CTV broke codes in Dion Interview (CBSC says)

[CaptainCrunch]

Thank god they did air it. Elections in Canada are usually pretty dry. Who knows, without this being aired we might not have had the awesome last minute delivery of the fuzzy up the nose filmed on a cellphone coalition statement.

Besides in terms of looking like a boob, I don't think that any perspective leader or election leader should really get a bunch of do overs.

And a Prime Minister should be able to communicate effectively in both official languages.

Dion was a trainwreck, and good on CTV for exposing it.

[Coach]

am I the only one who thought this was about Celine Dion until the post that mentioned voting....

[CaptainCrunch]

God no, it should be the opposite with her. Yes ma'am, we're not playing any of that interview. And if you sing that Titanic theme song one more time, I swear I'm going to stab you with the closest thing that I can find.

Oh and your husband did you when you were 14 and he was like 60? Do you not see a problem with that.

Now get out of my sight.

[mykalberta]

If you were Mike Keenan, would you have done anything different. And if so what?

Yup, sounds confusing as hell to me. What kind of crazy SOB asks someone that kind of question.

You have got to be effing kidding me. Does Dion have an IQ of 60? Yah, that questions is super confusing

They may have broke the code on airing his many mis-steps, although I didnt know the code existed. I guess this is why you do live interviews, so slimey politician cant ask for restarts.

[CaptainCrunch]

The only thing that they missed doing was running that cluster to the Benny Hill theme song. That would have been crossing the line.

I mean lets be frank, we're demanding transparency and a more open society. Look at the exposure of the tapes for this Raitt character that exposed her for the bozo that she is.

We either open it all the way up for politicians where everything is on the record and open to public scrutiny, or we allow the politicians to self edit, but it can't be both ways.

[Bobblehead]

I had no issues with the question, but after agreeing to Dion that he could start again airing the full thing seemed dishonest to me.

But what a weak assed "punishment". Yeah, that'll make them think about it in the future.

[MaDMaN_26]

Well I just wonder what this say about reporting these days when we are asking and reporting on what Phaneuf would do as Prime Minister.

[Ford Prefect]

Dion is a putz. Shining the media spotlight on his shortcomings as a leader was a public service and CTV should have earned some kind of broadcasting award for what they did rather than any kind of disciplinary action.

[jar_e]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

Whenever in international affairs there are translators to ensure that everyone understands what is going on. I don't think it would be an embarrassment for Canada to request translation to French. It *IS* an official language of this country.

Dion was taking English lessons just as Harper took French lessons. After several years, Harper is now quite fluent. Dion didn't have the same amount of time to learn Canada's other official language. Harpers french was as bad as Dion's english when Harper became leader of a national party.

CTV knew he was having trouble interpreting the question because of the mixed tenses used, agreed to let him re-record the question and then aired the re-starts. I agree that it was unethical. It's pretty clear that when you agree not to air something and then air it, that's unethical. CTV claims "they later thought better of their agreement and that it was in the public interest to air it". You shouldn't make promises you don't plan to keep. And if they hadn't made that promise, Dion may have chosen to take his best shot with his best understanding of the question rather than asking his aide for an interpretation.

I was referring more to the fact that it doesn't help his cause to use the french language as an excuse for botching an interview and kinda bombs his campaign. I agree with you that it shouldn't be an issue with other world leaders or in an international setting, unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it will matter in Canada and to voters.

[DESS]

That was a very poorly worded question and it was totally ignorant on the part of the interviewer to continue asking it in the same way - he should have rephrased it.

That said, Dion handled the situation horribly.

Interview fail from both sides is my verdict.

[Russic]

I'm sure if CTV did this to Harper in French this place would be on fire. I'm not a Dion fan and i doubt he would have won anyway, but he got a pretty unfair screw job from CTV on this one. It was a stupid question and he doesn't have very strong usage of the english language, so he was doomed to fail before it began. It was such a bad question it came off as purposefully misleading.

CTV should spend the summer brushing up on ethics and Dion can spend it polishing his english.

