Juno News - INTERFERENCE： Freeland’s office “pressured” legacy media to change critical stories

00:00:00.000 The legacy media is every bit as dishonest, immoral, and corrupt as you and I suspect.

00:00:05.820 Today, I'm going to be talking with a legacy media reporter who recently left the mainstream media.

00:00:11.420 She finally resigned out of principle. I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.

00:00:14.820 Hi, 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.

00:00:34.360 So today, I am pleased to be joined by Rachel Emanuel. Rachel is a parliamentary reporter now with the Western Standard.

00:00:40.920 She used to be part of the legacy media in Ottawa. She's part of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.

00:00:45.600 She worked with iPolitics, and she resigned out of principle, which is what we're going to be talking about today.

00:00:51.760 She 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,

00:00:59.600 and that her editor changed it, edited it without her permission.

00:01:03.460 This isn't the first time that she says iPolitics has mischaracterized and heavily edited her words.

00:01:08.520 So 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.

00:01:16.020 Yeah, thank you very much. I'm excited to be here on both fronts.

00:01:19.640 Great. Well, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? Tell us about your background, what led you into journalism,

00:01:24.900 and where you worked prior to The Western Standard.

00:01:28.700 Sure. So I grew up in Niagara, Ontario, and actually, when I was in high school, I decided that I wanted to pursue journalism.

00:01:35.520 Kathleen Wynne was the premier at the time, and I'm sure you remember all what a disaster that was.

00:01:42.240 And I actually found that I was taking this writer's craft course, and I would frequently be writing about her many scandals.

00:01:48.000 People in my class hated editing my work.

00:01:50.540 But at that point, I decided I was going to pursue journalism.

00:01:53.120 So I studied journalism at Carleton University.

00:01:55.860 I got pretty lucky immediately out of university.

00:01:58.040 I got an internship at The Globe and Mail here in Ottawa.

00:02:00.140 So 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.

00:02:07.540 So all in all, I've been in journalism at the federal level for about three years.

00:02:11.420 You know, I've done some other internships at my local newspaper at home and things like that.

00:02:14.460 So 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.

00:02:20.940 And I realized very quickly that that was not going to be a possibility for me.

00:02:24.000 Well, 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.

00:02:32.900 I want to pick up on something you said.

00:02:34.460 You said that you were writing about Kathleen Wynne, and your classmates hated that.

00:02:38.760 Did you find that even in high school, there was a pro-liberal bias?

00:02:43.680 So, no, I didn't have that at my high school.

00:02:46.660 Certainly, Niagara is actually like a very pretty conservative part of the country.

00:02:51.200 It's called like the Bible Beltway.

00:02:52.400 I definitely went to a very conservative school growing up.

00:02:55.660 I 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.

00:03:03.040 Got it.

00:03:03.700 Got it.

00:03:04.080 Yeah, I can relate to that.

00:03:05.220 I was obsessed with politics when I was in university.

00:03:07.740 My friends would just roll their eyes if I started talking about it at a party or something.

00:03:11.900 So let's talk a little bit about this piece that you wrote for the Western Standards.

00:03:16.480 So congratulations on moving over there.

00:03:18.660 Derek Fildebrandt, the editor, is lucky to have you.

00:03:21.100 And it really is a remarkable piece.

00:03:23.800 So 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.

00:03:34.340 He, 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. 0.64

00:03:43.560 We wrote about it.

00:03:44.340 I didn't think that the legacy media would pick up on it.

00:03:47.040 It seemed like the story got so big online that they couldn't really ignore it.

00:03:50.440 So why don't you walk us through the process of how you came to want to write about it.

00:03:54.640 You pitched it to your editor and how you and why and how you wrote about it.

00:03:58.480 Yeah, so it's kind of a complicated story.

00:04:01.440 So actually, I'd seen that you guys have written about it and I thought, well, okay, like I have to cover this.

00:04:05.660 And I kind of thought the same thing that you had thought on Twitter.

00:04:07.640 I didn't know if anyone else in the MSN was going to cover it.

00:04:10.500 So what we were dealing with at iPolitics was very critical staffing levels at the time.

00:04:14.680 So we didn't actually have like an official editor in place.

00:04:18.120 A colleague and I were tag teaming like editor duties.

00:04:21.420 So when I pitched it, I sort of just told my team, this is what I'm working on.

00:04:24.940 And certainly my other like co-editor knew that I was going to be writing it.

00:04:28.400 And you guys had come up with the story, I believe on the Monday.

00:04:31.220 And just because I was so busy, I didn't have a chance to write it until Wednesday.

00:04:35.240 And 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.

00:04:43.440 And I thought like, no, I said to them, you know, I'm going to cover it.

