31 December 2005

Blowing the whistle on Kathy Tomlinson

The CTV Whistleblower should be turning her reporting on her own news organization.

Heck, given her posting to the CTV election website, she should blow the whistle on herself for crap reporting.

The sum total of her talking to people on Bay Street amounts to this:

A bunch of people got e-mails, some as late as 5 PM saying there would be an announcement by Goodale that day.

She fails to mention three relevant facts:

1. She has NO evidence that anyone knew any - not just some, but any - details of the announcement. Insider trading requires advance knowledge of the content of an announcement. Having access to information which is generally available (see below) doesn't count. It isn't a crime to be well informed.

In fact the only way anyone could have done anything wrong here is if there was a leak of the details of the announcement. That's because...

2. A story from the Globe and Mail the morning of the Goodale announcement covered the fact there would be an announcement by Goodale that day. No one had any details. They just knew something was coming. Smart people figured it out. I bet there were others who bet the farm the other way. Don't counting on Kathy reporting the dorks who lost their shirt that day.

3. The media would have been alerted to a newser at around the same time as many of these e-mails she mentions. Taken to its logical conclusion, in future, public relations people will have to stop handing advance notice of newsers in order to prevent accusations of handing out inside information, or the days of the newser are over. Everything will be pumped out by release and reporters will have to hope they can get something to cover in time for their deadlines.

Everything else include in Kathy's whistleblowing amounts to blowing smoke instead.

If she wanted to make her mark on Canadian journalism, Kathy Tomlinson would report facts.