CTV defends decision to air fumbled Dion interview
Published Friday October 10th, 2008
HALIFAX - The head of CTV News is defending the network's decision to broadcast an awkward interview with Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, arguing Friday that its news value outweighed an understanding that the disputed portions would not be aired.
Robert Hurst said 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 is nothing so compelling in the interview that it would warrant a reversal of a commitment not to air it.
Politicians have been caught out 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 2 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 would not be aired, but that the plan changed after there were discussions with CTV in Toronto.
"They said they weren't going to run them and they chose to run them," said Mark Dunn. "Toronto decided to go out of its way to embarrass Mr. Dion. Simple as that."
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I can't vote for a party whose leader does not understand my English language to a bilingual level.
Of course, there are those out there who have never commit an error, who always run at 100, and who enjoy the perfection of themselves, only I at least know now CTV is not one of them.
This is shameless partisanship on the part of CTV. What respect I had for Murphy and Duffy is gone.
"Fumbled? my god, English is one of the two official languages within Federal institutions in Canada."
Do you know how retarded Harper sounds in French? Maybe a Quebec-based media outlet should air some of his outtakes.
With the way media is these days I am surprised that so many people think they either support on party or another. I believe its all about ratings....the bigger the lie or the embarassment,the more it gets airplay. Personally I would put more stock in hearing it from the politicians mouth and deciding what that means to me rather than what a reporter or channel says or thinks it believes, because every news agency is guilty of peddling its opinion rather than reporting facts.