A media embarrassment
October 22, 2009 · 26 Comments
The “WHAT?!” moment of the week had to be the news release announcing the torchbearers for the Canadian leg of the Olympic torch relay to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games.
And who are the people who will take turns carrying the flame across Canada?
The group consists of athletes, volunteers, civic leaders and local organizers.
And, 27 of them, if you can believe it, will be journalists working for Olympic TV rights holder, CTV, and affiliated companies.
They include high profile media figures such as Brian Williams, the prime time Olympic host; CTV news anchor Sandie Rinaldo; Michael Landsberg and James Duthie of TSN; and Stephen Brunt of The Globe and Mail.
The question is: Did these people have a procedure involving the brain that went badly wrong? Or are they just naturally soft?
They’re supposed to be journalists. They will be at the Olympics as reporters and commentators. They’re expected to be objective and independent. They are not supposed to be part of the Olympic cheerleading torch procession.
Nevertheless, over the next few months, off they’ll go, boosting the International Olympic Committee and VANOC as they prance across the country, torch in hand.
How are we to take Williams seriously as an independent Olympic host and analyst after this?
How can we read a column, perhaps glowing, by Brunt on the Vancouver Games without smiling at the thought of his puffing along a Newfoundland road as part of the Olympic promotional bandwagon?
Will he wear a toque with the words: Go Games Go?
This is an embarrassment for CTV and especially The Globe and Mail. The participants should be ashamed of themselves, but obviously they’re not and don’t get it. If they had, they would not have accepted the assignment.
Olympic rower Alison Korn wrote a good column for Sun Media about this.
“As an Olympic athlete, I really didn’t mind not being chosen to carry the Olympic flame,” she wrote. “Until yesterday, that is. Now I’m just uneasy about the whole spectacle.”
Of the journalists carrying the torch, Korn wrote, “These are the same members of the media who will be reporting on the Vancouver Olympics next February. How is that ethical?
“Oh, right. It’s not. . . .
“[T]o award a torchbearer opportunity to media is wrong. That’s why it’s totally proper that I didn’t get it.
“It’s also why we should all worry about what CTV’s torchbearers mean for journalism.”
Listen to 911 call
The mood will be bright and cheery at the household of Steve Phillips today, yes? Well, no, maybe not.
Phillips, ESPN’s baseball analyst, is on a leave of absence from the network after admitting to an affair with his 22-year-old assistant.
The news broke yesterday.
This isn’t the first bit of marital difficulty to complicate Steve’s life. In 1998, as New York Mets general manager, he admitted to having sex with a team employee. A suit alleging sexual harassment was settled out of court.
This time, it got really messy. After the relationship ended, the ESPN assistant, Brooke Hundley, started calling Phillips’ wife, Marni. And then she allegedly made a visit to the family home. You can hear Marni’s 911 call here.
ESPN says Phillips has received “appropriate disciplinary action.”
The torch carriers
Here’s the full list of the CTV torchbearers:
Brian Williams – Host, Olympic Prime Time on CTV – Winnipeg (Jan. 5).
Jennifer Hedger – Whistler Host, Olympic Prime Time on CTV – Port Colborne, Ont. (Dec. 21).
James Duthie – Co-Host, Olympic Daytime on CTV – Hull, Que. (Dec. 12).
Lisa LaFlamme – Co-Host, Olympic Daytime on CTV – Ingersoll, Ont. (Dec. 27).
Michael Landsberg – Whistler Host, Olympic Daytime on CTV – Squamish, B.C. (Feb. 5).
Denis Casavant – Host, Olympic Prime Time on RDS – Saint-Romuald, Que. (Dec. 4).
Chantal Machabée – Host, Olympic Daytime on V – Les Rivières, Que.(Dec. 3).
Dave Randorf – Host, Olympic Daytime on TSN – Strathroy, Ont. (Dec. 24).
Sandie Rinaldo – Anchor, CTV National News – Truro, N.S. (Nov. 18).
Stephen Brunt – Olympic Columnist, CTVOlympics.ca and Globe and Mail – Pasadena, Nfld. (Nov. 15).
Beverly Thomson – Co-Host, Canada AM – Belleville, Ont. (Dec. 15).
Ben Mulroney – Host, eTalk – Baie-Comeau, Que. (Nov. 30).
Tanya Kim – Host, eTalk – White River, Ont. (Jan. 3).