00:04:46.520 I appreciate your comments.

00:04:48.240 Put this in an email or give it to me on the record.

00:04:50.840 I find that government offices have such a bad habit of calling you and they'll tell you all these things off the record.

00:04:55.920 And I'm like, you need to say this to the Canadian people.

00:04:58.820 Like, there's no reason for this conversation to be on background.

00:05:01.640 Put it in an email.

00:05:02.800 Tell it to me on the record.

00:05:03.820 So I said that to them.

00:05:04.980 And they followed up with a rather lengthy email response, which I was pleased to see.

00:05:08.560 You know, a lot of times they give you sort of non-answers, but it was quite lengthy.

00:05:11.360 So I was like, okay, great.

00:05:12.240 I have something to work with here.

00:05:14.940 So Wednesday, I wrote up the story.

00:05:17.000 And then I was actually walking home from work.

00:05:20.160 And when I got a call from an editor who is like, I didn't think I technically started with the publication yet.

00:05:26.880 I thought she was starting a little bit later.

00:05:28.360 So I was just surprised to see her call.

00:05:30.320 And then she said that we had received a call.

00:05:32.100 She had received a call rather from Christie Freeland's office, who is upset with some of the wording in the article.

00:05:38.180 And what they characterized as factual inaccuracies, i.e.

00:05:40.620 My 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.

00:05:48.920 It was being held.

00:05:49.700 It wasn't being it wasn't thrown around someone's shoulders carelessly.

00:05:52.500 And they also were upset with the editorial framing of the article.

00:05:56.440 And then a couple hours later, you know, time goes by.

00:05:59.140 And then I get another call saying that my article has been edited and changed online.

00:06:03.840 And my editor kind of goes, I want to know, like, what happened?

00:06:07.400 How did this mistake get made?

00:06:09.200 And I was like, what's what mistake?

00:06:10.620 So then I went online and saw the changes that were made.

00:06:13.240 And I absolutely did not agree with them or even have prior knowledge of them to them being made.

00:06:18.080 Wow, that's incredible.

00:06:19.260 And 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.

00:06:31.140 So 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.

00:06:42.300 That that's really remarkable that that kind of you call it pressure in your Western standard piece.

00:06:47.440 But to me, that that that's government interference in the media in in in the most damaging way possible.

00:06:54.800 And the fact that that happened here in Canada is is newsworthy.

00:06:59.020 And I think I think everyone should be aware of it.

00:07:01.380 So was was this was this the first time something like this had happened or or is this sort of a common theme at iPolitics?

00:07:09.420 And I assume more broadly in the legacy media.

00:07:13.180 Sure. So, I mean, I can only speak to my experience at iPolitics.

00:07:16.160 I'd heard rumors that The National Post had also been receiving some pressure for their piece.

00:07:19.960 You know, obviously, Christopher Freeland's office was upset that it was even being covered.

00:07:24.780 I think like for me, I wasn't even necessarily surprised that our office called us.

00:07:28.460 It is sort of a minister's prerogative to call someone when they deem a story to be unfair and inaccurate.

00:07:32.920 But as your writer, it's your sincere hope that your editors will back your work.

00:07:36.800 And certainly that was not my experience in this instance.

00:07:39.060 And 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.

00:07:50.520 This 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.

00:08:00.460 There was an editorial tone that we were going to be taking, and I did not agree with that editorial tone.

00:08:05.360 And 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.

00:08:15.420 And 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.

00:08:26.660 Or I can just avoid covering the topics that I think are important and just do the stories that they want me to do.

00:08:31.400 And life will be easy for everybody.

00:08:34.080 Wow, 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.

00:08:44.400 Later 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.

00:08:55.980 I 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.

00:09:05.140 So much for a journalist being a voice for the voiceless.

00:09:07.500 So can you, can you explain what you mean by they just mischaracterized your work as being anti-vax and anti-science?

00:09:15.860 Sure.

00:09:16.180 So 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.

00:09:24.980 So there was like a bunch of disagreements that we had.

00:09:27.860 And 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.

00:09:33.360 We're concerned about the views that you're presenting and the views that you're putting forward.

00:09:36.540 And we need to have a talk about this and you need to basically like stop doing this.

00:09:41.480 And 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.

00:09:48.360 It's like a first time for me.

00:09:49.860 So I was having a hard time deciding what's right.

00:09:51.920 And then I sort of just went back and anytime I'd had a conflict with an editor or disagreement, I recorded all those conversations.

00:09:58.280 And so I started listening to them again and I was kind of reminded of how bad things had gone for a little while there.

00:10:02.660 So 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.

00:10:09.800 And 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.

00:10:20.200 You 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.

00:10:26.200 And 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.

00:10:33.800 So 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.

