‘Loss of faith’ in TV news makes reporter quit job

Toronto.com:

Kai Nagata, the Quebec City correspondent for CTV News, has abruptly resigned from his job, expressing his disillusionment with television news in a farewell letter.

“I quit my job because the idea burrowed into my mind that, on the long list of things I could be doing, television news is not the best use of my short life,” Nagata, 24, said in a 3,000-word essay to explain his departure.

The essay has received widespread attention from journalists across Canada and even caught the attention of Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, who posted the lengthy missive on Twitter.

Among the reasons cited by Nagata, who also previously worked for CBC News, was his discomfort at an industry that “casually sexualizes its workforce” by hiring unqualified people who looked the part.

“Every hiring decision is scrutinized using a skewed, unspoken ratio of talent to attractiveness, where attractiveness often compensates for a glaring lack of other qualifications,” Nagata wrote.

“The idea has taken root that if the people reporting the news look like your family and neighbours, instead of Barbie and Ken, the station will lose viewers,” he added.

The proverbial straw that appeared to break the camel’s back was what Nagata referred to as “the Kate and Will show,” a reference to the extensive television news coverage of the Prince and Princess of Cambridge’s nine-day tour of Canada.

“On a weekend where there was real news happening in Bangkok, Misrata, Athens, Washington, and around the world, what we saw instead was a breathless gaggle of normally credible journalists gushing in live hit after live hit about how the prince is young and his wife is pretty,” Nagata noted disdainfully.

Nagata also said he has “serious problems” with the direction of the federal government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the constraints he felt he was under as a journalist to report them.

Among the issues he enumerated: a “war” against science and research funding in Canada, the country’s loss of stature on the international stage and the Harper government’s plans to increase prison sentences in an era of falling crime rates.