OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN

English Services

Review: George Stroumboulopoulos’s interview with Adam “Dreamhealer” on The Hour.

April 29, 2008

You wrote to complain about the interview done on The Hour by George Stroumboulopoulos with the so-called Adam Dreamhealer. In sum, you felt that the man was a charlatan and that the program host did not adequately question his guest about his claims.

In a subsequent e-mail to me, you repeated, with references, your strongly held view that Mr. “Dreamhealer” has not, and could not substantiate his claims. You also said that the response from the program’s producer, Jennifer Dettman, “claims unequivocally that he (“Dreamhealer”) can perform distant healing.”

Her response to your initial letter said that the subject was “unusual,” that he had published a number of best selling books and that Ronnie Hawkins claims that “Dreamhealer” cured his pancreatic cancer. This all went to support the notion that he was a subject of public interest. She went on to say that George Stroumboulopoulos did pose questions raising an opposing view.

Review:

The first thing I should note is that The Hour is a somewhat anomalous program. It is produced by the Factual Entertainment department, not the News and Current Affairs department. It contains both “hard” information segments and much lighter material. That being said, journalistic interviews such as the one at issue would still be subject to the broad strictures of CBC’s Journalistic Standards and Practices.

The segment at issue was not a “report” but an interview designed to expose the opinions and background of the guest. As Ms. Dettman stated: “…inviting someone on THE HOUR for an interview does not mean that we agree or disagree with their views.” I also note that in her recounting of their reasons for having Mr. “Dreamhealer” on the program she did not express belief in Mr. “Dreamhealer’s” ability or claims. The portion that you quoted was carefully credited to what others believe or what the subject asserts—things that make him, as Ms. Dettman put it, “a curiosity…a newsworthy individual who we believed would be of interest to Canadians.”

George Stroumboulopoulos is not a front-line, hard news interviewer; he approaches sometimes difficult subjects in a less confrontational manner than investigative journalists might. But his task is different on what is, at base, an entertainment program. In that light, I noted that the majority of questions he asked raised a skeptical premise. He did not pin Mr. “Dreamhealer” to the floor, but, I would submit, that was not his task. What he did do was put a skeptical context to the rather astonishing claims. He did not give the subject a free ride, nor did he conduct what’s called an accountability interview (e.g., “What did you know and when did you know it…?”). However, from where I sat, I at least had sufficient information to be appropriately skeptical of the subject’s claims. Undoubtedly, there may be those who came away with the belief that he indeed has some mystical power. But the sale of the books and the attendance at the “workshops” show there are more than enough people prepared to believe.

One could question the value of having such individuals on at all. This is trickier territory. Over the course of a perhaps overlong career in journalism I have received quite a lot of mail decrying interviews with people holding unpopular or even wrong-headed views. My consistent answer has been that if those views, no matter how wrong-headed, are held by a significant number of people, it is better to get them out in the open where they can be judged on their merits.

Conclusion:

Exploring popular phenomena, including people like Adam Dreamhealer, is not a violation of CBC’s Journalistic Standards and Practices, particularly when appropriate skeptical note is taken of countervailing opinion.

Vince Carlin

CBC Ombudsman