Angry in the Great White North

Imagine the conversation between CBC reporter Krista Erickson and some unknown Liberal Party official attached to the inquiry into the dealings between Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber:

Krista Erickson: Finally you've got Mulroney talking.  I've been trying to get him on the record and he won't do interviews.

Liberal Guy: Well, we have control of the committee, and that's a powerful tool.

KE: Too bad reporters can't sit on the committee.

LG: Maybe you can.  Tell you what.  What if you give me the questions and if we can, we'll ask them for you?

KE: You would do that?

LG: Hey, if it's relevant...

KE: It's not about Airbus, but about Quebecor.  The wireless auction.

LG: We'll figure out a way to work it in.  We control the committee so was get to decide what's relevant.  The Dippers will play ball if it means exposing Mulroney.  Call the research guys tonight.  I'll tell them to expect your call.

KE: You can do this?

LG: Like I said, it's our committee.  We can ask whatever the hell we want.  It's about time Mulroney and Harper and the rest get what's coming to them.  It's been two years since Harper stole power.  That's two years too long.

KE: Well, he hasn't hurt the CBC...

LG: Oh, he will.  We hear he's planning major changes to the CBC if he ever gets a majority.  Big downsizing.  Maybe breaking it up and selling pieces off. 

KE: Really?

LG: Sure.  Of course that what the Tories want to do.  Everyone knows that.

KE: If you think it's OK...

LG: Trust me.  Nothing can go wrong.  Just don't tell anyone.  People would get the wrong idea.  Bloggers would rant about the CBC being pro-Liberal.  It's not that at all.  We're just trying to fix something that needs fixing, and keep Canada whole.  The CBC is a big part of that.

KE: Yeah.  That makes sense.  Well, I guess I owe you.

LG: Oh yes.  You do.

That last line is the one that would have had the CBC thinking that going public was the right thing to do. 

If Krista Erickson and the Liberal Party had gotten away with it, that is, if no one had blabbed to Jean Lapierre, Krista Erickson would have owed the Liberal Party a big favour.  The CBC brass would not have known anything about it, of course.  At some time in the future, presumably, Krista Erickson would have been called upon to pay on that debt.

But the the story got out.  The Liberals were, and still are, stonewalling.  If the CBC had done the same, denying everything, the CBC would still have been on the hook for a favour.  After all, the question got asked and answered.  Sure, there was some caterwauling about deals between the Liberal Party and the CBC, but had that din died away, there would have been no lasting harm. 

So what changed?  Because of the leak, and the allegations going public, the CBC chiefs knew about the deal.  Sure the bloggers and the Conservative Party and the National Post were demanding that the CBC to come clean, but so what?

That could not have bothered the CBC all that much.  After all, these guys are constantly tearing down the CBC.  Nothing would change.

But there was the matter of the IOU.

On her own, Krista Erickson might have been willing to owe a favour to the Liberal Party, but her bosses at the CBC might have decided that this was a bad deal.  So how do you spike the deal?  You shine a light on it.  You bring it out in the open.  You let everyone know there was collusion (with the clear implication that a quid pro quo was involved), you identify the guilty party at the CBC, and make a public show of removing that reporter from Ottawa.

How can the Liberal Party call in its marker now?

Other CBC reporters had nothing to do with this, so they aren't obliged to do the Liberal Party any favours, even if the punishment dealt to Krista Erickson had not already made it clear to avoid entanglements.  The Liberal Party could demand payback from Krista Erickson, but what would be the point?  She's been taken away from Ottawa, and likely will not be reporting on political stories for quite some time.  In any case, if she wrote a story that torqued too far in favour of the Liberal Party, people would immediately be suspicious thanks to the CBC revealing her name in this collusion story.

For the Liberal Party, she's damaged goods.  The Liberals are holding a debt that they'll never be able to collect on.

The CBC did not reveal who in the Liberal Party was dealing with Krista Erickson.  There was no need to.  The goal was to deep-six whatever deal existed between Krista Erickson (and by extension, the CBC itself) and the Liberal Party for some future story.  That favour can never be repaid now.  The CBC got kicked in the shins over this, but that's a lot more favourable to bending over for the Liberal Party.

I think the CBC needed only the slightest push to make the details of this story public.  Certainly the CBC had to make it appear that the corporation was unwilling to go public, but once a decent amount of resistance was offered, the CBC might have been only too happy to get it all out in the open.

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