Village Squire, 1975-01, Page 33Keith's Kolumn
There are rotten apples in every barrel
Pardon me if I gave out with a bit of a
chuckle the other day when the press gallery
in Ottawa was all aflap because Real
Caouette, leader of the Social Credit Party
said some newsmen took bribes to give
special coverage to some items in the news.
The press people, of course, immediately
began denying the charge of every direction
and hinting that Mr. Caouette was just being
a sore head because his tiny party didn't get
the kind of publicity that he would like to see
it.
The whole circus was particularly funny
because the waves of the Seafarers
International Union affair had still not died
down along with the accompanying charges of
bribery through campaign donations to John
Munro the Minister of Labour.
Mr. Munro, of course, had also argued that
he was innocent. That he hadn't taken any
money from the Union for his campaign and
that even if he had, it wouldn't have been a
bribe to make him go soft on that union.
The news corps in Ottawa, of course,
wouldn't let him off that easily. They asked
tricky questions and generally hinted that
them was something more than met the eye.
The story was a lot different, of course,
when the newsmen were denying the
possibility of bribery. There were no piercing
tricky questions to try to trip them up in their
defense. There are no hints that the whole
truth isn't being told. The news won't be
warmed up and hashed over for two weeks
after the initial statement by Mr. Caouette.
No, this is one item what will die a quick
death. Just the denial, by the newsmen, and
oblivion.
It's really just another example of the
closing ranks within a profession. Like the
mother who feels free to criticize her own
children but will punch you in the nose if you
have the nerve to say anything about her little
brats, most professional groups present a
united front at .the first sign of criticism.
Find me a doctor, for instance, who'll admit
that there are some quacks in the business,
and I'll show you a doctor who is shunned and
avoided by the rest of his fraternity. The same
goes for lawyers.
I have a friend who's a teacher and refused
one day when we were arguing, to admit that
there was such a thing as a bad teacher. Some
teacher's weren't as successful at getting
their point across to the students as others, he
said, but all of them were dedicated people
who tried hard. I've heard some dedicated
violinists too who tried hard, but they'd never
get to play with the London Symphony. In
fact, if it could be prevented, they wouldn't
be allowed to play in their own neighbour-
hood. They were, in a word, bad. So, I think
are some teachers.
And so are some journalists. Some are just
incompetent. Some are just lazy. But there
32, VILLAGE SQUIRE/JANUARY 1975
are some I've met over the years in this
business that 1 wouldn't trust to take my
quarter over the Coke machine and get me a
drink. I'd be afraid they wouldn't come back.
In other words, I haven't a doubt in the
world that there are some reporters in Ottawa
who'd pocket a twenty now and then to push
one story and play down another. There are
also some reporters in Ottawa who wouldn't
kill a story or play up another if you offered
them a million dollars. There are both good
and bad in journalists just as there are good
and bad in anything else.
Just as there are good and bad politicians.
But it is part of our myth in Canada, that we
generally trust doctors, teachers, lawyers
and, yes, even journalists (though it's alsd
part of the myth that we believe they get a
heck of a lot wrong) and it's part of the myth
that we mistrust all politicians. No matter
how much a politician says the truth, we tend
to think it is a lie just because he's a
politician.
Maybe we need a little more confidence in
our politicians, and a little less in some other
professions.
Trust me on that.
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