I am actually furious at Rosemary Barton for not pushing back at the frankly astonishing rhetoric we are getting from Gordon Sondland. Going on Canadian TV and saying that “everything is up for negotiation” when it comes to what Canada is willing to discuss? And Barton just sits there saying “I have no opinion”?! And then saying telling us we should not take him serious because that’s Donnie’s personality after our own fucking Prime Minister has basically told us the threat of annexation is actually real?? And then talking about forcing us into a customs union or “common passport”?
Sondland was talking down on us, scolding us for taking his shitty president seriously, and Rosemary Burton was just letting him go unchallenged. What is this bullshit?
Generally, it’s hard for journalists to hit the right balance between overt skepticism and letting the subject talk. That’s doubly true for the CBC, which is fighting with a perception of bias.
This doesn’t seem like one of those cases, however.
A couple decades ago I used to have an hour long commute and would listen to The Current with Anna Maria Tremonti almost every day.
She would interview people who would go on with their talking point nonsense, and I’d whip myself up with frustration about what they were saying. And then Tremonti would just… say what was in my head, and make the person actually respond to reality and stop just spouting their rehearsed bullshit talking points.
It was so breathtakingly wonderful, and it happened time and time again. I miss that so much.
We need biased reporters. Biased towards reality and truth, biased against lies and empty slogans. Challenge the mistruths and misrepresentations made by almost any media-savvy participant, be it political or corporate or anything else.
That’s what I really want to see/hear in interviews. I find it’s rare, however. The journalist needs to be fairly knowledgeable on the topic at hand, and have the gumption to challenge a guest.
It is rare… rare enough that my only memory association on the topic is over 20 years old.