ROTHENBURGER – Thin-skinned local media need a J-school refresher

PITY THE POOR MEDIA in Kamloops. They’re feeling sorry for themselves these days.

It has to do with Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson and last week’s news conference. Whatever it was reporters wanted out of that event, they didn’t get it. They’re so mad that a couple of commentators — CHNL’s Brett Mineer and a fellow named Marshal Jones from iNFOnews — are even taking shots at the Armchair Mayor.

One of my sins seems to be that I was unsympathetic to their whining about what Hamer-Jackson had to say at his news conference about not resigning. Another is that, although I criticized the mayor for the ‘Brett Go Home!’ incident with Mineer (which lasted roughly a minute), I didn’t buy into the “mob violence” theory.

I’m honoured that this humble hobby blogger is causing so much concern on the part of the mainstream media but I suggest they need to cut out the crybaby stuff and do some calm introspection.

I’ll say once again that the heckling of Mineer was unpleasant and inappropriate. If anything, the mayor should have told the crowd he was welcome instead of dressing him down. It was all a bit foolish, but it wasn’t a mob.

I’m not sure of Mineer’s position on why he didn’t back up a step when the mayor asked him to. Later that day, he said on air that “I was not blocking other press.” Still later, he said he was in a “first come, first served” scrum and that a Castanet video journalist tapped him on the shoulder a couple of times “like I was getting in his shot.” Whatever.

Let me be clear, though, that I defend the right of the media to have opinions as long as it’s obvious to the public that they’re opinions. So when listeners get on Mineer’s case about bias, and he responds by saying he gets paid to be opinionated, I’m on his side.

Although he does do some reporting (such as being assigned by the station to cover the mayor’s news conference), his afternoon talkfest doesn’t pretend to be objective journalism. It’s all about his opinions, just as my own columns and editorials are opinions. I do bits of news here and there on my blog but ArmchairMayor.ca is identified as a forum; a forum is a place where ideas and viewpoints can be exchanged.

We might disagree with the way in which a media commentator — me included — expresses views but style is a different issue from having those views.

Where the local media commentators go wrong is that they get offended if someone has an opinion different from theirs. That’s not what it’s all about — the objective is to encourage different opinions, not disparage the people who express them.

It’s obvious the local media have taken sides. Certainly, the mayor stumbles, often, but they find it painful to acknowledge any blame on the part of the councillors and staff for the sorry state of City Hall. That’s OK when you’re writing a column or an editorial, though a little more balance would be nice.

Tim Petruk, a reporter for whom I have a lot of respect most days of the week, wrote a strongly worded piece in Castanet yesterday (July 22, 2024) insisting that the mayor hoodwinked media outlets about the purpose of the news conference. (No, the mayor didn’t; he said it was about “resignation consideration” and it was. Hamer-Jackson also says he had no hand in turning it into a rally.)

Petruk, who wasn’t there, convicted the mayor of “blatant bullying,” etc. Which is his opinion, though I think comparisons about the incident with Mineer being an example of U.S.-style Trumpian politics is more than a little dramatic. I reserve my concerns for reporters who go into war zones and walk into the middle of urban riots.

Where I really part ways with the remnants of local journalism is when they allow their bias to leak into what passes for objective reporting. For example, CHNL seems to routinely introduce anything about the news conference as Hamer-Jackson doing “the opposite” of what he said it was going to be about.

CFJC reported that the press gathering had been “a pretense.” And Castanet reporter Kristen Holliday wrote in a news article a few days ago that “Hamer-Jackson misled reporters to trick them into attending a rally on Monday, at which he announced his intention to seek re-election.”

How is that, in any way, objective reporting? Sounds like they’d have been happy only if Hamer-Jackson had announced his resignation. As it is, he got a whole lot of publicity out of it, and the media got a week’s worth of self-righteous indignation.

The media need to ask themselves why it’s so hard for them to make room for different points of view. It wouldn’t hurt if they all went back to journalism school for a refresher on the Canons of Journalism, especially Article 5.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.