News

What do you think about the way the national media, including The Globe, is covering the Pickton murder trial in British Columbia?

Is the media being fair to Stephen Harper? or to Stéphane Dion?

Do you have any questions about how The Globe covers national and political news?

Globe National Editor David Walmsley was online earlier today to take your questions on these topics.

Your questions and Mr. Walmsley's answers appear at the bottom of this page.

Mr. Walmsley is The Globe and Mail's National Editor. He previously held senior positions at a number of Canadian news organisations, including the CBC.

Editor's Note: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question/comment. Comments/questions may be edited for length or clarity. HTML is not allowed. We will not publish questions/comments that include personal attacks on Globe journalists or participants in these discussions, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions/comments that include vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.

Jim Sheppard, Executive Editor, globeandmail.com: Welcome, David. Thanks for taking the time this afternoon to take questions from our online readers about national news and the way The Globe covers it.

Let's start by giving our readers some background. How many national bureaus does The Globe have and how many editors and reporters work for you on the National Desk and in the national bureaus? What priorities or themes does The Globe stress in its national coverage?

Globe National Editor David Walmsley: Hello, Jim. Many thanks for the opportunity to discuss national affairs with our readers.

National news is the spine of our newsgathering operation, connecting the country and defining the day's events in as authoritative a way as possible.

We have bureaus in Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. On the national editing desk, we have politicial specialists and other experienced hands that cover breaking news and longer form news features for the six-day newspaper operation.

Of course, the Internet never sleeps and our staff of reporters and editors work as hard as they can to update material as often as possible. We also like to use globeandmail.com to buttress our national coverage with value-added material that cannot fit in the news pages of The Globe.

We seek to ensure our coverage is authoritative and provides a blend of the urgent and fascinating. Integrity is key, mixed with a passion and courage.

Let's Be Prudent, Toronto: Dear, Mr. Walmsley: I enjoy The Globe very much, but I wish you would keep the Pickton trial on the inside pages below the fold. I wonder how many other readers have the same perspective but are silent and either stop buying The Globe or put it, mostly unread, in the recycling box. The story has to be told, but please, not in our faces day-after-day for the next several months . . By putting so much information into this nation's national newspaper, one has to ask if you are pandering to . . . our own baser instincts. Sadly, we have a man suspected of killing 49 innocent women. One has to ask why the total got to 49? Do our police need better investigative skills, case management skills, more manpower and/or other resources? If what counts is the future, then that may be the more appropriate story for the front page . . .

David Walmsley: Many thanks for your question, on a topic that has created a great deal of reader response.

News judgment is always a subjective thing, and the placement of a story is always based on the day's events. We have placed coverage of the Pickton trial in a prominent position on occasion. This is defensible because of the scale of the accusations and the extraordinary story the court in British Columbia has heard.

I reject any sense that our coverage is an attempt to pander to more base instincts. It is a court case being heard in public, involving the most serious accusations and on a large scale.

It would be wrong to put opening statements inside the newspaper. They deserve to be on the front page. News is for adults and it sadly often involves deeply disturbing issues.

J AM: [Some people have] laid partial blame on the media, along with the police, for not persevering and finding a suspect earlier in the killing of so many women in Vancouver. What would prompt the media to follow through on a story like this when the police and other officials do not?

David Walmsley: You raise an interesting question.

As journalists, we get out of bed in the morning to right injustice. This is not starry-eyed Hollywood scriptwriting. We often feel we are the thin line between getting something done and leaving an injustice unheard or unchanged. There can be no higher calling in news reporting than righting a wrong and we are often motivated to follow through on stories that otherwise would fall by the wayside.

The Pickton case is before the courts and I cannot comment on that issue.

But there have been many occasions where reporters at The Globe have broken stories that would not otherwise have been heard.

I think we are a special breed, even though sometimes — as a community — journalists are not held in high regard.

