CBC silence one of their own

P

remier John Horgan channeled some Donald Trump this week, blasting a media outlet for their stupidity.

The difference, of course, is that Horgan is absolutely right.

The premier was reacting to the news that the CBC had fired its excellent B.C. legislature reporter Richard Zussman. Nope, not for sexual harassment. Zussman’s so-called crime: collaborating with his press gallery colleague, Rob Shaw of the Vancouver Sun, on a book about the last provincial election, the downfall of Christy Clark and how Horgan became premier.

“I think it’s outrageous,” Horgan told The Province’s Mike Smyth. “The guy’s a professional and he’s being treated very, very poorly by an organization that clearly doesn’t understand his value to them. They’re burning a very useful asset. As a business decision, it’s a bad one.”

Both Smyth and The Globe and Mail’s Gary Mason reported that while Zussman’s immediate supervisors were aware of his extracurricular work, senior management in the CBC Politburo didn’t know what was going on. When they did find out, a CBC spokesman said they investigated, found Zussman in violation of the company code of conduct and sacked him. Talk about an overreaction. In October, Zussman and his CBC colleagues won a Jack Webster Award for their excellent reporting on the deal between Horgan and Andrew Weaver that led to the NDP forming government. As Mason points out, even if Zussman broke the rules, how about an unpaid suspension for a week or two? Taking away his living, damaging his reputation and robbing both the CBC and its audience of his award-winning work seems way over the top.

It also runs contrary to common journalistic practice, whether it’s in Victoria, Prince George or anywhere else. Reporters work hard every day to break stories ahead of their competitors but the horsetrading of tidbits, along with larger collaborations – like working together on a book – is common. Furthermore, private media outlets com- pete for advertisers and audience while still joining together to benefit the community.

Two examples. First, both The Citizen and Vista Radio (94.3 The Goat and Country 97) sponsor Operation Red Nose each Christmas season. Second, The Citizen and CKPG have jointly sponsored public allcandidates forums for municipal, provincial and federal elections for the past five years. While CBC employees are talented, devoted journalists, including the great group here in Prince George, their institution is brutal, not only in the way they treat staff but also their condescending arrogance towards private news media outlets.

The Zussman affair is simply the latest display of HR incompetence by the Big Brother Corp. Despite numerous internal complaints about Jian Ghomeshi, they only fired their popular star after he admitted on Facebook that he may have behaved badly.

Amanda Lang and Evan Solomon were shown the door, too, but Peter Mansbridge got to stay.

So now Zussman is in limbo, forced to remain silent while his union, the Canadian Media Guild, fights his case.

Don’t expect to see Zussman back with the CBC, however. The head honchos at Canada Pravda would rather reach a confidential settlement with him to cover up their wrongdoing, paid for with tax dollars, of course, than suffer the embarrassment of seeing him on the air. He’s way too good to not land on his feet with Global or CTV, where he would continue providing excellent coverage of the political news of the day but only if the CBC doesn’t throw in a no-compete clause in his settlement. If that’s the case, he’ll have to go back south of the border.

At least there’s still the book, which will be a must-read for the avid followers of B.C. politics and it will generate plenty of media attention when it comes out.

Over at the Vancouver Sun, they will celebrate the release with stories and might even publish excerpts.

Expect deafening silence from your publicly funded broadcaster.

—Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout

The Zussman affair is simply the latest display of HR incompetence by the Big Brother Corp.