That which we call scandal, would it be as newsworthy if it happened to ordinary people, say, you and me?

Naah. It would be like curry without spice. The story wouldn’t make it to the headlines and would definitely not sell more newspaper copies. A juicy story attached to a prominent figure is a newspaper or news channel’s lifeline these days.

Catching the scandalous news bug, the Canadian media — usually more disciplined in their handling of sensational news — threw all restraint to the winds last year, thriving and riding on waves of scandals involving sexual misdemeanours by a celebrity, drug (and other) abuse by a politician and misappropriation by government officials, to name a few.

A juicy story attached to a prominent figure is a newspaper or news channel’s lifeline

The crack smoking stories of Toronto Mayor, Rob Ford, carried into 2014 with videos and stories of his substance abuse induced antics becoming viral. The Canadian (and international) media couldn’t get enough of the embarrassing rants and the visuals to go with it and repeated broadcasts of the reports milked as much viewership / readership as could be possible. The public apparently couldn’t get enough of the dirt on Ford and the media was gleefully fuelling the fire by camping everywhere around Mayor Ford. That story did not end the way the media had anticipated though when Ford went into sudden retirement after being diagnosed with abdominal cancer.

Rob Ford

His crazy antics though had woken up the Canadian media’s naughty side and so they went in search of more spicy fodder. Sure enough, the paparazzi soon discovered lots of hazy areas inside government officials’ closets, putting in their best efforts to what they termed investigative journalism.

In August of 2014, Alberta Premier Alison Redford — the province’s first female premier — resigned after reports of her ‘over the top’ spending on personally chartered flights for herself and her 12-year-old daughter were revealed. While Redford would fly empty planes because she preferred privacy, her daughter flew 50 times on government aircraft, mostly with her friends on private jaunts. The ex-Premier was reportedly also building a ‘sky palace’ for herself by converting the top floor of a federal building in Edmonton into an apartment for personal use.

News exposes of Redford’s overspending spree became too glaring to be ignored by the Conservative party and when the PR personnel couldn’t handle the situation, the Alberta Premier resigned in the ‘best interest of the party.’

Any scandal depends on how well the PR machinery can control it and what the post scandal options are. It’s never really about reducing corruption but about how many people know of the corruption or a scandalous act.

That was exactly the case when the government owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) fired one of its top rated radio show host, Jian Ghomeshi, last October. It was like the opening of Pandora’s box as all kinds of vile things spilled out in a string of news stories, revealing scandalous acts of the popular radio host.

Mr Jian Ghomeshi’s antics are difficult to explain and also, (ahem), not for the pure / weak hearted!

Any scandal depends on how well the PR machinery can control it and what the post scandal options are. It’s never really about reducing corruption but about how many people know of the corruption or a scandalous act.

Beginning with Ghomeshi’s dismissal, the CBC spokesperson initially stated that Ghomeshi would be on an “undetermined” leave from his job as host of the radio programme ‘Q’ since he needed to “deal with some personal issues”. Within two days, however, the CBC had started distancing themselves from Ghomeshi.

This time the reasons were clear. Ghomeshi was going to be investigated for multiple sex assault charges. As Ghomeshi tried to twist the story around by filing a suit of wrongful dismissal, the media wheels had already started to spin. The Toronto Star published a story containing allegations from three women saying Ghomeshi was physically violent to them without their consent during intimate encounters. The violence included striking them with a closed fist or open hand; biting, choking and several other brutal forms of abuse. After the story broke out, there was no stopping more women who came out with what Ghomeshi had done to them.

For several weeks, in office corners, drawing rooms and probably even bedrooms, discussions revolved around the lurid tales of Ghomeshi and all his psychotic antics. The newspapers and the media channels once again hit the repeat button on all the shocking and explicit details and viewer ratings went up. For Canadians it was a very juicy turn of events taking place in a very prosaic and allegedly decorous organisation.

Jian Ghomeshi

This was not just a scandal that had exposed Ghomeshi, but also the hidden policies regarding sexual harassment against women within Canadian work places. Even in the haloed walls and hallowed halls of government offices/Parliament Hill women are still not treated equally and may expect a playful pat on the behind from their male counterparts. Objections or complaints are taken as weaknesses in a political arena.

Now with the cat out of the bag regarding Ghomeshi, the CBC has come under fire for not taking due notice of the complaints filed by the few employees / interns who had at some point summed up the courage to complain about Ghomeshi. But because of Ghomeshi’s popularity and money making ability for the organisation, nothing was done. The unwritten law has usually been that lodging a complaint is never a recommended option for any harassment or abuse because of the bosses’ displeasure on not being a ‘team player’. Now, the CBC could well face a class action law suit if all the women get enough evidence of their complaints being disregarded.

Seen under that light, Ghomeshi’s scandal has done a minor service to the female work force. In some places it has given women the strength to have the discussion regarding a male colleague’s bullying, putting undue work pressure or making unacceptable advances — a very grey area in such a politically correct society.

In any event, one thing is sure and that it’s been a great time for spin doctors, issues management / crisis response experts, reputation recovery scientists and ‘handlers’. (If you haven’t heard yet of what a spin doctor is, a quick viewing of the popular political drama ‘Scandal’ will educate you.)

With scandals within scandals hidden in nearly every other prominent person’s closet, media managers, external / internal communications professionals have it made for life. They have definitely given a drastic makeover to the latter day Public Relations Officer (the PRO), which in my Dad’s government office was a staid, middle aged man (with Kala Kola hair) whose daily routine was to visit people sporadically to glean little nuggets of inside information in Uriah Heep style and store those as leverage for a rainy day.

The current climate of corruption though would not be within the old-fashioned PRO’s ambit. This requires Scandal protagonist, Olivia Pope’s precision with a network of specialists clinically swiping clean someone’s reputation. Now that all news channels and newspapers employ paparazzi like vultures to sniff out the most saleable news, exposes hitting the headlines have become even messier and the tactics employed by media managers, even dirtier.

End of line: The Khans need to hunt for a good spin doctor to turn around their damaged PR!

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, February 1st, 2015

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