Inside the News with Peter Mansbridge

At Issue: Senate scandal

2013-05-17T17:00:45Z

The Senate scandal reaches the doors of the prime minister's office. Is this the most serious political crisis of the Harper years? In this week's At Issue, Andrew, Bruce and Jennifer Ditchburn weigh in.

Chris Hadfield One on One

2013-05-16T13:44:33Z

In this special edition of One on One, Peter Mansbridge talks with astronaut Chris Hadfield from space!

Watch the interview with Hadfield below who was stationed on the International Space Station.

Chris Hadfield is a rock star

2013-05-16T01:29:47Z

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, gestures shortly after the landing of the Russian Soyuz TMA-07 space capsule. (Mikhail Metzel/Associated Press)

Chris Hadfield is a rock star. No doubt about that. And not just in Canada. He's a legitimate world class guy, who now has fans and followers from Toronto to Tibet.

In fact I remember when he first went up late last fall, I checked his Twitter feed - back then his followers numbered a few thousand. As I write this, he's just under a million. A big time star of social media.

Why? We all know the answer to that. His tweets about life in space, and his spectacular photos of earth from space. And now his music video. Move over Mr Bieber, Commander Hadfield is now the rising Canadian on the charts.

Watch: Some of our favourite Hadfield moments

So what's all this done aside from make Chris Hadfield a household name here and abroad?
For youngsters who had the chance to watch him "live" in their classrooms being beamed to them from space it must have began a passion for space stories that may not have existed before he climbed aboard the International Space Station. He answered so many of their questions, some of which were so simple yet proved so fascinating. Like "What happens when you wring out a wet towel in space?" I could watch that answer forever. If you haven't seen it, YouTube it!

For me, it's reignited a fascination with space. As one who used to get up at 6 a.m. as a kid to watch Alan Shepard and John Glenn and all the other astronauts of the "Right Stuff" era rocket into space, I remember what it meant to be transfixed by the concept of orbiting the earth. But over the years, especially after the moon landings, that excitement seemed to die away and new generations never seemed to get as excited.

The biggest moments were about the disasters, not the accomplishments. The whole magic of being "an astronaut" seemed to lose some of its luster too. I remember being in Florida for Marc Garneau's first launch in 1984, and there was almost a blasé attitude around Cape Kennedy about astronauts. They were still special, but not too special. One day driving from the launch site to nearby Coco Beach we saw a guy hitch-hiking. He looked harmless and there were four of us already in the van so we picked him up. We started chatting, he asked what we did and we told him. Then we asked him the same question. "An astronaut" he said. I was dumbfounded. An astronaut? One of the new Neil Armstrongs? Hitch-hiking?

"Hey, our per diem isn't much you know?" he responded.

Somehow I doubt that Chris Hadfield will be doing much hitch-hiking in the next little while. It should be door to door limos for Mr. Tweety. You can be sure all the Letterman's, Kimmels, and O'Brien's have their requests in for his appearance on their late night shows. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert must be on the list too. When you're this popular everyone wants you and everyone is happy to make you feel very comfortable.

What does Hadfield want to do next? He could become very rich, very quick by hitting the speech circuit, writing books (just a glossy table top edition of his pictures would surely be a big Christmas seller) and marketing new videos. But the way you hear his family talk about it, all Canada's space hero will likely want to do, is get back to space!

Whatever he does, he is owed our respect and admiration. At a time when there's so much to be concerned about in our world, he gave us a daily, hourly, sometimes even by the minute view of our world that made us realize just how tied to each other we really are. His pictures and tweets drew on his and our emotions about ourselves.

Rock star? You betcha.

Why Did Jodon Romero Kill Himself on TV?

2013-05-16T01:24:43Z

See You On The Other Side

From the Columbia Journalism Review, the story of a woman who found out she had cancer at the age of 20, but who was determined to go ahead with a career in journalism. She had only five years left to live, and made her mark.

Why Did Jodon Romero Kill Himself on Live Television?

Some TV news stations have become addicted to police chases. They can be mesmerizing and attract high ratings. But last September in Arizona, one chase had a particularly bad ending and it was on national TV. Here's the story of what happened before, during, and after the chase.

The future of journalism?

2013-05-16T01:18:25Z

1.) Free by Chris Anderson

Fascinating argument for business models that literally give away their product. Literally. Online, of course. You can make money doing it. Really. Just look at Google. We all use so many of its services and pay nothing. Yet it's worth billions. This is a particular good read at a time that newspapers are dying because young people especially expect everything online. And they expect it to be free. The future for journalists?

