Ask a Mentor
Nearing his 45th anniversary at The CBC, Peter Mansbridge explains how he came to be a journalist.
Q: I cover the court beat for a weekly newspaper. Recently,
the editor of a competing paper was charged with impaired driving and
failure/refusing to provide a breath sample. There has been some debate in the
newsroom about whether there is an obligation to cover this or if doing so is
more "gotcha" than it is newsworthy. As a court reporter in a small
town, I have written about people I know, their family members and even someone
connected to my own family. Now I am faced with the question of covering a
colleague's trial that could end their job in the community. Do I write the
story? Answer by Don Sellar, former Toronto Star ombud.
Ask a Mentor
edited by ROBERT CRIBB
Ask a Mentor provides answers to practical questions about the craft. Our mentors will steadily expand this fount of tips, traps and shortcuts on the trail to truth. Submit your question and we'll pass it on to a mentor for answering. Robert Cribb is an investigative reporter and deputy investigations editor at the Toronto Star, past president of the Canadian Association of Journalists and current president of the CAJ Educational Foundation. He is also a lecturer at Ryerson University and co-author of Digging Deeper: A Canadian Reporter's Research Guide.
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