Christine Bentley – News Anchor, CTV Toronto – Oshawa, Ont. (Dec. 17).
Ken Shaw – News Anchor, CTV Toronto – Oshawa, Ont. (Dec. 17).
Carol Anne Meehan – News Anchor, CTV Ottawa – Ottawa (Dec. 12).
Carolyn Waldo – Sports Reporter/Anchor, CTV Ottawa – Ottawa (Dec. 12).
Daryl McIntyre – News Anchor, CTV Edmonton – Cold Lake, Alta. (Nov. 6).
Carrie Doll – News Anchor, CTV Edmonton – Wetaskiwin, Alta. (Jan. 15).
Barb Higgins – News Anchor, CTV Calgary – Calgary (Jan. 19).
Dan Viau – Videographer, CTV Atlantic – Charlottetown (Nov. 21).
Liz Rigney – Reporter, CTV Atlantic – Alma, N.B. (Nov. 24).
Mark Rogstad – News Anchor, CTV Saskatchewan – Vanscoy, Sask. (Jan. 11).
Tony Ryma – News Anchor, CTV Sudbury – Powassan, Ont. (Dec. 30).
Michelle Tonner – News Anchor, CTV Sudbury – Iroquois Falls, Ont. (Jan. 1).
Kyle Christie – News Anchor, CTV Kitchener – Tavistock, Ont. (Dec. 27).
Jay Ingram – Co-Host, Daily Planet on Discovery Channel – Kelowna, B.C. (Jan. 25).
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Brilliant column Bill:
I wonder if CTV will try to arrange for perky Tanya Kim to carry the Canadian flag into the opening ceremonies.
Then CTV can truly embrace the Olympic spirit.
Wow! Came across the site thanks to a link on another site. Outstanding comments and opinions. I have yet to disagree with anything that you have stated. Unbiased and to the point, I’m already recommending this site to my friends and work associates. Your integrity is lacking in todays newspaper columns, and it’s great to still have you out here!
I can’t believe Brunt would do this. Wow.
Brunt’s the only one on the list who surprises me. I hope he has a good explanation.
The rest of the list is a bunch of teleprompter-readers who spend all sorts of time cutting promos and doing promotional events. The on-air “personalities” are there to sell the corporate product, and you can be sure that their individual turns with the torch will be used to create segments and help in the build up to the Games.
Although within the first week, that story’s going to end up being way overdone. By the time Landsberg’s got the torch in February, no one will care.
So happy to have found this site. Was missing you after you left the globe.
Every single person here should have ethically refused this opportunity. Were they mandated to participate?Do they think they’re celebrities?..Members of the public should be doing this. Special olympians, world masters participants, elementary school kids, those on the fringes should be invited to participate. A greedy shame.
Would you turn it down if you were offered a chance to carry the torch? Didn’t think so.
Objective journalism isn’t exactly what we’re looking for at the Olympics, which are essentially a patriotic feelgood party. I’m happy to have slanted coverage.
Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
Yes, Bill Houston
I am glad someone is holding the ctv/globe empire — which according to the Central Cda media, can do no wrong — to account.
Great to see one of my favourite Globe columns back in blog form.
Seeing the CTV meat puppets on this list doesn’t surprise me, but I’ll never read Brunt again. Too bad, I used to enjoy his stuff when he was a journalist.
That is embarassing, having people from eTalk carrying the torch.
But for the others, defenitely unethical.
Are any of these people serious journalists though?
The Olympics are one big corporate circle jerk anyway, is it a surprise that the local corporate entity is not only favouring their staff, but using those moments for air time/marketing/media filler for said personalities?
Brian Williams is a good broadcaster, and calling out him is just plain silly. Not only is he a member of the old guard, but his role is to comment on the athletes and events. Insinuating that his participation in an Olympic promotional event somehow hurts his integrity to comment on said events is a pile of crap & you know it.
Especially when he’s been the voice/cheerleader of the Olympics for yrs now.
The media is huge in scope, so to expect/compare a bunch of local talking heads and Sportscasters to be held to the same standards as News Journalist is just plain stupid.
Obviously the context of these people being used as torch bearers is to bang the Olympic drum in their town as it passes through, hence all the small local talent being named. If you are getting your world view news from the local 10min slice delivered by the big hair/makeup & bad graphics nightly before they cut to a cat in a tree..you have a problem.
That’s poor form by Brunt.
What’s next? Riding in the lead car of the Tigercats Grey Cup parade?
