Thursday January 28th, 2010 - Journalists Picked for Olympic Torch Procession

While many people who were picked to be torch bearers are national heroes, past Olympians, and cancer survivors, the critics are coming out of the woodwork to publicly criticize the twenty-seven journalists who were picked to run with the torch as it proceeds to Vancouver.

William Houston, former Globe and Mail columnist, seemed outraged that these journalists, who he believed had no place participating is such a profound event, were picked to run with the Olympic Flame.

He just didn't agree that the journalists were qualified to bear the torch.  On the other hand, the International Olympic Committee invited a number of reporters and journalists from Vancouver and Edmonton to participate.

One reporter, Damian Inwood, from the Vancouver Province said that he turned down the invitation because he did not want to create a perception that participation in the event would flaw his unbiased reporting.

The participation of journalists has spurred the debate about the conflicts of interest and special access that reporters receive from parties and events they are writing about.

The same sorts of questions were raised by critics when journalists reporting on the war in Afghanistan were invited to live with the soldiers.  Despite the fact that living among the soldiers were safer and more practical, critics said that living with soldiers would surely taint the nature of the reporting.

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