Getting The Scoop Before They Knew It Was Gone

IT WASN'T ALL FUN AND GAMES DEALING WITH MUSKOKA POLITICIANS - THERE WAS A LITTLE BIT OF WORK INVOLVED

WE HAD NO CHOICE BUT BE ONE STEP AHEAD, KNOWING ABOUT THE POOP BEFORE THEY HID IT!

I AM NOT A FRONT LINE REPORTER. YOU WON'T FIND ME WEARING A PRESS BADGE IN THE BAND ON MY FEDORA. I CAN'T FLIP-OUT A PRESS BADGE TO GET INTO ENTERTAINMENT VENUES, OR INTO PRESS CONFERENCES WHERE CREDENTIALS ARE REQUIRED. I HAD MY DAY. I ATTENDED MAJOR AND MINOR EVENTS, AND WROTE ABOUT THEM. I WAS WITHIN INCHES OF PRINCESS MARGARET AND HER DAUGHTER, LADY SARAH, ON MANY PHOTO-OPS, WHEN THEY VISITED MUSKOKA. I WAS THE ONLY MEMBER OF THE PRESS TO MEET EUGENE WHALEN, FEDERAL MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, WHILE HE AWAITED HIS RIDE AT THE MUSKOKA AIRPORT. ACTUALLY, I WAS THE ONLY PERSON TO MEET HIM, AND WE HAD A HELL OF A NICE CHAT. I HAD A ONE ON ONE WITH PREMIER BILL DAVIS AT BOTH THE MUSKOKA AIRPORT AND THE NEW GEORGIAN BAY AIRPORT, ON TWO INTERESTING GIGS, AND I SAT WITH MINISTER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, JOHN MUNRO, DURING A MEETING AT MOOSE DEER POINT, SOUTH OF MACTIER. I WATCHED IN AWE, AS TRANSPORTATION MINISTER, JAMES SNOW, TOLD ME HE WAS GOING TO CUT-OFF MUSKOKA MPP, FRANK MILLER'S TIE, DURING A RIBBON CUTTING FOR A NEW OVERPASS IN HUNTSVILLE. HE HAD SPOKEN WITH ME, JUST BEFORE, AND TOLD ME TO TAKE THE PICTURE WHEN HE SHIFTED THE GIANT SCISSORS TO FRANK'S TIE, TO CLIP IT OFF. HE DIDN'T ACTUALLY MAKE THE CUT, BUT FRANK WAS CAUGHT OFF GUARD. JIM SNOW WAS A FINE CHAP, AND HE HAD A GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR. THESE WERE THE MOMENTS WHEN EVEN A DULL JOB, OF TAKING A PREDICTABLE PHOTO, COULD RAISE A LITTLE UNANTICIPATED EXCITEMENT.

THERE WERE OTHER TIMES WHEN I WANTED TO BE IN ANY OTHER PROFESSION. STANDING AT ACCIDENT SCENES TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS WAS AWFUL. ATTENDING FIRES WHERE THERE WAS A LOSS OF LIFE WAS MISERABLE, BUT IT HAD TO BE COVERED. THE OTHER REGIONAL PRESS WAS COVERING THEM, SO WE HAD NO CHOICE. DURING THIS PERIOD IN MUSKOKA, THE COMPETITION BETWEEN WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS WAS AT ITS MOST EXTREME, AND WE ALL HAD TO HANG ONTO OUR MARKET SHARE FOR THE COMPANY THAT EMPLOYED US. WE WERE TOO BROKE TO BE UNEMPLOYED. AS IT WAS, WE COULDN'T PAY OUR RENTS ON TIME. AS FOR PRESSURE, WELL, IT WAS THICK ENOUGH TO SPREAD ON YOUR MORNING TOAST. SO WE ALL WORKED HARD TO OUT-PERFORM THE OTHER REPORTERS. THERE WAS EVEN IN-HOUSE RIVALRY, AND NO JOB WAS SO SECURE THAT IT COULDN'T SUDDENLY BECOME VACANT……AND AFFORDED TO THE ONE WHO GOT BETTER NEWS COPY. FOR THIS REASON, WE GOT ON THE JOB TRAINING, ABOUT HOW EASILY WE COULD BE REPLACED. I KNEW MY OWN JOB WAS BEING OVER-SHADOWED, WHEN THEY GAVE MY MAIL BOX TO ANOTHER WRITER, WHILE I WAS STILL WORKING THERE. I REMEMBER ANOTHER WRITER COMING UP TO ME ONE DAY, AT AN ARTS AND CRAFTS EVENT, OF ALL PLACES, AND SAID, "MR. CURRIE, I WANT YOUR JOB." GEEZ, WITHIN A YEAR SHE WAS GIVEN AN EDITORSHIP OF A NEW PUBLICATION OUR COMPANY LAUNCHED THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MINE. IT WAS RUTHLESS IN THE COMPANY, AND JUST AS TOUGH OUT ON THE BEAT. I DON'T KNOW HOW IT IS TODAY, WITH MUCH LESS COMPETITION. I'M NOT INTERESTED IN DONNING THE OLD FEDORA AGAIN. I LIKE BEING A CIVILIAN PAIN IN THE ASS INSTEAD. BUT HERE'S HOW I STARTED IN THE BUSINESS.

