EDITORIAL — Taking lumps, dodging slings and arrows — The week that was

“The Ugly Canadians” (who else but miners?) made the evening news this past week, with their tailings spills and environmental scandals featured in prime time alongside reports of further sex scandals in the military. About the same time, a newsmagazine included Viola MacMillan, former president of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), in a list of Canadian entrepreneurs. It didn’t say how she qualified for the honor, but, rather, identified her as having been the “central figure” of the Windfall scandal of the mid-1960s. And the author of the latest book on the Bre-X salting scam cast his net of blame well beyond the company and its Bay Street supporters to reel in the entire Canadian mining industry, which he describes as “sick.”

Meanwhile, Nova Scotian prosecutors decided to drop all criminal charges related to the Westray mine disaster, which killed 26 miners in 1992, leaving the victim’s families feeling betrayed. To top the week off, a Canadian firm was accused by environmentalists and the media of pushing forward a mine in la belle province that would produce “toxic chemicals,” and “some of the worst pollutants” in the country (though it was later learned that some of the numbers were exaggerated a hundred-fold).

But mining wasn’t the only industry making news this summer. The news business also came under the scandal spotlight. A columnist nominated for a Pulitzer prize was found to have manufactured quotes and characters for her stories. A young reporter-researcher was caught fabricating some of his material. A gaudy clown made the cover page of The Economist, above a caption that read “Here is the news.” The feature story described the news business as “a manufacturing operation” producing mostly “water-cooler stories” — gossipy pieces full of dysfunctional characters and sex and violence — instead of thoughtful, finely crafted pieces examining important issues of the day.

A short while later, CNN founder Ted Turner profusely apologized for airing a television story that falsely claimed that the U.S. military used nerve gas to kill defectors during the Vietnam war. The story’s researchers were raked over the coals by other journalists, who, like Turner, found that the claims were unsupported by any evidence. The media mishap triggered soul-searching and promises of reform, but, days later, most news organizations were back speculating about every trivial detail of the Monica Lewinsky-Linda Tripp affair, with help from notoriously biased media pundits.

The point of all this is not to ridicule the media, which perform a valuable function and have many fine professionals skilled in their craft. Nor is it to rub salt in the wounds of an industry that is still struggling to distance itself from Bre-X, Westray and environmental failures. It is to point out that no one has a monopoly on virtue; that no industry is free of scoundrels and incompetents; and that the public is capable of separating wheat from chaff and of bringing balance, perspective and common sense to what is heard, seen and read.

The public knows the difference between sensational, tabloid journalism and fair and balanced reporting. It knows that the Canadian mining industry is not sick, but rather a cornerstone of this nation’s economy, albeit a struggling one facing many challenges. At the same time, even the industry knows it needs to clean house and restore investor confidence, and raise the bar on engineering and environmental performance. And it is trying to do all these things.

The public knows that Bre-X was largely perpetrated by people outside the country, that Westray was more a politician’s than a miner’s mine, and that Viola MacMillan made a valuable contribution to the industry before her fall from grace. Those who knew her well criticized the news article not because it mentioned her legal woes (which did not involve Windfall Oils and Mines directly), but because it failed to mention her role in building the PDAC into a national organization. They want to see fair treatment and balance, not sensationalism and the mean-spirited dig that she, somehow, was responsible for steering a sheep-like industry to its Bre-X Waterloo.

Media sensationalism aside, most people understand that the mining industry, like any other, has its problems and challenges, and its rogues and colorful characters. But they also know it has good people doing good work; industry stalwarts and straight arrows who do this nation proud. Unfortunately, these people rarely make the evening news hour.