{"id":694,"date":"2024-11-17T21:31:21","date_gmt":"2024-11-17T21:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/?p=694"},"modified":"2024-11-17T21:31:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-17T21:31:21","slug":"follow-the-money-panelists-agree-but-pursuit-takes-time-resources-deep-commitment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/2024\/11\/17\/follow-the-money-panelists-agree-but-pursuit-takes-time-resources-deep-commitment\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Follow the money,’ panelists agree \u2013 but pursuit takes time, resources, deep commitment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
John Woodside, Emma McIntosh, Martin Lukacs, Kate Porter and Bob Fife participate in a panel discussion on navigating corporate power in political journalism during a panel discussion at the Reimagining Political Journalism conference at Carleton University on Nov. 17, 2024. [Photo \u00a9 Nkele Martin]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Tamara Merritt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFollow the money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the popular adage about truth-seeking in journalism that framed the discussion during Sunday\u2019s first panel at the Reimagining Political Journalism Conference at Carleton University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the ensuing conversation between moderator Joanne Chianello and the five panelists \u2014 journalists Emma McIntosh, Kate Porter, Martin Lukacs, John Woodside and Bob Fife \u2014 made clear that \u201cfollowing the money\u201d is not as easy as it seems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chianello is a former Ottawa Citizen<\/em> and CBC Ottawa journalist who produced award-winning work scrutinizing municipal politics in Canada\u2019s capital; McIntosh is the Ontario reporter with The Narwhal who was part of a Narwhal-Toronto Star<\/em> team that won a Michener Award for breaking the provincial government Greenbelt scandal; Porter is a CBC Ottawa reporter and deep-dive specialist on a range of local issues, including transportation and land use; Woodside, senior Ottawa reporter with Canada\u2019s National Observer, has driven policy changes with his journalism; Fife, Ottawa bureau chief of the Globe and Mail and one of the country\u2019s most award-winning journalists, has broken numerous national stories during a career spanning nearly five decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bob Fife discusses the role of corporate power in the changing political landscape during a panel discussion at the Reimagining Political Journalism conference at Carleton University on Nov. 17, 2024. [Photo \u00a9 Nkele Martin]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The participants discussed the challenges and limitations of reporting on corporate power. Does the media engage with corporate power? \u201cSomewhat,\u201d said Woodside, explaining that the reason it\u2019s not always present within reporting is because of the fusion between corporate power and politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way the government operates is to \u201cwork with industry for the benefit of industry,\u201d Woodside said. This leads to collaboration between government and corporations. \u201cA number of natural resource (government) employees have even told me they work with a lot of people who see their job as representing the oil and gas industry in government. They don\u2019t see themselves as bureaucrats trying to work in the public interest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fusion presents complicates news coverage but presents an opportunity to dig deeper into this intersection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McIntosh noted that journalistic probing of corporate power is severely limited by the \u201chollowing out of newsrooms.\u201d A decrease in the number of journalists employed, limited time and a lack of resources, among other challenges, have plunged newsrooms into \u201csurvival mode,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kate Porter discusses her experience navigating corporate power during a panel discussion at the Reimagining Political Journalism conference at Carleton University on Nov. 17, 2024. [Photo \u00a9 Nkele Martin]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Newsroom managers need to be responsible for ensuring reporters get out of this survival mindset and have to time to engage in meaningful ways with corporate powers, said McIntosh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her argument resounded with Porter, who agreed that the distressed state of newsrooms is having a detrimental effect on political journalism. Journalists need time, she said, to trace connections between decision-makers, businesses and other stakeholders. But that\u2019s in short short supply in most newsrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPossibly, if we combined giving reporters more time to understand these processes, help them have the skills to do the math, then we might be able to do more on this corporate influence piece,\u201d Porter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin\u2019s look into the future of political journalism was pessimistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Martin Lukacs discusses the sprawling nature of corporate power in Canada during a panel discussion at the Reimagining Political Journalism conference at Carleton University on Nov. 17, 2024. [Photo \u00a9 Nkele Martin]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the situation is dire,\u201d he said. \u201cAs the joke goes, Canada is basically three oil companies in a trench coat.\u201d He argued that corporate priorities are what actually set the parameters of policy and political debate in Canada. Further, when a consensus around such policies exist, scrutiny of these important issues is all but non-existent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fife said that when reporting on government, it\u2019s always important to look for corporate connections. He recalled a story he reported on discussing \u201cdeplorable conditions\u201d at a meat plant. Through a Freedom of Information request, he discovered that government inspectors of the business saw their role as \u201chelping the meat plant industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inspector\u2019s mandate, he argued, must be to \u201cprotect Canadians and not the industry,\u201d but that wasn\u2019t happening. These types of stories are plentiful, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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John Woodside and Emma McIntosh discuss their experiences reporting on the intersection between government and corporate power during a panel discussion at the Reimagining Political Journalism conference at Carleton University on Nov. 17, 2024. [Photo \u00a9 Nkele Martin]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When looking at any story, Fife said, it\u2019s important to take stock and say, \u201cOK, who is going to benefit from this, who is supposed to be regulating it, and then you can pull your story together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While panelists outlined many of the problems facing political journalism, they also offered some suggestions on addressing the challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McIntosh said more could be learned about the intersection between corporations and politicians by making sure reporters have the financial resources and time to file FOI requests. She also said journalists need to become more familiar with public records and the work of other journalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fife outlined the importance of developing relationships with sources. Early career journalists should choose to build rapport with a \u201cwide variety of people,\u201d rather than focusing all their attention on elite figure. Your sources \u201chave to trust you,\u201d he said. They need to know, he insisted, that \u201cyou would go to jail for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tamara Merritt \u201cFollow the money.\u201d That was the popular adage about truth-seeking in journalism that framed the discussion during Sunday\u2019s first panel at the Reimagining Political Journalism Conference at Carleton University. But the ensuing conversation between moderator Joanne Chianello and the five panelists \u2014 journalists Emma McIntosh, Kate Porter, Martin Lukacs, John Woodside and … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":715,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions\/715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reimagining-political-journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}