(Image credit: Canadian Press)

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Lisa LaFlamme, the media and drawing our own conclusions

Aug 20, 2022 | 6:35 AM

MOST EVENINGS for the past several years, our TV set has been tuned to the CTV National News with Lisa LaFlamme (but not before the local news, of course).

LaFlamme is, or was, head and shoulders above any of the anchors CBC could put in front of a camera for The National. Proudly wearing her Order of Canada pin night after night, she smoothly and engagingly introduced story after story, concluding with an “Alright, Genevieve Beauchemin (or whichever other reporter it happened to be) in Ottawa (or some other city) tonight.”

But, LaFlamme is gone, fired because of, according to CTV, “changing viewer habits.” I didn’t change mine so I don’t know who they’re talking about. Besides, LaFlamme’s viewership numbers easily outpaced competing networks. So, if it’s not changing viewer habits, what’s the real reason she got the heave ho?

This has been the big question of the week. While ordinary Canadians are probably more focused on the return of Zellers (although a petition demanding LaFlamme’s reinstatement is gathering momentum), media commentators have been beside themselves with indignation over the move.

They’ve been offering up their own conclusions as to what’s behind it: Sexism. LaFlamme is a woman. Ageism. LaFlamme is 58. She let her hair go grey. Yeah, that’s it, must be because she let her hair go grey. She was making too much money. According to one source, she was being paid $350,00 per year. She didn’t get along with senior staff. (There was a change in structure recently.)

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She created a toxic newsroom — she could be pushy. Top management created a toxic work environment and she was a victim of it. The consequences of LaFlamme’s termination are, apparently, almost too horrible to contemplate.

Old journalists can now expect to be discarded on a whim (Fifty-eight, I guess, qualifies as “old.”) Young people will be afraid to go into journalism because they know they won’t make it to pension age. Women will have no hope of getting good jobs in TV.

Journalism is doomed. I don’t know if any of the conjecture about the reasons for LaFlamme’s firing is true. I do know CTV has lots of excellent female anchors, including Jennifer Burke, Merella Fernandez, Angie Seth, Marcia MacMillan and Sandie Rinaldo, who happens to be 72.

This would seem to rule out sexism and ageism, which are the two most popular conspiracy theories among her fellow journalists this week. I also doubt if anyone was much bothered by the colour of LaFlamme’s hair, unless she’d gone fluorescent orange.

It’s true, however, that there’s a double standard when it comes to hair colour — LaFlamme’s decision to stop dying her hair was regarded by some as brave and edgy, while nobody even noticed as Lloyd Robertson gradually went white and Peter Mansbridge gradually went bald. As for money, LaFlamme was well paid but not outrageously paid considering she was the top news anchor in the country.

CTV reportedly paid Robertson $400,000 annually. Media are, of course, businesses. They have to make money. When times get tight, newsrooms are always the easiest place to cut. There are more than a few fine journalists in Kamloops who lost their careers when they were replaced with younger, less expensive help, or not replaced at all.

I had my own experiences with budget cuts more than once when I had to cut loose some really good reporters. What about the toxic newsroom and disagreements with senior management theory? Who knows? Current and former colleagues of LaFlamme have different opinions on that. As for all those worried journalists out there declaring that today’s journalism is a nasty bottom-line game, well, poor babies.

Sure, it’s tough being in the media these days. The salad days of big profits and bloated newsrooms are over. Many good reporters have gotten an unpleasant shock on a Friday afternoon as they discovered they no longer had jobs. Reshuffles of TV newsrooms are particularly common.

The reasons are seldom clear. When coanchors Mike Killeen and Tamara Taggart lost their jobs on CTV News Vancouver, it was called “a refresh.” When several newsroomers were released from CTV News Ottawa, it was characterized as “a shift.” But it’s no tougher than any other vocation, profession or 9 to 5 lunch bucket job.

One thing is clear: CTV bungled its handling of LaFlamme’s canning, making it appear she was being disrespected, not even given an opportunity to say goodbye on air, or given the customary video-clip farewell lauding her career. Bell Media, CTV’s owner, announced yesterday it has ordered an independent review.

So what does Lisa LaFlamme’s unwilling departure from CTV tell us? Nothing, really, except that when we don’t have the facts we just draw whatever conclusions suit us.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.