Earlier today, Canadian Association of Journalists president Mary Agnes Welch questioned the controversial firing of Victoria News editor Keith Norbury - which was, in part, connected to an advertiser complaint. But she's not the only one raising a red flag. In an interview with Public Eye, associate professor Klaus Pohle, a specialist in media ethics and newspaper management at Carleton University's school of journalism, said, "You'd like to think that these things don't happen. But, obviously, they do. But, when they do happen, it comes as kind of a shock...If you start caving-in to advertisers complaints or anybody's complaints, based on the kind of discussion that went on - that this was one person's opinion and so-on and so-forth - then you're going to be publishing nothing but fluff and PR pieces that don't serve the public but serve the advertiser. And that's not what journalism is supposed to be all about."
"It may be true that this is one person's opinion," Prof. Pohle continued, referring to the source of the complaint - a story about a cross-border used-car shopper who saved $13,000 buying by purchasing a Mercedes ML350 in Portland rather than from a local dealer. "But so what? The response of the car dealer" who complained about the story "is also one person's opinion. That's what journalism is. It's reporting people's opinions. And this opinion didn't sit well with an advertiser. And, unfortunately, the journalists seem to have paid a very heavy and sad price for this." Prof. Pohle added the fact the dealer's opinion wasn't included in the piece doesn't, to his mind, constitute a firing offence in and of itself.
The funny thing is I have met people in the last 2 weeks who went to the States to buy cars. They noticed that the dollar went up and the savings were not passed on to consumers. The latest bought a $26,000 car for $16,000 (all funds Canadian). She said the dealer was fairly oriented about the paper work - implying that this was not an isolated incident.