OTTAWA – CTV’s broadcast of three false starts of an interview between anchor Steve Murphy and Liberal leader Stéphane Dion violated provisions of the Radio Television News Directors of Canada (RTNDA) Code of (Journalistic) Ethics and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) ruled Wednesday.
The interview took place during the October 2008 federal election campaign, and each restart was requested by Dion and granted by Murphy, CJCH-TV (CTV Atlantic)’s news anchor.
Murphy’s first question to Dion was: “If you were prime minister now, what would you have done about the economy and this crisis that Mr. Harper has not done?” Dion started to answer the question, but then asked to start again because he said that it was not clear to him whether Murphy meant if Dion had been prime minister for the last two years or if he were elected prime minister five days later in the general election.
Murphy agreed to start again but did not clarify the question, choosing instead to re-ask it in terms similar to the first instance. After two more restarts, the full uninterrupted interview followed with Dion providing information about the Liberal economic plan, the proposed carbon tax, deficits, the green shift, taxes, comparable European national policies, and Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan.
The first broadcast of the false starts, which was followed by the broadcast of the full 12-minute interview, aired on CTV Atlantic’s newscast CTV News at 6 on October 9. The rebroadcast aired on CTV Newsnet (now CTV News Channel) on the public affairs discussion program Mike Duffy Live Prime Time later that same evening.
In his introduction to the news item, Murphy informed viewers that CTV News had originally told the Liberals that the false starts would not be broadcast, but that it had changed its mind, deciding that the public had the right to see the entire exchange. The false starts were also shown on Mike Duffy Live Prime Time, where they were followed by discussions with political panellists and journalists about the reasons for the restarts and how they might affect the election campaign.
The broadcast of the false starts generated "numerous complaints" from Canadians across the country, the CSBC decision said. In general, complainants asserted that Murphy’s question had been "awkwardly worded", and that it was understandable that Dion had had comprehension difficulties, particularly since English is his second language. They felt it was unfair that CTV had aired the restarts, especially since the network had originally told Dion that it would not. CTV defended its decision to air the outtakes by arguing that it was important for voters to see how Dion handled himself in such situations.
The CBSC’s Atlantic Regional Panel examined the CTV Atlantic broadcast, and reviewed the complaints under the RTNDA’s ‘Code of (Journalistic) Ethics’ and the CAB’s ‘Code of Ethics’ relating to accuracy and fairness, as well as an article of the RTNDA Code that requires journalists "to treat people with decency and courtesy".
The panel found the phrasing of Murphy’s question was “confusing, and not only to a person whose first language is other than English. In the strictest grammatical sense, Steve Murphy’s question mixes not only tenses (present and past), but also moods (subjunctive and indicative),” and said that “blame for misapprehension cannot simply be laid at the feet of the interviewee.”
It also concluded that the broadcast breached Article 8 of the RTNDA Code because CTV had committed to not air the false starts, and its decision to override that commitment was “discourteous and inconsiderate”.
“The Panel, (two-thirds of the industry Adjudicators being themselves members of RTNDA and broadcast journalists of considerable experience), considers that restarts and retakes are a common, not a rare, occurrence,” the decision continued. “The decision to extend such a courtesy was neither unreasonable nor even unusual. The Panel considers that this courtesy was the moreso justified in light of the poorly framed question.”
The National Specialty Services Panel adjudicated the Mike Duffy Live Prime Time broadcast of the interview, and said that it "shared the view of the Atlantic Panel about the poorly-worded question". It further concluded that the rebroadcast of false starts was “unfair” and contrary to Clause 6 of the CAB Code of Ethics.
The majority also found that host Mike Duffy’s “repeated misrepresentation” of Liberal M.P. Geoff Regan’s views on the matter constituted a breach of that same clause.
“…the Liberal leader and his team had every reason to expect that the restarted matter was, in effect, ‘overwritten’ or banished from use,” read the decision. “The Panel considers this the moreso reasonable in light of the imprecision of the question and the confusion resulting from the failure of the interviewer to ever render what he sought clear. Had the question been articulate and well-framed, the Panel might have expected the Liberal leader to wear some responsibility for the confusion that ensued. That was not, however, the case. Even had the question been properly put, though, the broadcaster’s commitment to permit the restarts would likely have put the filmed content off-limits. In the circumstances, the question was bad and the commitment was made. The Panel views the broadcaster’s actions in the rebroadcast of the outtakes on the Duffy show as an unfair and improper presentation of news, opinion, comment and editorial.”
Two adjudicators dissented with this decision, saying that that the broadcast of Dion’s outtakes was "newsworthy" and that Duffy’s misrepresentation of M.P. Regan’s thoughts was "adequately clarified within the program by that individual himself".
