00:00:00.000The legacy media is every bit as dishonest, immoral, and corrupt as you and I suspect.
00:00:05.820Today, I'm going to be talking with a legacy media reporter who recently left the mainstream media.
00:00:11.420She finally resigned out of principle. I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:14.820Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in. My producer, Jacob, made that awesome new intro promo. I'm really happy with it. I hope you like that as well.
00:00:34.360So today, I am pleased to be joined by Rachel Emanuel. Rachel is a parliamentary reporter now with the Western Standard.
00:00:40.920She used to be part of the legacy media in Ottawa. She's part of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
00:00:45.600She worked with iPolitics, and she resigned out of principle, which is what we're going to be talking about today.
00:00:51.760She said that this story, the reason that she left was over the Chrysia Freeland story, the one that we wrote and broke here at True North,
00:00:59.600and that her editor changed it, edited it without her permission.
00:01:03.460This isn't the first time that she says iPolitics has mischaracterized and heavily edited her words.
00:01:08.520So we're really excited to talk to her today. So, Rachel, first of all, welcome to The Independent Media, and thank you for joining The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:01:16.020Yeah, thank you very much. I'm excited to be here on both fronts.
00:01:19.640Great. Well, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? Tell us about your background, what led you into journalism,
00:01:24.900and where you worked prior to The Western Standard.
00:01:28.700Sure. So I grew up in Niagara, Ontario, and actually, when I was in high school, I decided that I wanted to pursue journalism.
00:01:35.520Kathleen Wynne was the premier at the time, and I'm sure you remember all what a disaster that was.
00:01:42.240And I actually found that I was taking this writer's craft course, and I would frequently be writing about her many scandals.
00:01:48.000People in my class hated editing my work.
00:01:50.540But at that point, I decided I was going to pursue journalism.
00:01:53.120So I studied journalism at Carleton University.
00:01:55.860I got pretty lucky immediately out of university.
00:01:58.040I got an internship at The Globe and Mail here in Ottawa.
00:02:00.140So I was working at their parliamentary bureau, and then I got hired at iPolitics right after that, and that was just under three years ago.
00:02:07.540So all in all, I've been in journalism at the federal level for about three years.
00:02:11.420You know, I've done some other internships at my local newspaper at home and things like that.
00:02:14.460So I haven't been, you know, in the industry for a super long time, but certainly I'd hoped to make it work in the mainstream media.
00:02:20.940And I realized very quickly that that was not going to be a possibility for me.
00:02:24.000Well, you say that you got lucky with being placed at The Globe and Mail, but I think it's probably because you're an excellent writer, and that's probably why they selected you.
00:02:32.900I want to pick up on something you said.
00:02:34.460You said that you were writing about Kathleen Wynne, and your classmates hated that.
00:02:38.760Did you find that even in high school, there was a pro-liberal bias?
00:02:43.680So, no, I didn't have that at my high school.
00:02:46.660Certainly, Niagara is actually like a very pretty conservative part of the country.
00:02:52.400I definitely went to a very conservative school growing up.
00:02:55.660I think people in grade 12 just largely weren't interested in politics, and nobody could really understand why I was, and they had no interest in reading about it.
00:03:23.800So why don't you tell us, I know we broke the story here at True North about Chrystia Freeland holding the Stefan Vandera banner, which is a, Stefan Vandera was a prominent Nazi during the Second World War.
00:03:34.340He, well, at least he collaborated with the Nazis in Germany and had his hand, his militias had a hand in murdering over 100,000 Poles and Jews.
00:03:44.340I didn't think that the legacy media would pick up on it.
00:03:47.040It seemed like the story got so big online that they couldn't really ignore it.
00:03:50.440So why don't you walk us through the process of how you came to want to write about it.
00:03:54.640You pitched it to your editor and how you and why and how you wrote about it.
00:03:58.480Yeah, so it's kind of a complicated story.
00:04:01.440So actually, I'd seen that you guys have written about it and I thought, well, okay, like I have to cover this.
00:04:05.660And I kind of thought the same thing that you had thought on Twitter.