00:10:41.980 And I knew that because I know people that are upset with how things were going.

00:10:45.060 I'm very aware that there was deep pockets of the country where people were very angry at the direction that Canada had taken.

00:10:50.460 And 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.

00:10:57.380 But my editors couldn't wrap their heads around that.

00:10:59.440 They're like, he's just one person.

00:11:00.800 He's just an independent MP.

00:11:02.160 Like, he doesn't have a lot of power in the government.

00:11:04.600 So, like, there's no point to give credence to what he's saying.

00:11:07.220 And I was like, I know he represents so many people.

00:11:09.420 And obviously, we've seen that since then.

00:11:11.200 We've seen that with supports for the Chakras Combo.

00:11:12.700 He really did represent a lot of people.

00:11:15.140 And 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.

00:11:22.440 But, yes, I was a lot of times talking about, like, how much our restrictions had been limited.

00:11:26.600 And especially, like, when the vaccines first came out, the recommendations on vaccines was changing quite frequently.

00:11:32.220 Like, who should get which doses and, like, which vaccine was best for which groups and if there was any side effects.

00:11:37.860 And so a lot of people were concerned and said, I'm not jumping to get this.

00:11:40.760 Like, the recommendation is changing every other month.

00:11:42.820 Like, I'm going to wait this out.

00:11:43.940 Like, I want to see how it goes.

00:11:45.040 And I was just basically told that putting forward those views was, like, an anti-vax status.

00:11:50.720 And just that I would put forward views that anybody would question these things or that anyone would be skeptical or unsure.

00:11:57.160 It 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.

00:12:06.560 And it's wild.

00:12:07.900 And you also mentioned that your editors told you to default to the government science.

00:12:13.800 So 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.

00:12:24.800 And 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.

00:12:32.340 Rich, let's take a step back.

00:12:33.960 Why is it that the media in this country is so one-sided?

00:12:38.600 Why are they so willing to go to bat and defend Chrystia Freeland and the liberal government?

00:12:43.960 And why are they so – I don't know if weary is the right word – or hostile towards conservative sentiments, conservative values, and conservative principles?

00:12:55.420 Sure.

00:12:56.040 That's certainly something I've been reflecting about quite a bit over the last number of days.

00:13:00.400 And 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.

00:13:08.800 It's very difficult to be different than what the mainstream media is.

00:13:12.560 It's difficult to have an independent way of thinking or a different way of thinking.

00:13:16.280 And I certainly tried.

00:13:17.400 I really tried.

00:13:18.160 I wanted to stay.

00:13:19.020 I wanted to be a voice that I felt didn't exist in legacy media.

00:13:22.340 But 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.

00:13:30.200 And 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.

00:13:37.380 And I just thought to myself, like, as maybe I should be more angry about what happened there.

00:13:41.580 I don't feel angry partly because I did really like the people that I worked with.

00:13:45.280 I had good relationships with them, and I liked them on a personal level.

00:13:48.480 Just the political ideology made it very difficult, and obviously, like, my editorial tone was not aligned with theirs.

00:13:54.800 But 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.

00:14:01.280 I don't know why that is.

00:14:02.860 Is it just because they haven't been around, like, real conservatives before, and they don't know, like, what real conservatives believe in?

00:14:08.980 I couldn't.

00:14:09.740 I couldn't understand that.

00:14:10.780 And I actually had said that to my editors at one point.

00:14:12.720 And I said, I understand your perspectives.

00:14:15.000 I understand where you're coming from.

00:14:16.240 Every 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.

00:14:25.080 But 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.

00:14:33.880 And 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.

00:14:40.260 But 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.

00:14:51.260 Well, it's their prerogative, right?

00:14:52.400 Like, if iPolitics wants to be a left-leaning, big-L liberal publication, they can.

00:14:58.000 That's their prerogative.

00:14:59.200 True North tries to cover the other side of the story.

00:15:01.120 Here, we try to put forth more of a small-c conservative editorial position.

00:15:05.880 I think the major difference is that at True North, you know what you're going to get.

00:15:10.060 You know that we have a small-c conservative editorial position, and those are our values.

00:15:15.800 Whereas when it comes to legacy media, they don't tell you that.

00:15:18.300 They sort of pretend that they are the arbiters of truth, that they are completely neutral, that they're fair and unbiased.

00:15:24.380 All 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.

00:15:34.500 You know, Trudeau characterized every conservative there as standing with those who wave a swastika.

00:15:40.040 Whereas when Chrystia Freeland, someone who is so deeply steeped in Ukrainian politics, she's lived in Kiev, she's studied in Kiev.

00:15:46.940 Her mother helped draft the constitution of that country, and she was there throughout that process.

