"Fundamental Freedoms": S. 2. b) not under threat/Giggles watch

Andrew Coyne goes to the heart of the Press Gallery silliness. First a civics reminder:

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Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
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b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication...

Back to Mr Coyne:
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Let's leave aside the question of how much investigative reporting really goes on at a press conference or hallway scrum, or whether these bits of street theatre serve any useful purpose other than to provide the networks with useable clips...

But the truly ludicrous part of the gallery's argument isn't the suggestion that a minor change in press conference procedure is somehow a threat to its independence. It's the suggestion that the gallery has much independence to begin with. Most of what passes for reporting on Parliament Hill -- aside from rewriting press releases, taking notes off the CPAC feed and gossiping about who's "hot" and who's "not" -- consists of retailing leaks that have been fed to reporters from various self-interested sources. Sometimes these contain genuine news. More often they are simply bits of spin, slagging an opponent or puffing some pet project, always under cover of anonymity...

Were they not fed such a consistent diet by their political and government sources, many of these reporters would be out of work. And indeed, the "independence" they are asserting now is mostly a demand that the government keep them supplied with clips and quotes in the usual way. It is the independence of the junkie from his pusher.

Well, fair enough. The press has interests like any other trade, and is entitled to defend them. What we're not entitled to do, however, is to dress up our complaints as some sort of constitutional crisis. It is not the responsibility of the government to make our jobs easier. And it is not our job to serve as the Opposition...

A colleague finally takes an unmistakable shot at Giggles Taber. See her pap in the Globe today now that she is cut off from friendly, anonymous Liberal sources:

Tracking the Tory shift in hangouts, hairdressers and attitudes

Enquiring minds want to know if she went undercover(s). Oy veh! That from the "Senior Political Writer" of our "National Newspaper"? Steady Eddie should consider staff re-assignments. Replacing Horrible Heather on the downtown T.O. ridiculously expensive but soul-soothing style beat?

Update: A sample of what owl--"a former member of the Parliamentary press pack"--really thinks about his erstwhile congens in a comment at Mr Coyne's site:

...the vicious and determined day-by-day character assassination leading up to the election, the torqued headlines, the made-up storylines, the rigged background, the relentless kill-the-Conservatives mindset that fuels the media from the lowest cub reporter up to the level of senior... (5/27/2006 12:58AM)

Mark C.

Posted by markc at May 27, 2006 12:07 PM