00:04:07.640I didn't know if anyone else in the MSN was going to cover it.
00:04:10.500So what we were dealing with at iPolitics was very critical staffing levels at the time.
00:04:14.680So we didn't actually have like an official editor in place.
00:04:18.120A colleague and I were tag teaming like editor duties.
00:04:21.420So when I pitched it, I sort of just told my team, this is what I'm working on.
00:04:24.940And certainly my other like co-editor knew that I was going to be writing it.
00:04:28.400And you guys had come up with the story, I believe on the Monday.
00:04:31.220And just because I was so busy, I didn't have a chance to write it until Wednesday.
00:04:35.240And as soon as I had emailed like freelance office, they called me and they tried to sort of talk me out of writing the story, you know, using some of the like, it's disinformation techniques.
00:04:43.440And I thought like, no, I said to them, you know, I'm going to cover it.
00:05:17.000And then I was actually walking home from work.
00:05:20.160And when I got a call from an editor who is like, I didn't think I technically started with the publication yet.
00:05:26.880I thought she was starting a little bit later.
00:05:28.360So I was just surprised to see her call.
00:05:30.320And then she said that we had received a call.
00:05:32.100She had received a call rather from Christie Freeland's office, who is upset with some of the wording in the article.
00:05:38.180And what they characterized as factual inaccuracies, i.e.
00:05:40.620My use of the term banner over scarf, which an editor and I who had worked on the story had actually made the decision to refer to it as a banner because of how it was being used.
00:06:19.260And so so they that the your editor received a phone call from Christie Freeland from someone in her office, basically upset that the piece didn't mimic the talking voice that she had told you on background.
00:06:31.140So you you on your own independently decided to write the story in the narrative that you thought was accurate to the point where they went above your head, bullied your editor and changed it.
00:06:42.300That that's really remarkable that that kind of you call it pressure in your Western standard piece.
00:06:47.440But to me, that that that's government interference in the media in in in the most damaging way possible.
00:06:54.800And the fact that that happened here in Canada is is newsworthy.
00:06:59.020And I think I think everyone should be aware of it.
00:07:01.380So was was this was this the first time something like this had happened or or is this sort of a common theme at iPolitics?
00:07:09.420And I assume more broadly in the legacy media.
00:07:13.180Sure. So, I mean, I can only speak to my experience at iPolitics.
00:07:16.160I'd heard rumors that The National Post had also been receiving some pressure for their piece.
00:07:19.960You know, obviously, Christopher Freeland's office was upset that it was even being covered.
00:07:24.780I think like for me, I wasn't even necessarily surprised that our office called us.
00:07:28.460It is sort of a minister's prerogative to call someone when they deem a story to be unfair and inaccurate.
00:07:32.920But as your writer, it's your sincere hope that your editors will back your work.
00:07:36.800And certainly that was not my experience in this instance.
00:07:39.060And also in previous instances, I found just sort of as I mentioned in my op-ed, like just a lot of pressure about the things that I was writing about and the way that they were being covered, not necessarily even from government offices.
00:07:50.520This was obviously sort of like a one off from that instance, to my knowledge, but definitely just in terms of like COVID coverage, that there is sort of like a certain way that we were going to be covering these things.
00:08:00.460There was an editorial tone that we were going to be taking, and I did not agree with that editorial tone.
00:08:05.360And that caused a lot of tension and a lot of conflict in the office between me and my editors on a fairly regular basis to the point where I was either like, I can write about these issues and it can turn into such a big fight.
00:08:15.420And we're all going to be working late and arguing all night over a specific wording, or I can just agree to let them take their editorial tone with it and then be unhappy and uncomfortable with words that are being published under my name.
00:08:26.660Or I can just avoid covering the topics that I think are important and just do the stories that they want me to do.
00:08:34.080Wow, that's such a compromise that, you know, for someone who goes into journalism because they're passionate, because they're interested, because they want to have a voice and to be treated that way.
