Exclusivity of media coverage
Jody White’s account of being asked to leave Al Gore’s speech, to clear the field for the event’s media partner The Toronto Star, reminded me of two recent related incidents….
Reading Jody White’s account on J-Source about being asked to leave Al Gore’s speech to clear the field for the event’s media partner The Toronto Star, I was reminded of two recent related incidents.
The
media coverage of the Dalai Lama’s fall visit to Vancouver was
similarly intensely managed. Media were herded to a remote theatre
where a live feed of the stage was shown, and bloggers reporting the
event live were told to confine their feeds to intervals of a few
minutes at a time, because of an exclusivity contract with the “media
partner” broadcaster. Next time, I’ll think twice about attending a
staged Dalai Lama event.
More bizarre imo was the professor at a
public university who recently restricted the topics I asked about in
an interview about human smuggling, because he had a piece accepted for
publication in The Globe and Mail
on the condition, he said, that he did not grant interviews to media
outlets. Next time, I’ll think twice about using this prof as a source.
Is it important that Jody and I have tallied three such incidents? Does that number suggest a trend?
This
kind of stuff used to happen with celebrities, who had little to no
real-world relevance. Now it’s happening with people who impact public
policy. That can’t be good.
