Orwellian: Journalist group protests Alberta war room’s use of term ‘reporters’
EDMONTON — Staff in the Alberta government’s so-called war room should stop calling themselves reporters, says the president of the Canadian Association of Journalists.
“Don’t pretend that you’re doing journalism — because you’re not,” Karyn Pugliese said Tuesday from Winnipeg. “When the government hires its own PR firm, that’s fine. But when you pretend that PR firm is journalism, that’s positively Orwellian.”
Earlier this month, Alberta’s United Conservative government opened the Canadian Energy Centre, often referred to by Premier Jason Kenney as a “war room” for reacting to and correcting perceived misinformation on the province’s energy industry.
The centre has since published a series of articles on its website. Sources contacted for those stories have told media organizations, including The Canadian Press, that staff identified themselves on the phone as reporters.