Artists should ask Krista Erickson why she lobbed softball questions at Brian Mulroney

by Charlie Smith on June 8th, 2011 at 5:06 PM

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The arts community is in an uproar over Krista Erickson's verbal mugging of dancer Margie Gillis on Sun News, aka Fox News North.

Wouldn't it be nice if Erickson, a self-described Philistine, demonstrated the same degree of vigour in questioning Stephen Harper's use of a government plane to fly to Boston to watch Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final?

It costs approximately $11,000 per hour to operate the Challenger jet. This is according to Harper himself when he was in Opposition condemning Liberal politicians for flying around the country.

Watching Erickson go after Gillis, I was reminded of a Norman Spector column about the Sun News broadcaster, which appeared in the Globe and Mail last November.

Entitled "Sun TV and a Conservative 'scandal' ", Spector's article reviewed the curious circumstances of Erickson's coverage of Brian Mulroney's appearance before the House of Commons ethics committee in 2007.

There were allegations that Erickson (a favourite target of the now-defunct Frank magazine) had fed questions to a Liberal MP on the committee.

"How Conservative supporters howled when news of the incident first broke," Spector wrote. "Ms. Erickson was immediately pulled off the story by CBC management. Then, after the Conservative Party filed a formal complaint with the CBC’s Ombudsman, she was moved out of the Ottawa bureau and re-assigned."

Oddly, the inquiries didn't relate to Mulroney's dealings with Karlheinz Schreiber or Air Canada's controversial purchase of Airbus planes.

Instead, Spector noted, Erickson's questions concerned whether or not the prime minister had done any lobbying for Quebecor, which owns Sun News.

Mulroney has been a mentor to Quebecor's major shareholder and CEO, Pierre-Karl Peladeau. (Quebecor owns numerous newspapers, including 24 hours in Vancouver.

Erickson was also in a relationship with Conservative MP Lee Richardson, who formerly worked in Mulroney's office.

Spector later pointed out that the Conservatives exploited Erickson's use of a Liberal MP to raise funds from their supporters.

And Erickson was eventually hired to host the show on Sun News. This indicates that Peladeau, Mulroney, and Stephen Harper's former press secretary who runs the station, Kory Teneycke, didn't have a problem with her.

So why did she lob those softball questions at Mulroney, anyway? And did anyone put her up to this?

Maybe the next artist who goes on Erickson's program can respond to her questions about cultural funding with inquiries about her dealings with Brian Mulroney and his friends. Wouldn't that make for an interesting interview?

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.

Comments

12 Comments

Danger Bay Fan

Jun 9, 2011 at 7:40am

The woman clearly has no scrupples or intergity - whatever gets her in the spotlight is what she's after. And her skills as a journalist are so very laughable.

Judith Marcuse

Jun 9, 2011 at 3:05pm

Can someone tell me what the mechanisms are in Canada to deal with a "journalist" who bullies a guest, lies and distorts the facts and crosses the line of just about every element of ethical behaviour? Will our letters to the CRTC have any effect?

Rick

Jun 9, 2011 at 4:30pm

Judith, I can answer your question. There is a mechanism to deal with jounalists who bully guests, lie, and cross every line of ethical behaviour. They get a prime time gig on the CBC, only if their lefty of course.

Karen C

Jun 9, 2011 at 4:59pm

I guess Krista blocked out the whole CBC employing her and supporting her career "on the back of taxpayers" thing?
It was just a terrible interview. You can't prove a point by repeating the same ignorant fact over and over and not letting your guest reply. Krista should be embarrassed as a journalist for her ignorance forget the subject matter.

Ruth Truth

Jun 10, 2011 at 4:24am

Mulroney is on the board of directors of Quebecor - or was. QED. It would be great if we all weren't stupid enough to give these rubes the time of day and ratings.

Cory

Jun 10, 2011 at 11:47am

Little off topic, but isn't it fairly well known that Harper has a record of always reimbursing his personal travel out of his own pocket?

Also, what kind of journalist describes themselves as a philistine?

Video speaks for itself.

isabelle

Jun 14, 2011 at 12:27pm

The government invests billions in the army. Do i want to give my tax dollars to this insanity ? Absolutely not. Margie Gillis was able to bring beauty to the world for the past 40 years with a little million dollars... The government gives tax payers's money to projects that destroys the environment and kills thousands of people in the name of economy. To see a person like Krista Erickson scares the hell out of me. People that just think about money, it's a shame.

john corbett

Jun 29, 2011 at 4:04pm

I never heard of Krista Erickson until now. See how it works. How does it feel to be played
like a fiddle? We probably haven't seen anything yet. The Morons are drawn to this stuff
like moths to a flame.

stephen elliott-buckley

Jun 29, 2011 at 9:24pm

judith, good questions. sadly, the crtc's mandate has nothing to do with protecting/enforcing the integrity of journalism or the media in canada.

note the contradictory mandates:
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/backgrnd/brochures/b29903.htm

"The CRTC does not regulate newspapers, magazines, cell phone rates, the quality of service and business practices of cell phone companies, or the quality and content of TV and radio programs.

"As an independent organization, the CRTC works to serve the needs and interests of citizens, industries, interest groups and the government."

that first sentence says what it doesn't do. the second vaguely suggests they have an interest in serving the nebulous needs and interests of citizens, etc. in reality, citizens should be last on that list, as that first sentence limits their scope of usefulness.