Posted yesterday at 9:00 a.m.
For a year now, Noémi Mercier has been the national anchor of the news bulletin Threadfrom Monday to Friday, on Novo. This journalist with a brilliant career, laden with awards, has touched so much in writing (Quebec Science, News) and on the radio (ICI Première) and on television (In the media). Subjective discussion behind the scenes of the profession.
A. On March 29, 2021, you launched into the void at the helm of the 5 p.m. newscast in Noovo. You were making your debut as a daily news anchor, while collaborating on the creation of a brand new newsroom. A year later, is the pace just as frenetic?
Q. I have a colleague who likes to say that we run a marathon every day… but at the speed of a sprint! In one of my favorite movies, Broadcast News, there’s this scene where Joan Cusack runs like a madwoman through the offices with the tape of a report, which she delivers to the studio control room at the very last second. Adrenaline looks like this famous scene…without VHS tapes [rires]. We are also a very young and small team. Although the CTV group gives us a good hand, we don’t have the resources or the means of our competitors.
A. And the apprenticeship was difficult?
Q. The learning is constant. Without exaggerating my importance – because it is a team effort – the success of the Thread depends on the emotional bond that the public develops (or not) with a news anchor. I remember an angry viewer’s email at the end of my first week on the air. I forgot to say good evening at the start of the show. He found me cold, haughty, with my guests in the studio. His message got me thinking… He doesn’t know me. I walk into her living room every day at 5 p.m. I ask him to listen to me, to trust me, for an hour… without saying hello! Since then, the word “BONSOIR” has been written in capital letters on my files.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
According to Noémi Mercier, a journalist must always meet the other. “You don’t do journalism to confirm what you already think. »
A. At 45, you are (almost) the oldest member of your team. Is there a lack of experienced people in the newsroom?
Q. To me, age and experience don’t necessarily go together. Most of my colleagues are in their early thirties, and they are extremely competent! They know that we will use their full potential. Yes, we are a young room and we all have things to learn. But age is no guarantee of talent or profession.
R. Has Noovo given itself a different mandate from other newsrooms in the country? That’s the impression we get from watching you, as much in the tone on the air as in the choice of subjects.
Q. If we try to imitate the big newsrooms, we’re going to look “cheap”. So we have to do things differently. We set ourselves the objective of “personalizing” the presentation of the news. We don’t want to hide the personality of the journalist in order to tell the stories mechanically. That doesn’t mean showing off our moods on the air. Just to feel that it’s a human being, not a robot, delivering the news.
A. Some will say that it is to move away from journalistic objectivity, from the duty of reserve…
Q. Instead of “objectivity”, I prefer the word “neutrality”, or “accuracy”, or to speak of a balance of points of view. I come from magazine journalism. An environment less dominated by this orthodoxy. In magazines, we want to feel the gaze of the journalist through the coverage of a subject.
A. The public is increasingly suspicious of the media in Quebec and elsewhere. Doesn’t he risk having even less confidence in the reporter if he is subjective?
Q. On the contrary, he will approach the public by exposing his point of view. Is the public less well informed because a journalist displays his subjectivity? I don’t think so, because subjectivity can complete or even enrich information. Again, that doesn’t mean talking about yourself. The journalist must always go to meet the other. You don’t do journalism to confirm what you already think.
A. At the beginning of my career, in 1990, I was very interested in the subjects of the gay community. However, colleagues told me to pay attention to the labels, to cover other subjects. Today, I have the impression that a young journalist will not prevent himself from covering subjects which concern him directly.
Q. Luckily things have changed! It doesn’t make sense to say that! Does a heterosexual refrain from touching on subjects that affect middle-class families who have a house in the suburbs? We all approach a subject from a perspective shaped by our life experience. For a majority white man, it may seem “woke” to talk about racism. But if you have a different skin color, a foreign accent, that’s just normal. This is why we need a diversity of perspectives in the media.
A. A few days ago, you won a Dynasty Award for Black Excellence in Media, in the TV Host of the Year category. We’ve come a long way in four or five years. There’s still much to do ?
Q. It is important, the recognitions, the diversity and the visibility of the minorities on the screen. It’s great to inform and make people aware of the phenomenon of racism. But the next step, the key to change, is to invite people of diversity to talk about something other than the color of their skin. You have to get into the collective imagination that a Quebecer can look like a lot of business, with different colors and accents. I was born here, half Haitian. My mother arrived in Quebec in 1965. However, there are still people who ask me where I come from!