It’s not often we sympathize with management flunkies at CBC. After all, they pull down $250K a year fluffing Jian Ghomeshi.
But when you’re Corpse editrix-in-chief Jennifer McGuire and you’ve got Andrew Mitrovica ragging your ass, you deserve every penny and all our pity.
Mitrovica has been squawking in the gutter press about T Rex Murphy trousering speaking fees blathering for Big Oil.
“I’ve encouraged the CBC and Murphy to address the conflict between his paid speaking engagements in the energy sector and the opinions he offers about the oil sands and climate change as a ‘journalist,’” Mitrovica, a journalism “instructor” at Sheridan, thundered on iPolitics.
“Batshit” has a history of tantrums
So far, McGuire has successfully avoided Mitrovica–and small wonder. “Batshit,” as former colleagues unfondly knew him, has a history of tantrums that paved his way out of gigs with CBC, CTV and the Globe and Minion.
After exiting the fifth estate and W5, the hulking Albanian/Australian landed at the Globe, but was soon terrifying the newsroom with his rage-ons.
The end began when Sylvia Stead nixed one of his stories. Mitrovica turned purple, his eyes bugged out and a terrified Stead ran to HR. Mitrovica was hauled on the carpet and sent home with the warning that there’s no room for passion at the Globe and next time he’d waddle the plank.
This gave Mitrovica extra time to scribble dyspeptic observations on the failings of other journos.
In a 2000 note to Paul McKay, Mitrovica denounced the Ottawa Petfinder hack’s yarn about taxpayer lolly for Jean Crouton’s golfing buddy Louis Friedman as “wrong and old…I reported [the] sweetheart deal with Mr. Friedman several years ago while I was working for CTV News…In fact, I won a CAJ award for my efforts.”
McKay: “Practice what you preach, you self-important, pompous asshole…I had three hours to turn that story around…Did you expect me to search old CTV footage in that time? So bully for you winning a CAJ – I’ve won three, been a finalist for six, won an NNA, and was a finalist for the Governor General’s award. Unless I get this kind of shit from someone like you, I rarely mention it.”
“I have won countless international awards, but who’s counting?”
Mitrovica: “I may be an asshole, mate, but I don’t write front-page stories that contain such glaring and easily avoidable errors. By the way, I have won 5 CAJ awards, swept the nominations three times. I have also won countless international awards and been nominated for scores of others. But who is counting?”
McKay: “Who is counting? Obviously you are. So stick your attitude where the sun don’t shine.”
Mitrovica: “[It’s] so easy to talk tough online. One day, I’m sure we will meet at some kind of journalism gig. I’m hard to miss. I’m 6 foot 4 inches, 240lbs. If you’ve got the balls, introduce yourself. Meanwhile, keep on churning out your recycled crap, pinhead.”
By 2002, Mitrovica had exited the Globe to write his door stopper on CSIS, Covert Entry. Eventually, he turned his attention to the paper’s new “security beat” reporter, Peter Cheney:
“Once again, you do a disservice to your readers by glossing over the real and profound changes to the powers of intelligence services since Sept. 11…with absolutely no public debate or input, the Canadian government lifted the ban on the CSE’s ability to intercept the telecommunications traffic of Canadians emanating from Canada.
“You are an incorrigible asshole!”
“[Today’s] Globe and Mail lead editorial. ‘Perspective and thinking’…what a laugh!”
Cheney replied:
“I posted your trenchant analysis of my work on the bulletin board. So far, the vote is 32-0 that you are an incorrigible asshole.”
In response, Mitrovica hired a lawyer, who rattled off this letter– edited in the interests of not encouraging Mitrovica:
“The plain and literal meaning of Mr. Cheney’s profanity is self-evident. The problem has been compounded by the fact that Mr. Cheney has used the Globe and Mail’s bulletin board to effect an impromptu vote whether Mr. Mitrovica is, in the opinion of the voters, an ‘incorrigible asshole.’ I find it remarkable that this sort of offensive activity takes place or is permitted at a newspaper with the Globe and Mail’s reputation. I demand full particulars about this vote including the names of the 32 employees who Mr. Cheney acknowledges participated in this vote.
“If [an] apology is not received in the next several days, my client will pursue a claim for damages for libel.”
Mitrovica is still waiting.
OK, but was Batshit by any chance the rat who informed on T. Rex Murphy to a certain news outlet? Namely one with a five letter name starting with FR and ending with K? One which operates in a place not un-adjacent to Ottawa, Ontario? The publisher of which goes by the name of a certain motel owner in a certain Hitchcock film, if you take off the final “s” in the name?
If Batshit fed you info for your “T. Rex Murphy, Anger Clown” article and then had you turn around a bite him, then you are a dangerous man to know, Mr. Michael “Norman” Bate(s). But what the hell, Batshit sounds like a thoroughly despicable individual. And come to think of it, I don’t remember there being anything in the “T. Rex” article that you couldn’t have found out through publicly-accessable sources.
Huh? Here’s a good idea for your next little pukefest–have a point.
Fascinating. Looking up Mr. Mitrovica in google finds newsy web pages, mostly the short standard “bio” and a list of stories he wrote for them. But most seem to stop being published in March 2016. Whatever must have happened?
Twitter shows an Albanian woman image (from TinEye search connections) and a most odd way of posting to Twitter.
Lists himself as writing for Ricochet (an online mag) and Al_Jaserra (also now only online)
And he influences young minds at Sheridan College?