Government and newsrooms

Re: Papers’ pleas for cash look like blackmail. Andrew Coyne, Feb. 15

Andrew Coyne’s ar t i cl e should be required reading for all newspaper publishers, editors and owners. Newspapers ( all media, actually) must retain an arm’s length relationship with government if they hope to retain any semblance of integrity.

During the late years of the 20 th century, we saw government trying to insinuate itself into the newsrooms of the nation with cash handouts, via first the Davey Commission and then the Kent Commission spearheaded by Jim Coutts, principal secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

The newspaper i ndustry at that time, under the leadership of my late husband, J. Patrick O’Callaghan, publisher of the Edmonton Journal ( and later the Calgary Herald) fought back vigorously and forced the Trudeau government to back down. O’Callaghan wrote to Michael Pitfield: “Preserve our free press; stay out of the newsroom. There can be no independence of thought, opinion, and action when government comes marching in.”

Those words are as true today as they were in 1981 and how sad it is that John Honderich has cast them aside, abasing himself to the Justin Trudeau government and begging for a cash bailout. This is a blatant invitation to government to use cash as a carrot/stick to ensure that newspapers perform to its expectations. Mr. Honderich’s words about “quality journalism” sound a discordant note. Mr. Honderich and others who are looking to government to buy them some breathing room, would do well to remember the Arab proverb: when the camel is in the tent, who knows where he will put his big feet?

Government is one camel that should never be allowed anywhere near a newsroom.

E. Joan O’Callaghan, Toronto