Never having met Global’s Rachel Gilmore, all I really know about her is that she seems to have come a long way in a short time. An internship to a national reporting job out of Ottawa in six years? Impressive..However, this profession so easily afflicts the soul. In only six years, Ms. Gilmore seems to have gone from eager neophyte to wearily cynical..Usually on a Friday we ink-stained wretches crash land at some suitable hostelry to remind each other of past disasters, now mis-remembered as a golden age... Yet, as the sun dips lower yet in the sky however, Ms. Gilmore is still twittering away with both fists..For those who haven’t been keeping up, Conservative leadership contender Pierre Poilievre was photographed shaking hands with somebody who it sounds like he would have been better not to..Understandable, of course. He was doing a photo-line after a rally and how are you supposed to know who’s who? You really do meet all sorts..And in a fair and balanced account of the moment, that would have been understood. No story here..However, one Jeremy MacKenzie worked his way up the line and shook hands with Mr. Poilievre. Mr. Mackenzie is no stranger to controversy: He would be a fun interview, shall we say..What followed was a twitterstorm as ‘responsible’ journalists tried to use their encounter as a hit on Mr. Poilievre. That is, that this handshake was a subtle Poilievre endorsement of everything outrageous that Mr. MacKenzie ever said..This is neither fair, nor balanced. In fact it is not even news: It can fairly be called activism conducted by news reporters..Having known Mr. Poilievre for a while, I can safely say that there is nothing about Mr. MacKenzie that he would endorse, except perhaps the man’s military service for his country. But even that I can’t say for sure: I haven’t asked him..And so followed a spontaneous pile-on by journalistes engagé that Ms. Gilmore seems to have led, for example:.‘Pierre Poilievre’s dangerous dance with a Diagolon extremist. Thus, self-described Liberal-leaning columnist Max Fawcett..And Ms. Gilmore: ‘'Diagolon: What to know about the group whose founder shook Pierre Poilievre’s hand.' .All sadly predictable. Nor did things tone down after more responsible publications — the National Post for example and dare I say it, the Western Standard — pointed out that Mr. MacKenzie himself admitted it was a set-up..Instead, Ms. Gilmore tweeted complaining how “People who describe themselves as "journalists" but spend all their time amplifying misinformation for clicks — or rage-baiting off the trauma of others — aren't journalists. They're cosplayers.”.I admit I had to ask what was a ‘cosplayer.’ Apparently they’re the kind of people who dress up as Klingons at a Star Trek convention. Like, not the real thing. Anyway, I’ve subscribed to the National Post for years, and they’ve never seen that way to me..However, I certainly have wondered about Ottawa journalists who reported with a straight face that Putin was funding the trucker convoy, and hinted (without outright saying it) that trucker protesters were responsible for a (luckily foiled) arson attempt in an Ottawa apartment block..All suggestions that the trucker convoy was involved have been thoroughly refuted by the Ottawa City Police..But who was going for clickbait then?.Ms. Gilmore is not without talent and I wish her well in her career. However, there are some pretty good people at Global, and I do hope that that some of them take her for a drink one Friday night and chat about to her about projection — that is, accusing others of doing what one is doing oneself.