I DON'T WANT TO GIVE THE IMPRESSION, REPORTERS WORKING THE MUSKOKA BEAT, BACK IN MY VINTAGE OF THE LATE 1970'S AND 1980'S, DIDN'T TAKE THEIR TASK COVERING LOCAL COUNCILS SERIOUSLY. JUST NOT TOO SERIOUSLY. SOME OF THE POLITICIANS WE HAD TO COVER AND INTERVIEW ON OCCASION, WEREN'T NICE PEOPLE. THEY DIDN'T LIKE DEALING WITH THE PRESS, AND THEY MADE IT ABUNDANTLY CLEAR WE WERE THE DREGS OF SOCIETY, ALWAYS LOOKING TO EXPLOIT THE WELL CONNECTED, DOING THEIR CIVIC DUTY……TO PULL US POOR CREATURES OUT OF THE DIRE CONSEQUENCE, THEY ASSUMED WE DWELLED. THERE WERE A FEW WHO WOULD HAVE HAD US LAUNCHED OUT OF TOWN ON A CATAPULT IF A LARGE ONE HAD BEEN AVAILABLE.

FIRST OF ALL, SHORTLY AFTER ANY MUNICIPAL ELECTION, WE HAD ALREADY FIGURED OUT THE CHALLENGES OF THE NEXT TERM OF OFFICE. WHO WE COULD TALK WITH EASILY, WHO WOULD GIVE US A FEW TIPS, OTHERS WHO WOULD BE WILLING TO MEET WITH US REGULARLY, AND SEVERAL ON EACH COUNCIL WE'D AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE. PRIOR TO THE ELECTIONS, THESE CANDIDATES WOULD FIND ANY REASON AT ALL, TO TALK WITH US REPORTER-KIND, AND MAKE GREAT DETOURS AT SOCIAL OCCASIONS, TO MAKE OUR ACQUAINTANCE. THEY MIGHT EVEN HAND US A BEVERAGE, OR A PLATE OF CRACKERS AND CHEESE, IF WE'D ONLY LISTEN TO HOW THEY PLANNED TO REFORM THE PRESENT MUNICIPAL CONUNDRUMS. YUP, THEY WOULD SADDLE-UP TO US, AND ACTUALLY APPEAR INTERESTED IN OUR WELL-BEING. ONCE ELECTED, THESE SNOTS WOULD TURN ON US, FIVE SECONDS AFTER TAKING THE OATH OF OFFICE.

IF THEY HAD A CHEESE TRAY TO HAND US, AFTER THAT, THERE WOULDN'T BE MORE THAN CRUMBS LEFT TO DABB-UP WITH OUR WET FINGER.

Ninety percent of the reporters I worked with, over a dozen years, were hard working, eager, trustworthy writers, who truly wanted to better themselves in the profession. They hoped one day that the daily press would call, to offer them a spot on staff. We all had dreams of bigger and better things, than standing in some drafty doorway, to watch yet another ribbon cut by the mayor, or the poor sap who may have drawn the short straw, as a fill-in mayor-for-the-day. Taking grip and grin photographs wasn't what the major publishers were looking for, to enhance their newsrooms. When it came to covering municipal councils, in a small town in rural Ontario, it was only one-notch better than taking flicks of the grand openings, and dozens of cheque presentations we were forced to attend. But every now and again, there would be some council business, or occurrence at town hall, that seemed a gift to the patient reporter. Every council had their own way of dealing with the press, and some pretty effective ways of misleading and dodging pesky reporters. I remember on one occasion, I was chasing down a really good lead, that might have been a multi-week front pager, and all of a sudden, the meeting was ended without the normal protocols being followed. Reporters just sat there while the council chamber emptied. We knew they went to another part of the building but they sure as hell didn't invite us. One reporter hung around longer than us, as we were very thirsty, and the tavern had nice cold beer. Out of the kindness of the chap's heart, he met us at the pub later that night, and offered us a few insights about the meeting hiatus. It seems the meeting had been paused, in order that councillors could watch a portion of a World Series final. They resumed the meeting after the last inning, and didn't ring us on our mobiles to come back. We didn't have mobiles in those days, so we would have missed important decisions made in our absence. Thankfully, even competition between publications, didn't stop fair play, and the combined efforts of all the reporters on the job, to challenge this general disrespect. Not just for ditching us, but disregarding the taxpayers paying their salaries. The right thing to have done, in this circumstance, was NOT break for the World Series final inning. We bought our reporter friend lots of beer that night, and we made some intrusive inquiries the next morning, let me tell you. Town hall had made a mistake and we reminded them of the consequence. In print.