D. Snyder, Waterloo, Ont.: Mr. Walmsley, good afternoon! My comment/question involves the Pickton murder trial. I know there has been a great deal of debate surrounding the relevance and ethics of reporting the gruesome details and evidence of the case. Why not, instead of presenting gruesome facts, present a perspective of the courtroom — a discussion of the strategies of the defence and prosecution and the corresponding effectiveness of each, the mood of the jury, and the mannerisms of witnesses, giving readers a feel for the courtroom and proceedings?

David Walmsley: We have attempted to provide imaginative coverage as best we can, but the strict reporting rules surrounding this case do not allow us to be subjective in terms of how well one group or another has performed. That can only be for the jury to decide.

Bill Hatton, White Rock, B.C.: I do not believe that the media and others (taxpayers) hold the federal or provincial politicians to the same standard as private industry. I believe in the event that a politician makes a commitment not to tax investment trusts or makes a commitment to reduce capital gains and does not carry through, they (the politicians or the party) must be held to the same accountability standard as private industry. In private industry, the business (company or CEO or both) would be sued and the individuals (CEO, CFO or COO) who made these false commitments would be either terminated or sent to jail or both. [Should the national media hold politicians to a higher standard in this regard?]

David Walmsley: Dear, Mr Hatton, I always aim to apply consistent standards to all those in positions of trust. If they let us down, the reader should be told.

Jim Sheppard: David, several readers, including Al Goguen from Victoria, B.C., and James Young of Brantford, Ont., submitted questions about The Globe's coverage earlier this week of a major speech by Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, in which he outlined his organization's plans to file a human rights complaint against the federal government for what the AFN believes is the under-funding of child services for aboriginals. They raised points similar to comments posted online earlier by our readers.

To paraphrase, how far should The Globe, or any media organization, go into the details of an organization it is writing about? Are there different standards for the description necessary for a reasonably well-known organization such as the AFN, compared to less well-known groups? How does the media decide what information to use to help ordinary readers assess the credibility of such organizations.

A second point they raised was why The Globe article did not include more detail about existing federal funding for native organizations, many of which then lobby the same government.

Could you comment on those points?

David Walmsley: Context is always a vital aspect of news reporting. Where a comment is coming from, in terms of a possible agenda, is often as important to the reader as what was actually said.

There is an ad-hoc test that applies when it comes to the description of organizations. Are they a top-of-the-mind, well-known organisation such as a major charity or institution? Why is an organisation in the news today? Are we being seduced by a hidden agenda or is there significant change being addressed?

On Sunday, we obtained an advance copy of a speech Phil Fontaine was going to deliver the following day, in which he would announce the Assembly of First Nations was preparing a human rights complaint against the federal government over the alleged underfunding of child services on reserves. This is unquestionably a significant development as it represented a more confrontational approach by an organization that has been on Canada's news pages for years.

This was a scoop related to a major public policy issue that followed an in-depth report on the issue of welfare on reserves that had appeared in the previous Saturday's Globe.

Jason Schmidt, Saskatoon: Mr. Walmsley, I doubt you would every admit this. But most people living in Western Canada believe the big Eastern media — The Globe, The Star, the CBC — to be biased against the Harper government. You don't give them a fair break. You don't report on the good things they are doing. Why?

David Walmsley: Mr. Schmidt, I completely agree that many in Western Canada believe there to be a conspiracy involving the big Eastern media against the Harper government.

But I cannot support the thesis.

Our role in news is to hold the politician to account, regardless of political stripe. All are fair game, none more equal than the next, at any level of government. I also want our coverage always to have a national feel to it and not to be considered Eastern.

Jasmine Francis, Halifax: I think those new ads attacking Stephane Dion are disgusting. Why hasn't The Globe done more to publicize the horrible effect that political attack ads are having on this country? They are a dangerous import from America.

David Walmsley: Ms. Francis, attack ads are what they are and I think television viewers judge them accordingly. Negativity is not exclusively a U.S. soapbox issue and the low turnout at election time here may even be connected to the white noise of abuse politicians from all parties subject us to.