"There may be more of them, not fewer, as the ability to participate in journalism extends beyond the credentialed halls of traditional media. But they may be paid far less, and for many it won't be a full time job at all. Journalism as a profession will share the stage with journalism as an avocation. Meanwhile, others may use their skills to teach and organize amateurs to do a better job covering their own communities, becoming more editor/coach than writer."

Not my cup of tea. But I'm not young.

2.) The Road Taken by Michael Buerk

In the bad old days of South African apartheid Michael Buerk was the BBC correspondent there. CBC was never allowed in by the government, but Michael would often file for us, a Canadianized version of what he did for his network. His other Canadian connection is even more interesting. His father was a Canadian. Unfortunately, his father married his mother while he was still married to a woman in Canada.

Buerk's career was full of big stories and brilliant reporting. His book is often poignant and moving. And at times hilarious too.

Quote, unquote

2013-05-16T01:05:25Z

Montreal Canadiens' P.K. Subban celebrates after scoring against the Ottawa Senators'. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)

By Mark Bulgutch and Peter Mansbridge

Last week I wrote about a mistake I made in quoting C.D. Howe, a Second World War cabinet minister, as saying, "What's a million?" As I soon discovered, he never said it. The words were put into his mouth by Conservative John Diefenbaker.

Which got me thinking about direct quotations. We don't worry about them too often in television news. Since our cameras are rolling while people talk, our reporters aren't taking frantic notes trying to get every word just right. They just go to the videotape. We can still do some editing to get to the point more quickly, but those of you watching can see the edit. It's transparent.

But the written record is quite another pot of ink.

Since I read a lot of different sources, I often come across slightly different versions of the same quotes. That bothers me a bit. I think the words between quotation marks should be exact.

Here's one example.

The day after the Montreal Canadiens lost to the Ottawa Senators to go down 3 games to 1 in their playoff series, Montreal's fine defenceman, P.K. Subban was quoted.

Here are three versions of what he said.

Canadian Press

"Guys are going to realize when we're coming out the gates and we're flying that we're the better team and there's still life in this series for us," he said. "But it takes the guys in this room to believe that.

NHL.com

"When we come out of the gates and we're flying, guys are going to realize that we're the better team and there's still life in this series for us," Subban said. "But it takes guys in this room to believe that."

The Globe and Mail

"When we come out of the gates and we're flying, guys are going to realize that we're a better team, and there's still life in this series for us," Subban said. "It takes guys in this room to believe that."

They're all pretty close. But they can't all be exactly right.

Lest you think it's just sports reporters who fudge, look at these versions of what Thomas Mulcair said about the government's plan to go after tax cheats.

Ottawa Citizen

"We had a team that was taking care of tax havens," he said. "It was called the Canada Revenue Agency. They started dismantling it by removing hundreds of millions of dollars and now they're going to put back a drop in the ocean."

Ipolitics.ca

"We had a team that was taking care of tax evasion - it was called the Canada Revenue Agency," Mulcair told reporters. "They started dismantling it by removing hundreds of millions of dollars and now they are going to put back a drop in the ocean."

Did he say, "tax havens" or "tax evasion"? Did he say "they are"? or "they're"?

I never worked at a newspaper or a wire service so I'm not sure what rules they play by. I think there's general agreement that quotes can be cleaned up for grammar or to remove profanity. But I don't think anyone would think it's okay to use "havens" and "evasion" interchangeably.

At least P.K. Subban and Thomas Mulcair said something approximating what was reported.

"What's a million?" isn't the only great line in history that no one ever uttered.

Victoria Day celebrates our longest reigning monarch. She said a lot of things in her 63 plus years on the throne. But nothing as well known as, "We are not amused." When did she say it? Well, I've read she said it when someone did an impression of her. And I've read she said it after she saw a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore. And I've read she said it when someone told a story that was somewhat scandalous. When you read so many versions of when something happened, you get suspicious. Did it happen at all?

Probably not. In a 1976 interview with the BBC, Victoria's granddaughter said, "I asked her and she said she never said it."

And then there's the great Canadian tale of what Pierre Trudeau once said, or didn't say, in the House of Commons. It was 1971. The Prime Minister wasn't too pleased with Tory hecklers and according to one of those Tories, Lincoln Alexander, Trudeau, "mouthed two words, the first word of which starts with an F, and the second word started with O."

Most sources now report that Trudeau denied the allegations and insisted he said, "fuddle duddle". But that's not so. Trudeau did deny that he mouthed the F word followed by an O word. Then a reporter asked him what he was thinking when he mouthed whatever he mouthed.