00:15:52.400 She understands Ukrainian politics better, perhaps, than anyone in Canada.

00:15:56.660 And 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.

00:16:05.540 It's a strange state in the media where journalists feel the need to defend a very powerful politician as opposed to hold them accountable.

00:16:13.780 Rachel, one of the things that I get some pushback from is the fact that we are sort of polarizing the media, right?

00:16:22.160 So you have the legacy media over there.

00:16:24.460 More and more conservatives are leaving the media.

00:16:26.840 And whether you describe yourself as conservative or just an alternative thinker, independent thinker, contrarian, whatever,

00:16:35.060 more and more of those types of people are leaving the media.

00:16:38.440 We're creating our own infrastructure and ecosystem over here.

00:16:42.800 And 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.

00:16:53.100 Do you see concern in that?

00:16:54.740 Or 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?

00:17:03.580 I think it's a necessary thing that needs to be done.

00:17:06.040 I think the media is very skewed.

00:17:07.480 It has definitely moved to one side.

00:17:09.920 And like, what are our other options?

00:17:11.760 We can't just like let that be the case and step out of politics.

00:17:14.980 That's not absolutely not the response that we need to have.

00:17:17.340 And even as I said, you know, like I didn't wish ill on anyone that I worked with formerly.

00:17:21.780 It 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.

00:17:29.740 Like, do I really want to deal with like the drama and like the headache of it?

00:17:33.020 And like, I don't want to make anyone that I worked with like feel badly.

00:17:36.520 But, you know, there's a bit of a responsibility when you're a journalist.

00:17:39.600 You are sort of a public figure.

00:17:40.940 Like people know who you are.

00:17:41.840 They know your work.

00:17:42.580 So I did feel like I owe it an explanation.

00:17:44.940 People were certainly asking me what had happened and also just to expose the truth.

00:17:49.220 Like it is uncomfortable.

00:17:50.160 It was an uncomfortable experience for me, but it's necessary for these things to come out.

00:17:54.240 And, 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.

00:18:03.600 But they do need to be held accountable.

00:18:05.600 There are public figures.

00:18:06.560 They're putting out news.

00:18:07.720 Trusting media is at an all time low right now.

00:18:10.500 So people in the public are certainly noticing this and they're upset with it.

00:18:14.820 So I think it's absolutely incumbent on us to be sort of pointing these things out and to be filling in that gap.

00:18:20.180 There is definitely like an underserved part of the Canadian population who doesn't feel like they have news sources that they can turn to.

00:18:26.340 And when I actually was interviewing at the Western Standard, they said to me, we don't want to be known as conservative media.

00:18:32.920 Now you can argue whether or not they've achieved that.

00:18:34.840 We just want to write for a conservative audience.

00:18:36.700 We 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.

00:18:45.320 So it seemed like it was going to be a very good fit for me.

00:18:47.800 And 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.

00:18:57.260 Absolutely.

00:18:59.000 Have you heard any feedback or blowback from your column so far?

00:19:04.540 The feedback has been largely positive.

00:19:06.780 I've had a lot of support for it, for sure.

00:19:08.960 I'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.

00:19:15.460 And I absolutely respect that it is your freedom to say these things now.

00:19:18.560 I haven't heard from any of my former colleagues, which I don't think is terribly surprising.

00:19:23.320 I mean, there is maybe a bit of shock about the whole situation.

00:19:26.020 Maybe I'll hear from some of them yet and perhaps not, which wouldn't be terribly surprising either.

00:19:30.540 Great.

00:19:31.000 Well, I think it's really exciting for you and your career that you've come on over to the independent side.

00:19:35.580 And I think that the future is really bright for independent media.

00:19:38.980 There's so many more people interested in this perspective and that more and more people see through what is happening in the media.

00:19:45.480 You said that trust in media is at an all-time low.

00:19:48.100 I 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.

00:19:56.660 And an editor says absolutely and changes it without a reporter's permission.

00:20:00.300 It's unbelievable that this is the practice in Canadian media.

00:20:04.080 Rachel, thank you so much for blowing the whistle and exposing this kind of behavior.

00:20:09.040 Because 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.

00:20:27.600 It's really incredible.

00:20:28.600 So thank you for doing this.

00:20:30.340 And we look forward to seeing what you will do over at The Western Standard.

00:20:33.780 Thank you for joining us here at True North.

00:20:36.080 Yeah, absolutely.

00:20:36.700 Thank you, Candice.

00:20:37.260 All right, that is Rachel Emanuel.

00:20:39.960 You can find her over at The Western Standard.

00:20:42.200 I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.

Juno News - March 15, 2022

INTERFERENCE： Freeland’s office “pressured” legacy media to change critical stories

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