CTV defends Dion interview
Published Saturday October 11th, 2008
HALIFAX - The head of CTV News is defending the network's decision to broadcast an awkward interview with Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, arguing that its news value outweighed an understanding that the disputed portions wouldn't be aired.
Robert Hurst said Friday producers and other executives in Toronto and Halifax held an editorial review immediately after the Liberal leader finished the interview Thursday afternoon to determine how to handle the matter.
Hurst insisted that even though Halifax anchor Steve Murphy had said he "indicated that it would not be" aired, the network decided to show the interview in its entirety.
"We had an intensive review process and we decided we had a responsibility to show Maritimers exactly what went on here," he said in an interview from Toronto.
"It was our decision that this was a potentially important story and we wanted to put it out there completely."
But media analysts questioned the news value of the laborious 12-minute exchange, in which Dion asked the host three times to restart the interview because he didn't understand a question about the economy.
Stephen Ward, a media ethics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said there's nothing so compelling in the interview that it would warrant a reversal of a commitment not to air it.
Politicians have been caught before when they didn't know cameras were rolling or were told material wouldn't be used. But Ward said in most cases, producers were justified in showing it because the footage or interview revealed something vital about the subject.
He said that's not the case here.
Murphy asked Dion: "If you were prime minister now, what would you have done about the economy and this crisis that Mr. Harper has not done?"
After telling Murphy that he doesn't understand whether he is being asked what he would have done as prime minister 21 1/2 years ago, today or after Tuesday's election, Dion requests that the interview be restarted.
A second attempt also ended in confusion as a Liberal staff member explained the question to the party leader.
A third attempt to start the interview also ended in failure.
"I do not see a justification here for using it," said Ward, who used to cover federal politics for The Canadian Press.
"It really strains the credulity of the public to say, 'Well look, this shows that he's incompetent or he can't understand.' "
Paul Knox of the Ryerson School of Journalism also said it's difficult to see any pressing need to broadcast the interview, adding that if the executives believed it was a hard news story it should have been aired nationally.
The interview aired on the Atlantic supper hour show and portions of the restarts were shown on Mike Duffy's national program Thursday.
"You have a question as to whether it's just prurient interest and you're just making fun of someone's misfortune. Is it really something that gets to character or gets to intellectual capacity?" Knox said from Toronto.
Ward said he was also mystified by pundits' response to Dion's performance, saying commentators were drawing conclusions about Dion's ability to grasp English, withstand the rigours of an election campaign, or hear due to an impairment.
"The fact that he struggled with a question a couple of times, so what?" he said.
"And then for commentators to suggest somehow he doesn't have the comprehension of a prime minister, I just think that's totally out to lunch."
Hurst wouldn't say how often CTV has aired outtakes, but Ward said he didn't think it happened often.
Hurst also wouldn't explain why Murphy agreed to restart the interview many times, a practice Knox also said set them up for problems.
Both Ward and Chris Waddell, a journalism professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, said the network shouldn't have used the interview if they had agreed not to run it.
Waddell said the anchor gave more than a strong indication that the fumbled portions wouldn't be aired when he agreed to restart the exchange several times.
A Liberal spokesman said he was told at the hotel when the interview was being conducted that the first few minutes wouldn't be aired, but that the plan changed after there were discussions in Toronto.
"They said they weren't going to run them and they chose to run them," said Mark Dunn. "Toronto (executives) decided to go out of its way to embarrass Mr. Dion. Simple as that."
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If that was Harper and he flubbed and it was aired I GUARANTEE there would not be any outrage against playing the whole tape.
Dion is a fool and was chosen as Liberal party leader as a sacrificial lamb. He has no common sense and cannot get a simple answer together after being ask all those times!!! I DO NOT want that kind of a man running my country.
You know, the people in this country cry at the idea of becoming like the Americans but every time I turn around, Canadians are more and more inclined to take up partisan politics in the same way as the Americans.
According to some in this country as of late, the left can do no wrong and if they do, it should never be exposed. That, my friends, is called communism or at the least, a dictatorship.
The people of this country also as of late are whining about the lack of popular vote equivalence to seats in the House. This almost only ever gets brought up by the Liberals. The reality in this country is that NO ELECTED GOVERNMENT HAS EVER BEEN VOTED IN WITH A MAJORITY OF THE POPULAR VOTE!!! EVER! The highest ever was about 45% support for the winning party.
Basically, the Liberals quite literally feel that it is their brithright to run this country. That smells as close to a dictatorship as is possible in our current system.