Embarassing. I’d expect it from CTV, but not the Globe. Ah well… it’s all infotainment these days. Even the CBC is turning up the hype. Makes me wonder who I can trust.
If you’re an employee and your boss says you’ll be carrying the Olympic torch, you bloody well say ‘Yes, Sir.’
What do you think.
Maybe you ought to focus your ‘outrage’ at CTV’s Fecan and Rick Brace and the Canadian Olympic Committee, as opposed to the poor sucker employees representing .00225 per cent of all those 12,000 athletes, volunteers, civic leaders and local organizers involved as torch bearers. Amirite?
“When we acquired the rights to the Olympic Games, it came with a unique opportunity to participate in the Olympic torch relay,” said Brace, President of Revenue, Business Planning and Sports at CTV Inc.
There’s nothing ‘unique’ in starting to beat the drums early, but elbowing in your staff…. WELL, that’s really unique eh, snowflake?
/sarcasm.
CTV is drumming up business and attention early to get their money back for beating out cbc for the rights. Yep, just business, y’see.
Paudash Gal, CTV is the Globe & Mail – same owners. Don’t trust anyone, including Mr. Houston.
Bill – thanks for highlighting the shameful CTV list. I’d missed that part of the story. So 27 “journalists” from the media sponsor – that suggests how many from the Royal Bank and Coke employees? Hadn’t cared much about this costly photo-op before, even less now.
Points are well made, Mr. Houston but like the clowns you like to target — ie McCown, Brunt — you are a bit too infatuated with your own opinion … More facts, less fondling of yourself please
Sadly, these 27 spots could have gone to less fortunate people who will have no opportunity to connect with the Games except on television. Unlike these Bingo callers who will eat live and breathe the Games ordinary Canadians should be exclusive for this special moment. I find this very distasteful. An interview with a non TV personality is a better story then a media poodle who now has bragging rights at the water cooler. Two people from ETalk? Come on CTV.
Jim Thompson would be appalled…….
Shame on you…….
Other variant is possible also
i can just guess who will be carring the torch on its final stretch ,long nose and all his mps ,going for photo opps,the last 4 will be harper and his wike and kids,,its a shame ,lets find out the cost of this dumb relay,and the only reason its on is to divert attn away from everday govt problems and we as dummies are paying for it,,pull the wool over the voters eyes,old trick ,and boy did we buy into it….and prob. wont win a gold,,,
The first time I heard that a CTV personality was going to participate in the 2010 Torch Relay I was disgusted! Impartiality seems to have no bearing on who has been selected to run with the flame but seems to me to be based more on who’s who and who will look good carrying it! I understood torchbearers were to be selected by means of drawing names of everyday, ordinary citizens, those of us who either never have been and likely never will be in any kind of spotlight. It was, I thought, suppost to be the opportunity for regular Joe’s to have a minute of glory, to honour our country, and our Olympians and to share in the moment.
I was curious as to who the other people are that have been given the opporutnity to carry the torch that did not have to apply for such an honour so I emailed a few different people to find out how I go about obtaining a list of names and how they were selected. So far, no response. From anyone.
I am further disgusted by the fact that I’ve seen that 12 non-Canadian type folks will be carrying the torch, including Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is wrong for so many reasons.
So, can you tell me where I can find a list of torchbearers that includes how they were selected and who they are?
You know, I bet most Canadians really have no idea how the selections came to be but I’m sure many would be just as disgusted!
Oh, one more thing. For the past 5-6 months, we’ve been hearing from the big networks that they need more money from cable and satellite companies who broadcast their ‘free’ signal. They can’t survive without it. Tell me then CTV, how is it you managed to come up with the money you’ve spent on renovating your CTV National News studio, your CTV Toronto studio, your Canada AM studio; how you’ve managed to come up with the money for all the assorted CTV Olympic clothing you’ve provided to your staff’; how you’ve managed to send (and why) your Canada AM crews out to Vancouver; your National news team out to Vancouver; and why it is those CTV employees who have carried the torch didn’t have to cover their own expenses to reach the destinations that they carried the torch in? Jeff in Vancouver! He’s not from there so there’s an airline ticket, hotels, meals, expenses. Marci in Nova Scotia. Seamus in Newfoundland.. sure it’s his ‘home’ but did HE pay to go out there to run!? I seriously doubt it. The entire thing, in conjunction with the Olympics, is a farce and an ambarrassment!