It is, in short, a disaster. Others lambasted the apparent sexism and ageism in the decision to remove a 58-year-old woman at the top of her game, especially after her predecessor, Lloyd Robertson, was allowed to stay on until he was 77. I’m more impressed by how worldly dumb it was. Cockups of this scale only come around once a generation, so it’s only fitting that we all take a moment out of our busy days to reflect on its magnificence. How, after all, was this supposed to end well for the network? Perhaps if he had offered some sort of coherent or at least comprehensible rationale for the decision, he might have survived the inevitable backlash. If, say, the show was lagging in the ratings, it might have been possible to file the story under “television is a cruel game” and move on. If, similarly, Ms. LaFlamme had started to lose a step—messed up her consonants, mispronounced the capital of Bosnia, that sort of thing—it might have made a certain Darwinian sense, at least to those of us in the hard-hearted community. But none of these are actually true. CTV’s Nightly News is one of the most popular newscasts in the country. Ms. LaFlamme is a five-time winner of Best News Anchor at the Canadian Screen Awards, including the last two consecutive years. So what was it? Perhaps the network itself has a clue, but if so, it has proven unable to explain: Not in the Pravda-like account that appeared on its own newscasts (“Lisa LaFlamme Quits CTV News, As if She Had just retire) ? not in his original press release (“changing viewer habits… business decision, etc.”). not in later self-pitying public statements (“in recent days we have been dealing with a difficult and high-profile change”). not in a town hall with its own staff (“sometimes you see it holistically.”) The network has compounded this bureaucratic opacity with efforts to smear Ms. LaFlamme’s character (reporters have latched on to extraordinary accounts of her alleged indiscretions with staff), when they’re not trying to blame her for her sudden hit (“She chose not to say goodbye to the audience during a CTV National newscast,” a CTV executive sniffed in that internal memo, neglecting to mention that the “goodbye” depended on her collusion in pretending to retire). Needless to say, none of this worked as intended. The suits apparently thought this would be a two-day story. Yet here we are, in week two, and the damage continues to mount. Among the casualties: Ms. LaFlamme’s replacement, Omar Sahedina, who has faced his own barrage of online criticism. (I’d feel more sympathy for him if he hadn’t posted his own monumental tweet on the matter, in what is apparently the house style: “So excited to be working with our incredibly talented team in this new role!” ) Add it up — the initial decision to fire a popular female anchor, the ham-fisted way it was done, the bland attempts to explain it, and the even blander attempts to make their inability to explain themselves into the story (“CTV regrets that the way the news of her departure was communicated may have left viewers with the wrong impression”) – and the program may never recover. In the inevitable loss of viewers that follows any changes in format or personnel (viewers are nothing if not creatures of habit) there is likely to be significant additional erosion due to audience backlash. And yet the network is stuck, unable to move forward or back down, knowing it is headed for disaster but utterly unable to admit it. Such a decision, after all, would not have been taken just on the whim of a lowly news agent, as early reports suggested. It was reportedly signed, not only by Bell Media president Wade Oosterman, but by Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of Bell Canada. Reversing the decision, then, would involve not only the individual who made the original decision, but the entire executive food chain. And it must be kept that way, whatever the cost – to the program, the news department or the company. What is this series by Barbara Tuchman? “Awful momentum makes handling easier than canceling nonsense.” Keep your views clear and informed. Get the opinion newsletter. Sign up today.
