Life Under A Slide

I was so stunned by the Angelo Perichilli piece on how some of us were supposedly plotting against Michael Ignatieff that I failed to look at the bigger picture, to put it all in perspective. That's what this post is about.I've only been in Ottawa for three years but have overall come to respect the "privacy in the public space" modus operandi shown between journalists and politicians. Discreet discussions take place all the time between politicians and their ilk, journalists and their colleagues, and a vast mixture of the two. But always there has been this complicit understanding that the public space must have some privacy inherent in it if politics and journalism are to be carried out effectively.A good example of how it can go wrong is Perichilli's piece. However he got his information, it was wrong. But the way it is likely to effect us in politics is that we'll now consider meeting in private places as opposed to moving out into the Ottawa restaurants and bars where we socialize. If we now know that some journalists might eavesdrop or fail to clarify with the person what was said, then we can no longer be as we really are in the public space.The same holds true for journalists. Private discussions take place between journalists and politicians all the time, repeatedly, but if politicians suddenly put on the web something a journalist told them, the entire system would break down. And let's be clear: some politicians use journalists shamelessly, offering tidbits of gossip or other means to get their own particular slant onto the airwaves. Privacy must be respected or those journalists can no longer trust us.A couple of years ago, I overheard a particular minister in an Ottawa restaurant say some things that were damaging. I was new and kind of stupid, so I mentioned it to a colleague. The next thing I knew, the Liberal spin-machine phoned my office and wondered if I'd put out a statement and be willing to speak about it at a certain committee the next day. I sad "absolutely not" - not because I'm an ethicist but because I'd been there long enough to comprehend that such revelations are uttered because there's a trust, a line, that journalists or other politicians will not cross, and because of that, frank conversation in the public space can be undertaken.Perichilli's damage is not so much about Ignatieff or Rae; it's about the violation of this unseen guiding hand. His story has now got people saying that Liberals are in collusion about moving Ignatieff on. Let me be as honest as I have ever been in politics here. I have never, not once, been asked to any meeting with anyone about any such thing. I'm fairly connected with both Mr. Rae and Ignatieff because I'm the International Development critic and it's my job to work with both of them. The problem now is that, based on a misperception by Perichilli, the belief is now "out there" that such meetings are taking place, when in fact I have never heard of any. We remain loyal to Mr. Ignatieff, and that includes Bob Rae.What will become of politics and journalism when we can no longer respect that privacy, when journalists can't trust politicians and the political types can't even have a private discussion in a lounge without it being fair game?  All of us, journalists and politicians alike, feel like we're pinned on a slide under a microscope. Our private moments are what make our public sacrifices possible; take those away and you might as well lock us all in the Kremlin.I trust journalists and always have, in part because they are like bartenders or priests, receiving information and offering solid advice back that won't be on the front page the next morning. Mr. Rae, like me, has had an open and frank relationship with the media for a long time. He's in the Middle East right now and he will be enraged when he returns and he'll battle this violation because a line has been crossed.  Two lines, actually. The first is that the story isn't factual, and the second is that it was meant to be private. My special thanks to all those journalists who understand that distinction.