00:08:44.400Later in your op-ed for the Western standard, you write, when I wrote about a federal MP who was concerned about restrictions on mobility rights, editors mischaracterized my work as being anti-vax and anti-science.
00:08:55.980I was told to stop giving a platform to voices that oppose mandatory vaccines and lockdowns because such views represented just a radical and small minority of Canadian society.
00:09:05.140So much for a journalist being a voice for the voiceless.
00:09:07.500So can you, can you explain what you mean by they just mischaracterized your work as being anti-vax and anti-science?
00:09:16.180So this, that part of the op-ed was specifically referring to like a specific conversation that I had with an editor that basically led to like a boiling point.
00:09:24.980So there was like a bunch of disagreements that we had.
00:09:27.860And then it led to a meeting between me and the two editors at the time where they said, we're just very concerned about your work lately.
00:09:33.360We're concerned about the views that you're presenting and the views that you're putting forward.
00:09:36.540And we need to have a talk about this and you need to basically like stop doing this.
00:09:41.480And when I was writing the op-ed, it was actually like a difficult thing for me to write just because I'm not used to writing from my own perspective and sharing my perspective on things.
00:09:49.860So I was having a hard time deciding what's right.
00:09:51.920And then I sort of just went back and anytime I'd had a conflict with an editor or disagreement, I recorded all those conversations.
00:09:58.280And so I started listening to them again and I was kind of reminded of how bad things had gone for a little while there.
00:10:02.660So that conversation was specifically during, I think, like the boiling point of the COVID-19 pandemic when we just had such like restrictions across Canada.
00:10:09.800And the really unfortunate time for us, like in Canada at that time was also that, you know, under Aaron O'Toole, the conservative opposition was really not speaking out against any of these things.
00:10:20.200You know, Trudeau-Lite, they were sort of just going along with everything the government was doing and we didn't have an official opposition in any way.
00:10:26.200And so the one person we did actually have who was speaking out against these things was Derek Sloan, who was obviously kicked out of the conservative party, largely for being too conservative.
00:10:33.800So I was kind of consistently referring to him because I knew that he's represented so many Canadians who were upset with how things were going.
00:10:41.980And I knew that because I know people that are upset with how things were going.
00:10:45.060I'm very aware that there was deep pockets of the country where people were very angry at the direction that Canada had taken.
00:10:50.460And I knew that Derek Sloan had so much support because the conservatives were being silenced and, you know, they have to answer for that themselves.
00:10:57.380But my editors couldn't wrap their heads around that.
00:11:02.160Like, he doesn't have a lot of power in the government.
00:11:04.600So, like, there's no point to give credence to what he's saying.
00:11:07.220And I was like, I know he represents so many people.
00:11:09.420And obviously, we've seen that since then.
00:11:11.200We've seen that with supports for the Chakras Combo.
00:11:12.700He really did represent a lot of people.
00:11:15.140And so whenever I was, like, writing pieces, I would refer back to him for comments a lot because he was the one person in federal government who was willing to speak out against these things.
00:11:22.440But, yes, I was a lot of times talking about, like, how much our restrictions had been limited.
00:11:26.600And especially, like, when the vaccines first came out, the recommendations on vaccines was changing quite frequently.
00:11:32.220Like, who should get which doses and, like, which vaccine was best for which groups and if there was any side effects.
00:11:37.860And so a lot of people were concerned and said, I'm not jumping to get this.
00:11:40.760Like, the recommendation is changing every other month.
00:11:45.040And I was just basically told that putting forward those views was, like, an anti-vax status.
00:11:50.720And just that I would put forward views that anybody would question these things or that anyone would be skeptical or unsure.
00:11:57.160It was – I was basically being told that it was anti-science to write about perspectives that wasn't, like, the government's perspective on, like, the science of the time, which, as we know, was changing all the time.
00:12:07.900And you also mentioned that your editors told you to default to the government science.
00:12:13.800So it's not just science because you found credible doctors and scientists to say, you know, we have concerns about this policy, X policy, Y recommendation for a vaccine.
00:12:24.800And yet you wrote that your editors told you to just defer to whatever the federal government was saying, which puts another layer of complication there.