Here's why we didn't have a lot of patience with elected officials, if they tried to give us the run-around. Most of us reporters, at this time, had to cover many different beats. We didn't have the luxury of staff to cover just municipal business, or provincial court, education, or the police beat. When we had to go to council meetings, in the evening, we may have had a whole day of covering a murder or fraud case in court. Possibly, we had to stand out at an accident scene, while a body was being removed from a car involved in a head-on collision. Possibly we had been chasing fire trucks to a structure fire, and then returned to the office, to find that an advertising salesperson, had made an appointment for us, to cover the ceremonial opening of a new hair salon or restaurant. We might have been double booked to cover a hockey game and a badminton tournament at the local high school. We were making a pretty low wage to be happy about the work load. So then we'd grab a sandwich on the fly, six coffees to keep ourselves awake through the council meetings, and then have to deal with arrogant councillors who thought they were God's gift to the municipality. So if you think we may have targeted jerks, when we had a good and clear shot at them, well it shouldn't be a big surprise. If a councillor gave us a hard time, or slagged us off, which often occurred during actual council business, we'd make them a project at the next opportunity. We had the same opinion and the identical procedure to deal with municipal staff who doubled as smart asses. We could and did make them pay for treating us with disrespect. It wasn't hard to do, and it was all quite above board. It was discretionary. Our discretion.

I can remember an incident with a town department, when they made a change in their staffing that diminished one position's responsibility and increased what had been a secondary position, to be even greater in authority. When I challenged the committee chair to explain the move, and why it made sense, I was given the damnedest explanation to justify……"cause I can." It's what it came down to as a bottom line. "It's my department, and what I say goes." Amongst our staff reporters, we felt this was wrong, and shouldn't go unchallenged. So we started going after the rest of council, to get to the bottom of what appeared to us as a "backwards, forwards" strategy, to deal with perceived problems mores than actual problems. It got so bad, the chairman invited me to the tavern to talk about it over some drinks. I paid for my own booze, and let him tell me his story. I actually put down my notepad, and said to the guy, "I'm off the clock now. Let's talk honestly about this." I began debating the guy until I finally admitted to myself, there was no point carrying on, and walked away from the argument. I didn't back off and eventually the matter was solved by council, but with dignity to the chairman involved. We'd be right from the start, but no one at council level wanted to admit it…..that they'd been caught doing something not only illogical but a disservice to the community.

What councillors didn't know was that we had a substantial network of snitches, deep throats, sources within the town, who occasionally let us in on the real news at town hall. We had this relationship with every council we covered, and it was necessary. It used to drive councillors nuts, to pick up the weekly newspaper, and find that we had ferreted-out a news story they'd been covering-up or protecting in some way. I'd get to the office at about eleven in the morning, on a press day, and there would be a dozen messages already, from disgruntled folks who thought I shouldn't do my job that well…..that their secrets weren't so well concealed anymore. What they wanted from me, and us generally in the press corp, were the names of the snitches who'd given up the inside information. We didn't pay our sources money, but we sure as hell treated them well at the bar…. Just not at one we might get caught together. And it didn't matter if we did get caught, talking to a rogue staffer, because most of the offended officials couldn't put two and two together unless we did it for them. The same thing happens today in all levels of government, and usually has the same source of ignition. Someone doesn't like their boss. We reporters are all ears.

After an election, we found the councillors who were the weak links. That wasn't terribly hard. It's not that we would exploit them, but we knew they would be coached by the jerks we didn't like, and soon clam-up when we needed their help. In many cases, we could have caused them to get ousted from council, for some of the mistakes they made in our presence, talking about council business that was sensitive. If you were kind enough to talk with us, and help us understand what was going on behind the facade of council meeting etiquette, we would serve and protect you to eternity. I could have ended the careers of numerous politicians, by rejecting confidentiality and off-the-record status by the wink of an eye. I'm sure this is done all the time. But not when I was editor. We wanted to know what was going on, so that we could properly represent the news to our readers. We took this very seriously, and when we would run into a case, where it was a clear case of convenient deferral, or a genuine cover-up, we had to use whatever source was available to us. This wasn't just the case when we covered local council. It was across the board. Our job wasn't to make people look bad, or to assassinate people we didn't like, just because we had the power to put them on the front page. But if we perceived that skullduggery was being employed, to stall us, or as an evasion tactic, we would open up both barrels, and that meant some seriously black ink, double-banked on the front page, above the fold. Now that's when the phones would start humming, let me tell you.

