard MBA.
One way to improve the situation would be to prohibit the CBC from directly competing with the private sector. The CBC competes with networks like CTV for advertising dollars (when the CBC is guaranteed public funding), and with print journalism by running a website that isn't behind a pay wall (and boasting about it). The CBC should receive enough public funding so that it doesn't need to have advertising on radio or television. If it is going to have an online website with articles, then it should have to abide by the same rules as other print media (pay wall) or subsidize other print media organization on the operation of their websites. That is the only way will have a free press with diverse opinions (something all democracies require). AN
This is a stunning example of how executives get overrun with data a forget about context, jrk. There is more to running a business than just looking at the universe of customers.
We could use the BBC as a model, AN. There could be a direct charge for the CBC's services.
This article is very instructive, Owen. It only adds to my deep concern over what will happen to the Toronto Star if they do merge with Postmedia. Since the latter is owned by a hedge fund, I foresee the vulturization of all assets.
Like you, I'm deeply disturbed by the merger, Lorne. Conrad Black -- who was expelled from Upper Canada College for selling stolen final exams to his fellow students -- may finally succeed in his quest to do in The Star.
"We could use the BBC as a model, AN. There could be a direct charge for the CBC's services."
I, for one, will not pay for the swill offered by the CBC. (The BBC is also hopelessly comprimised and not worth a red nickle to Brits.) I'd rather pay to access your blog, Owen.
As for Fife? Pot, kettle, black!
The Star was lost a few years ago when sold to the current owners.
Atkinson (Star founder) was a leftie who built a great, profitable newspaper and then chartered it to be progressive-in-perpetuity via charitable-foundation-ownership.
The Ontario gov't squashed that, leading to the sad events today when the last, Canadian, MSM, progressive voice is just a relic.
I'll guarantee that this blog won't cost you a cent, PoV.
A sad state of affairs, PoV.
There are a lot of CBC bashers around these days; however Owen, without it we would be left with only right wing media. CBC does provide a modicum of balance, but they drift further to the right every time we have a Conservative government in Ottawa. RG
I agree, RG. There's a good reason behind public broadcasting.
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