WHAT’S NEXT FOR GHOMESHI?
A PANEL CONVERSATION ABOUT REHABILITATION, PERSONAL BRANDING AND THE COURT OF OPINION
When CBC darling Jian Ghomeshi was accused of sexual assault in 2014, the court of public opinion wasted no time offering its judgments — first, defending his right to sexual privacy, then, as details of the allegations emerged, retreating from those comments to stand by the women who filed complaints. But as some of those women testified this week, Ghomeshi’s lawyer, Marie Henein, subjected them to withering cross- examination. Whatever the verdict, due to be handed down March 24, many observers are wondering what’s next for the former star of the band Moxy Fruvous and CBC Radio’s flagship show Q. National Post editor and radio host Matt Gurney asked for predictions from three experts on PR and celebrity culture: Allan Bonner, who specializes in crisis communications; Carol Toller, who works on branding and communications strategy for Pilot PMR; and celebrity columnist Shinan Govani. The transcript has been edited and condensed.
Matt Gurney
We’re not here to prejudge the outcome of a legal proceeding; the judge will make an informed decision. But I don’t think I’m offside in saying that much of the public is surprised at how the Jian Ghomeshi trial has gone so far. And many wonder what he’ll do next, whatever the verdict.
Carol Toller
What’s interesting how quickly the story line has shifted. This trial has not been about Jian Ghomeshi, it’s been about the criminal justice system and how it treats sexual assault complainants. If there’s a new villain in the story, it’s not Jian, it’s his defence lawyer Marie Henein. From that perspective, I think it is quite possible that he can forge some kind of comeback.
MG
Allan, when you and I were talking earlier you mentioned that if there is to be any kind of a comeback, it starts now — at the trial phase.
Allan Bonner
Well sure, but let me just say a word in the defence of lawyers. Jian Ghomeshi’s counsel is doing what she is required to do as an officer of the court and as a member of the law society. Her membership may be revoked if she doesn’t provide zealous advocacy. That is our justice system, whether you like it or not.
But let’s say he’s off the hook at a certain point, as you already alluded to. Memories are short. I mean, every time Volkswagen launches a new car there’s Hitler in stock footage. In the 1940s, Exxon and GM were found guilty of criminal conspiracy to kill public transit. Dr. Richard Kimble, the man who inspired The Fugitive, ended up performing across the United States in a wrestling ring.
Jian is a musician, a raconteur, and he could have some weird comeback — I don’t think on CBC Radio, I don’t think on Sirius Radio. But stranger things have happened.
MG
Shinan, to Allan’s point, there are many celebrities who have been accused, or even convicted, of terrible crimes — and they’ve made a comeback. I don’t mean to make a direct comparison, but look at Mike Tyson, convicted of rape and now a laugh line in the movies. It’s incredible how quickly that happened. But it happened.
Shinan Govani
I believe Tyson did a one- man show on Broadway. But, yes, in the era that we live in — this very quick 24- hour news cycle, social media — I feel like in some ways the Ghomeshi trial was over before it went to court. My sense from circulating in the crowd where he derived his social oxygen is that we may say we’re waiting for a verdict to come down, but judgment already has.
My main takeaway from the trial is what we didn’t hear. This was a guy who was a virtual gusher of words, who made his living with his voice. You know, an incorrigible shmoozer. And he was as silent as one of the gargoyles outside the courthouse. I’m much more agnostic about the idea of a comeback.
CT
But don’t you think that’s a strategic move? I mean, by not going on the stand, by not talking, the story isn’t about him. And I think you’re right, Shinan, that as a society we’re quick to judge, but we’re also very quick to, if not forgive then …
MG Forget?
CT
Yes, forget and move on. I think by strategically remaining quiet and having the spotlight shift to Marie Henein — and I understand, of course, as Allan said, this is her job and she’s doing it incredibly well, but the fact remains that this storyline is now about her and the criminal justice system, and whether the sexual assault complainants wore red bikinis. The most we’re learn- ing about Jian Ghomeshi is whether he owned a yellow Volkswagen and when. We’re not talking about what he did or didn’t do.
