Journalists behaving badly

“Journalists [in 2008] just didn’t see what they were doing to one of their own,”—-Lesley Hughes

While researching an article on politicians using social media for Issue 21 of The Uniter I almost immediately thought of the unique case of Lesley Hughes, who was dropped as a Liberal Party candidate for the riding of Kildonan-St. Paul in the 2008 federal election by then-leader Stephane Dion.

Lesley Hughes is a sensible woman and local journalist who was arguably made the subject of excessive and unfounded ridicule. Her only crime was the fact that she published an article in local community newspapers in 2002 that arguably suggested that Israeli businesses vacated the World Trade Center shortly before 9-11 (a suggestion that can be received as subversive or controversial, but one that does not warrant discrimination). Hughes ran as a candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada in 2008. The article was printed in such “radical” publications as Winnipeg’s Lance or Herald six years earlier.

The article surfaced and was made public by Winnipeg blogger The Black Rod; that marvelous local “journalist” who is so wary of editorial accountability that he has refused to disclose his identity. It was then picked up by Canadian political blogger Jay Currie, later spreading to the National Post.

Hughes’ controversial discussion of the 9-11 Truth movement was a story of alleged antisemitism. As such it was championed by the National Post‘s Jonathan Kay who wrote a series of columns that went so far as to claim that the Lesley Hughes “scandal” could destroy the Stephane Dion Liberals. 

Once the National Post picked up the story it reached organizations like the Canadian Jewish Congress and B’Nai Brith who called for an apology from Hughes and, later, that she be removed from her candidacy. Furthermore, Peter Kent, Conservative MP from the Ontario riding of Thornhill was active in advocating for her resignation as a candidate. Kent was supported on this front by the editorial board of the National Post, who publicly agreed with Dion’s decision to relinquish Hughes’ candidacy.

Hughes is now seeking a defamation suite against the Canadian Jewish Congress, B’Nai Brith, and Peter Kent. She is not pursuing legal action against the Liberal Party or against the National Post.

“My lawyer assures me we can always add to the list of defendants,” she added. It is wise, however, that Hughes is not seeking compensation from the Liberals. The Liberal Party of Canada acted for the sake of political expediency, just as any federal party would. The conduct of Canadian journalists is far more disturbing than the actions of a political party looking out for it’s own electoral interests.

Hughes claims she was never contacted about her column by the mainstream media, who relied heavily on bloggers, one of which is entirely anonymous.

“Bloggers have the privilege of complete lack of accountability,” she said. “If you Google my name you will find a monster, a fool, a bigot and an unstable person and that will be there forever…I think that blogs are dangerous but they are only dangerous because of the [low] standards of the mainstream media.”   

Ultimately, the mainstream media relied on the opinions of an anonymous Winnipeg political blogger for their information and slant on Hughes’ column. Journalism is greatly concerned with editorial accountability. In other words, we put our names on our published works and we shy away from attributing information to anonymous sources, even if their identity is known to us personally.

In this case, the media decided to pounce on a story from a source that is not only anonymous in print, but entirely unknown otherwise. In the process journalists dodged responsibility by citing the views of a blogger, who seemed convinced that all serious discussion of the claims made by 9-11 Truthers necessarily connote antisemitism.

My view? The Liberal Party of Canada was obligated to drop Hughes as a candidate, largely due to the backlash by Jewish supporters in Manitoba.

The media, however, ignored responsibility and did a fellow journalist a gross disservice.