The Michael Cooke files: Straight coverage of the Toronto Star editor when he oversaw the Province newspaper

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      This week, Toronto Star editor Michael Cooke has been in the news in connection with the resignation of Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist Paul Watson.

      Watson claimed that Cooke wouldn't approve publishing the results of his investigation into the discovery of explorer John Franklin's lost ship, the HMS Erubus, in Queen Maud Gulf last year.

      Meanwhile, Toronto Star publisher John Cruickshank has written a letter to staff declaring that his paper has never suppressed stories of significant public interest.

      Cooke was appointed editor of the Toronto Star in 2009.

      He quit his job at the Chicago Sun-Times to return to Canada.

      Michael Cooke discussed his journalistic philosophy in this 2012 Canadian Journalism Foundation video.

      I remember covering some colourful events that occurred in the Vancouver Province newsroom from 1995 to 2000 while Cooke was editor-in-chief.

      My stories all appeared as short items in the Straight Talk section, which is a collection of newsy items. Anyone who's interested can scroll down and read about each incident below the date that the article appeared.

      October 19, 1995

      The Vancouver Newspaper Guild has backed up Province copy editor Bob Mercer after he was involved in an unusual altercation with his boss, Province editor-in-chief Michael Cooke. Mercer was unavailable for comment, and Cooke declined to discuss what happened.

      From other sources, it appears that on October 5, Mercer was crossing Granville Street near the Pacific Press building when a green, four-door Taurus came roaring at him. Mercer thought the late-model sedan had deliberately swerved toward him, so he started shouting at the driver.

      After the driver stopped the car, an irate Mercer kicked out the side mirror. Only then did he learn that his boss, Cooke, was the man behind the wheel.

      “First of all, when Bob realized who was there, he was completely embarrassed and immediately apologized to Cooke and offered to pay for the broken mirror,” Newspaper Guild president Jan O’Brien told the Straight. “I think that’s really important. He had no idea who was in the car.”

      O’Brien said there was a brief meeting with people in the human-resources department, and, according to her, the guild believed Mercer’s explanation was accepted and there would be no discipline. However, on October 11, Mercer was suspended without pay for two weeks.

      “The response from the company was, ‘If you don’t like it, arbitrate,’ ” O’Brien said. “I mean, [there was] no willingness to look into this, hear our side, to do some problem-solving.”

      She said the union is filing a grievance because its members are outraged by what has happened.

      “If we can’t resolve it with them, we will apply for expedited arbitration because it’s really something where justice has to be done quickly,” she said.

      Pacific Press spokesperson Don MacLachlan told the Straight that he heard there was some damage to Cooke’s car but he didn’t know enough to comment any further.

      Cooke called the situation an “internal disciplinary matter” and acknowledged that by not commenting, only one side of the story was likely to get out. Cooke also refused to tell the Straight how fast he was driving.

      November 20, 1997

      The president of the union that represents reporters at the Vancouver Sun and the Province has been barred from entering the Province newsroom without management’s consent.

      Pacific Press human resources director Ian Henry wrote a letter on November 13 to Jan O’Brien, president of Local 115 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers of Canada (formerly the Newspaper Guild), telling her that she must first seek the permission of editor-in-chief Michael Cooke, managing editor Vivienne Sosnowski, or, in their absence, the next-highest-ranking management representative before entering the newsroom.

      “We ask that you confine your dealings with our employee [sic] to before or after their shift or while they are on a break,” Henry wrote. “We recognize that occasionally this may not be possible and as such, we will consider your requests that you speak to employees while they are on shift.”

      Shop steward Hugh Ferguson sent a memo to several employees on November 12 stating that O’Brien learned of the new rule during a visit to the newsroom that day.

      Ferguson ended his memo by quoting the union contract, which states: “There shall be no interference or attempt to interfere with the operation of the Guild.” O’Brien was unavailable for comment.

      October 21, 1999

      The editor-in-chief of the Province newspaper, Michael Cooke, told the Straight that Simon Fraser University communication professor Bob Hackett’s comments were deleted from an October 14 front-page news story about two Reform party MPs because Hackett isn’t a “neutral” source.

      Reporter Jack Keating had contacted Hackett—a critic of Conrad Black, the chairman of Hollinger Inc., which owns the Province—for a story about a new radio show cohosted by Reform MPs Mike Scott and Randy White.

      Cooke said he told newsroom staff that he didn’t regard Hackett as a neutral commentator on the Reform party.

      “His shtick is left-wing media commentator,” Cooke told the Straight. “Nothing wrong with it at all, but that’s his shtick. He’s not neutral.”