00:12:33.960Why is it that the media in this country is so one-sided?
00:12:38.600Why are they so willing to go to bat and defend Chrystia Freeland and the liberal government?
00:12:43.960And why are they so – I don't know if weary is the right word – or hostile towards conservative sentiments, conservative values, and conservative principles?
00:12:56.040That's certainly something I've been reflecting about quite a bit over the last number of days.
00:13:00.400And I think the only answer that I can really come up with is I just don't think there's a lot of people from different backgrounds within mainstream media right now.
00:13:08.800It's very difficult to be different than what the mainstream media is.
00:13:12.560It's difficult to have an independent way of thinking or a different way of thinking.
00:13:19.020I wanted to be a voice that I felt didn't exist in legacy media.
00:13:22.340But I just had to leave because I was sort of pushed out in the sense that I couldn't write about stories I wanted to write in a way that I was comfortable with.
00:13:30.200And so, like, even now, after I wrote the op-ed, some people said to me, like, oh, you know, like, I hope iPolitics receives pushback for this.
00:13:37.380And I just thought to myself, like, as maybe I should be more angry about what happened there.
00:13:41.580I don't feel angry partly because I did really like the people that I worked with.
00:13:45.280I had good relationships with them, and I liked them on a personal level.
00:13:48.480Just the political ideology made it very difficult, and obviously, like, my editorial tone was not aligned with theirs.
00:13:54.800But I liked them on a personal level, and I just knew that they couldn't see, like, my side of things, and they couldn't realize that there was a different perspective.
00:14:02.860Is it just because they haven't been around, like, real conservatives before, and they don't know, like, what real conservatives believe in?
00:14:10.780And I actually had said that to my editors at one point.
00:14:12.720And I said, I understand your perspectives.
00:14:15.000I understand where you're coming from.
00:14:16.240Every single day I come into work, and I have to put myself in your perspectives because I know that's the editorial lens that you are wanting me to put my work through.
00:14:25.080But I don't feel like there's any effort being made to put yourself in the perspective of someone else, in the perspective of people that are uncomfortable with the vaccines.
00:14:33.880And so I don't know if that's just because they haven't, like I said, been around real conservatives or just an unwillingness to understand that there's a different side of things.
00:14:40.260But it is very unfortunate, and I don't really see it changing anytime soon because it is so difficult to be, you know, to think differently than the legacy media does and work within that ecosystem right now.
00:14:59.200True North tries to cover the other side of the story.
00:15:01.120Here, we try to put forth more of a small-c conservative editorial position.
00:15:05.880I think the major difference is that at True North, you know what you're going to get.
00:15:10.060You know that we have a small-c conservative editorial position, and those are our values.
00:15:15.800Whereas when it comes to legacy media, they don't tell you that.
00:15:18.300They sort of pretend that they are the arbiters of truth, that they are completely neutral, that they're fair and unbiased.
00:15:24.380All you have to do is look at the difference between the way that they covered the one provocateur that showed up with a Nazi flag at the truckers' rally.
00:15:34.500You know, Trudeau characterized every conservative there as standing with those who wave a swastika.
00:15:40.040Whereas when Chrystia Freeland, someone who is so deeply steeped in Ukrainian politics, she's lived in Kiev, she's studied in Kiev.
00:15:46.940Her mother helped draft the constitution of that country, and she was there throughout that process.
00:15:52.400She understands Ukrainian politics better, perhaps, than anyone in Canada.
00:15:56.660And we're supposed to believe that she just didn't really know what she was doing, give her the benefit of the doubt, and not get her to take responsibility, not be held account.
00:16:05.540It's a strange state in the media where journalists feel the need to defend a very powerful politician as opposed to hold them accountable.
00:16:13.780Rachel, one of the things that I get some pushback from is the fact that we are sort of polarizing the media, right?
00:16:22.160So you have the legacy media over there.
00:16:24.460More and more conservatives are leaving the media.
