Premier sympathized with intern fired by N.B. newspaper over UNB story

Shawn Graham's office offered sympathy and help to find a job for a student intern fired by a New Brunswick newspaper for breaking the story about unrest among UNB professors for granting the premier an honorary degree.

Matt McCann was starting his second summer as a student intern at the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal in May when he uncovered the story about the group of University of New Brunswick professors and staff upset at the idea of giving Graham the degree.

The provincial newspaper splashed the story its front page but a day later fired McCann.

'She said that the newspaper has worked hard to establish a good relationship with UNB and that I had damaged that relationship.' — Matt McCann, student journalist

McCann told CBC News that Shawna Richer, the Telegraph-Journal's editor, told him he would not be allowed to remain at the newspaper because of the story.

"She told me my story was seriously unbalanced and severely underplayed the university's side of the story," said McCann, who worked at the Saint John-based newspaper's Fredericton bureau.

"She said that the newspaper has worked hard to establish a good relationship with UNB and that I had damaged that relationship. She said that I had damaged the reputation of the newspaper and she called my reporting reckless."

McCann admitted that there were minor errors in his story, such as spelling a name incorrectly and getting Graham's undergraduate degree wrong.

After hearing about what happened to him, McCann said, an official in Graham's office called him.

"The premier's office expressed sympathy at what had happened," he said, adding that Graham's office asked he send in a resumé, which he did.

But before any work opportunities arose with the government, McCann landed a summer job at St. Thomas University, where he's a student. He will also be the editor in chief of the university student newspaper in the fall.

Editor made aware of story

McCann said Richer was made aware the day before publication of the contents of the story, which included comment from the premier's office, UNB students, the professors behind the protest and the university's administration.

On the morning he was fired, he was summoned to a conference room in Fredericton at the Daily Gleaner newspaper, a sister paper of the Telegraph-Journal. McCann was put on speaker phone with Richer, who remained in Saint John, and the editor of the Daily Gleaner, who sat with the intern.

McCann said he was stunned when he heard that she was firing him.

"I was in shock. I was pretty mad," he said.

McCann said he doesn't believe he was fired for the reasons outlined by the editor, but the university student said he doesn't want to guess at what the newspaper's motives might have been.

Newspaper offers no comment

The Telegraph-Journal called McCann's firing an internal matter and is not commenting on it.

'It just really bugs me that the most powerful people in this province, whether it be in the Irvings or some other institution, have to make an example of a student intern all in the name of higher education.' — Mark Tunney, STU journalism professor

Mark Tunney is one of McCann's professors at St. Thomas University and a former editor of the Telegraph-Journal, who was himself fired from the paper several years ago.

He said he liked McCann's story and called the decision to fire the intern "hypocritical."

"Editors there decided to put that on the front page. Several editors probably took a look at it or should have taken a look at it," Tunney said.

"So to turn around and fire somebody for a story that you thought was good enough to put on the front page is just so hypocritical."

The St. Thomas University journalism professor said he doubts McCann was fired for his reporting.

"Somebody got mad and made a scapegoat," Tunney said.

"And it just really bugs me that the most powerful people in this province, whether it be in the Irvings or some other institution, have to make an example of a student intern all in the name of higher education. It's so hypocritical and wrong."

Concerns over coverage

The Telegraph-Journal is run by Jamie Irving, a great grandson of legendary New Brunswick industrialist K.C. Irving.

Many people in New Brunswick believe the Graham government has been friendly to many of the corporate needs of the Irving companies.

For instance, the government has approved the payout of millions in electricity subsidies to provincial paper mills and giving forestry companies access to previously restricted Crown forest land.

Jamie Irving introduced Graham at his 2009 state-of-the-province speech, one of the premier's most high-profile events of the year, as "the man whose leadership and vision has put New Brunswick on the path to self-sufficiency."

In October 2007, then Progressive Conservative Leader Jeannot Volpé called on Irving-owned Brunswick News Inc. to sell off some of its media holdings.

Brunswick News owns all of the English-language daily newspapers, including the Telegraph-Journal, in the province, as well as most of the weeklies.

"If you control the media, if you control the message and you control some industry, it's hard for small business because you can control everything," Volpé said at the time.