      Cooke said Hackett’s comments would have been printed if they were balanced by someone who was either “truly neutral” or by someone on the other side of the ideological spectrum.

      “They couldn’t find anybody, so we took it out,” Cooke said.

      Hackett told the Straight that he wasn’t commenting on Reform party politics to Keating but was speaking about the ethics and implications of MPs from one party buying time on a radio station for a hot-line show.

      “As an academic who has researched the news media for nearly 20 years, I have become increasingly concerned about the implications for democracy of concentrated media ownership,” Hackett said. “In this case, the Province is apparently promoting those sources who accord with the owner’s political views and censoring those who do not. I think this case illustrates once again the dangers of lack of pluralism in the press system.”

      In 1998, Hackett was a consultant on a 40-page paper that was written by SFU communications professor Donald Gutstein. It concluded that the Vancouver Sun, which is also controlled by Hollinger, provided “preferential” coverage to Hollinger.

      The report noted that between May, 1, 1996, and April 30, 1997, the Vancouver Sun printed 2.5 supportive op-ed pieces for each one critical of Hollinger; during the same period, the Toronto Star, which is not owned by Hollinger, printed five critical op-ed pieces for every one that supported Hollinger.

      On the news side, the Vancouver Sun printed a far higher number of supportive stories about Hollinger than about three other large media corporations: Rogers Communications Inc., Thomson Corp., and WIC Western International Communications Ltd.

      On October 15, the Straight received an anonymous note alleging that reporters and editors at the Province had launched a protest against Cooke for “blatant political interference” in removing Hackett’s comments from Keating’s story.

      The note also alleged that Cooke did this over the objections of the city editor, night city editor, assignment editor, copy editor, and reporter. Cooke, however, denied this.

      “I hope that the person who wrote you that memo, if he’s a reporter on staff at this newspaper, is better in his daily pursuit of the truth than he is in writing anonymous memos to your newspaper,” he said.

      Cooke said three newsroom staffers—Shane McCune, Christina Montgomery, and Lorne Smith—met with him to discuss why Hackett’s comments were deleted from the story.

      “I gave them the explanation I’m giving you,” Cooke said. “I don’t think he’s a neutral source, period.”

      The anonymous memo also alleged that Cooke is “shameless in his support of the Fraser Institute”, a corporation-supported, right-wing think tank based in Vancouver. The memo also purported that Cooke ordered the Fraser Institute to be called “prestigious”.

      Cooke denied issuing orders about how the institute should be described, although he conceded that he was probably the person at the Province who described the Fraser Institute as “prestigious” on the front page earlier this year for a story about the school system.

      “Sure, I tease people here with the Fraser Institute,” Cooke said.

      Hackett is codirector of an organization called NewsWatch Canada, which has criticized the Fraser Institute’s media-content analyses.

      Province publisher and Hollinger president David Radler is a member of the Fraser Institute’s board of trustees, and Hollinger was a $99,000 donor to the Fraser Institute’s building project.

      On the wall of the institute’s “Hollinger wing” hangs a picture of executive director Michael Walker beside Conrad Black.

      Mike Bocking, president of Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada Local 2000, which represents employees at the Province, told the Straight that morale is “very, very low” in the paper’s newsroom and that some editors in the Hollinger empire are “pandering” to the company’s owners by promoting the Fraser Institute.

      Cooke said he would like to see Bocking provide evidence of this, and he claimed that Bocking’s job is to complain about morale.

      “Management has to manage,” Cooke said, “but journalists, like all people, are somewhat responsible for the maintenance of their own morale.”

      December 9, 1999

      Simon Fraser University communications professor Robert Hackett has filed a four-page written complaint to the British Columbia Press Council against the editor-in-chief of the Province newspaper, Michael Cooke.

      Hackett filed the complaint after Cooke told the Straight in an October news story that Hackett’s “shtick” is being a “left-wing media commentator”.

      The Straight story revealed that Cooke had ordered the deletion of Hackett’s comments from a Province news story about two Reform MPs who had bought time on a local radio station, AM 1040, to host a talk show.

      Cooke told the Straight at the time that Hackett’s comments were deleted from the news story because Cooke didn’t believe that he was a “neutral source”.

      Hackett’s complaint to the press council alleged that Cooke had “inaccurately, unfairly and publicly characterized my many years of media commentary based on more than 15 years of academic research and publishing (including three books and dozens of peer-reviewed articles, papers and chapters) as a ‘left-wing shtick’.”

