For as long as anyone can remember, Interim newspaper columnist Frank Kennedy has worked the Queen's Park bureau.
a small fish in a big pond, the grandfatherly Kennedy breaks more scoops than anyone I know. an advocate of the "old school", this is a reporter who still thinks it matters to chase down the scoop. Unassuming and self-deprecating, it would be difficult not to like Frank Kennedy, who is as exuberant in his grandfather years as he was as a cub reporter.
But the big guns in the press pool have always looked down their noses at the investigative reporter and the publication that he represents. Though they'd never own up to it, the mainline media over the years has carried many stories broken by Kennedy and The Interim.
Besides, both parties happen to be pro-life, a cold place to be in today's lib-left media.
It's been 15 years since the Interim reporter has been filing stories from the "Pink Palace", better known as Queen's Park. Toiling part-time, he's not getting any younger or any richer.
I once asked Kennedy when he was going to retire. "Only when I can't get up and go to work anymore," he chuckled.
"Kennedy, a popular and well-liked part-time member of the gallery was brought in last Friday for a closed-door session with the Q.P. Press Gallery executive for what they considered his `advocacy' and aggressive promotion of the pro-life cause." (LifeSiteNews.com).
Gallery president alan Findlay told Kennedy that the executive could not dismiss a member outright but would put in a recommendation to the 24 full-time members of the press gallery and call for a vote.
"Kennedy stands little chance of winning the vote given the pro-abortion bias of the mainstream media who are represented by the 24 full-time members," says LifeSite.
It would be a travesty if the Q.P. Press Gallery votes to dump Kennedy because Frank Kennedy lives for his job.
Not the kind of guy to be in your face with his opinions, unless abortionist Henry Morgentaler happens to be in sight, Kennedy works to influence public thinking with his writing. That's hardy a crime, when one considers that the mainline media does the same thing.
In being called into the closed-door meeting, Kennedy says his greatest offence was placing a pro-life bookmark in reporters' drop boxes.
"Their chief complaint with me" Kennedy says "appears to be that on one occasion I put in a colourful book mark–which was a story idea based on an article that appeared in NewsWeek–in our open mailboxes. The bookmark showed an amazing photograph of Samuel armas' hand at 21 weeks gestation extending from his mother's uterus during fetal surgery to correct his spina bifida. The reverse side showed Samuel at 3-1/2 years of age and another photo of Samuel at 5 years of age with his mother, looking healthy and happy. I told them they could go to the web and find all kinds of interesting stories about Samuel, but they didn't appear interested."
Now it seems that Kennedy himself has become the story.
During the recent Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) strike, the Gallery was told to lock out their two CBC legislative reporters but they refused, saying it was a violation of the independence of journalists at Queen's Park. "Its reporters," Findlay said, "as representatives of their media organizations, are granted membership in order to ensure the public receives the best possible scope of media coverage." That same alan Findlay now wants to lock Kennedy out of the Q.P. Press Gallery.
Kennedy, who feels this attack on him is politically-motivated, plans to approach the new Speaker of the House to plead his case.
In an interview with LifeSiteNewscom, Kennedy noted that even the sacrosanct document of the lib-left falls in his favour in this case. Citing the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights article 19, Kennedy quoted: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Expulsion from Queen's Park would put the plucky Kennedy out of business.
It's not likely that the lib-left media would want a pro-life reporter on staff and Kennedy's age would be against him.
Expulsion would cut him off from the job he loves, It would deny him first-hand access to the activities of the government, courts, legislature, officials and records, thus compromise his ability to report on news and information for The Interim, Canada's only pro-life newspaper.
There should be more investigative reporters like Frank Kennedy and less of those who would choose expulsion as a means to end the career of someone with whom they do not agree.
To express your concerns to alan Findlay: alan.findlay@tor.sunpub.com; 416-325-7825.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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