Roger Varley has been in the news business almost 40 years with The Canadian Press/Broadcast News, Uxbnridge Times-Journal, Richmond Hill Liberal and Uxbridge Cosmos. Co-winner with two others of CCNA national feature writing award. In Scout movement over 30 years, almost 25 as a leader. Took Uxbridge youths to World Jamboree in Holland. Involved in community theatre for 20 years as actor, director, playwright, stage manager etc. Born in England, came to Canada at 16, lived most of life north and east of Toronto with a five-year period in B.C.
The wrong business for me
I have been involved with the news media almost continuously since I was 16 years old. Many times during those years, I realized this was not the business for me, but since I had to put bread on the table . . .
It's not that I haven't enjoyed the news game, but I have seen the news media engaged in scurrilous behaviour, underhanded tactics and manufacturing “news” so many times that it sometimes makes me ashamed to be a newsman. Having been raised in an era and a household where honour, chivalry and integrity were imprinted on the young, it has been sad to watch those traits disappear over the years, in society as a whole, but in the news media in particular.
To give you an idea of how ill-equipped I was to be a newsman, a couple of quick examples:
When I was a rookie rewrite man with Broadcast News, a story came across my desk – (I'm not making this up) – about a man who was so excited about catching his first fish that he swung the fish around in the air on the end of his line. Unfortunately, the line wrapped around his neck, the fish popped into his mouth and he choked to death. I imagined the pain his family must be going through and how that would be amplified by the thought that people were having a laugh at the victim's expense. So I ditched the story. I ended up being severely lectured by Gillis Purcell, the legendary chief of The Canadian Press/Broadcast News.
A few years ago, while working for a well-known newspaper conglomerate, I and a couple of colleagues were assigned to do stories on how people reacted to inconsiderate boors. My particular task was to openly discard scads of litter in parking lots as people walked by and write about their reactions. I complained bitterly to the news editor, pointing out that I was being asked to deliberately spoil peoples' days just to get a story. She was unrelenting, however, and I and my colleagues eventually won a national award for feature writing. But that didn't alter the fact that I and my colleagues had upset a bunch of people just for a story.
During the course of my career as a reporter, various editors knew better than to assign me to a story involving violence against children unless there was absolutely no one else to do it. I became too emotionally involved. Unfortunately, I had to cover the murder of young Sharin Morningstar in Toronto many years ago. I was a wreck for a couple of weeks afterwards. But although it's bad enough having to report on a murder of any kind, it's even worse when editors demand you go and talk to family members or, failing that, the neighbours. I mean, have you ever gained any further insight into a serious crime story because a reporter interviewed the neighbours?
Of course, those examples pale by comparison to the facts coming out of the News of the World scandal currently in the news. Many people are not just upset but outraged, as well they should be, at hearing how newspapers in Rupert Murdoch's chain broke the law by hacking into innocent people's voice mails and, it is alleged, paid bribes to police for information.
Funny how few people are outraged by the fact that Fox News – also owned by Murdoch - has blatantly manipulated facts and told outright lies on their newscasts for years. Funny how few people were outraged years ago when London tabloids were publishing - verbatim - intercepted private telephone calls between Prince Charles and Camilla.
Again, many years ago, there were reports that private photographs showing Queen Elizabeth breast-feeding her youngest child had somehow been obtained and sold to newspapers. I remember well the queen publicly imploring the news media not to publish them. (They never were, actually.) But I told my editors in the photo department of The Canadian Press that, should such photos be offered by The Associated Press over the wirephoto network, I would refuse to bring them into Canada should I be on duty at the time.
And then you have to contend with the agendas of various news organizations. Take last year's G20 fiasco in Toronto. One major Toronto daily has been pressing endlessly for full inquiries into the mass arrests and violation of civil rights by police. Another major Toronto daily so far sees nothing wrong with the way police acted. Guess which is a Liberal newspaper and which is a Conservative newspaper? The news is skewed according to the organization's political stance.
This has never sat well with me. The prime lesson I was taught at The Canadian Press was this: just write the facts as accurately as possible, using verbs and adjectives that avoid the possibility of bias. Indeed, back then, if you worked for The Canadian Press you were not allowed to belong to any political party.
News organizations have to make money, obviously. But for too long they – the major ones at least - have been obsessed with making mega-bucks, forcing competition out of business and seeking power. And they have done it not by reporting the news but by sensationalizing the news. It seems to me that can only end when readers, viewers and listeners start letting these organizations know they don't like it. But I'm not going to hold my breath.
Tell me, am I wrong?