00:16:26.840And whether you describe yourself as conservative or just an alternative thinker, independent thinker, contrarian, whatever,
00:16:35.060more and more of those types of people are leaving the media.
00:16:38.440We're creating our own infrastructure and ecosystem over here.
00:16:42.800And so you kind of have this situation where people only talk and listen to people that they agree with and that they already know that they're going to share the values with.
00:16:54.740Or do you think that this is a necessary thing that conservatives have to do because we don't have, we're no longer basically welcomed in the legacy media?
00:17:03.580I think it's a necessary thing that needs to be done.
00:17:11.760We can't just like let that be the case and step out of politics.
00:17:14.980That's not absolutely not the response that we need to have.
00:17:17.340And even as I said, you know, like I didn't wish ill on anyone that I worked with formerly.
00:17:21.780It was hard for me to make the decision to write this piece because there was like a piece of me that was like I could just say nothing and like move to the Western standard and like be done with it all.
00:17:29.740Like, do I really want to deal with like the drama and like the headache of it?
00:17:33.020And like, I don't want to make anyone that I worked with like feel badly.
00:17:36.520But, you know, there's a bit of a responsibility when you're a journalist.
00:17:50.160It was an uncomfortable experience for me, but it's necessary for these things to come out.
00:17:54.240And, you know, like I think legacy media gets their back up because alternative media, conservative media, whatever you want to call it, will sort of point out the inconsistencies and the hypocrisies within it.
00:18:03.600But they do need to be held accountable.
00:18:07.720Trusting media is at an all time low right now.
00:18:10.500So people in the public are certainly noticing this and they're upset with it.
00:18:14.820So I think it's absolutely incumbent on us to be sort of pointing these things out and to be filling in that gap.
00:18:20.180There is definitely like an underserved part of the Canadian population who doesn't feel like they have news sources that they can turn to.
00:18:26.340And when I actually was interviewing at the Western Standard, they said to me, we don't want to be known as conservative media.
00:18:32.920Now you can argue whether or not they've achieved that.
00:18:34.840We just want to write for a conservative audience.
00:18:36.700We want to cover stories that the mainstream media won't cover that conservatives will read, which is essentially what I had been trying to do at iPolitics just with my hands tied behind my back.
00:18:45.320So it seemed like it was going to be a very good fit for me.
00:18:47.800And absolutely, it makes sense that, you know, the Western Standard and True North doesn't need to rely on government funding because conservatives and other independent thinkers are willing to pay for this news that they can't get elsewhere.
00:18:59.000Have you heard any feedback or blowback from your column so far?
00:19:04.540The feedback has been largely positive.
00:19:06.780I've had a lot of support for it, for sure.
00:19:08.960I've even had some people say, you know, I don't necessarily agree with your views, but, you know, you shouldn't have had your work edited or you should have been allowed to write as you wish.
00:19:15.460And I absolutely respect that it is your freedom to say these things now.
00:19:18.560I haven't heard from any of my former colleagues, which I don't think is terribly surprising.
00:19:23.320I mean, there is maybe a bit of shock about the whole situation.
00:19:26.020Maybe I'll hear from some of them yet and perhaps not, which wouldn't be terribly surprising either.
00:19:31.000Well, I think it's really exciting for you and your career that you've come on over to the independent side.
00:19:35.580And I think that the future is really bright for independent media.
00:19:38.980There's so many more people interested in this perspective and that more and more people see through what is happening in the media.
00:19:45.480You said that trust in media is at an all-time low.
00:19:48.100I mean, the Chrystia Freeland's office in the Liberal government could just pick up the phone, demand that a piece gets edited to suit their worldview.
00:19:56.660And an editor says absolutely and changes it without a reporter's permission.
00:20:00.300It's unbelievable that this is the practice in Canadian media.
00:20:04.080Rachel, thank you so much for blowing the whistle and exposing this kind of behavior.
00:20:09.040Because I think Canadians really deserve to know just how deep that relationship goes between the Trudeau Liberal government, by and large, subsidizing and paying so many of these media outlets and the way that they get what they want, essentially, which is just news that mirrors their worldview.