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05/09/2003 Archived Entry: "Slip Slidin' Away"
SLIP SLIDIN' AWAY: More awful news for the battered National Post. I was watching with somewhat desultory interest Studio Two's federal political panal on TVO (John Ibbitson of the Globe & Mail, Susan Riley of the Ottawa Citizen, and Paul Wells of the National Post), when at the very end of the discussion, host Paula Todd rather unctuously said to Wells that she was given to understand that Wells had just filed his walking papers with the Post and was now a "free man." Todd didn't even bother asking a question, but simply left this fact hanging in the air, waiting obviously for Wells to elaborate. Instead, Wells dodged any specifics and simply said that he'd continue writing, even if it was on "bubblewrap."
The Post has now officially bled columnists, left, right, and centre. First left-liberal Patricia Pearson resigned a few weeks ago, then the neoconservative David Frum, and now the invaluable and centrist Wells, the Post's parliamentary sketch writer. Wells' attitude towards the politicians he covered in parliament always struck me as being slightly sneering (though we are talking about the Chretienites after all) and as a consequence, he was hamstrung by an awkward style which veered in that narrow range between the frivolous and the sarcastic. Wells always seemed to be implying that he was not worthy of being stuck day-in and day-out covering the antics of the nincompoops we Canadians had foolishly elected to represent us in Ottawa. "Lord, what fools these MPs be!" was all too often the order-of-the-day with Wells. The sub-Mencken impression could get pretty tired, pretty fast. But he was never less than intelligent or sharply observent, and he always raised issues and asked questions which were awful hard to get around (his articles on the then-upcoming Iraq war were masterpieces of centrist equivocation). Wells' departure is yet another profound loss for the Post's starting line-up.
The Post has actually had a fairly awful week. Last Saturday in the Globe & Mail, former Postie Michael Den Tandt wrote an assessment of Ken Whyte's recently-terminated reign as Post editor. Den Tandt tries awfully hard to be fair, especially praising Whyte for his innovations in the newspaper's design, but you can just sense the resentment seething underneath Den Tandt's quite frankly, gloating, post-mortem. I managed to keep from gagging until I got to these sentences right near the very end:
Thus, the Post had little left to crusade on this year but the war in Iraq. Its coverage was marked by a frenzy of Canada-bashing and hair-tearing that drove one of the paper's best columnists, Patricia Pearson, to quit. She was the newspaper's only moderate of note, and therefore the only columnist in its pages whose views reflected those of most literate Canadians.
I think it was that deadly little phrase, "literate Canadians," that made me want to throw the newspaper across the room. Financial Post columnist Terence Corcoran quite properly ripped apart Den Tandt's article in a recent letter to the Globe & Mail, especially taking issue with Den Tandt's contention that Patricia Pearson was the Post's "only moderate of note." Unfortunately, one of the moderates Corcoran names in his letter happens to be... Paul Wells.
You want even more bad news about the National Post? Well quite naturally, the Globe & Mail's full of it. According to this story, Christie Blatchford, Canada's finest crime reporter bar none, is also considering resigning from the National Post. You can just imagine that they're breaking out the champagne down on Front St. even as I write.
In retrospect, I can see only a single upside to all this. If star columnists are resigning from the National Post left and right, I can just imagine what morale is like among the frontline journalists. Mr. Martinovich, I don't know how anyone can like living in northern Ontario, but I'd just love to have you down here in Toronto. There's probably no better time than now to resubmit your resume and portfolio to Matthew Fraser. You can just bet that there's going to be a lot of openings down at the National Post very soon, if not already, provided the newspaper is still around in a year, of course.
Replies: 5 comments
Ha ha, well, I guess I should send my resume to the editorial pages editor then! Ha ha
Posted by Steve Martinovich @ 05/09/2003 03:52 AM EST
I've noticed Mark Steyn's column hasn't appeared this week, either. Anyone have the scoop on that?
Posted by Kevin @ 05/09/2003 07:34 AM EST
I was thinking the same thing: send your resume! Are you guys coming to the bloggerbash tonight btw?
Posted by Kathy @ 05/09/2003 12:04 PM EST
I just got an email from Blatchford. She says the rumours of her leaving are false but she is taking some time off. She'll be back later this month. I'd hate to lose her from the NP.
I won't be coming to the bash myself unfortunately. I really did want to go...
Posted by Steve Martinovich @ 05/09/2003 01:27 PM EST
Oh Nooo! As an American, I loved reading the Post when I could afford the time. It trully beats many American papers. I also felt like I was gaining a key insight into Canadian life.
Posted by James Barnett @ 05/09/2003 03:28 PM EST