As we had angry calls from pissed off politicians, etc., we also had as many congratulatory messages, from readers who appreciated our investigations on their behalf. We were always careful with our news material, and in my years in the press, and as editor, we never got hauled into court because I'd made a mistake in judgement or fact, and that has always been a feather in the old newsman's cap. It might be truly assessed, I was a bastard for uncovering the story, but not in error for either writing it, or publishing it in the weekly newspaper. I can remember running into these peeved officials and town staffers, and being told how I should be keel-hauled, for what I'd written about them, or as a result of their incompetence. Again, it wasn't just from politicians. If we ran a story about an impaired driver, and named the individual, I could have had my head torn off at any time. I hung around in the right bars for that to happen. When we did an expose about a cult working the streets of Bracebridge, we did such a good job, we got high praise from what was then known as COMA, which was the Committee On Mind Abuse, for revealing the fact our region was being infiltrated by a group we didn't want. As a result, we were put on a shit list by the cult, and the advice was, to back-off or else. We had actually arranged to infiltrate the cult itself, but we backed off when experts advised that we would be risking our lives…….as they expected this would be our next move. God it was exciting stuff. I would have never got past the "love-bombarding" cults use to break recruit's defenses down. I've always succumbed to unanticipated but always welcome affections……before I was married, of course. Point is here, we had considerable stealth capability, when story gathering, because it's what we found most exciting about the reporting business. It's what we adored, beyond the routine we had to follow each week, to satisfy advertising and the church branch of our readership, that enjoyed fluff features and soft news. Sorry if I've offended the church branch, but it was true in my day. In fact, I remember one occasion, when a survey of our work was taken by an actual church congregation, and the results presented to me….that they didn't like our subject matter for our weekly columns. They had even given management suggestions on how we could improve our paper, by not being quite so irreverent and nasty with our stories. There may still be a tiny hole in the ceiling tile, from when my head shot through it, after finding this out. I can't even describe the mood of the newsroom that day, when we found out that this less than scientific survey had been passed basically, pew to pew. I have no idea why this made any sense whatsoever. In retaliation, we got super mean after this. At this point, I should note on our behalf, that we had the largest circulation in the previous ten years of publication, because we had actually become a news paper instead of one that went through the motions, but never had the goods beneath those headlines. We had gotten rid of the "good times were had by all" publication, and replaced it with one that was competitive with the opposition media, and getting attention from readers who had formerly given up on the paper because of its lack of teeth.

I'm proud of the newspaper days I lived through, and moderately prospered. I learned a lot, by working beside some fine reporters and outstanding writers, who were ethical, practical, and hungry for news. It's quite true, that many politicians didn't like to see us coming at them, and we scared those who liked the town the way it was…….quiet and unassuming, with only occasional breaking news because it couldn't be avoided. Crime, car crashes, fires. There were many of the upper crust in Muskoka, that didn't like our intrusive reporting, and told our bosses as much. For what we were being paid, and what our challenges represented, we decided that the real opportunity here, was to make a name for ourselves in the news industry, and for some of us, that's exactly what happened.

There are some politicians today who feel I'm much too intrusive on their safe domains. They want what they want, and exposure that makes them look good. They think of me as some nosey constituent, who is bored with his life, and just wants to shit-disturb to fill the void. Well, I don't feel compelled to explain myself to them, and I don't back away from something my news sense tells me, deserves a little sleuthing. I don't use my reporting skills and experience as a threat, but if I need them, well, I'll use what I human resources I possess, to move the project further. But I never take it lightly, or pursue something for the sake of entertainment. I don't use my skills to get even, or to start or even end a fight. I will debate an issue face to face with any politician, and I've never been one to duck after making a jab. You want to hit me, go ahead.

If you are someone who has a respect for the press, and agree with the statements, "freedom of the press," and the "public's right to know," then we can be good friends. And I have developed numerous friendships with people in high places, who appreciate the importance of fair play and honest representation. My loyalty and friendship is guaranteed, and I've got a lifetime of corroborating evidence, to demonstrate this as an accurate assessment.

There are times locally when councillors might like to see me suddenly disappear off the face of the earth. Sometimes my wife ponders this possibility. While I don't set out each day, to scrape up scandal and hidden agenda, I won't leave it alone, if it happens to find its way to the end of my nose for news. My priority, as an unaffiliated news hound, is to be a good and co-operative citizen, willing to pitch-in to help my neighbors. My blog carries the same heading, as it did when I began work with Muskoka Today many years ago. "Hometown Advantage." I'm proud to live in Gravenhurst, and I hope it shows.

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