MG
Just before this blew open, Ghomeshi came out pre- emptively with a statement saying, “Hey, you’re going to hear some damaging stuff about me in the coming days. You’re going to hear some stuff about my sex life that may upset some of you.” It occurs to me now, that’s the last thing we heard from him. Allan, you work in crisis communications: Was that a smart move at the time? Or was that a long-term play for what might be coming now?
AB
Well I’m going to give you a cheeky answer: It was a great move for about six hours. He got out in front of the story, and the minute I read it I said, “Oh, he feels so good doing this, it feels so pre- emptive.” On poor advice, of course, from people who weren’t i nvolved in either the crisis side or the legal side. Because then the story got ahead of Ghomeshi and he looked foolish, and the statement became evidence, too, and he had to defend himself against matters that he had essentially admitted to.
But let me also say a word about social media. I was involved in many ancient sexual assault cases. And in the olden days, as you well know working at a newspaper, you would get a call at noonish, you could put the reporter off till tomorrow, do the interview and the next day the story would appear, and this gave you lots of time to prepare. These days, my cli- ents remind me, “Oh, by the way, everybody’s on social media all over the world and this could be known in about three minutes.” And that’s true, but there’s no research that I know of that conclusively shows whether social media extends the life of a story or shortens the life of a story because it …
MG
Social media just exhausts the story, yeah.
AB
It’s possible that Jian could come out on this wave of social media, burn out the interest in his story, then lick his thumb and turn the page.
MG
Yes, we’re talking about believing women, about consent issues, but the problem is that conversation will quickly move to some example other than Ghomeshi — a sports athlete, a campus case, something like that. In a couple of weeks, Ghomeshi might be three or four scandals down the line.
SG
I think there are two different trajectories here.
There’s example of Chris Brown, who has rebounded to some extent after the charges laid against him by Rihanna. He still gets invited to award shows, he still has chart toppers. And then you see the case of Bill Cosby. His case hasn’t played out, but already his sitcom, which was this mainstay of American pop culture, has been pulled. It’s almost like he’s a ghost of himself.
And that was my feeling watching Jian come in and out of the courthouse. Because even though the conversation has been about the witnesses and his lawyer, the prevailing image — and we live and die by images — is of this ghost who never spoke. I also think we inflate the nature of his celebrity. Even with all the live tweeting that was going on during the trial, there wasn’t a lot of retweeting — even though there’s been enormous interest in media insider circles, I’m not sure how much other people are actually paying attention.
AB
May I give another small reality check along these lines? All kinds of people do not know the names of CBC Radio hosts, especially if they run somewhere between 9 and 5, because a lot of people are working and have jobs. Other people don’t know the names of famous CEOs on the business pages. Interests are segmented these days.
MG
OK, so perhaps Ghomeshi isn’t as big a celebrity outside a certain circle. But whether he’s acquitted in six weeks or he’s convicted on a charge or several, he’ll eventually be done with this case and will be facing the question of whether he can break back into that circle where he’s so well- known. Carol, if you were working with a client like Ghomeshi what advice would you offer him on moving forward? How do you even start the process?
CT
From a business perspective you ask what his “value proposition” is, what does he actually offer? As Shinan said, Ghomeshi is a relatively minor celebrity. He’s a celebrity for hanging with celebrities and doing very skilled interviews with them.
Again, not to draw any specific parallels to Ghomeshi, but there are many celebrities accused or convicted of sexual or physical assault. Bill Cosby, Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, R. Kelly, Mike Tyson, Chris Brown, the list goes on — they all have something that the world wants, right? If you love Woody Allen’s movies, you’re prepared to forgive him. If you love Roman Polanski’s movies, you’re prepared to forgive him.
I don’t know that Jian’s interview skills are enough. Strategically, he has to find a way to leverage those skills in a different market. This trial hasn’t been followed internationally in the same way that the charges were. I think it would be fairly easy for him to go over to the U.K., to the U.S.
HE WAS AS SILENT AS ONE OF THE GARGOYLES OUTSIDE THE COURTHOUSE.
But, you know, the other thing that I would say is that, think you will about what he did or didn’t do in a sexual context, or about the question of consent, but what the public unanimously seems to feel is that this is a man who gets a little drunk on his power and his fame and abuses. That’s what Ghomeshi hasn’t actually addressed. He didn’t go on the stand. And I think he needs to talk about what’s happened publicly if he wants to make a comeback here in Canada.
