Part II: CBC’s O’Malley uses Liberal partisan as “proof” for phone call story

A reader tipped me off to an update from Kady O’Malley on her story (see here) about unsolicited phones calls coming from someone on behalf of PM Stephen Harper

O’Malley does get a response from a Conservative Party official saying that the calls are from them and that they are identified as such during the call. Case closed for our intrepid little CBC reporter right?

Not even close…O’Malley uses Penny Lankshear as another source to try and further her story who says she was called and provides commentary:

Caller said, “I’m calling from Supporter Services on behalf of the Prime Minister. Do you support Gary Schellenberger & Shelley Glover?”

I said, “Shelley Glover?!? She’s not even in Ontario.”

Silence.

Then: Do you support Schellenberger & the CPC?

Me: No.

She then hung up. I did, somewhere in the exchange ask where she got my phone number, seeing as it’s unlisted. She wouldn’t answer the question, and hung up before I could ask more.

The reader who tipped me off recognized Lankshear as a hard-core Liberal supporter and a quick check of her Twitter account that O’Malley linked confirms it.

Check out Lankshear’s Twitter account here which has her blog link here which features the picture and caption (above) of PM Stephen Harper along with Liberal blog links and is full of partisan Liberal posts.

Does Kady really expect us to believe that she didn’t know that Lankshear is a die-hard Liberal? The only question now is will the CBC admonish her for such terrible and unprofessional journalistic practices? (see here)

CBC’s O’Malley’s idea of how to create a story

The CBC’s Kady O’Malley has posted a story on her blog about an unsolicited phone call that apparently came from someone saying they were calling “on behalf of the Prime Minister”.

A reporter from a gay & lesbian news service says he got a cold call from someone “representing” the PM asking for their opinion on Canada’s relations with Israel so our intrepid little CBC journo Kady got hot on the trail to find if the PMO was behind it.

Here’s where I have a big problem with what she is doing.

First she Tweets asking if any of her “followers” have had a similar call which she received two replies. O’Malley does admit that her ridiculous way of asking for story confirmation was flawed as one of the people said it came from the Conservative Party and was about the Gun Registry and the other was second-hand. She then sends an email to CPC headquarters asking if these calls came from them which they haven’t responded to as of yet.

See what I’m getting at? Not only did Kady post this “story” on her blog before getting a balanced response from the Conservative Party, she goes on to editorialize about it:

“Let’s face it, the notion of an entirely-own-business-minding non-politically active Canadian picking up the phone to hear a chipper voice purporting to be reaching out to him or her, personally, on behalf of the prime minister of the country that then promptly launches into a polite, but pointed interrogation of the luckless respondent’s views on anything — Canada’s support for Israel, the gun registry the cancellation of Firefly — without making clear that they are doing so under the aegis of a political party, and not serving as an official agent of the state is .. well, it’s just plain creepy, even if it isn’t actually a violation of the loosey-goosey rules that govern political activities in this country outside the writ.”

Kady has now created a partial investigated story to fit her own pre-conceived bias.  How can this be sound journalistic practice? (see here)