DO NOT TRUST STUDENTS - BE CAUTIOUS WITH JOURNALISTS

 

TRUTH IS A VERY RARE BIRD.

 

FACEBOOK

CTV MONTREAL

March 11, 2011

 

CTV Montreal

Concordia Journalism students with Todd and Caroline - February 17, 2011

 

• Phyllis Carter

  I had an experience with one journalism student from Concordia that brings me to warn the public. I will not name her here. This young lady asked to interview me. She said she wanted to write about me because she was impressed by who I am. I sat with her for about three hours at Tim Horton's answering all her questions and discussing my experiences. I had told her when she first called me that the interview was conditional on my right to see what she had written. She said, "Of course. No problem." Some time later, when I asked to see her paper, she refused. I contacted the head of the journalism department at Concordia and I was told that the student was not obliged to show me what she had written about me. I then went to the highest official at Concordia and I was told the same thing. What the girl had written about my life was not my business. Beware of Concordia's journalism students.
•  
• 

  Elias Makos

  The public does not need to be "warned." You sat down with a journalism student for three hours, and expected some sort of special privilege that no journalist should ever give, if they want to be taken seriously. I suspect you either misunderstood, are naive, or both.
  
  The student, the chair, and this "highest official" at Concordia are right. You are not. If you have a problem with people writing about you, don't do interviews with journalists.
  
  (Full disclosure: I work full-time in the Journalism department at Concordia University, and I appear regularly on CTV's noon news as tech/trends columnist.)
•  
•  

  Phyllis Carter  I have learned from this bad experience. I would never give an interview to a student again. When I speak to a professional journalist, I know what to expect. I did not expect a student to lie to me and I did not expect officials at Concordia to condone the deception. As a professional journalist myself, my level of ethics requires me to be truthful at all times no matter what anyone else does.
  PHYLLIS CARTER'S JOURNAL - Building Camelot One Essay At A Time - http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/
  http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-happened-to-pinocchio.html
  http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/2011/01/truth-about-truth-it-isnt-easy_02.html