By Kathy Blessin
The press and the politician. Enemies, foes, opponents—pitched against each other in an eternal struggle over government and how it should be run. Right? Wrong.
No matter what carnage happens in the pages of the papers, on TV or in the scrums, there exists a certain camaraderie between the news makers and the news writers that the general public almost never sees.
We in the media like to pitch ourselves as defenders of the faith and the watchdogs of the people, but that’s not the whole story. Reporters and politicians are thicker than thieves when shooting the bull over a beer. The talk flows freely. You see, politicians usually don’t like other politicians, either the person they wanted wasn’t elected, or they’re being back-stabbed by someone in caucus. So what do they say over a few beers during a lunch time interview? Something that usually starts with “You didn’t hear this from me but…”
And what does the press do? They put away their notebooks and open their ears, categorizing and filing all information away into a little brain file folder. That information is not locked up and forgotten, mind you; it’s put away for further use. Research, we like to call it.
This happens at all levels of government. And we at The Eyeopener are not immune to such communion. Last year’s Christmas party was a hoot, with political hearsay and raw facts being slung about so fast that you had to duck to get away from it. Was The Eye staff, with myself certainly not excluded, in the wrong to take in all of this information, promising not to use it? Well, no.
The press and the politician are, as Allan Fotheringham put it, two birds of a feather, two peas in a pod. One might call the relationship incestuous. In the British government, favored members of the press were, and probably still are, secretly briefed every day by the Prime Minister’s press secretaries on the condition that they didn’t mention where they got their information. Hence, you’ll find many references to “sources close to the Prime Minister say such and such” but not “well, they like me up there so they told me this.” It’s just one of the hundreds of secret agreements entered into daily by the two sides.
Surprised? I nearly choked when I learned about the power that comes with a reporter’s notebook. The reporter filters the information and judges what should be printed: either for the politician’s sake or to protect the public trust in politicians. You might not agree with it, but you are being protected from information every day of your life and the reasons are endless why a reporter might not be totally frank.
So, if you’re ever in Ottawa, check out the scrums on Parliament Hill. Most of the reporters deserve Academy Awards for their performances as commandos of the truth, because it’s all a farce in between the parliamentary dinners and pub nights. Beware, not all is what it seems. And it’s not likely to stop happening anytime soon.
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