Catching Up on MediaPolicy – Menzies’ arrest – Sparks opinion poll on the CBC – Dwivedi to PMO – Press Gazette on 2024

January 13, 2024

This would not have been a good week to poll Canadians on their opinions of the media or public institutions.

As recounted in CTV News and Globe and Mail reports, Rebel News media personality David Menzies was arrested (and subsequently released without charge) by the RCMP for assaulting a member of Chrystia Freeland’s security detail.

The arrest was ridiculous. As Freeland walked briskly back to her vehicle, Menzies harangued her with accusations, not news questions (but watch the CTV clip and judge for yourself). The cop initiated physical contact with what pickup basketball enthusiasts would recognize as a “hard pick” on Menzies so that he couldn’t keep up with the Minister.

The officer then arrested Menzies, the equivalent of calling your own fouls. Handcuffed him too.

It was pathetic. But it was political theatre, which was Menzies’ mission anyway (it seems he has done this kind of thing before).

Well done, RCMP.

To continue the drama, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre issued a statement attacking the Liberal government and a fundraising pitch distributed within a couple of hours:

Silliness as I say, but pointing yet again to the vexing problem of Rebel News, which MediaPolicy wrote about in a different context, here.

The vex is not just about the media/political-action outlet in question, it’s about the unresolved policy issue of how and where the state recognizes “journalism,” and “journalists.” In the Internet-facilitated world of self publishing and iPhone technology, anyone can be a journalist, a faux journalist, or a “citizen journalist.” Can they all claim the moral and legal privileges of a professional journalist?

Menzies claimed that privilege when he said he was “scrumming” the Deputy Prime Minister. Again, you be the judge. Scrumming usually involves legitimate news gathering questions and, in return, the patient compliance of the news subject.

Editors at the CTV and the Globe weighed in with their choice of descriptors on this. Menzies is variously referred to as a “personality,” “a commentator,” and an “employee of Rebel News which refers to itself as a generally conservative media outlet.” But not a journalist or reporter.

The root issue in this flap is the terms and conditions of journalist access to news subjects, especially politicians being held to account. Two years ago, the issue was accreditation of Rebel News for reporting on an election debate and keeps arising every time that freelance journalists embed with protesters defying injunctions.

This brings to mind the interview that MediaPolicy published in December with Ivor Shapiro, scholar-in-residence at the TMU Centre for Free Expression. His view is that our ad hoc and laissez-faire approach to defining “journalist” and “journalism” won’t do anymore. In an era where it’s all too easy for someone to to claim the mantle of “citizen journalist” and the state-protected privileges of a free press that come along with it (for example, access) we need a purposive policy debate on the matter.

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Spark Insights has published a poll on public attitudes towards the CBC.

The key finding: the vast majority of Canadians, including Conservative voters, do not want to defund the CBC. But there is a very significant appetite for “a lot of change” at the public broadcaster.

As MediaPolicy quipped last week, we often hear “why can’t the CBC be more like PBS?” but you could expand that to include “why can’t the CBC be exactly what I personally think it should be?” That’s okay too: it’s never a bad time for the public shareholders to rethink the company mission:

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Last week MediaPolicy recommended an article in Chatelaine commenting on the federal Liberals’ long promised Online Safety Act. The article was written by former journalist and media scholar Supriya Dwivedi who then published a related piece in the Toronto Star this week.

Dwivedi also announced this week she has been hired by the Prime Minister’s Office as a senior advisor in what seems like a timely hire.

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There is an interesting Press Gazette update for journalism wonks that surveys news organizations about their views on the revenue and distribution opportunities in the year ahead.

Here’s the graph on distribution:

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