      The complaint noted that according to Webster’s dictionary, the word “shtick” is derived from Yiddish for “prank, or caprice”, and refers to a “comic scene”, an “attention-getting device”, or a “special trait”.

      “Moreover, in arbitrarily deleting my comments without making clear the criteria for determining who is a ‘left-wing’, ‘neutral’ or ‘right-wing’ expert, Mr. Cooke has wittingly or not, sent a message to his reporters that I am not to be regarded as a bona fide expert within my field of specialization,” Hackett wrote. “SFU professors are expected to engage in community service and to help disseminate knowledge in their field, including their own research. By sending out such a censorious—and arguably censorial—signal, Mr. Cooke has both cast doubts upon my professional reputation, and made it more difficult for me to fulfil my professional responsibilities.”

      Hackett also stated that he is concerned that there may be a “double-standard” in how senior Province editorial staff make decisions on balance and access.

      “A study conducted by one of our students in 1996 found that the Province quoted ‘right-wing’ over ‘left-wing’ policy institutes by a ratio of 5.3 to 1, compared to an average ratio of 2.6 to 1 in the 15 major Canadian news outlets sampled,” Hackett wrote.

      He has demanded a “public retraction” of Cooke’s public “denigration” of his work as a media source. Hackett also wants a public clarification of what criteria the Province uses to determine who is “neutral” and who is “biased”.

      When contacted by the Straight, Cooke declined to comment.

      February 3, 2000

      Province editor-in-chief Michael Cooke recently returned from vacation to discover that during the previous week, his paper had been cited twice for contempt of court and lost a $45,000 libel judgment to a North Vancouver firefighter.

      The first contempt citation occurred in connection with a cover story about the Mindy Tran trial.

      “It is not clear to me from reading the transcript that the judge himself considers this to be in contempt,” Cooke said.

      The case has been adjourned until March 13.

      Cooke said on February 1 that he learned about the second contempt citation from a January 28 article by a freelance writer in the Vancouver Sun.

      The paper reported that a mistrial had been declared in a first-degree murder trial in Rossland and that the contempt hearing is scheduled for February 21.

      “We’ve heard nothing from the court, the judge, the Crown counsel, the defence, the accused, or anybody involved in that,” Cooke said.

      North Vancouver firefighter Phil Grassi won an $80,000 libel award from CKNW Radio and the Province after it reported he had been charged with communicating with a prostitute.

      Grassi was subsequently acquitted and sued after police published his name on a list of so-called Johns. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Lysyk ordered the Province to pay $45,000, compared to CKNW’s $35,000 loss, partly because the paper had not published a retraction or apology.

      However, Cooke himself has escaped being hauled before a public hearing.

      On December 20, the British Columbia Press Council dismissed SFU communications professor Bob Hackett’s complaint that Cooke publicly denigrated his professional reputation in an interview last year with the Straight. When asked to explain why Hackett’s comments had been deleted from a Province news story, Cooke described the professor’s work as left-wing “shtick”.

      The press council’s three-person review board determined that Cooke made an “editing decision of the kind that is frequently made”. On January 20, Hackett wrote to press-council chair Ted Hughes to request a review of the facts and to arrange a public hearing.

      March 16, 2000

      Vancouver Sun editor-in-chief John Cruickshank has a For Sale sign outside his West Side home, further fuelling speculation in the newsroom that he will be appointed to a top job at the Chicago Sun-Times.

      Cruickshank, who didn’t return a call from the Straight by deadline, was recently in Chicago with Province editor-in-chief Michael Cooke, working on a redesign of the Hollinger Inc.–owned Sun-Times. Hollinger also owns Southam Inc., which owns the Vancouver Sun and Province.

      “There’s a For Sale sign on his lawn and not on mine,” Cooke told the Straight. “Nor will I have one on my lawn in the foreseeable future. That’s all I can say.”

      Cruickshank’s wife, Jennifer Hunter, was recently appointed as Vancouver bureau chief for Maclean’s magazine. She did not return a call from the Straight.

      Some editorial staff at the Vancouver Sun and Province have speculated that Cooke will become the new editor-in-chief of the Sun. Cooke has been spotted packing boxes in his office at the Province, but he wouldn’t confirm the rumours.

      “What I’ve been doing is sorting through various hate mail that I’ve received from anonymous members of staff over the years,” Cooke quipped. “I haven’t been packing up boxes.”

      April 13, 2000

      The editors in chief of the Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers each sold their houses within four days of one another, fuelling rumours that both will soon be transferred to the Chicago Sun-Times. All three papers are owned by Hollinger, which is chaired by Conrad Black.

