By Markham Hislop, Editor
I interviewed Danielle Smith, leadership candidate for the Wildrose Alliance Party, for today’s feature story in which her husband, David Maretta, features prominently. Maretta is the managing editor for Calgary Global TV. He is also a member of the Wildrose Alliance. Can you see the potential conflict of interest? Most people can. Most journalists do. Ms. Smith, for the record, had no opinion on the issue.
I have a problem with that. Not so much with her official avoidance of the issue. I get it, she’s not going to criticize her loyal hubby, who she praised at length for being a wonderful, supportive modern spouse. Apparently the guy walks on water, too.
But even Maretta was smart enough to tell his boss that he regretted ever forking out ten bucks for the damn membership. I’ll bet what he really means is that he’s sorry he was caught.
According to his boss he didn’t contravene any Global guidelines or “principles.” When his wife declared her candidacy for the party leadership he and his superiors followed standard operating procedure in a newsroom – he was taken off any political stories and was not allowed to attend meetings where political coverage was discussed. But my reading of News Director Jeff Bollenbach’s comments are that eventually Maretta will be back working on political stories.
And every time I watch a Global TV news story I’ll wonder if he worked on it and if his Wildrose Alliance bias somehow influenced the story.
And that, in a nutshell, is the problem.
Belonging to a political party ties you to a political ideology, a set of policies, a group of politicians and their supporters. People join parties to advance a cause and elect candidates to political office. Party members are often fiercely partisan.
Do any of those characteristics sound like an independent-minded, unbiased journalist? Hell, no!
We rely on journalists to sort through all the muck thrown our way by competing interests, whether they be political, business or whatever. How can they do that if they are in bed with one of the aforementioned interests?
After my stint at a daily newspaper I worked for an NDP member of Parliament. After a couple of years I left to become what scribblers acidly call a “presstitute,” a media consultant for hire, and during that time I was active in the local NDP constituency. But I eventually left the party because of its opposition to business, which I like, and capitalism in general, which I have come to believe in.
If you read my op-ed pieces since the start of the SE Calgary News, all that information, in one form or another, is in there. My bias, such as it is, is out in the open. I don’t belong to any political party and never will again, at least as long as I’m slinging words for a living.
But experience has taught me what it’s like on the inside of a political party. Once you join, you’re part of the tribe. You dance naked around the campfire, chant the ancient slogans and worship the party gods. You’ve drunk the koolaid.
Now, how are you supposed to wake up the morning after a political party orgy of back-slapping, glad-handing and the debate of high-minded political ideals, throw on your suit and tie, and head off to the newsroom to write un-biased political stories?
Can’t be done, I’m saying.
The counter-argument is that journalists are citizens, too, and they enjoy the same rights as other schmucks – namely, the right to freely associate with like-minded schmucks, including the right to join political parties.
Sheena Read, editor of the Nanton News, couldn’t care less that she was busted. Not only does she own a Wildrose Alliance party card, but she’s bought memberships in other parties in the past. She dismisses the whole debate as a “non-issue.” Maybe her readers don’t know that she’s compromised her integrity right out of the gate. Maybe they just don’t care.
I care. And I wish Danielle Smith cared more, too. She spent six years on the Calgary Herald editorial board and worked for Global TV. She knows the score. The least she could have said is that maybe hubby was guilty of a lapse in judgment and, best case scenario, maybe journalists should preserve at least the illusion of their independence by never joining political parties.
But that’s not what she said. And, frankly, I’m disappointed.
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I’d personally like to thank David Maretta for joining the Wildrose party and hopefully flexing his right to vote! It’s up the Global to make sure that their stories are properly edited and not all biased to one political party……
It seems the Wildrose Alliance has been hi-jacked from the left.
There are many that have stated to me on the Membership list “I normally vote NDP”
I guess the Liberals found a new party. No name change needed.
Smith won’t discuss members and the writer finds that disappointing?
Dryholm steps in deep doodoo by revealing confidential member names the writer is all over it.
quite clear which side of the ethical fence Hislop is on.
Why doesn’t the Craig Chandl-er, Mark Dyrholm Campaign just publish the names of EVERY Wildrose Alliance member they don’t like because they are Smith supporters?
What else are Craig Chandler and Marky Dyrholm doing with confidential Wildrose Alliance membership information?
And how is Danielle Smith disappointing in this?? Her husband buys a party membership to support his wife. So much for your family values, eh, Mr. Dyrholm? What hypocrisy.
Not only that, but her husband RECUSES himself from all provincial political coverage (of which Global has notorioiusly little) and Chandler still goes after Ms. Smith’s family.
Are Mrs. Chandler and Mrs Dyrholm not members of WRA?
