The crowd at Friday’s presser – anybody look particularly faint in that group?
The crowd at Friday’s presser – anybody look particularly faint in that group? Credit: Alberta Newsroom Credit: Alberta Newsroom

It’s in Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s nature never to admit she’s wrong, so it was no surprise after her announcement Friday she wouldn’t allow reporters at a government news conference to ask more than one question prompted a storm of criticism, that she doubled down Saturday.
 
During the Your Province, Your Premier radio program given her free of charge by Corus Entertainment, Smith said she would refuse to take more than one question per reporter at the United Conservative Party (UCP)’s political news conferences from now until the election scheduled to take place on May 29.
 
She also seemed to say that each media organization would only get a single question, whether or not they send more than one reporter.
 
Premier Smith also made up a fanciful and undoubtedly false story about why she is doing this.
 
To wit: “It’s so that we can get to more media outlets. Because as we get into the election campaign, there’s going to be far more interest. We’ve got dozens of media in Alberta, and if everyone was asking two questions, it means we’d have fewer that were able to get to.”
 
Please! Nobody believes this, and that includes the UCP employees and party loyalists who were repeating her wing-and-a-prayer talking point.
 
Ask yourself, what will happen if they run out of questions before the time allotted for the newser is up? Presumably they won’t go back to reporters who have rejoined the queue, as happened Friday. No, they will end the event and run for the exits.
 
This is obviously being done to prevent questions about the host of scandals and embarrassments dogging the UCP, most of them of Smith’s own creation. Among these are Pastorgate, RStar, the ethics investigation, that SLAPP suit, COVID conspiracy theories, and health policy flip-flops.
 
Anyway, it’s easy to blow off a first question, harder to deal with a thoughtful follow-up. It’s also easy when you’re picking who gets to ask questions, to move on to reporters who have other agendas.
 
But let’s get back to the premier’s Saturday bloviations on the radio: “You just can’t do hourlong, uh, press conferences. You just can’t do that! I mean, on Friday we had people standing behind me who’d been standing there for an hour, and had a couple of them afterwards saying that they were beginning to feel faint.”
 
This sounds like another one of Smith’s imaginary anecdotes. I think it would be reasonable for the media to try to find out who was feeling faint among the crowd of extras at that government announcement – albeit, a politically motivated one. There’s a picture, after all.
 
After a few supportive interruptions from YP/YP’s simpatico host, Wayne Nelson, Smith concluded the segment: “We’re going to continue to do media availabilities. We’re going to continue doing scrums. We’re going to continue doing town halls. It’s just, each media outlet will get one question, instead of getting two, while we’re in this period of the campaign, because I just need to make sure that we’re getting to as many people as possible.” (Emphasis added.)
 
So, a few thoughts about this.
 
First, this is obviously a ridiculous policy, but it’s the kind of thing Republicans do in the United States, so it was bound to show up in Canada sooner or later, and most bad ideas from south of the Medicine Line seem appear first directly north of Medicine Hat. So … shrug, yawn.
 
Second, a government has the power to set rules to manage media behaviour at government press conferences called to announce new policy, legislation, or responses to developing situations. Say, the outbreak of an infectious disease and the public health measures required to control it, just to pluck an example out of thin air.
 
Leastways they do if the reporter wants to get back into the Legislature Building.
 
If the rules are foolish and citizens (or as in this case, media) protest loudly enough things will usually get changed back, often quickly.
 
That’s what happened when an NDP staffer blocked a couple of agitators for a right-wing video blog from a government meeting in 2016. The Notley Government heard the protests and reversed course on the policy within two days.
 
They never did it again. We’ll see if Smith is that flexible.
 
Third, it is quite a different matter to say journalists can’t ask as many questions as they like at political events, as Smith now says she now intends to do.
 
Yes, if they phone in, the party has the power to hang up on them. But if they attend in person, that is not so.
 
So whether Alberta’s media meekly knuckles under to Smith’s one-question decree or ignores it is entirely up to the media.
 
All reporters need to do to stop this nonsense is show a little spine.
 
The appropriate response, then, is for reporters attending UCP political events in person is to simply ask the premier their first question and when the answer is unsatisfactory, ask their follow-up.
 
If the moderator says they can’t, ask it again anyway … louder.
 
If the moderator cuts of the mike, shout it out.
 
If party staff try to throw the reporters out, or deny them entry to the next meeting, make sure the cameras are running when it happens.
 
This is especially true of scrums, which by their nature are unorganized and without a moderator or chairperson. Get there firstest with the loudest voice and you can ask anything you like.
 
For this reason, Premier Smith’s statement to the contrary yesterday notwithstanding, I doubt very much she has any intention of coming anywhere near a scrum between now and May 29.
 
I know, this will be difficult for Alberta media, which is renowned for its docile nature. Deference is their middle name. But if reporters choose to let the UCP get away with this nonsense, that’s entirely on them.
 
If they will not ignore this decree – which the premier has neither the authority nor the power to make – they deserve no sympathy and no respect.

David J. Climenhaga

David J. Climenhaga

David Climenhaga is a journalist and trade union communicator who has worked in senior writing and editing positions with the Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald. He left journalism after the strike...