TV reputation: the Canadian way

While guests of Ukrainian political talk shows get issued with “season tickets” for the programs, identical talk shows are used in Canada to... sell paintings. Canada’s CBC’s journalist and host of the popular Power and Politics project as well as the weekly radio program The House Evan Solomon stands accused of having received a share of selling price of artworks bought by his TV show’s guests for acting as intermediary between them and a collector and art dealer, in breach of the broadcaster’s policy. Just an hour after a journalist investigation in this artistic and political scam was published, the media worker was fired by the CBC. The journalist himself claims that he saw no conflict of interest between the art business and his work as a political journalist, and never relied on his reputation and connections acquired at the TV station for promoting his business.

Solomon began working for the CBC back in 1994. His time with the company saw him becoming a famous journalist with great many awards, while his interesting and intelligent moderator’s style attracted guests to the station’s studio even for night newscasts. People predicted a shining TV future for him even in the beginning, and he eventually successfully achieved that objective. However, the art scandal has crippled his TV career. It seems that Canadians see reputation as all-important for journalists, while in Ukraine, nobody would even notice such an enterprising journalist. After all, who needs paintings when one can compete for a place in the oligarchic political system?