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by fotze

The people that were going to vote for him think its underhanded, the people dislike him think its fair game.

and I really call bullcrap to anyone who said they were thinking of voting for him and that interview changed it.

I agree with the latter, but disagree with the former. I have never and will never vote Liberal in my life. But as someone that has struggled to learn a second language, I feel for Dion and think what CTV did was underhanded.

[flamesfever]

I think one has to be really cautious when being filmed for tv. We got broken into one time and when the tv crew came up to film a reenactment, I specifically requested that they not mention our address.... and there it was for all to hear that evening.

I think the Dion interview was a bit of a defining moment, and his wishes not to run the initial takes should have been respected....and I'm a Conservative.

IMO the press can do a lot of damage if they don't adhere to a code of ethics.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I have watched French media showing how poor Harper's French is; and there were French attack ads on Harper showing him stammering in French.

That must have been a quite a while ago, because Harper's French is impeccable these days. In fact, back around 04/05, I worked with a guy from France who lived in Quebec for several years before moving to BC... who was a staunch NDP supporter. Needless to say, he had no love for Harper... but when I asked him if he thought Harpers French language skills were an issue, he thought Harper spoke French really well and it was a plus for him if anything.

[FlamesAddiction]

I guess the question I have is; would CTV have done the same if it happened to the leader of the Conservatives? I personally doubt it. It was partly politcal in nature, but also likely a way to grab attention and ratings during a time where news programs were on everyone's TV. Such "journalism" is irresponsible and is something I would expect to see on Jon Stewart or some FOX news program.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I guess the question I have is; would CTV have done the same if it happened to the leader of the Conservatives? I personally doubt it.

If this had happened to the Conservatives over at CBC, I think there might have been a chance.

CTV has always struck me as being pro-Conservative, and CBC as being pro-Liberal.

[FanIn80]

If this had happened to Harper during a CBC interview, we would STILL be seeing clips of it every night on News Hour.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by ken0042

If this had happened to the Conservatives over at CBC, I think there might have been a chance.

CTV has always struck me as being pro-Conservative, and CBC as being pro-Liberal.

While I agree that CBC is more left leaning (but not as bad as some think), they are also more mature than that I think, and they don't need the ratings as bad as CTV. Plus, they are far to boring to try and make a splash.

Also with CBC, when the Conservatives are in power, they tend to be more conservative in their reporting. They don't want to bite the hand that feeds them.

[cal_guy]

Originally Posted by ken0042

How many times on the main board has the question been asked "If you were coach of the Calgary Flames, what would you have done differently?"

Well it would have been "If you are now the coach of the Calgary Flames, what would you have done with the team defense that Mike Kennan has not done?"

[ben voyonsdonc]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

That must have been a quite a while ago, because Harper's French is impeccable these days. In fact, back around 04/05, I worked with a guy from France who lived in Quebec for several years before moving to BC... who was a staunch NDP supporter. Needless to say, he had no love for Harper... but when I asked him if he thought Harpers French language skills were an issue, he thought Harper spoke French really well and it was a plus for him if anything.

Harper's French skills are definitely adequate but far from impeccable.

CTV really should be ashamed of themselves. All in all, this situation reflects far worse on the station than it did on Dion. It was a case of petty and cheap political games being played and allowed the Conservatives to further hit Dion on his apparent lack of leadership. It looks particularly bad considering Mike Duffy who was the face of their political team was appointed a Conservative senator just a few months ago.

The question was worded very strangely (particularly to an ESL person...even a fluently bilingual ESL person). Dion had figured out the basic concept of the question but the reporter did absolutely nothing to aid him in terms of clarifying the question to ensure that Dion actually answered the question at hand. Of course understanding the language is very important as a politician but the election had far, far more important issues to discuss than one stupid question from a no-name journalist seeking his day in the sun. Quebecers have had to suffer through some politicians who spoke extremely poor French (ie Preston Manning, Stock Day, Diefenbaker, Broadbent, etc.) and they have accepted that English speaking politicians are going to make some fairly serious and probably sometimes laughable grammatical errors. It is part of living in a multilingual country.