“The anger and hostility towards journalists has gotten worse, and the nature of that anger is far more personal than it ever was.”
By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – In the past, CBC’s foreign correspondents covering wars first underwent “hostile environment” safety training before being deployed into a danger zone. The syllabus includes such topics as risk evaluation, stress management and resilience, and civil disorder.
However, over the past two years, as accusations of “fake news,” first fueled with a fury by the truly awful former U.S. president Donald Trump during his regular rallies and tweets, gained momentum during the Covid-19 pandemic by anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers and those opposed to lockdowns, CBC began offering a similar safety course for its domestic reporters.
“We have de-escalation training, physical security and situational awareness,” explained Brodie Fenlon, editor-in-chief and executive director of daily news at CBC.
“The anger and hostility towards journalists has gotten worse, and the nature of that anger is far more personal than it ever was.”
He said that a decade ago, someone upset with CBC news coverage might have sent a letter of complaint to or called the network or a local station – about the story or the facts in it. “Now the anger and frustration is immediate – published widely on social media or by email, and it’s often very, very personal and targeted at individual journalists, and mainly those covering politics. The criticism, which some journalists face every day, involves ascribed motives and goes right to ‘you’re part of the fake news, you’re not legitimate’.”
Fenlon said while nasty tweets or online posts can be muted or ignored, “ultimately there is a cumulative effect of this constant attack.”
He explained while there has also been an increase in incidents where CBC reporters are followed and harangued in the field, he believes the true harm on these journalists is caused by the “psychological toll of their doing their job and being digitally harassed for doing it.”
It’s even personal for Fenlon, who told Cartt.ca that he “can count on someone” tweeting regularly that he should be fired from the CBC or that he is part of a conspiracy. “I will be reminded all day long that there are a bunch of people who don’t like me and don’t like my employer,” he said. “And I just get a small fraction of it. If you’re a prominent journalist, a personality or a host or a reporter with some profile, then that kind of stuff is exponentially increased because you become a target.”
There have been acts of vandalism as well. In early April, someone spray-painted the words “fake news” on a CBC Kamloops vehicle. But normally, it’s CBC employees who are targeted, according to Fenlon.
“It can be everything from someone lunging at gear or a camera, to simply following and harassing verbally and filming with their phones,” he said. “We‘ve had incidents of people who are livestreaming their harassment of journalists, to dicier situations where it feels like it’s potentially physically dangerous.”
Nevertheless, Fenlon stressed that criticism directed at CBC is welcomed and wanted.
“There is a ton of room, and a lot of appetite – and I have it too – to be challenged and critiqued, and that’s fair comment. But what’s not fair is going into the personal and what we see can be really hurtful and xenophobic and hateful, and that’s where it crosses the line,” he said.
“Our Black, Indigenous and journalists of colour can tell you that they face occasional racist and bigoted attacks and harassment.”
CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Catherine Tait recently wrote an op-ed in The Hill Times in which she decried the “daily barrage of online misogyny, including threats of physical attack” on female journalists, who comprise 57% of the network’s journalistic staff.
In response to an increase in hostility toward its reporters over the past five years, Global News has bolstered protection for its employees, too.
“We’ve had, at times, when there have been attacks against journalists, added security,” explained Ward Smith, senior vice-president of Global News, who said that there are separate entrances for visitors and employees at the network’s locations across the country to improve screening of non-staff.
“It’s a sad state of affairs when you’re trying to provide a public service.”
But with journalists “more scrutinized and harassed than ever before” – a result Smith attributes to “today’s heightened social-media environment” – he said that Global News has strengthened its “vigilance to monitor and mitigate” any resulting threats.
“We’ve increased our messages to employees around avoiding dangerous situations,” he said, adding that there is no longer an expectation for Global journalists to provide digital updates as part of their job. Social media co-ordinators now push Global stories online.
Most problematic are incidents involving reporters covering protests. “We’ve got video of our camera operators sometimes being harassed, bullied, attacked – being told they’re scum, they’re fake,” said Smith.
“A couple of weeks ago, we had a reporter in Kelowna cover an anti-mask protest and was told to get lost, although we were invited to cover it.”
Last month, while reporting on a crowd of non-mask-wearing supporters of a Mississauga gym’s reopening during the current lockdown, Global Toronto’s consumer and investigative reporter Sean O’Shea was accused by a mask-free Peel Regional Police officer of “agitating” the protesters by filming them. The uniformed patrol sergeant, who also hugged the protesters, was suspended. (The photo above is a screen cap from that report.)
Smith also noted that attacks against journalists is not new.
“It’s an ongoing concern that continues to demonstrate how our people, and journalists in general, are fighting for what’s important in terms of telling stories.” – Ward Smith, Global News
At the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City 20 years ago, protesters defaced a network truck and hurled rocks at Global reporters. Tensions were also high at the G20 summit in Toronto in 2010 when a mob surrounded a Global satellite truck, shattering the glass windows, leaving the network host inside to lead the coverage.
“There has always been an undercurrent about skepticism of journalists when they’re uncovering issues. It just seems to be more present, primarily because of the immediacy of social media,” said Smith, a 31-year news industry veteran.
“We’ve had veiled threats, direct threats.” Police have been called. Cease-and-desist letters have been sent.
As Smith explained: “It’s an ongoing concern that continues to demonstrate how our people, and journalists in general, are fighting for what’s important in terms of telling stories.”
But, as he added, the pushback flows from a minority of people who are “losing sight of what journalism represents” and who are “easily offended by content they don’t agree with.”
Fenlon said that some media-watchers have traced distrust in traditional media back to the elimination in 1987 of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s fairness doctrine, which was introduced in 1949 and required broadcasters to provide balanced coverage of controversial issues in the public interest.
As Fenlon recently blogged, “the rise of shock talk radio, then the splintering of audiences on cable TV, then the internet, and later social media and algorithmic filter bubbles that tend to reinforce one’s own world view” further contributed to the diminishment of public confidence in the fourth estate.
However, as he told Cartt.ca: “We don’t want to hide. We should be out and seen in the community doing journalism.”
“But the safety of our journalists is number one and we take that very seriously.”
