Pascale Nadeau is suing Radio Canada. Will Lisa LaFlamme sue CTV who just showed her the door?
After 35 years of service – a year less than Pascale at the CBC – and more than 10 years as the host of CTV National News, the country’s most popular television news, the famous journalist was forced to announce via Twitter that CTV had not renewed his contract.
When he was “taken by surprise” by the bad news on June 29, he was forbidden to speak about it. After her “tweet” last Monday, Madame LaFlamme disappeared from the screen.
Barring a change of venue that we did not anticipate, there is no question that CTV will pay him the slightest tribute, as TVA did brilliantly on June 16 for the retirement of Pierre Brunau.
The sudden and unexpected demise of Madame LaFlamme at CTV National News remains as nebulous at the moment as that of Pascale Nadeau at CBC two years ago.
After an anonymous complaint from a subordinate who thought she was too picky, Madame Nadeau was suspended for a month but never returned to the air.
Last year, in August, Radio-Canada announced her resignation, which Pascale denounced and called a “constructive dismissal”. In the case of Lisa LaFlamme, things aren’t much clearer.
WHAT IS THE TRUTH ?
During the pandemic, the antenna boss had decided not to dye her hair, sporting a gorgeous gray hairstyle that betrayed her 58 years. As we did in the case of Pascale Nadeau, several of her colleagues attributed her departure to ageism, but that’s not the case, according to people I spoke to in Toronto.
The climate has not been good between Lisa and Michael Melling, who has been vice president of information at Bell Media since last January.
Until the appointment of the latter, very free in her movements, Lisa no longer had the same leeway. Melling wanted to cut his travel expenses and cap the news budget. He also felt that Madame was going too far and that her intransigence towards the editorial staff created a toxic atmosphere.
In the case of Pascale Nadeau, Radio-Canada also invoked her intransigence and the resulting toxic climate. The new generation of journalists is demanding to be treated with white gloves, which was far from the case a decade or two ago.
LISA DOES NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Lisa LaFlamme fights hard for press freedom. In 2015, Kevin Crull, then president of Bell Media, unhappy with a decision by CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais, ordered CTV’s news division to stop giving him airtime.
LaFlamma overruled Ukas, and Blais appeared on CTV National News the night of the ban. As expected, Crull’s intervention was not long in coming. He apologized but eventually handed in his resignation.
Michael Melling certainly recalled that incident and had the savvy to invoke “an administrative decision caused by a change in viewers’ habits” to terminate Lisa LaFlamme’s contract.
It’s an utterly absurd explanation, knowing that the news show she hosted almost always had more viewers than Global and CBC combined. Lisa LaFlamme is far too determined a woman to stop here. Be continued.
