Political Perspectives is produced by the students and faculty of Carleton University's School of Journalism and Communication, Canada's oldest journalism school.

19th
JAN

Interesting cabinet sidelight

Posted by ealboim under All

There seems to have been no attempt to keep the details of the cabinet suffle tight — just the opposite. The leaks to various reporters were all correct. There are two possible explanations:

 More media-staff links have developed over time that have created sufficient trust to allow staffers to talk with some assurance they won’t be caught.

 More likely, it was a conscious media strategy. There’s no better way to manage reporters than to feed them “exclusively” on information they really need to impress their bosses. Cabinet shuffles are a “test” in many news organizations of whether a reporter is “plugged in.” It s a low cost tradeoff for any PMO that pays back in spades. And clearly current circumstances suggest that cultivating media more assiduously is something the government needs to do. 

Elly Alboim is an Associate Professor of Journalism and former CBC TV Parliamentary Bureau Chief who spent many cabinet shuffle eves trying to get the next day’s line up.