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I.F. Stone must be rolling in his grave

Oh, how journalism has taken a beating lately. 

Last week, the Toronto Star’s publisher and editor had to retract and apologize for an alarming front-page story that alleged the HPV vaccine had a “dark side.” The piece has since be removed from the Star’s website

Just days earlier, the B.C. Supreme Court found the National Post, its publisher and three of its columnists defamed climate scientist, Andrew Weaver, ordering the newspaper to pay $50,000 in damages.

In her ruling, Justice Emily Burke wrote the Post had been “careless or indifferent to the accuracy of the facts” in a series of articles published in 2009 and 2010 about the former University of Victoria professor and current B.C. Green Party MLA.

Taken together, it’s difficult to say how much these debacles have eroded the public’s already precarious trust in media and how it goes about practicing journalism. On the heels of the Amanda Lang and Peter Mansbridge controversies at the CBC, these recent events have launched a torrent on Twitter and a fair bit of navel-gazing if preponderance of panel discussions on the state of journalism and the like is any indication. Perhaps that’s a good thing in an industry that has historically been loath to criticize itself.

But it has also raised questions about precisely whose interests are being served by large swaths of corporate media. 

I’m not one for idolatry, but if there is one journalist that all scribes should aspire to emulate, it’s I.F. Stone. 

Long before the notion of independent media took root, Stone embodied and practiced what it means. Working alone, he produced a weekly pamphlet in the 1960s and 70s called the I.F Stone Weekly. At its zenith, Stone had 60,000 subscribers. 

Stone was an accomplished investigative reporter and muckraker he sifted through public records like a forensic scientist to unearth corruption, waste and other abuses. By design, he kept his distance from power, but Stone certainly kept a keen eye on powerful institutions and individuals.  

He once described his approach to journalism this way: “I made no claims to inside stuff. I tried to give information which could be documented, so the reader could check it for himself.”

Stone went on: “Reporters tend to be absorbed by the bureaucracies they cover they take on the habits, attitudes, and even accents of the military or the diplomatic corps. Should a reporter resist the pressure, there are many ways to get rid of him.”

Simply put, Stone wasn’t motivated by the ephemeral and distorting allure of being near or “covering” the powerful. He was much more interested in exposing hidden truths.     

Brian Williams, the now suspended NBC News anchorman, lied repeatedly about being in a military helicopter that was shot at in Iraq. 

But, the broader, more salient question before this one sorry, self-destructive episode, is how can a multi-millionaire like Williams even be considered a journalist? Williams is a member of the very elite he is ostensibly supposed to keep a skeptical eye on. He inhabits and travels in potent business, political and media circles… a distant, alien place for most of his audience. 

Williams is every inch the insider and he reveled in and exploited – fatally, it appears – his celebrity. He is, of course, not the only media “star” in the glittering American media universe to earn a breathtaking sums of money who are reluctant to admit their brand of “journalism” is simply a reflection of their coveted insider status. Just watch the obsequious  “interviews” with the now familiar and cozy fraternity of pundits, consultants and former politicians, spooks and cops that populate the cable “news” networks. 

Williams’ status as a journalist in name-tag-only was confirmed when he employed euphemisms like “misremembered” and “conflate” to try, in vain, to defend himself and explain away his lies. It was a pathetic and instructive denouement to his now broken career.  

Then there’s Lang and Mansbridge, the handsomely paid CBC personalities who spent years leveraging their high profiles on the public broadcaster to pad their bank accounts via the lucrative cash to yak circuit.

Apparently, it never occurred to these journalists that pocketing money from corporations and influential lobby groups constitutes a real or perceived conflict of interest. The unrepentant pair dismissed their critics as “haters” and “bloggers.” 

CBC News honchos were ultimately roused out of their ethical stupor to belatedly tell Lang and Mansbridge that they couldn’t sell their notoriety any longer.

Like Williams, Lang and Mansbridge are enthusiastic players in a cloistered world where money, power and media merge.  

The CBC’s chief correspondent even hosts a regular segment on The National appropriately dubbed “The Insiders” – a panel of “power players” who reveal the inner-workings of Ottawa to the rest of us know-nothing outsiders. 

Sometimes, the nexus of money, power and media  occurs quietly and away from television screens. 

And so it was with former Globe editor, John Stackhouse, who joined the Royal Bank of Canada as a senior vice-president in January.  

From journalist to banker: surely this is not a sign of the times, is it?  

Andrew Mitrovica explores how the war in Gaza was covered by Canadian journalists Saturday, March 7 as part of Toronto Public Library’s Freedom To Read Week events at the Brentwood Branch (36 Brentwood Road North). 3 pm. Free.  

news@nowtoronto.com | @nowtoronto

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