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Andrew Krystal Shields Premier MacDonald From Callers |
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Written by Staff
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Tuesday, 22 August 2006 |
He opens his show with "Krystal Nation Awaken" and judging by his performance Tuesday, with Premier Rodney MacDonald, it would have been a better idea to go back to sleep. If you didn't already hear about Andrew Krystal's interview with Premier Rodney MacDonald, you should be aware that the entire fiasco was like a paid political announcement. Maybe it was....
Krystal came off as a hired hand suffering from impotence.
We received several emails from listeners that described the interview as a farce. Krystal gave the premier close to 40 minutes of free air time in order to repeat his policies and plans as provincial premier without the annoyance of callers to the radio station asking perhaps sensitive questions that the premier has no intention of answering.
Even though Krystal promised to take as many calls to the show as possible, only one caller was allowed to speak to the premier. And of course, that caller began a topic on everything you wanted to know about NS infrastructure improvements but were afraid to ask.
We received information from one source who was denied phone access to Premier MacDonald. Krystal's phone jockey, Sarah Mann, told our source that he would not be allowed to ask the premier any questions concerning his marital problems.
At the end of the premier's segment and after he had left the studio, Krystal instructed Mann to open her mic so they could discuss on-air the number of callers who wanted to ask MacDonald about the breakup of his marriage. Ms. Mann had told our source earlier that she would not put him through and when asked why she replied, "I just answer the phones".Our source indicated Mann's response sounded like she was just following orders. But oddly enough, during her on-air chat with Krystal, she led listeners to believe that the decision to disallow our source was 100% hers.
As to where the screening order originated, one can only guess - Krystal? News 95.7 management? Or directly from the premier? Either way, the entire conversation was staged, and CTV Atlantic played the staged game as well. More on that later....
The entire 40 minutes came off as scripted. A scripted radio interview that involves an elected official especially the provincial premier, is no interview at all. It's nothing more than a cheap and feeble attempt by the premier and his handlers to lead the "rumour-mongers" away from the object of those rumours and back to where MacDonald feels the safest - mired in political rhetoric. And quite frankly, we are extremely disappointed in Andrew Krystal, who as a radio talk show host is supposed to be nonpartisan.
CTV Atlantic buys into the hype
More disappointment on the home front and this time from CTV Atlantic as they attended the staged event at the NEWS 95.7 studios in Halifax, where the premier was supposed to take calls from listeners......"We're sorry, your call can not be completed at this time, please hang up and try again."
And why was CTV Atlantic's coverage of Rodney MacDonald's interview disappointing?
Well, they billed their top story at six as "Premier Rodney MacDonald Breaks His Silence."
But to our surprise, CTV Atlantic's journalist covering the story did not have access to the premier either. Not a single question, despite the fact that CTV dispatched a camera and sound crew. CTV's coverage of the interview included video and sound from the studio during the interview and not a single question to the premier from the journalist covering the story.
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