The Snitches Who Betrayed Wendy Mesley

In the end it was a rat who got Wendy Mesley. The CBC TV host of The Weekly was likely bushwhacked by someone(s) on her show staff, the trust of the unit broken by those who likely sat across from her at story meetings, smiling eagerly as they (I use this pronoun in both the traditional and non-binary sense) contemplated how to step over Mesley to win fame for themselves.

Now it’s anyone’s guess when— and if— we again see Mesley, a three-time Gemini winner and 2006 winner of there John Drainie Award. [UPDATE: CBC has announced that The Weekly is cancelled for the rest of its run this year. They’re still working out how to further discipline Mesley.]

No doubt the fellow employee(s) doesn’t not feel like the rat that they are. They probably see themselves as a hero for outing Mesley’s use of a word used commonly by black comics such as Richard Pryor, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock to prompt laughter from mortified liberal whites. That Mesley used the word in a warning about a black guest to her staff of eager young things— it’s almost exclusively female and user 30— was irrelevant. 

There was a scalp for the taking. And some SJW snitch who stains the name of journalism was not going to pass up a prize like that to brag about within their peer group. Mesley immediately recognized her mistake in the meeting. Not in using the word itself but in trusting the callow members of her staff to understand the context. But her apologies are useless. They’re encouragement for more outings. The snitch culture rules in today’s newsrooms.

By now, Mesley knows what the entire generation of people I worked with at CBC and Global TV and the Globe & Mail have learned. The newsroom standards of trust and fraternity they grew up in are lost on this generation. The notions of putting a story first, following the facts and learning from your elders is subsumed by young people intent on being social justice guerrillas instead who would see racism in the coffee machines at CBC. 

Former CBC reporter Neil MacDonald sums up the disgust. “Wendy, one of the most decent journalists I know, was taken off the air, it seems, after her own colleagues went after her for quoting someone else’s offense. And now the far left and far right are fist-pumping. So glad I left CBC last year.”

CBC owns much of this. While striving to be inclusive of cultures and colours, the puppy mill of journalism has instead become more homogenous in both thought and deed. They don’t want to follow a story. They want people to follow them in their virtue and self-signalling. Forget the diverse characters who once rose through small-town radio stations and papers to reach the national level. Those struggles informed a larger purpose, exposed them to real working people.

Today, these show horses go directly from Ryerson and Carleton without passing through Estevan, Saskatchewan, or Shediac, N.B. (Hell, I’d be surprised if they can spell either name.) The world view they’re supposed to reflect is informed by a cloistered hothouse of gotcha’ stories and progressive catch phrases stolen from #BuzzFeed and #Mediaite.

Like this: "Carleton J-School @JSchool_CU We’d like to acknowledge the institutional racism in our world, in our country and in journalism. As a journalism school, we know we can do better.” The legendary reporter Norman DePoe is spinning in his grave at the thought of reporters as a glee club for Marxist twits. 

But that is the field manual for the woke folk who allowed Mesley to be stabbed in the back. (Disclosure: I often worked with Wendy in the 1980s/ 90s. I don’t consider myself a close friend, but I always admired her warmth and professionalism when we shared a panel or interview.) 

Before we absolve the generation now departing in ways both glorious and ignominious, let’s also remember that the staff of J-schools churning out these chattering classes is populated by many former journalists who should know better. No doubt there is pressure in the academic insanity of the moment to pander about “institutional racism” and “class theory”. But they, too, bear a large share of responsibility for the doctrinal neck-tie applied to Mesley.

Their graduates reflect a generation captivated by the age-old siren song of Marxist thought. Raised in luxury without faith or sacrifice, the progeny of Boomers hate their alleged privilege. And so they are easy marks for the Antifa frauds and race hustlers who see women like Mesley— a breast-cancer survivor— as trophies to collect on the way to power. 

The Mesley incident came just days after a similar cabal of class-conscious reporters and editors drove a final nail into the coffin of the Gray Lady, the New York Times. These self-appointed censors raised such a clamour over the Times running an op-ed by GOP senator Tom Cotton that publisher/ panderer Arthur Sulzberger capitulated by forcing the resignation of Op-ed editor James Bennett, an otherwise pur laine liberal. The paper of record is now an echo chamber of Bernie Sanders banalities.

The shaming rituals of censorship extend to social media, too. At various times the staffs at Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have threatened insurrection against their founders unless the opinions of their enemies such as Donald Trump are banned from the sites. In the zeal to gain total journalistic consciousness they want the privileges of social media’s free posting to be supplemented by selective censorship— a violation of their Congressional status.

Judging by the standards of caving CBC executives or Arthur Sulzberger or pusillanimous PM Justin Trudeau they’re very likely to get their way. Wendy Mesley? She’ll just be a trophy on their grubby mantel.

UPDATED 25/06/2020: Here is Wendy Mesley’s apology that allowed the chicken hearts in CBC management to discipline her. It’s unspeakably cowardly behaviour from the suits to one of their top news assets, but it won’t surprise anyone who was victimized by this political dodgeball.

https://twitter.com/WendyMesleyCBC/status/1276263794684186625

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his next book Personal Account with Tony Comper will be available on BruceDowbigginBooks.ca this fall.