Trudeau answered, "What is the nature of your thoughts, gentlemen, when you say, 'fuddle duddle' or something like that?"

So Trudeau never actually said that he said "fuddle duddle" in the House of Commons.
History can play fast and loose with the facts. And when it deals with quotations, it's best to see them as flashing orange lights. Proceed with caution.

Peter's childhood heroes

2013-05-14T13:33:43Z

In this week's Ask Peter Mansbridge Rob Wolvin asks, "Did you have heroes as a child, if so, who?"

Great question, Rob! Watch the video below to see Peter's answer.

Ask Peter

2013-05-13T14:49:54Z

This week we have another great question from Kristoffer Laser on Twitter.

Kristoffer asks, "Role reversal, Peter, who would you like to be interviewed by and why?"

Check out Peter's surprising answer in the video below.

Have your own question for Peter Mansbridge? Leave it the comments below!

Mothers in the news

2013-05-12T15:00:37Z

A Mansbridge family portrait, featuring Peter's mother on the left.

By Mark Bulgutch and Peter Mansbridge

The good thing about competition in news is that very few stones are left unturned on a big story. And so in the last few weeks we've been able to hear from the mothers of men accused of terrorism.

First it was Zubeidat Tsarnaeva. She's the mother of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, the suspects in the Boston marathon bombings. From Dagestan, Russia, she told reporters in slightly imperfect English, "I know that my kids have nothing to do with it. I know it. I'm mother."

Then it was Raoudha Esseghaier. She's the mother of Chiheb who's accused of plotting to blow up a Via Rail train. From Tunisia she said, "I am certain my son cannot commit such an act. I know because I've raised him."

Of course the circumstances might lead us to think that neither mother actually believes what she's saying. But all the same, it struck me that they were speaking as mothers are supposed to speak. Defending their children no matter what.

We expect mothers to love their children unconditionally and forever.

The second Sunday in May is the day set aside for us to return that love.

Mother's Day has been around since 1915 in Canada. We shouldn't really need a day on the calendar to thank mothers for all they do. But I'm certain flower shops, candy stores, card-makers, and all those hotels with a Mother's Day brunch are happy to take our money. Heaven knows there are worse ways to spend.

There are all kinds of mothers. At CBC, I've seen women go off on maternity leave expecting to be back in a few months, who then decide never to come back because they want to be with their child. I've also seen women who go right from the newsroom to the hospital to have their baby. Then they're back at work in a few days. I think they both love their kid just as much.

A lot of people who do well in life often give credit to their mother. On his last day in the White House, which he was leaving in disgrace, Richard Nixon ad-libbed a long and rambling farewell speech. At one point he said, "My mother was a saint."

Too bad the source is so unpopular, because the sentiment is close to universal.

Look at the mothers some of our Prime Ministers have had. John Turner was raised from the age of three as the only child of a single mother. He saw her work as a senior civil servant and eventually become the first female chancellor of the University of British Columbia. And she lived long enough to see him become Prime Minister. Jean Chretien's mother had 19 children. Only 9 lived past infancy. (Did I say "only"?) In his first book, Chretien writes, "Unfortunately my mother died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of sixty-two and never saw how I turned out." Sons always want to make their mothers proud.

William Lyon Mackenzie King probably took things too far. He never married, and some historians say that's because no potential bride was ever good enough for his mother. He longed for her after she died. So much so that he communicated with her spirit. Or at least he believed he did.

I lost my mother a few years ago. Like most parent-child relationships we had our ups and downs over the years, but we were always pretty close. Rarely does a day go by now that I don't wish I'd told her more often that I loved her.

That's not an original thought, but that doesn't make it any less true.

They say the world is complicated. But sometimes it isn't. "I love you" is pretty simple. We should be saying it every day. Not just when the calendar reminds us.

CBC Books

2013-05-08T19:49:42Z

As you know, each week we highlight some of Peter's favourite reads in the "Recommends" section on this page.

This summer, in honour of Peter's recent 25th anniversary at The National, we've teamed up with CBC Books to bring you a collection of those picks.

Check out the Books section for more and as always, check us out every Thursday to see what Peter's reading this week.

Why close isn't good enough

2013-05-08T18:32:47Z

Last week when Andrew, Chantal and Bruce gathered around the table for our regular Thursday night "At Issue," we discussed the "missing" $3 billion in the government's anti-terrorism budget revealed in the Auditor General's report.

I chose to tease the discussion by using C.D. Howe's old line, "What's a million?" I asked for a fact check, just to make sure it had been C.D. Howe, the legendary wartime Liberal cabinet minister once known as "the minister of everything." Among other things, he was credited for moving the country from an agricultural to an industrial base. "Yes", the answer came back, after a quick check online, it certainly was C.D. Howe who the quote was attributed to, so away we went. It was a spirited conversation about the present, after establishing the past.

There was only one problem.

C.D. Howe never said it.

Nor did anyone else.

A viewer wrote in to say we'd fallen into what I now see as the Diefenbaker trap. We certainly had.

In doing the further research it also revealed how, as much as things change, somethings remain the same. Like the old adage that the more frequently you distort the truth, the more the truth becomes the distortion.

Here's what really happened all those years ago, according to a well-sourced entry in Wikipedia:

"During the debate on Howe's war spending estimates in 1945 (which totaled $1.365 billion), Howe answered an Opposition question on whether such a large sum could be reduced: "I dare say my honourable friend could cut a million dollars from that amount, but a million dollars from the War Appropriations Bill would not be a very important matter." Saskatchewan Tory MP John Diefenbaker spoke the following day, and alleged that Howe had said, "We may save a million dollars, but what of it?" Howe angrily denied the quote, accusing Diefenbaker of being "a past master of distortion"--language he was forced to withdraw as unparliamentary. Diefenbaker sharpened the anecdote over time, and it emerged in its final form as Howe saying, "What's a million?" Even Liberals who knew that Howe had made no such statement agreed that it was just the sort of thing he could have said. In the years to come, "What's a million?" would be a mocking Tory attack on the Liberals, most often directed at Howe."

Diefenbaker, the former Saskatchewan defence lawyer, was a master at this stuff in those days, and he never lost that skill. Long after his stint as prime minister, long after he was dumped as PC leader, he was still a crafty wordsmith.

When I was a young reporter in Winnipeg in the 1970's I used to go out to the Winnipeg airport most Fridays as "The Chief" would stop to change planes on his way from Ottawa to his riding in Prince Albert for the weekend. He'd hold a news conference and he was quite something. Didn't matter what the question was, he'd use the time to rant on about the prime minister of that day, Liberal Pierre Trudeau, or take veiled shots at the man who took his job as PC leader, Robert Stanfield. And no one could twist a line for effect like Dief.

Sound familiar? We like to think the cheap shots and distortions of past statements and records are something new to this Parliament and this era. They're not. Far from it.

So for the record, the viewer was right and I was wrong. C.D. Howe never said "What's a million?" It was close, but this isn't horseshoes - close doesn't count.

Maybe it does for partisan jousting, but it doesn't and it shouldn't for us.

Contest

2013-05-08T18:22:24Z

In honour of Mother's Day on Sunday, we held a special contest.

Two of Peter's favourite singers today (featured on his CBC Music playlist) appear in this photo from the '60s and young kids.

Congrats to commenter C-Lindgren who wins an Inside the News prize featuring an autographed copy of Peter's book, One on One.

See more great content on Inside the News!

Jason Collins comes out

2013-05-08T18:11:52Z

Collins Comes Out

You've read all about Jason Collins, the first active major team sport athlete to say he's gay. Here's the Sports Illustrated Story he wrote to explain why he thought the time was right.

I'm still here: back online after a year without the internet

A young man decides to stay off the internet for a full year. And he succeeds! Was it good for him? Or bad for him? Really interesting to see what he thinks.

Roger Mudd's 'The Place to Be'

2013-05-08T18:08:53Z

1.) The Place to Be by Roger Mudd

Roger Mudd may be remembered by TV historians as the man who didn't succeed Walter Cronkite as the anchor of the CBS Evening News. He was the heir apparent for a long time, but when Cronkite stepped down, CBS gave the job to Dan Rather. Mudd quit on the spot. But he never lost his love for CBS News, at least the CBS News he was part of. Mudd covered Congress as part of the network's Washington bureau. It's that bureau that Mudd writes about with eloquence and an insider's understanding of how CBS worked. It made me think of my years in CBC's Ottawa bureau.

2.) Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King

The 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner for general non-fiction. A story that draws a scary picture of the southern United States during the long struggle for black civil rights. A young white woman accuses four black men of rape, and their fate is sealed. The justice system won't care if the accusation is true. The men barely avoid a lynch mob, but they can't avoid a racist sheriff, his deputy, and the temper of the times.

Peter's first show

2013-05-02T18:48:53Z

25 years ago Peter Mansbridge took over the anchor's chair on The National. Take a look back at Peter's first day on the job!