I want to know why they are running the expensive campaign outside an election. Is it because the Conservatives have so much more cash than they had in recent years? Are they preparing for a spring election and this is a first salvo? Are they frightened of Mr Dion's potential? What are the Liberals going to do next against the Conservatives?

R.M., Regina: The Globe and Mail is certainly being more than fair with Mr. Dion. The incredibly insightful and lengthy profile written and published about him in a recent Globe and Mail newspaper is testament to that. I'm not sure about Harper but you can only "lampoon" or praise a political figure if you can get close enough and it seems he keeps them apart.

David Walmsley: In terms of political profiling, access to the subject is helpful but not essential.

R.M., Regina: I just read one of your opening comments about the Pickton coverage and your incredible statement that "news is for adults."

Pardon me????? I was brought up in a home where reading the newspaper was mandatory and the fodder for much discussion. News is for adults???

How can you get off with making a statement like that as an excuse for news story placement and contents? That has to be one of the most inane comments I've ever heard — if you'll pardon my French!

David Walmsley: Hi, RM, splendid to hear from you.

My "inane" comment is based on the fact many people would prefer to be ostriches when it comes to news. The minute we stop placing grim events on our front page is when we are accepting the abnormal as normal. I have always read newspapers and they come into many Canadian homes each morning. Nevertheless, I would not recommend the Pickton case for children to read.

John Manzo, Calgary: David, why is there no Alberta edition of the G&M, along the lines of the B.C. edition?

I am in Calgary and we have no separate Alberta section, no Friday magazine, virtually no local advertising, and no local movie or other event listings. I remember searching for mention of the Calgary International Film Festival (the country's fourth largest) at the G&M website last summer and the only result was a passing mention in Vancouver's Friday magazine. This is, for me, a monstrous insult, especially when we pay the same amount for the paper with perhaps half the content of the Toronto edition and no local coverage at all.

David Walmsley: Mr. Manzo, I would love to have an Alberta edition too.

Our B.C. edition is such a success. Alberta, like B.C., is an amazing province, with so many great stories.

For now, it's a business decision. But if you have gazillions of dollars in advertising you want to give us, I'll go see the chief right away.

Jason Robertson, Montreal: What's really behind The Globe's non-stop publishing this week of stories about the Canadian military possibly abusing detainees in Afghanistan? This isn't another Somalia. What's your agenda? Is this another veiled attack on the Harper government?

David Walmsley: Mr. Robertson, you raise a common theme — namely a newspaper's supposedly hidden agenda.

I can assure you there isn't one. We simply report the facts. On this occasion, we reported an inquiry had been launched. The next day, Gen Hillier ordered a full-blown Board of Inquiry. I am proud of The Globe's coverage of this story.

Chris Smith, Brandon, Man.: I've really enjoyed your recent climate change articles in The Globe. I'm curious, though. Is that a coincidence? Or is this a Globe statement of some kind?

David Walmsley: Good to know you enjoyed the climate change articles.

A group of editors and reporters got together before Christmas with the view to looking at the issue of the environment. It is such a top-of-mind issue for so many. Out of that discussion, we agreed that we needed to provide an in-depth treatment on the issue.

Too often in news, we are unable to deploy the parachute and slow down. I'm really happy The Globe was able to commit not only the space but the reporters and editors necessary to make the coverage as authoritative as it has been.

There will be more throughout the year. It is too important an issue to treat as a one-off.

Jim Sheppard, Executive Editor, globeandmail.com: David, thanks very much for your thoughtful answers. I'm sure our readers appreciated your insights today. Any last comments?

David Walmsley: Thank you, Jim, for the opportunity.

Our relationship between reader and editor is a vital one. Often, newspapers don't do enough to explain themselves and often readers find fault where it is not deserved.

I would be happy to return to discuss this issue or any other national news issue in the future.

Jim Sheppard, Executive Editor, globeandmail.com: To our readers, we're sorry we couldn't get to all the questions you submitted today. That's it for this month's instalment of "Ask the Editor." We'll be back again in March.