Allan: Premature Adjudication and The Tao of Tod

Submitted for your pleasure by Allan.
Enjoy.
~O

Despite the heavy title, this is in no way intended to compete with Harry Potter.
Knowlton Nash has always been the best newsman I’ve ever encountered, so smart and decent, but I never thought of him as having a sense of humour.
Yet there it was on page 11 of his book “Trivia Pursuit”:

The premature adjudication of the sex accusations against Clinton made in early 1998 represented the most flagrant desertion of journalistic professionalism in recent memory.

He wrote that in late 1998 not knowing that deserters were soon going to outnumber the enlisted.
And this call for integrity and principles seems rather quaint and a bit clownish nowadays when the world is being handed to us “straight up” by George of The Hour and Peter, Prince of Dull.
I mention the great Mr. Nash because I was reading through his book today and did some premature adjudication myself recently.
I submitted a comment to Tod at insidecbc.ca and found it rejected, again.
And as usual, I have to try and figure out where I went wrong.
Tod has standards, don’t you know, and doesn’t permit anything he deems a personal attack to be seen in print, so when you read the comments you’re hardly getting the full picture.
It’s more like a blog of baloney.
But it was actually clear some time ago that Tod’s work had jumped the shark.
I was especially stunned when he censored himself after the fact by deleting a photograph as soon as Burman sprinkled holy water on the news out of Virginia Tech.
In this case, I not only implied that Tod was stupid, but also anyone who was even thinking of disagreeing with me.
Hence the premature adjudication.
Notice what a jokemiester I’ve become from just hanging out with Knowlton?
But I wrote my comment before reading his book, and here it is, for your eyes only.

27 Comments

  • Blistering Barnacles says:

    Yes, I was asked to take some stuff down. Tod thought it might damage his ability to get more freelance work. I was trying to be nice.

    Taking stuff down must go against the grain. Steady on, Ouimet, being nice might inhibit your ability to get the CBC Pres gig…. !

  • Anonymous says:

    Do you mean Choire Sicha and Nick Denton? I’m missing the lesson here.

    I, a listener, totally not involved with the CBC, lost respect for Tod a long time ago – Real Life Chronicle. I have never cringed as much as I did listening to his Ira Glass impression every week.

    If you’re worried about getting work, Tod, worry about that.

    Or worry about the fact that you blog that your depression keeps you from working. I read that on your blog. Just repeating.

    Public figures need to be open to criticism.

    Publicly-funded figures too.

  • Paul says:

    “Threating”, Joe? That’s a powerful accusation – please back it up, because I don’t see Ouimet using such terms herself. She says “asked”. You have other information?

    While you are at it, what part of what official document, mentioned on your blog, puts the kibosh on CBC bloggers talking about CBC? Because I’ve read those documents, and didn’t find that part either.

    Does this stuff exist, or are you being dramatic? I’d ask on your own blog, but you don’t allow comments.

  • Ouimet says:

    That’s actually pretty funny Bryanf.

    My aplogies, Joe, I was asked to take yours down, too. But here it is without the bits that were deemed defamatory:

    Tod has a tendency to act like a scared freelancer. (I never got scared. I just had my entire business collapse.) He’™ll misinterpret a criticism of one post ’“ or a pattern of posts, or his entire embedded/independent CBC blog ’“ as the beginning of the end of his career.

    (Like in a 1980s TV movie about a young girl battling cancer. Our lass enjoys 20 minutes of remission, then gets a bloody nose and turns to her mom to screech ’œIt’™s starting again!’)

    I would never presume to advise Tod to stop being so sensitive. I take the *weather* personally. What matters are actions, not reactions. I *would* advise him that he’™s operating a very public blog for a public broadcaster, and he allows comments on his site. (Comments are a make-or-break issue. It is no coincidence I don’™t allow comments on my sites.)

    Tod has to grow nerves of steel and totally suck it up when he gets criticized.

    And if somebody says it looks like … again, suck it up. It’™s only defamatory if it’™s untrue and damages one’™s reputation. A good way to bolster a reputation would be to act less skittish, tremulous, and timorous.

