According to at least one Canadian media outlet, former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard died last night. In reality, he's alive and well. So now it's time for our favorite game: Who Reported It First?
In one corner is CTV, a private English national broadcaster that reported Bouchard died yesterday afternoon. In another corner is Radio-Canada, the publicly funded French broadcaster that says CTV wrongly blamed it for first reporting the death. Here's what each side said in an article by the Canadian Press:
Catherine Cano, news director of RDI, demanded the correction from Newsnet after the CTV network reported Bouchard had died, attributing the information to Radio-Canada.
"It's completely crazy and completely false," Cano said in an interview.
"Where the hell did they get that information? I'm really pissed off. It's totally false and I hate the idea that people might think we made that (mistake).\
CTV apologized to Bouchard and his family and admitted the report "incorrectly attributed the source of the information to Radio-Canada" in a statement issued late Thursday.
Tom Haberstroh, CTV vice-president of news, also apologized and said an investigation was underway to find out how the mistake was made.
"We're still investigating, it's going to take a while," Haberstroh said.
"What I can tell you is we take pride in Newsnet, we take pride in its accuracy and we made an incorrect report. We apologize for it and we're investigating it," he said, adding the report was corrected within a minute of airing.
This is the request for retraction that Radio-Canada put over the wire:
CTV Newsnet directly quoted Radio-Canada as having announced the death of former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard this afternoon. In reality, however, this news was not reported at any time by either Radio-Canada or RDI, its 24-hour information network. Given the significance of this false report, Radio-Canada has asked CTV for a public retraction.
More from the CP article:
Cutting into regular coverage with a Breaking News graphic, CTV's 24-hour news network credited a Radio-Canada report and said Bouchard had died at the age of 66.
Calling it dramatic news, political expert Mike Duffy began eulogizing Bouchard, saying he had a "profound impact on Canadian history" before bringing the story to a halt.
Duffy and CTV Newsnet anchor Kate Wheeler then grinned sheepishly and said they were "happy to report Lucien Bouchard is alive and well."
"I don't know why Radio-Canada has been reporting that but indeed, now we're glad to report he's still alive," Wheeler said on the air.
Cano said she and other colleagues at the English and French networks of the CBC pored over tapes to see where Newsnet might have gotten the idea.
She said nothing even came close to saying Bouchard was dead.
"I'm so angry, I could sue," Cano said. "It's our credibility at play here."
Bouchard was mentioned Thursday in RDI reports dealing with a special on the 1995 referendum, where Bouchard was a key figure. Mention was made of the illness that nearly took his life a few months earlier.
Duffy said the network had been chasing the news for about 30 minutes before going live with the story, making phone calls to people close to Bouchard and the law firm where he works.
Duffy's claim that CTV spent "about 30 minutes" trying to confirm the story is suspect. A source at a Montreal newspaper told Regret last night that, after hearing of CTV's report, it only took a few minutes to call Bouchard's law firm and get confirmation that he wasn't dead. Either CTV folks spent 30 minutes calling the wrong people, or they didn't really check at all before putting it on the air. As of now, CTV hasn't put an official statement/correction/retraction over the wire. Email us if you see one.
