Stéphan Bureau’s visit to Pénélope McQuade on Monday morning, at ICI Première, gave rise to the first good radio moment of the start of the school year. As the host said at the end of the 32 minutes of this thrilling interview: “It was not flat! »
Posted at 8:15 a.m.
This meeting was interesting not because there was blood, but because we found guts, audacity, authenticity, a little unease and a certain amount of emotion.
We’ll tell each other right away: this meeting frankly gave me the impression that the two animators wanted to “clean up” several things. And they did it with a certain mastery, even if, at one point, I thought we were going to witness a slippage.
Pénélope McQuade did not make a gift to Stéphan Bureau and the latter, true to his reputation, used his rich and agile patter to return the ball to his interlocutor. This interview quickly took on the appearance of a debate, offering at the same time a taste (which one would have said calculated) of the show. The world upside down that will be piloted by Bureau as of Friday at TVA.
Courage, it took Pénélope McQuade to welcome the one who replaced her a few times during the summer season. It was probably not easy for her to receive the one to whom the public has compared her so much.
I remember when he was on the show In the media, in the fall of 2021, where she expressed her exasperation about the comments she was receiving. “I know that Stéphan Bureau is an immensely intelligent being. You don’t need to write to me five times a week on vacation to remind me of it,” she said.
And guts, it took Stéphan Bureau to agree to return to the famous interview with the French professor Didier Raoult who, in May 2021, divided the public and the world of the media. When the Friday before his first broadcast, the host announced to Penelope McQuade that he was going to receive the defender of hydroxychloroquine, the latter declared that she found it “surprising, daring and dangerous”.
Fifteen months after that famous interview, McQuade and Bureau tackled the issue of freedom of speech in the media head-on. “If we want to understand each other, we still have to be able to hear and be able to put all sorts of points of view on the table, accept dissent, accept ideas that we esteem at extreme times,” said defended Stephan Bureau.
Pénélope McQuade cut Office and said: “In the background, everyone understands that we are talking about the Didier Raoult affair! From there, the tone changed. “Oh no, not at all,” Bureau replied. But you are wrong! »
The host insisted that journalists have a responsibility to provide audiences with diverse perspectives on a topic, especially when it’s as controversial as COVID-19 treatments. “That is to say that each time you interview someone whose thought may be divergent, you try to invite someone immediately afterwards who is going to give a word that is different? Office said.
Tension then set in.
Pénélope McQuade: “Freedom of expression is not a free pass to say anything. »
Stéphan Bureau: “Is that what you mean when I talk to you about freedom of expression? That it’s a free pass to say anything? »
McQuade: “But who speaks of not hearing these opinions. We hear that a lot, that we can’t say anything anymore. »
Bureau: “You are investigating a matter that I did not raise. »
Regarding the opinion that the ombudsman of Radio-Canada, Pierre Champoux, published following the interview with Didier Raoult and which severely blamed Stéphan Bureau, the latter was content to say that the guardian of practices journalists on public radio and television wanted to “make up their minds”.
The discussion continued, and Stéphan Bureau said: “It’s fun! We have fun! The discomfort was then palpable.
We can reproach Stéphan Bureau for several things: that he is pretentious, distant, arrogant and that he listens to himself talk. But one cannot say that he is intellectually lazy. He continually feeds on current events and devotes a lot of energy to shaping his thinking.
He is also someone who believes that the debate, the real, the rich, the one we must raise and the one we are so afraid of, is sorely lacking in Quebec.
What is interesting with Office is that he likes to bring together and compare various points of view on subjects without knowing his colors. He said during this interview that he spent five years looking for a “frequentable” anti-abortion woman whom he would have liked to have on his show. He explained all of this while avoiding clues as to whether he is pro- or anti-abortion.
This meeting ended on a more positive note. The two animators even joked, and Bureau made a point of saying, once again, that he was a man on the skin.
In any case, this radio moment made me want to watch The world upside down. If we are entitled to strong and constructive exchanges like those heard at PenelopeI will be a faithful one.
I would nevertheless like to conclude by saying that Stéphan Bureau was welcomed at Radio-Canada, an institution he frequented a great deal and which he described as a “Spanish inn”, to come and talk about the program he will present at the opponent during the next season. He benefited from an extraordinary platform.
Will he enjoy the same freedom when he wishes to receive a guest from the “enemy” broadcaster? I can’t wait to see.