Sturdy Northerners

Dan Froomkin reports that the Canadian press has a backbone, something that's rare down here:

A Lesson From the North

A Canadian reader alerts me to this story by Alexander Panetta of the Canadian Press: "About two dozen journalists walked out on Stephen Harper on Tuesday after he refused to take their questions, the latest chapter in an increasingly unseemly spat between the prime minister and members of the national media.

"The scene of reporters boycotting a prime ministerial news conference was described by Parliament Hill veterans as a first. It resulted in Harper being forced to make his announcement on aid to Darfur to a small handful of reporters, photographers and cameramen outside the House of Commons."

See, it turns out that the prime minister's office insists on choosing who gets to ask questions based on a list it compiles.

" 'We can't accept that the prime minister's office would decide who gets to ask questions,' said Yves Malo, a TVA reporter and president of the press gallery. 'Does that mean that when there's a crisis they'll only call upon journalists they expect softball questions from?' "

By contrast, Bush often goes into press conferences with a list of who he will call on, compiled by the press office from a list of attendees.

In fact, at many "press availabilities," Bush limits questions to two journalists (or, when he's appearing with a foreign leaders, to two journalists from each country). Those are almost always the Associated Press and Reuters correspondents, who can be counted on to ask topical, incremental questions.

It does raise the question of why everyone else even bothers to show up, if they're only going to serve as props.

But every so often, Bush veers a tiny bit off script. Yesterday, for instance, he called on Steve Holland of Reuters and -- surprise -- Raddatz of ABC News.

"I have no idea why he called on me," Raddatz told me this morning. She said she had no forewarning. "But you always prepare."

Like the rest of the lefty blogosphere, I've been saying for years that the press corps should just boycott these newsless events. They figured it out above the 49th parallel.