Journalists discuss ethics. A lot. We notice when someone’s lost their integrity and we constantly ask ourselves and each other if we as individuals and as a group, are maintaining our own.
With the advent of Twitter and Facebook as leading news sources and the proliferation of “fake news” that gets shared and discussed on social media, we worry that checks and balances, confirming sources and ethical standards are all going extinct. This book gives me hope that they’re not.
Secret Life isn’t meant to reveal new evidence about the Jian Ghomeshi sexual assault saga, except perhaps that the former darling of CBC radio had two full-time writers whose sole jobs were to create those poignant essays Ghomeshi read on Q every day. They even told him when to pause and sigh! As a broadcaster in the private system, I bristle when people believe the only authentic radio voices are on CBC. This is evidence that it’s not always the case. However, don’t get me wrong, I’m also a big fan of some of their on-air talents.
But I digress.
This book is a fascinating post-mortem of a journalist’s investigation. The number of times author Kevin Donovan checked his growing story with lawyers, editors and other reporters is staggering. Sober second thoughts? How about third, fourth, fifth and sixth thoughts. There was no rush to judgment and as any ethical reporter would be, Donovan was concerned about the inconsistencies in some of the womens’ stories, even while most of them lined up, independently, to describe the same type of predatory behavior with similar allegations of assault. Donovan explains The Toronto Star’s own code of standards for proceeding with a story that could destroy someone’s life and career. As an investigative journalist, he holds every story up against those standards and if it doesn’t meet the criteria, it doesn’t run. You might be amazed by how many months went into the Ghomeshi story before anything about it was published.
This isn’t Donovan’s first dance. He broke the ORNGE air ambulance spending scandal wide open and was one of two people to see the Rob Ford crack video years before it went public. He’s the real deal and as I watch so-called journalists declare beloved icons dead without bothering to make a phone call and confirm it, and share obviously bogus reports without checking the source, Secret Life gives me hope that real journalism is still alive and well in Canada.
There is good and bad in every profession. I think it comes down to what you feel you can live with at the end of the day, how you measure success and how you intend to achieve it.