      On March 17, Vancouver Sun editor in chief John Cruickshank and his wife, Maclean’s magazine bureau chief Jennifer Hunter, sold their West Side house for $747,000. Province editor in chief Michael Cooke sold his Deep Cove home for $465,000 on March 13.

      On March 14, the Straight called Cooke to inquire if he would be joining Cruickshank at the Chicago Sun-Times.

      At the time, Cooke replied: “There’s a For Sale sign on his lawn and not on mine. Nor will I have one on my lawn in the foreseeable future. That’s all I can say.”

      Meanwhile, the Straight’s classical-music commentator, Douglas Hughes, said he has been informed by reliable sources that the editor-in-chief of the Ottawa Citizen, Neil Reynolds, will replace Cruickshank at the Vancouver Sun.

      “I spoke to three of his closest associates,” Hughes said, adding that he worked for Reynolds at newspapers in New Brunswick in the early 1990s.

      A spokesperson for the Vancouver Sun and Province did not return the Straight’s call by deadline.

      Previously, Reynolds was editor of the Kingston Whig-Standard and national leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada.

      April 20, 2000

      One Vancouver Sun reporter compared it to a scene out of the movie Norma Rae.

      After being suspended by Sun management on April 12, the paper’s real-estate reporter, Wyng Chow, and assistant business editor, Maurice Bridge, both marched out of the newsroom to a standing ovation from their editorial colleagues.

      Now their union—Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada Local 2000—is prepared to spend thousands of dollars fighting for their journalistic right to show a company manager’s home in the business section’s Market Value feature.

      The controversy erupted on April 12 when the Sun published Chow’s summary of the recent $465,000 sale of Province editor in chief Michael Cooke’s home in Deep Cove.

      The Market Value feature included a picture of the house, describing it as an “executive-potential home on dead-end street”, but didn’t mention the owner’s name.

      Later that morning, according to newsroom sources, Sun managing editor Patricia Graham suspended Chow for two days and Bridge for one day.

      Both the Sun and the Province are published by Pacific Press Ltd., which is owned by Southam Inc.

      Mike Bocking, president of CEP Local 2000, told the Straight that the disciplinary action is “totally unwarranted”. He blamed it on “hypersensitivity in the management ranks”.

      Pacific Press spokesperson Don MacLachlan declined to comment on the suspensions.

      “It’s an internal matter and not one I’m going to discuss,” he said.

      Bocking said the union is prepared to spend thousands of dollars battling the suspensions, which he characterized as an attack on journalistic independence.

      “Although it may seem a silly issue and somewhat absurd, we do think there is an important journalism issue here, so we will be proceeding to arbitration,” Bocking said. “It’s not good that reporters have to be super-sensitive to whether or not they might be incurring the displeasure of senior executives within the company that they don’t actually report to.”

      Recently, several Sun business reporters testified at an arbitration hearing after the union had grieved the reassignment of reporter Alan Daniels.

      “Wyng was a witness at that arbitration and he spoke up for Alan,” Bocking said. “I don’t know that it’s connected. I wouldn’t even want to speculate that it is. I think the impetus for this particular thing comes more from Province editorial than Sun editorial.”

      November 2, 2000

      Former Vancouver Province editor-in-chief Michael Cooke has managed to enrage Arab community leaders in Chicago.

      On October 30, Editor & Publisher magazine reported that Arab groups have held several protest rallies in front of the Chicago Sun-Times, which is owned by Conrad Black’s Hollinger, after an October 3 editorial described Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as “nothing but a murderer”.

      Cooke, now the editor-in-chief of the Sun-Times, told Editor & Publisher magazine that the protesters have never contacted his paper.

      Hollinger president David Radler is the publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times, as well as chairman of Pacific Press, which publishes the Vancouver Sun and Province. Hollinger also owns the Jerusalem Post.

      Cooke was occasionally at the centre of disputes with unionized employees over a variety of issues when he worked at the Province.

      The most recent controversy erupted earlier this year when two Vancouver Sun editorial employees, Wyng Chow and Maurice Bridge, were briefly suspended after publishing the sale price of Cooke’s house in North Vancouver.

      Comments

      1 Comments

      Donald G.

      Jul 10, 2015 at 4:11pm

      It's now ten months since my book, Harperism: How Stephen Harper and His Think Tank Colleagues Have Transformed Canada, came out. Of course, it looks critically at how the Fraser Institute distorts reality to prove neoliberal ideology. And I'm still waiting for a mention of the book in the pages of the Toronto Star.