Random Access

It's easy to slough off the musings of Prime Minister Stephen Harper about the sins of the media as politically motivated. He obviously considers the Parliamentary press posse his enemy as he moves to rein in the careless flow of public information to, of all people, the public. His goal seems to be to have as much as possible of the government's decision-making power reside in the grey space between his ears.

It's a lot harder to slough off the carefully-chosen words of Governor-General Micha‘lle Jean to The Canadian Press gala dinner in Halifax last night.

Jean has no clear political motivation for her comments. She does have experience as a working journalist, for both the French and English language branches of the CBC.

In a speech in which she cast her comments against the backdrop of her native Haiti, where speaking out against the government was usually a death sentence for journalist or citizen, Jean thoughtfully laid out her concerns about the influences that seem to work against serious journalism in this country.

She decried the disturbing tendency of mainstream media ( due to increasing competition from the Internet and TV headline-news operations) to adopt the tabloid tactics that see all of life and politics reduced to a quick sound bite and a snappy headline.

Here's part of what Jean had to say:  Journalism does not consist merely of reporting the news to the public; it also gives the public a better understanding of a world that is becoming increasingly complex with each passing day and may at times seem incomprehensible, with no reference points, no ideas, and no analyses. To truly inform others is to refuse to allow the news to become a product, a commodity, a profit; it means making the news a tool to explore the world around us, to discover it, to understand it. We are more susceptible to powerlessness and fatalism when we do not understand.

I am absolutely convinced that what is most unique and, if you will pardon the expression, most noble about journalism is that it has an inherent duty to remember, contextualize and understand. But as soon as profitability gains the upper hand over accuracy, entertainment triumphs over reason, lies over truth, then the very ethics of information are at risk, threatened. One cannot practise this profession with integrity without accepting this responsibility.

Good journalism takes time and thought, two things that are often in short supply as understaffed newsrooms produce more, shorter bits of news, for the cavernous maw of the myriad new products that each news organization seems obsessed with trying.

The internet, hailed as a vehicle to allow the broadest spread of information, instead seems to have narrowed our view, as the newest tidbit, true or not, flies around the globe.

I urge you not to give in to the demands of machines that produce and market information, the Governor-General said. It is the shades of meaning that make life so rich, so intense, so precious. We may find life so bewildering because we no longer stop to think about it, really think about it.

Interestingly, on the same day that Harper said people aren't interested in, inside Ottawa stuff such as the squabble between him and the media, Jean said that, journalists must move away from the contemptuous attitude that only a happy few are actually interested in thinking, that in-depth reporting doesn't sell, that people just don't want to have to think.

Maybe the Prime Minister and the press corps have more in common than we thought.