Among the many talents that define a great jazz musician is the ability to perform recognizable tunes without the help of melody. These people know that melody -- the central storyline, if you will -- can distract listeners from the tone and color that comprise the substance of the music.
Sadly, too few reporters have mastered the journalistic analogue. They report with such passion on every detail of the main storyline that they forget to pay attention to the context in which the story emerged. This is doubly regrettable, since it’s much easier to write good journalism than it is to play good jazz.
For our first number, consider the case of embattled Public Works Minister David Dingwall, who, if we are to trust the now almost regular reports involving his department, still believes strongly in the principle of putting friends first, even when it comes to awarding government contracts.
The first case to hit the papers earlier this summer was his involvement in the diversion of national highway funds from a section of Nova Scotia that didn’t help elect him to a secondary road in a section that did. The only real fall-out from the story so far is that the folks in the area who want to use the Trans-Canada will, within a couple of years, have to pay for the privilege.
Anyone paying attention to almost legislative assemblies in the country should not be surprised, since toll roads are a logical and effective method of raising funds without raising taxes. But the subject is at least as important as a case of pork-barreling, especially one as arguable and confusing as this one. It also should strike close to home, what with the Ontario government’s support of both toll roads and Highway 416. And yet, where in the dailies or on the radio or television have you come across a discussion on the merits of transforming the Trans-Canada into a toll highway from coast to coast? Not anywhere this side of the twilight zone.
Next, we’d like to play a little piece about the Englishmen who went up the hill, but came tumbling down and broke his crown. (OK. The headline was a trick.) Avoiding the story of the prissy little Brit with the drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend who might still love him after his horrid affair with the California hooker has been impossible, thanks in part to a commendable postering campaign preceding his latest film, but mostly because of the media’s obsession with the story.
The simple truth is no one who gets out even half as much as he or she should is surprised that such a man might do such a thing with such a woman, even if he does have such another woman waiting for him back home. Countless columnists and sex experts have already made that point. But it makes no difference, since it’s equally sure that the public will eat up anything even remotely connected to the story. The Ottawa Sun, predictably enough, slapped the man’s mug shot on Page 1, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Saturday’s Globe and Mail Focus section devoted three-quarters of a page to -- believe it or not -- Elizabeth Hurley’s fashion sense!
But again, nowhere to be found is an examination of the underlying themes of the story. No one would have been arrested if sexual antics in the back seat of a car were legal. But they aren’t. Funny thing is, wasn’t it just the other day that Toronto City Council voted to urge the federal government to ease up on prostitution? Or that Ottawa councillors raised the street-walking problem yet again? Perhaps a look at the legal dimensions of the story would be a better use of all that expensive newsprint and satellite time. After all, the only thing more absurd than making a criminal out of the poor guy is doing the same with Pee Wee Herman, who distinguished himself by demonstrating a more precise grasp of the term autoerotica.
Not every song on the bill is a blues, though. While the most reliable practitioners of melody-free journalism work for papers like the London-based Guardian (fortunately, both the Citizen and the Globe reprint Guardian pieces regularly), home-grown examples are not unknown. Just this past weekend, Citizen feature writer Carolyn Abraham produced an excellent summary of the legal and political environments enveloping the Vincent Gardner affair. The story of how an innocent Ottawa man was beaten by police is another sure-fire attention-getter, but the more important issues of how police investigate themselves and what other citizens can do about it (not much) was a story that needed telling, and Abraham came through with the goods.
Thank you and good night.