KANGAROO JOURNALISM

You have heard of a "Kangaroo court". Well welcome to Kangaroo journalism, Quebec style. Or more appropriately TVA and Quebecor style. Last week a tragic fire occurred in a home for seniors in a small community on the south shore of the St Lawrence River (L'Iles Verte). The fire broke out after midnight and as the morning light rose it became apparent that numerous of the 50 or so residents were un-accounted for. As the day progressed it became more and more painfully clear that authorities could not locate 32 residents. This story is a tragedy. A loss of life almost to large to grasp. That unto itself should have been the story. It was not.

You see in their infinite wisdom someone at TVA (LCN), Quebecor decided that it was their duty to send their investigative report team from a show it broadcast weekly (called J.E.) to undertake their own investigation of what started the fire. This investigation started not 24 hours after the tragedy began. The provincial police, fire services and civil security services were all on site working diligently to find the missing seniors.  They were holding regular press conferences updating the press on the search and recovery. They advised that they would begin simultaneously their investigation of how the fire started as they made their way through the burnt out building. This however was not enough for the TVA (Quebecor) media group. Nope, they had a crack pot investigation unit and they were going to find the cause and broadcast it to anyone within a cable box or satellite dish. But that was not all. Not only were they going to broadcast the results they were going to publish the results of their investigation in the news papers they own ( Le Journal de Montreal and Le Journal de Quebec). And this all within 48 hours of the tragedy.

So, after their incredibly in depth investigation; speaking with hundreds of witnesses, experts, firefighters, police, community officials all in a 24 hr period. They went live from the site, 48 hours after the fire to broadcast their findings out to the cable and satellite universe. What we were to learn however was during their 24 hour investigation they had not actually spoken with hundreds of witnesses or police or firefighters or for that matter much of anyone. What they did do was track down the only, ''on duty'' night attendant at the residence, to get his version of the events. It is important to note that the police had already interviewed the attendant as he was one of the first hand witnesses to the beginning of the tragedy. In the TVA interview, this attendant recounted how a resident had gone outside at around 11:30 pm to smoke a cigarette (smoking was not permitted inside the building). He told how he asked the gentlemen to come back inside as it was mortally cold out ( minus 30 degrees). He recounted that the man returned to his unit which was located on the second floor. Later on, approximately 45 minutes had passed when he was advised of a fire alarm on the second floor. He stated that he proceeded down the hall and noticed that a unit door was open and smoke was rolling out the top of the door frame. He recounted that the resident inhabiting the unit often left his door partially opened. He stated it was the unit which belonged to the gentlemen who had been smoking outside earlier in the evening. From this and only this information, the brilliant ace investigators of TVA surmounted that the tragedy was most probably the result of a smoker. They were slobbering all over themselves with pleasure that they had found the (smoking gun..ah cigarette) probable cause of the fire. They went as far as to broadcast the unit number of where the attendant saw the smoke coming from. For this brilliant piece of investigative journalism these intellectual superiors felt they had amassed all the information and evidence to proclaim the tragedy was the result of a smoker.  The next day (Saturday) the front page of their two newspapers contained the following headline (translated), " The attendant speaks" below this front page headline in bold and underlined was written " The drama of L'Iles Verte a result of a smokers article". You had to go to page three and read the article to see where this crackpot journalistic team decided to mention that it quote," might have been" the result of a smoker.

The morning after the TV show aired and both front pages of the major newspapers announced the findings of this elite journalistic team, the police held a press conference. In it, they asked the public not to jump to any conclusions. That their investigation had just started, that it was going to be a monumental task and that a great deal of investigating was necessary before they would be able to arrive at a conclusion of what may have caused the fire. Later in the day, reporters in the field, some of them from the same TVA network, were warning people not to draw conclusions about the cause of the fire. Seriously? Your telling your same audience that you so assuredly advise the night before that they should not draw a conclusion on the cause. Your joking right? Nope. You see it appeared that another news outlet had learned that the seniors home had acquired a new kitchen appliance a few weeks before the fire and that an electrician had to be called because staff was reporting that they were smelling a quote, " burning smell" coming from the appliance. Now here is a kicker. That appliance, the one with the burning smell coming from it, it was located directly below the second floor unit where the attendant saw the smoke coming from. Wait! It gets better. It seems electricians also had to be called because a base board heater had been overheating a few days before the fire. Where was the base board you ask? Well it was in the kitchen and you guessed it, below the unit on the second floor where the attendant first saw the smoke. Now you don't need to be a crack investigator to understand the implications of all of this as it relates to drawing conclusions about the cause of the fire. Hell you do not even need to be a regular viewer of CSI to understand the absolute kangaroo quality of the TVA investigation and its conclusion. Anyone with any experience understands that it usually takes a fairly long time to collect all the facts surrounding any tragedy. That often the information circulating in the first few days tends to be erroneous. Not maliciously but simply as a result of the confusion and a strong desire to make sense of what has happened. One might think that TVA would be conscientious of this. It appears not.

This event was a tragedy. A massive tragedy. 32 seniors, mothers and fathers, grandparents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles have perished. A library of love, experience and knowledge has been lost. That is the story. Not some kangaroo report. Yes everyone would like to know the cause. We need to know the cause. The real cause. If we hope to avoid these types of tragedies in the future we need to find the cause. The answers will not be found by a bunch of amateur investigators who think a microphone with three letters on it qualifies them as investigators. They are simply backyard Sherlock Holmes wannabes. What positive came from a TV News show that stated the room number of the senior who had been out that evening for a smoke. What contribution to shedding light on this tragic event did that report have. NONE! All it did was lead people to believe in something that might not even be close to the truth. Caused pain and anguish to the family of the senior who lived in that room. Caused confusion and pain for the families of those missing. Even if the cause of the fire does eventually lead to have being from a cigarette, that report was the lowest common denominator. It was designed to sell advertising, to increase viewership, to sell newspapers. It was designed to pull on the heart strings of a saddened community and province. It was the worst kind of journalism. It was in poor taste. It was disgusting. Journalism has slipped so far in the last 15 years. There is no more news, only talking heads reporting their and the corporations they work for version of it. They are no longer reporting stories they are making themselves part of it. They lead it and manipulate its content and serve it to us night after night, day after day in a vicious 24 hour cycle. The people at TVA should be ashamed of themselves. Those journalists should be ashamed. More importantly though other journalists and politicians should be ashamed for not calling out TVA for its absurd report.

Most of the seniors living in that residence were 85 and older. Many of them were in their 90's. Many of them lived through the great depression, the great war and numerous other epic moments in our history. They raised families, built businesses and communities. They made untold contributions to the lives of thousands. These seniors deserve our respect and admiration. They did not deserve to die in a fire on a cold January night and they most certainly deserved more respect then they received from those kangaroo reporters at TVA.