Statement made on 28 May 2009 by Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette
Hon. Céline Hervieux-Payette:
Honourable senators, on October 9, 2008, five days before the last general election, Stéphane Dion gave an interview in Halifax to CTV Atlantic news anchor Steve Murphy. Mr. Murphy asked a question that many Canadians said they found confusing and difficult to understand, so Mr. Dion asked Mr. Murphy if they could start the interview again and Mr. Murphy agreed. Mr. Murphy repeated the same confusing question and there were a few more restarts to the interview.
To Mr. Dion's surprise, the whole interview, complete with the stops and retakes, was broadcast on the six o'clock news and later on Mike Duffy Live Prime Time. Numerous complaints were lodged with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council about the two broadcasts. The broadcast council is an independent, non-governmental organization created by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, and more than 700 private sector radio and television stations across Canada are members.
Yesterday, the council released its decision on the two cases. The Atlantic Regional Panel found that CTV Atlantic violated the industry's Code of Journalistic Ethics. The National Specialty Services Panel found that the broadcast on the Mike Duffy Live Prime Time show also violated the code of journalistic ethics.
On the very first question put to Mr. Dion during the interview, the Atlantic panel said:
. . . the question was unfocussed, unclear and ultimately confusing, even to Anglophones. . . . It was neither crisp nor even clear, and it left doubts as to its meaning in the interviewee, the audience, and even this Panel, after viewing and reviewing the logger tape.
The national panel, which considered the case against the Mike Duffy show, quoted the same passage and added:
It would expand on the Atlantic Panel's conclusion that "blame for misapprehension cannot simply be laid at the feet of the interviewee" by observing there were clear attempts by Mike Duffy and Craig Oliver to do exactly that.
The decision of the national panel continued:
The Panel views the broadcaster's actions in the rebroadcast of the outtakes on the Duffy show as an unfair and improper presentation of news, opinion, comment and editorial, contrary to the rule established in Clause 6 of the CAB Code of Ethics.
The National Panel also acknowledges that, while the host, Mike Duffy, was entitled to have and manifest an opinion . . . he went too far. He was not fair, balanced or even-handed. In addition to the unfairness of the rebroadcast . . . the host significantly misrepresented the view of one of the three members of his Panel, namely, Liberal MP Geoff Regan. . . .
The National Specialty Services Panel concludes that the consistent misrepresentation by host Mike Duffy of the MP's point of view constituted an unfair and improper presentation of opinion or comment contrary to Clause 6 of the CAB Code of Ethics.
Honourable senators, that is the end of my quotation from yesterday's report, but the report is available for all senators to view.
CTV is required to announce the panel's decisions. I am sure that all honourable senators agree that it is important to ensure that these decisions are publicized as broadly as possible so that such violations do not happen again. Canadians have a right to expect that their journalists, like their parliamentarians, uphold the ethical standards that govern their professions.