CBC’s Chianello Departs Ottawa City Hall
What? What? What?
A journalist in a kind of protest at Lansdowne asking for openness for the $500-million project?
CBC journalist Joanne Chianello showing a bias in coverage?
Well yes and mostly no.
If You Absolutely, Positively Must Screw Up A Deal …
Chianello has left the Ottawa City Hall beat for the CBC. The now ex-scribbler is working for StrategyCorp as a manager. She’s a great catch for the consultants. Chianello will be a fine manager who combines hard work, smarts and solid people skills. The reporter was a colleague of mine at the Ottawa Citizen for many years and she’s good at what she does.
And while this is a fine day for StrategyCorp, it’s not the same for Ottawa journalism. The CBC was producing the best local city hall coverage and Chianello’s hand in all this will be missed.
Combine this with the loss of Glen McGregor at CTV News and this has been a lousy period for Ottawa journalism.
The ranks of experienced good journalists continues to decline.
Ken Gray
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Ken,
Your final sentence say’s it all.
Big loss for CBC.
Tough, smart, tenacious, articulate…oh well.
Are you the same Ken Gray that used Citizen space to denigrate Glebites for protesting the Lansdowne un-transparent dealing between the City and developers, while expressing outrage over development of Convent lands in your area?
Randal:
I certainly did fight for the convent and it is still standing but in disrepair. Last time I was there it had braces holding it up. A shame.
I don’t remember my personal position much on Lansdowne but the Citizen editorial board to which I belonged certainly supported it. But when I wrote a column mildly criticizing the artist renderings of the shopping centre, it was killed by the Citizen … the only time i had something killed in my career.
So I started The Bulldog. No editor laid a finger on that column and my editor started the conversation with: “I want you to know that I had nothing to do with this.” In fact, the publisher saw it on the rim already on the op-ed page. That page had gone. So journalists thought it was fine. Publisher? Not so much.
I didn’t get mad. I got even and bought three domain names that same day.
The publisher wanted to talk to me but I didn’t want to waste any more time of my retirement on a place that would do such a thing. The publisher might have had some excuse for killing the column but I knew why he did it and if he were honest with himself, so does he. No need to talk about it.
So yes, I have some history with Lansdowne.
That said, I do remember calling residents of the Glebe Glebites. But I preferred Glebinistas.
That was a long time ago and water under the bridge. As it turned out, the incident was one of the best things that happened to me.
I’ve had lots of fun with The Bulldog (and some substantial frustrations), have many good people who have helped me and made some new and very good friends in the process. And you know who you are. That said, most of my friends deny knowing me. A few walk around town like they are in the witness protection program for fear of being identified as a friend. I understand why they do that.
Besides my mutterings and the excellent writing of others, I think it has provided a wonderful forum for people who care about this community. The costs are substantial but they are nothing I can’t handle. It made a bit of money when CUPE 503 advertised in it and I’m working hard to make the money work again. But that’s small beer.
And God bless The Bulldog Commenting All-Stars.
I can’t thank everyone enough. Even the Glebesters. Good folks, those.
cheers
kgray
And now Kate Porter is also leaving the CBC.
Is this just a continuation of the tsunami that was the recent Bell Media 1,300 job cuts?
As Ken has pointed out on a number of occasions, mainstream media is suffering from a revenue problem. The supply of information (internet) has grown exponentially, so the price per unit of advertising has fallen (Economics 101 – 2nd or 3rd lecture). When revenues fall, expenses must be cut. One of the largest variable cost components is compensation. That makes it a highly visible target.
Put the two pieces together. Chianello and Porter may have read the writing, or whatever else splattered on the wall … or someone in CBC local news management read it to them. In either event, the quality of reporting on the machinations at city hall will suffer the consequences.
Good grief, k
A big concern of mine at the time was the way the Citizen pitted the Glebe against the rest of Ottawa by identifying Glebe persons speaking against the Lansdowne project, as coming from the Glebe. This made it seem as though they were engaged in special pleading, despite the credentials someone like Ian Lee, .
losing Chianello is a BIG loss to residents of Ottawa… who care about local issues.
So what the hell is Strategy Corp and why would Joanne be useful to them? I asked myself. So I searched out their website. They do a lot of lobbying. Among other things they say, “Our highly skilled public policy strategists use their deep industry and government sector experience and their unmatched understanding of the political system, decision-makers, and influencers to help clients find the right solution and approach to achieve their goals.” I don’t know if it was true before but in Joanne Chianello they have someone who for many years has had that “unmatched understanding of the political system, decision-makers, and influencers.” They scored a coup, for sure.
Has the Ottawa Citizen paid any attention to the bombshell of a letter to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, sent June 25, and copied to City Councillors and others? The letter was titled “Subject: Lansdowne 2.0 Financial Transparency,” and it was co-signed by Kevin Page, Joanne Chianello, Michael Wernick, Penny Collenette, and Paul Champ.
If the Citizen does not get behind this letter and give it full support it will once again be siding with developers’ interests and doing disservice to the citizens of Ottawa. The letter by these distinguished co-signers would not have been necessary if The Citizen had been doing its job of defending the interests of Ottawa residents. I thank the CBC for making me aware of this letter, and I thank Joanne Chianello and the other co-signers for drafting such an incisive letter.
Randal:
Why don’t you send me a copy of the letter?
I’d be happy to consider running it. The email address is available on the website.
cheers
kgray
It’s not easy for me to send it by e-mail and it’s six pages long. I screen-grabbed it. You might be able to do the same from the CBC website. Or maybe Joanne Chianello, or one of the other senders, would be happy to send it to you. There’s also any of the recipients who might send it. No doubt Shawn Menard would be happy to do this. It would be wonderful if you would publish this letter.