MG
It’s interesting that Carol sees Ghomeshi as famous as much as anything else for hanging with celebrities — there was a lot of that, he was always about town, hosting events, I mean that’s half of how I know him. It wasn’t for his work at the CBC, it was because I kept running into the guy everywhere I went.
CT
And it wasn’t because of Moxy Früvous.
MG
No it was definitely not because of Moxy Früvous. And Shinan, to that point, half of Ghomeshi’s power was his ability to get interviews with the guys that he was hanging out with. Do you think he can rebuild that network? Or if you are a celebrity — A-level or B-level, whatever — and you get an email from him right now, “Hey you want to come on my new podcast or my new radio show?” what would get you to say yes?
SG
Yeah, it’s a challenge. I know people who moved in some of the same circles and they all dropped him when this went down. They all felt that they would become tainted by proximity to him.
We’re also talking about a guy whose image before all this was as a sort of multiculti superhero of the left. He hung out with Olivia Chow. Justin Trudeau, before he became prime minister, flew in for his book launch. So when you consider this environment, it becomes even more tricky. He was he was supposed to be on the right side of all these causes, so how does he pivot? I understand he is writing a book. And he does have to carve out a narrative for himself, well before he can move on to anything else.
CT
Absolutely. I think that’s his toughest challenge. His brand was “enlightened man,” in a way that Mike Tyson’s wasn’t. So it’s much harder for him to make this comeback if he doesn’t own what he did, at least from an abuse of power perspective, toward women particularly.
MG
Allan, you worked as news writer and anchor at CBC. Would you agree that the Jian Ghomeshi of old was perfect for the broadcaster? I could maybe see him reclaiming a professional career, I can’t see him reclaiming that mantle.
AB
No, I don’t think so either. I mean we have been starkly reminded that this is a 40-year-old grown man. This isn’t a kid who’s hanging around the clubs across the country. I think that he played to that image, just like Peter Gzowski played to being a hippie before him. You can’t keep playing that role.
But let me just say something from the old Watergate scandal, “Follow the money.” Jian has to have a comeback because he made a reasonable six figures at the CBC, and probably speaking fees. Now he has paid perhaps six figures in legal fees. He’s probably out of money, so there has to be some effort to get back some dough. The book could work. A speaking tour could work. But going back to who he used to be will not work.
MG
Somebody’s got to hire you to speak at the gig.
AB
If he were best friends with Barbra Streisand, who he has interviewed, what is she going to do for him? Talk PBS into giving him a show, burn up some of her own credibility? No. I think that it is possible that some small radio network or station somewhere hires him out of prurient interest. But I think his is a one- man comeback. And whether it works or not is up in the air.
MG
So Shinan, what would you say Ghomeshi needs to do to turn this thing around?
SG
I’ ll repeat, justice may not be served but judgments have come down — so how do you put that genie back in the bottle? There was a lot of attention when this all broke originally. For someone with a healthy ego like Jian, that probably hits him worse.
MG
You’re right, that occurred to me as well. Carol, you talked about the need for Ghomeshi to own what’s happened, publicly. Any other advice?
CT
I’d be careful not to get his book, if that’s true, out too soon. He chose not to take the stand, and I think he doesn’t want to be seen as desperately seeking his own privately controlled podium now. But I think if he strategically does a few interviews quickly and starts owning the story a little bit about how he’s got some issues that he needs to deal with — and then in a year or two if a book comes out, and he quietly lets people rediscover him and finds some success in jurisdictions outside of Canada, he could do very well for himself. We have an infinite capacity to move on.
MG
Especially because, as we’ve already noted, it’s as much about forgetting as it forgiving. Allan, what about you?
AB
Definitely go slow and be careful, really careful. The weight and temperature of a remedy have to be four times the weight and temperature of the offence. And the alleged offence here was grievous. It is going to take a long, long time, and Ghomeshi should have some kind of cause to address, such as workplace equity or evidentiary matters in court. If he can be seen not to be capitalizing on this but as engaging in the intellectual debate around his case for the betterment of future victims or perpetrators … Maybe.