Ross Munro Media Award - nominations

The Conference of Defence Associations (CDA) in collaboration with the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute (CDFAI) has invited nominations for this prestigious annual award:

Its purpose is to recognize, annually, one Canadian journalist who has made a significant and outstanding contribution to the general public’s understanding of issues that relate to Canada’s defence and security.

The recipient of the Award will receive a replica of the Ross Munro statue, along with a cash award of $2,500.

The past recipients of this prestigious award are Stephen Thorne, Garth Pritchard, Sharon Hobson, Bruce Campion-Smith, and Christie Blatchford.

Try as I might, I can only come up with a few names that would merit consideration:

• Rosie DiManno at the Toronto Star, for her ability to put a Blatchford-like human face on the dusty, determined soldier in the field.


• Graeme Smith of the Globe & Mail has probably spent more time in Kandahar than any other Canadian journalist over the past year. And while some might question his role in the overblown detainee story, he was meticulously fair to the Canadian troops in his articles. Besides, he didn't get to choose his focus - his editors did.


• Steve Chao of CTV doesn't get as much attention as the more...ahem...flamboyant Lisa Laflamme, but unlike her, his reports strike me as much more about the story, and much less about the person telling it.


• Murray Brewster of CP has done some decent stuff on the CF both from in-theatre and from the home front, but he also allowed himself to be used in the UAE story that I felt was completely inappropriate. When you stretch to include the Murray Brewsters of the media world in your considerations - and at the fourth name, no less - you know the barrel is an awfully shallow one.

Not much to draw from, is there? Am I missing anyone? Any other suggestions from the readership?

Update: You know what I think might be useful? To ask the previous recipients who they would nominate. Time to get on the e-mail, I guess.

Upperdate: I've had a rather unorthodox thought: Mike Bobbitt, the founder of Army.ca. It's not journalism, per se, but the forum reaches a broad audience (thousands of viewers daily), and it hashes out defence issues in an informed and informative way. I believe the future of journalism lies in interacting with the audience rather than lecturing to them, or rationing the information the journalist feels is relevant, so this idea is less of a stretch for me than it would be to the awards committee. Probably too much of a stretch to be anything more than a pipe dream, in fact, but maybe in a few years...

On a previous note, I've received responses from three of the former award recipients so far, and will publish the results (anonymously - no who said what) when they're all in.

Another update: The results are in, and Matthew Fisher of CanWest seems to be the front-runner, although Les Perreaux is neck-and-neck with him. I know what you're thinking: you can *yawn* cut the *YAWN* tension with a knife...