Peter Mansbridge in Hot Water for Failure to Disclose During Interview

Peter Mansbridge was interviewing Pierre Poilievre and asked about submarine procurement while/after working for a South Korean firm.

It’s no secret that trust in the media continues to be at an all time low. We have mainstream media actively trying to court right wing audiences who would never somehow magically come around and support them. This while alienating the very audiences who are more open to viewing and consuming their content. Over top of that, the media has a tendency of alienating younger audiences while doing everything they can to court older audiences – a habit that is absolutely killing their own longevity. What’s more, continuous scandals aren’t helping matters, either.

If you thought that members of the old guard would be much better at this whole journalism gig, well, be prepared to be disappointed. Peter Mansbridge, as Canadians no doubt know, anchored CBC newscasts for decades. Mansbridge is easily one of, if not, the most recognizable names in Canadian media. Apparently, he was running a podcast, interviewing high profile people on a variety of subjects. One interview had him talking to Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre.

During the interview, Mansbridge apparently asked Poilievre the oddly specific question of what Canada was doing on the procurement of submarines. What wasn’t disclosed was Mansbridge’s involvement with South Korean submarine maker, Hanwha Ocean. While Mansbridge was conducting the interview, apparently, the companies ads trying to convince the government to build submarines with them were running on YouTube. That, as you can imagine, raised questions about a conflict of interest. From, interestingly enough, the CBC:

Mansbridge said he was not aware of the precise timing of the ad’s release when his recent podcast interview with Poilievre was recorded on Feb. 26, and posted a few days later.

“The ads had not run and I was not aware of when they would. I did not mention the ads to him,” Mansbridge told CBC News via email on Monday night, responding to questions about the narration work he did for Hanwha Ocean.

He also said he did not immediately tell his podcast audience. “For full transparency, I should have at that time and I will this week,” Mansbridge wrote.

He then belatedly addressed the matter in a podcast episode released on Tuesday.

“I probably should have mentioned that — not probably, I should have. I should have been more transparent about that,” Mansbridge said, after telling listeners that he’s been doing “some contract work for the Korean submarine manufacturer,” without identifying Hanwha by name.

Oof! Yeah, that wasn’t good. If you are conducting journalistic activity and you have close business ties with a company related to that, then you disclose that for transparency purposes. Mansbridge, for reasons that should be obvious, knew that.

The thing here is that the timing of the ad isn’t necessarily relevant here. Regardless of whether or not the ads were running, the disclosure should’ve been made. If anything, the ads exposed the mistake more than anything else.

While it is a mistake, I think a wider issue here is knowing the close ties mainstream media has with other members of the private sector. You get a prominent role within the mainstream media, then if you end up leaving (whether that is related to retirement or related to scandals or a different reason entirely), then companies are pretty much lining up at your door hoping to get your celebrity status for their financial gain. Mansbridge has happily done that with other companies like with those annoying Chip reverse mortgages ads.

Mansbridge is far from the only one to do so as other major media personalities have gone on to hawk various products for cash afterwards, utilizing their celebrity status for power and profit. Other people that have done that include Mike Duffy (went on to a scandal plagued run as a senator), Evan Solomon (currently a government minister), and Kevin O’Leary (who faced controversy for his flippant remarks and went on to play a smart businessman on TV through shows like Shark Tank while failing to become the leader of the Conservative party). There’s that revolving door aspect to mainstream media where as soon as you leave, all of that sucking up pays off as sweetheart deals and/or gigs are plentiful. It highlights a certain motivation to cozy up to the rich and powerful while being in that role as a journalist because there is no shortage of people looking for that golden parachute once that exit happens.

At any rate, this one hurts to watch. Whether the failure to disclose is the result of working for so many private companies that this one slipped the mind of Mansbridge played a role in that is unclear. Still, the mistake was, in fact, made and Mansbridge, to his credit, owned up to it. What’s more, it’s pleasantly surprising that the CBC even covered this at all. So, credit where credit is due on that one.

(Via @Fagstein)

Drew Wilson on Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook.