I took some heat from fellow BJs – Broadcast Journalists – last week for a tweet I put out after Kathleen Wynne held a news conference to announce the changes to minimum wage. You’re likely aware that minimum wage has been frozen at $10.25 since 2010 and it will go up in June to$11/hr. The province will also table a bill to tie future increases to inflation.
It’s an issue that has implications for virtually everyone. Whether you’re a person working for the minimum or a business owner now having to pay a higher hourly wage or a consumer who might face higher prices as business attempts to make up for the difference, you have a stake in it. Unions are ticked that it didn’t go up to $14.00 because that would put full-time min. wage earners, who make up 9% of the province’s workforce, above the poverty line. So it’s an important issue and Premier Wynne had sent a task force across the province to take submissions from stakeholders. The head of that group was with her at the announcement.
Premier Wynne made the announcement and then took questions from media on the floor. The first two questions pertained to the announcement and implications etc. Question three was a request for the Premier’s thoughts on Rob Ford. My jaw dropped to the floor. The Premier said she’d like to stick to the issue of the day and her previous thoughts on Mr. Ford still stand. Question four went back to the announcement and number five asked for her thoughts on Justin Bieber who had done the perp walk the night before into a Toronto police station. Again, Ms. Wynne was polite but firm. We have an important issue here, so let’s stick to it.
I was stunned. The premier isn’t always easy to reach so if there’s a burning issue that cries out for her comment, I could understand forcing it into a conference on another topic. But Rob Ford? Justin Bieber? Remember, this wasn’t the morning after the release of the Ford crack video or another earth-shaking (make that, Toronto-shaking) incident. I was embarrassed and I said so in my tweet. My boss and I shook our heads and he told me, flat out, that if I ever did something like that I could clean out my desk because I’d be fired. (I wouldn’t anyway, but I would think a warning for a first offence would be more appropriate!)
People who agreed with me responded that it was a matter of integrity and professionalism to remember why you’re at the conference and stick to it. That wasn’t even my point. I think those reporters have integrity and are professional. I think they (or their assignment editors) have lost perspective about what it is to cover the news. They looked like idiots and if they’re doing their jobs properly and asking the questions that need to be asked, they will look smart. At the height of the gas plant scandal it would have been appropriate to try to force Ms. Wynne to make a comment. If a cabinet member is caught with a hand in the cookie jar, by all means, ambush the Premier. That’s part of the job. But to try to derail an actually important issue with a couple of frivolous ones? I stand by my embarrassment.
I’ve often been amazed when viewing these type of media affairs, not only at the frequent irrelevancies of some of the questions asked, but how often the same question is asked by multiple reporters. I really wonder if the average reporter actually listens to what is being asked some times before coming off like a complete idiot! Good thing its not me answering the questions, with my humour, that would be dangerous.
When I read your tweet, I thought it was impossible for anyone to disagree. I sit corrected. (Then again, I wouldn’t have imagined Rob Ford would still have the degree of support he appears to have, so, it just shows what I know.) Common sense, like the man said, ain’t so common any more.