Dedicated copy editor tires of fight
to maintain newspaper's quality, integrity
"Frankly, I was getting tired
of fighting the company to try to maintain the quality
and integrity of a paper it owns," says Charles
Shannon, explaining why he jumped at CanWest Global
Corporation's buyout offer.
And then, there was the mathematical
logic to consider. "I'm 64, and was starting to
ask myself how many more years I was willing to be
a wage slave. I figured maybe two. Then the company
offered 1.5 years' salary for people in Editorial
to voluntarily go. Working two years for half a year's
additional pay didn't make much sense to me."
"Cutting
staff at the same time you move to expand
your web presence is a recipe for failure," Shannon
says of CanWest's corporate strategy. "But it
so happens that, the day before The
Gazette announced
its buyout offer, I was grousing with another copy
editor about the conditions we were working under.
'If they were to offer a buyout,' I said, 'I am so
out of here.' The next day, they called my bluff. What
was I supposed to do?"
In a note to the membership,
(possibly prophetically) headlined 'Guild guru gets
out while the going is good,' the Montreal Newspaper
Guild's vice-president jokes that "The
Gazette was offering bags of money not
to do any work — every true unionist’s
secret dream. Who could resist? Plus, now I can write
all the alliterative headlines I want, not that anyone
will see them in print."
Shannon, who got involved in the Guild only about
10 years ago, first as an informal rep for the news
desk, then as a bargainer and main unit chair, became
the second VP in 2003. He became the sole VP after
a restructuring of table officers in 2006. With several
years under his belt as a delegate to the CWA Canada
National Representative Council's semi-annual meetings,
he joined the parent union's executive as a Member
At Large last spring.
"Along the way, I got
to help feed the infant YourMedia.ca and became chair
of (CWA Canada's) CanWest Global Caucus."
Shannon is philosophical about
his involvement in the union: "It's a thankless
task, but someone's gotta do it. It's the quality
of your job, and the pride you can take in it, that's
at stake. Plus you meet new, friendly and interesting
people and travel to interesting places."
In the note posted on Guild
bulletin boards, Shannon writes that "the last few years have seen a bit
of turmoil, both at The Gazette and at the Guild. But
overall, looking back, it’s been a hoot, and
I wouldn’t have missed a minute of it. Well,
maybe some minutes."
He points out that "the Local has not only defended
and represented its members, but consistently taken
stands for journalistic
integrity and the principle
that reporting the news is a public trust. I’m
proud of the small role I played."
It was hardly a small role. Shannon was, along with
former Local president Jan Ravensbergen, the main architect
of the Your Media website. It was created by CWA Canada
in 2004 to be the authoritative resource on media concentration
in this country.
And it was the Montreal Guild
activists who spearheaded the "hefty" presentations made to the Senate's
probe into media concentration. The Transport and Communications
Committee, initially chaired by Senator Joan Fraser — a
former Editor-in-Chief of the Gazette — produced
its recommendations in June 2006.
"Once the Liberals were out
of power, Sen.
Fraser's report didn't matter much, but everything
we'd warned against has now come to pass, or soon will.
CanWest dumping
Canadian Press was just the start.
Among the first pages the Gazette sent to Hamilton
for 'pagination' were the Editorial and Op-ed pages.
(Does that set off alarm bells?) You can't really stop
a runaway train like the Asper Express until it hits
a wall. With the new debt it's determined to pile on
its old debt, that train wreck may be near," opines
Shannon.
However, "the career's been fine, and mostly
fun," he says. After spending 15 years at various
publications, he joined the Gazette in 1980 and has
worked as a copy editor in several departments, including
News, Living and Entertainment.
But it's not like it used to be.
"These days, the so-called 'news' is mostly
static and spin, and the job of filtering out the worst
of the crap, and underlining what's important, is an
honourable profession," says Shannon.
"I joined a newspaper
chain run by the Southams, a family with deep roots
in the business. When Conrad Black took over, there
were clashes at the editorial-page level, but no
attempt to skew the actual news.
"Then the Aspers came in, bringing the concept that ownership gave you the absolute right to decide
what 'reality' to report on. We had a little clash
over the concept of national editorials," he says
wryly, "and also over instructions to change the
words 'militants' or 'insurgents' to 'terrorists' (in
Mideast
news coverage). CanWest never rescinded its
orders, but it gave up on trying to enforce them. I,
along with dozens of fellow editors and union activists,
happily take credit."
Looking to the future, Shannon
says he plans to write a couple of books, probably
historical fiction, and he likes to draw, so may
turn his hand to freelance cartooning. He also hopes
to spend more time on his hobbies: "Aviation
(I don't actually fly, but I may look into ultralights),
home winemaking and brewing (also drinking), and
painting (which I should have time for, after stopping
years ago)."
Shannon, whose grown children
are "well advanced
in their careers" (Stephanie is nearing certification
as an acupuncturist, and Ulric works for Foreign Affairs,
currently at diplomatic offices in the Middle East),
will travel to Morocco in February for his son's wedding.
But there will be something
else to attend first. With 20 people who've taken
buyouts leaving at about the same time, "it should be a helluva farewell
party" in mid-January. "Someone is bound
to get really, really drunk and tear a very wide
strip off whichever managers dare to show up. Should
be fun."