What’s next — will Chandler and Dyrholm go after her step son or siblings? Are they investigating other members of her family and her friends’ families to make sure they are not in any sort of “conflict”?
If the writer wants to talk about conflict, how about Craig Chandler AND Dyrholm running the PGIB, a supposed business group that lobbies the provincial government? Will Chanlder fold this group if Mark Dyrholm defies the odds and wins, then goes on to enter government? I doubt it.
This whole article reeks of the kind of yellow journalism and favourtism toward one side that Hislop complains of in the MSM. Disgusting.
What an interesting, biased and well written column. What did Sheena Reed do to get busted? What does that mean? Wasn’t she the editor of Nanton News? If you refer to her story covering Danielle Smith when in Nanton – she’s the editor. The same applies to the High River editor covering Mark Dyrholm at the HR library.
I didn’t detect bias in either story.
As for Ms Smith husband and his position in Global TV – I didn’t see any untoward coverage for Ms Smith. Further, he acted appropriately when advising his employers and their employees of his position re Ms Smith.
As for joining political parties – you have the right and the right to hold more then one membership -ndp, liberal, pc or wildrose or green. She won, bottom line.
I appreciate Markham’s piece and generally agree with his thinking that party membership may in many instances be a conflict of interest.
However, as a print journalist with about 10 years experience, as well as a master of journalism student at Carleton University, I’ve come to change my perception of media bias and what they really means.
My first observation, and it is an important one, is that not having the membership card does NOT mean one is free of ideological or even partisan bias.
After years of working in the newsroom and in the halls of journalism academia, I can say without a moment’s hesitation that journalists are some of the most opinionated human beings on the planet. I’ve also seen some reporters who are so fiercely partisan in their opinions as to put any party worker to shame.
Why do I mention this? Well, because after having seen this, I am convinced that non-ideological, non-partsan reporting is much more than about whether one does or does not have a membership card. One can definitely “drink the koolaid” without it.
So, on the flip side, I am not convinced at all that one can jump to the assumption that possessing the card will necessarily lead to biased reporting.
To borrow Forrest Gump’s phrase, “biased is as biased does.”
I am not saying on a balance of probabilities that it is a good practice for reporters to start taking out membership cards, but I don’t think having one should cause as much alarm as the columnist raises.
IT is the job of the reporter him/herself to identify their own biases and allegiances and learn to sift through that to produce well-balanced stories. Notice I avoided the term, “objective.” I think objectivity is something we strive for, but it is impossible to avoid being as we colour how we write with our backgrounds and perceptions.
The real problem is that any reporter could be as biased as biased goes, but because they don’t have that membership card, the problem is never identified.
I submit that in my time as a journalist, this is the case. there is enough bias out there without worrying about membership cards.
The real issue is to train reporters properly to avoid bias and also how to identify real biases in stories and try to prevent that.
The columnist also deserves great credit for leaving the NDP
You join the legions of logical people, including Bob Rae, who grew tired of the anti-business, anti-capitalist rhetoric.
You can’t annoy the ones who pay the bills all the time!
There’s my bias for ya!
I waited a while to see how the debate would settle out. Now seems a good time to wade back in. To all those who defend David Moretta (notice I got the spelling correct this time), for holding a party membership, I still think you’re wrong. Joseph makes a good point, that journalists are some of the most politically partisan people you will ever meet. That said, a reporter is supposed to check their bias at the door when they walk in the newsroom. And they are trained to do that, again, as Joseph points out.
The reason reporters shouldn’t hold party cards is perception. It looks bad. Moretta appears biased right out of the gate. There’s no defending his work on its merits, or demerits, because he has in effect publicly declared his partisanship.
A politician who shall remain nameless argued with me about this point. She said that I should check with other Alberta reporters, the implication being that I would be surprised how many hold party memberships, and how that was considered OK. I told her that in Saskatchewan when I was a working reporter that was considered verboten. She was surprised.
And that’s a point I never got back to, but should have. The altogether too cozy relationship between politicians and journalists in Alberta. Jeffrey Simpson famously called the Calgary media “fawning” because they licked King Ralph’s boots. No kidding.
The Calgary media rarely holds elected officials to account – unless it’s stupid things like paying $50 for dry cleaning (a la Joe Ceci) or $79 for a golf lesson (Andre Chabot).
Oh, and the point about me being just as unethical for running a story that relied on the unauthorized release of party memberships…it’s the greater good argument. Many of journalism’s most famous stories relied upon leaked documents. I think it’s much more important to expose reportorial bias and partisanship than not run the story because the WRA didn’t say it was ok for me to have the party members’ names.
Keep the comments coming…