    High-profile blogs with comments are no place for scaredycats. Learn the lessons of Choire and Denton.

  • Allan says:

    Hey Mr. Joe feel free to repeat your comment and anything else at my site.
    It won’t be deleted I assure you.
    In fact, it’ll be bumped to the front page.

  • bryanf says:

    This post has been removed by the blog administrator.

    … psyche!

  • Joe says:

    Just so any reporters following this thread are clear on what’™s happening, the freelancer who writes the official CBC blog is threatening the writer(s) of an unofficial blog. I believe that is something even CBC itself has never done.

    I smell a story.

  • Allan says:

    Holy fuck!
    Joe got deleted too?
    This may be the proudest moment of my adult life.
    Next to becoming a grandfather of course.

  • Allan says:

    Old hippie saying:

    Where there’s a will, there’s away.
    Did I say away? I meant a way.
    I am so stoned!

    At least that’s what my Profile seems to indicate.

    Now for those who’ve been working a long, long time at the CBC, or are just naturally dense, let me put it another way … HINT HINT.

  • Ouimet says:

    Yes, I was asked to take some stuff down. Tod thought it might damage his ability to get more freelance work. I was trying to be nice.

    I appreciate the irony of it, believe me. And I realize it opens me up to criticism, in this place where no one is supposed to get “special treatment.”

    I might just be a big hypocrite.

  • Allan says:

    Let me put this DisInformation to rest.
    I do have a blog.
    In fact, several.
    But I’m just as likely to post to any of them as I am to start another one.
    And you thought only George was inept at this internet stuff.

  • Allan says:

    That was interesting.

    So who owns this blog?
    Tod and his friends?

    Who saw merit in my work, and that of others, enough to post it and let the discussion ensue?

    Who are the cry-babies that can’t handle a few words on a page, can’t handle opinions that aren’t necessarily shared by the masses?
    Who isn’t sufficiently satisfied with being able to respond freely with their own views but must also cleanse the planet of my presence, or at least in their private little world of CBC backstabbing and gossip.
    Gosh. Allan has an opinion, a topic for discussion.
    It’s too much to take.

    And now Ouimet blinks and deletes a comment from here.
    What an unusual situation.

    Is blackmail involved?
    Is Ouimet about to be bullied into changing her tune?
    Very interesting.

    Seems Allan struck a nerve with several people.
    He appears to have stumbled upon an hypocrisy at the lowest levels.

    Tod might have thought it through a bit more and asked that the entire post be deleted, along with the comments.
    Unless of course those comments served a purpose for him.

    But now I offered an opinion about Tod’s work at the CBC, about something very specific.

    And now it seems that Ouimet can be “owned”.

    Have your principles changed, Ouimet?

    Is the risk too great?

    Are you experiencing Tod chill?

    And how many of the ELEVEN Anonymous people above ARE THE SAME PERSON?

  • Anonymous says:

    Ever since you started posting Alan’s shit, Ouimet, nobody takes anything said on your blog seriously.

    And you’ve done extensive research on this I assume and asked “everybody”?
    I don’t take Allan seriously, but I am big enough to be able to tell the difference between an Allan post and a Ouimet post.

  • Anonymous says:

    So you know, Todd’s blog is actually the home page on many many workstations in our plant. He does a far better job than anything NetPubEng has put out to date. Ever since you started posting Alan’s shit, Ouimet, nobody takes anything said on your blog seriously.

  • Anonymous says:

    I agree. Tod sucks. A multi-author blog would be much better. Too often Tod personalizes what should be a non-personal blog.

  • Anonymous says:

    I agree that Inside The CBC isn’t the most thrilling of material, but let’s be fair – it delivers exactly what it’s expected to. Allan, on the other hand, is just downright insulting and rude, which isn’t what readers of this blog are used to. Ouimet, when are you going to stop giving this guy the time of day, and let him get his own blog?

  • Anonymous says:

    holy hell.

    the corporate blog has its shortcomings, sure.

