Source : Toronto Star

Got a call yesterday afternoon from a producer for CBC News Sunday asking if I thought journalists had an obligation to act professionally 24/7. "No," I snapped. "They have an obligation to act professionally when there's a camera on." Or, in the case of less telegenic types, when there's an open mike, or when they're representing their newspaper. Shouldn't it be obvious? If you're in the public eye and don't want your behaviour making the gossip columns or headlines, then don't do it — especially if you're the flagship face for a news organization. The subject of yesterday's telephone exchange was, of course, Citytv's Gord Martineau, the veteran anchor who behaved like a dick, waving a pretend one around, insulting everybody from cancer patients to gays, during a taping of station promos a few years ago. I'd be more precise about his outbursts except that I viewed the video last week, after tripping over it on Frank magazine's Web forum, and didn't save it to my hard drive. Silly me. The lawyers have intimidated Frank into taking it down. I should have figured that a newspaper owned by a rival TV outfit would pounce on the pictures and make front-page hay out of them. And, right on schedule, the National Post, owned by CanWest Global, did that very thing on Tuesday. Three ironies in that. First, the story was penned by Glen McGregor, who toils for the Ottawa Citizen, another CanWest outlet, and who is himself a former Frankster. Second, more than 12 years ago, a Global anchor, somewhat over-refreshed, mistook the Star's Rita Zekas for me at an industry party and launched into a verbal assault on her for something I had written. Needless to say, Frank got a hold of that. And not long after, he was out of a job. Third, the Post is edited by Matthew Fraser, my erstwhile co-host on CBC Newsworld's Inside Media. As the studio hands, whose ears still burn, can tell you, many an unprofessional word was spoken between us during program breaks. (I'd tell you the Hummer story, but this is a family newspaper.) I don't think he'd like the tapes out there. But the only people we trashed were each other. Martineau can't claim the same. Since most Citytv viewers don't read the Post, or the Citizen, they may have been mystified by his less-than-grovelling apology printed — everywhere! — yesterday: "I'm personally mortified some tired, silly and inappropriate comments I made might damage the stellar reputation that Citytv has earned," he said in a statement that extolled his 35 years as a newsman and his station's record of "reflecting every voice, every race, every face, every cause." Which is why Martineau should have known better. His co-anchor Anne Mroczkowski sure did. The video portrays her as somewhat long-suffering, as he blows take after take, making off-colour "jokes." Material such as this has always been the stuff of blooper tapes, the usual entertainment at newsroom Christmas parties. Only staffers ever saw them — until the Internet. Now, one click of the mouse and you've got global dissemination. All the more reason to keep your trap zipped. Indeed, you're more likely to get exposed on-line than on network TV. Think back to 2000, when CTV Newsnet's Avery Haines achieved world fame for her "lesbian, folk-dancing, black woman stutterer" comments. Few people probably caught them, since they were uttered in the morning on a cable channel. But, judging from the traffic to the Frank site last week, plenty more folks saw Martineau's mincing mockery of gay men. He is getting off easy: Haines was fired, while two CTV staffers were suspended. That brings us back to the conversation with the CBC producer. While it's nice to know that the anchor who delivers your nightly news is human, you would expect that they talk from their head, their heart and not another part of their anatomy. This is why anchor characters such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show's Ted Baxter and The Newsroom's Jim Walcot are so funny. Anchors are presented to viewers as credible people of intelligence, integrity and weight when insiders know they are anything but.

So yes, well-known journalists have to maintain their professional image at all times. That's why they're paid the big bucks — so that we take them seriously.

© The Toronto Star