    But geez, as far as I can tell, Allan’s own blog has had exactly one post, since deleted. Nothing is more classic than a whiner who cuts down other people’s work while doing none of his own.

    Please, no more.

  • Blistering Barnacles says:

    –Submitted for your pleasure by –Allan.
    –Enjoy.
    __~O
    Nuff said.
    Ouimet, your own blog is just fine, how many times do we have to tell you, for crying out loud?

  • Anonymous says:

    Sure, cancel Inside because you find it boring, and Tea because you don’t like Allan… then we can get back to the good old days when the only communication we got was the white noise of Net Pub Eng.

    As Ouimet pointed out earlier, Inside The CBC hasn’t evolved much, and what it could or should be is a fair dialogue to hold.

    Maybe it needs a different mandate.
    Maybe it should be internal only. Maybe it needs more resources. Maybe it needs multiple authors. Tired CBC cynicism aside, I’m not sure anything can successfully be both official and independent – for any news organization, maybe for any corporation.

    But I still think it’s better than just corporate news releases. Where are the equivalent blogs from CBC’s competitors? Got a model to hold up as a shining example? I don’t. CBC took a bit of a gamble on this thing, and I’d like to see more gambling, not less.

    Remember how after the lockout they asked people to stop blogging? Frankly I expected a tightening of sphincters, and some regressive policy encouraging nobody to write anything. Instead, we got this – which is at least a step in the right direction.

    What’s the next step?

  • Anonymous says:

    I’m sure Tod is a very nice guy, and if radio and other such things were my interest, I’m sure I would be into the blog.
    But…the fact is radios demos are older, TV’s are younger. Blog readers are younger, therefore young blog readers don’t care about Shelagh Rogers, or Dalet.
    At least those are my thoughts. It seems to be very radio/nerd centered, and maybe that worked on his personal blog, but on the official blog it should be a little more rounded and inclusive.

  • Johnny Happypants says:

    Tod should have quit while he was ahead—sometime during the lockout.

  • Anonymous says:

    One more vote for pulling the plug.

    The Maffin blog is the perfect example of ‘typecasting’ and how it often pollutes the culture of CBC.

    Yes, Maffin, you earned your accolades, but you’ve had the corner on the blogging / podcasting / dumbass dalet commentary for too long.

  • Anonymous says:

    Come on, people, we have to be open to some Tod criticism here. It says at the top of the page that it is The Official Blog of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The official blog. It’s boring and badly written. I pay taxes. I want better.

    Allan’s right. There have been some very strange deletions on the blog, where a good blogger (and a good journalist) would be a little more transparent. I gave up on it the day he changed his logo into a homemade imitation of the new radio logos and dropped the “the” from the title.

    Last weeks attempt at “humour” re: the president’s job application was entirely unfunny. Meanwhile, Ouimet had me laughing out loud with her application.

    If Inside the CBC (insidecbc?) is an internal blog (yawn to stories about Dalet), it should be an internal blog. And it shouldn’t be allowed to call itself official.

    Time to pull the plug, I think.

  • bryanf says:

    Allan is merely naive. It was clear from the inception of insidethecbc.com that nothing offensive to either Tod or the spirit of the Corpse would be allowed to intrude. Expecting outside reality in comments there is like expecting the CBC to make a profit – sure, it’s technically possible, but it’d involve taking risks, and who wants that?

  • Dwight Williams says:

    I tend to think that Allan – yet again – had it coming. And Tod delivered as rules of conduct required.

    And why should Tod tolerate that kind of brow-beating from Allan, anyway, regardless of whether or not CBC’s watching over his shoulder?

  • Anonymous says:

    Maybe he deleted it because no one likes an arrogant troll who shits all over everything.

    Allen, get your own blog. Ouimet, don’t post his shit anymore.

  • Anonymous says:

    another puffed-up Allan post? what happened to back-to-basics cbc dirt dishing?

    To that end, the otherwise respectable Knowlton Nash has made some journalistic slips of his own, most notably as censor-in-chief during the october crisis.

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