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If you're an avid news watcher, with an interest in crime, you've likely noticed a man in a hat ducking out of sight whenever cameras are turned on.

Who is that man? He is 630 CHED Radio's Byron Christopher.

And he's obviously trying to keep a low profile – so why wear such a distinctive hat?

Maybe it's under that hat where Christopher keeps the many secrets jailhouse songbirds tell him, making him one of Edmonton's most informed – and entertaining – court reporters.

He once described how a murder victim's fate came about by his "chewing a plug of gun."

Another time, when a court sheriff put the cuffs on a man found guilty, Christopher reported "the ratchet-sound was the only noise in the courtroom."

A collection of Byron's colourful quotes can be found here at the bottom of this page. There are also some audio clips of his reports rescued from CHED's logger archives.

(Christopher's style reminds the Last Link of the glory days of Armageddon-like blood-and-guts crime reporting by such newscasters as Grant Hudson on CKLW's 20/20 News back in the early 70s).

Update: On November 30th, 2007 630 CHED and Byron Christopher parted ways over what was thought to be an in-house issue of ethics – see below.

But what do we know of Byron Christopher?

He hails from Campbellton, New Brunswick and has spent over 25 years in the news business developing a reputation for having a nose for news.

Before joining CHED about a decade ago, Christopher spent 14 years with CBC Radio News and CBC Radio Current Affairs in Edmonton. He also taught journalism at NAIT for a while.

During his career he's had assignments from Nicaragua to Nepal, and lived in Australia and Finland for a few years. Christopher once wrote a story for the Pakistan News Service on how the Afghanistan war was viewed by a Canadian reporter (Byron).

When an editor told him his story had been picked up by a Pakistan newspaper Christopher asked that payment go to a needy Pakistani journalism student.

Byron Christopher seen working beside another reporter with an international career, The Edmonton Journal's Jim Farrell.

In 1991 Christopher received an award for outstanding investigative journalism from the Canadian Association of Journalists for his probe of a double homicide in Saskatchewan.

Over the years, Christopher has had many exclusive interviews with people accused of high-profile crimes including David Milgaard, Michael White, Joseph Laboucan, Colin Thatcher, Wiebo Ludwig, and Leo Teskey.

Christopher has the knack of gaining the trust of those working both sides of the law, and those connections have benefitted CHED with numerous "you heard it here first" stories about crime in the Edmonton area.

However, sometimes a line is crossed ... and the shape and colour of that line is thin and blue.

Christopher has faced six search warrants and three subpoenas related to his reporting over the last 15 years. Most recently, in October 2006, Edmonton Police served 630 CHED with a search warrant for information related to the second-degree murder case against Michael White. A copy of the search warrant can be seen here.

(For more details not widely reported about the White-related search warrant, read Michael Simpson's November 2006 Vegreville Observer article which highlights CHED's possible conflict of interest with the Edmonton Police Service – opens as a .txt file).

Earlier, in February 2005, Christopher reported that two witnesses claimed an Edmonton Police officer taunted them and pulled out his baton outside the courthouse. The reporter later found out his name was run through the Canadian Police Information Centre database.

Christopher subsequently made a freedom of information request to Edmonton police to determine if officers had breached his privacy rights by improperly accessing his personal information in the confidential police database. At last word, he was still awaiting a response.

Perhaps the biggest story Christopher covered was one nobody in Alberta wanted to touch: that Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. had been accused of bombing, raping, enslaving, kidnapping and executing citizens in Southern Sudan.

CHED refused to run the story, as did Global and the Edmonton Journal. After Christopher posted it on an online news site in March 2002, The Financial Times in London, England picked it up, along with major wire services – including Associated Press, Canadian Press and Reuters.

For more about this event and a fascinating look into how the media works, read the Spring 2004 edition of the Ryerson Review of Journalism.

But what about that hat Christopher wears? Who knows? But it may reflect a childhood hero:

Update: Byron wrote to us with details of the hat.

It's an Akubra, made in Australia. It's probably the ass of a kangaroo whose last moments were on a lonely highway in the Outback, staring at the lights of an oncoming transport truck. The hat reminds me of my days in Australia, and of my youth I guess. I was 20 when I moved to Australia to work a little radio and TV.

So now we know.

And during a Fall 2007 visit to his hometown, the Campbellton Tribune caught up with the local boy who made good.

The October 10th article shed additional light on the career of the crusading crime reporter.

Byron Christopher's hard-boiled reporting style owes much to the film noir genre and his stories sometimes sound like they were ripped from the headlines of True Detective magazine (for example, "She was so gorgeous that you got bloodshot eyes just by looking at her").

What follows is a growing collection of Byron's more memorable lines as he reports from the courthouse for 630 CHED radio.

Miskinack’s stolen car was fuelled by gas and Miskinack was fuelled by booze and dope.

When his wife left him, 44-year-old Rodger LaFlamme found a new friend, first name Crystal and last name Meth.

When prisoners on C-Unit at the Max were getting coffee this morning, William Wharry was getting handcuffed, put into the back of a van and driven to the courthouse.

Not only is smoking dangerous to your health, so too apparently is turning down someone who wants a cigarette -- especially when the bum has a loaded handgun.

On a day when temperatures in Edmonton reached 33C, Christopher reported that a man convicted on a drunk driving charge had received house arrest which "may not be all that pleasant right now – he might not have air conditioning."

Describing the swiftness of an appearance, Christopher reported the man was in and out of court so fast he could have double parked and gotten away with it.

While trying to obtain a quote from the father of an accused man, Christopher related "He said, 'F-off, get away from me' ... that's code for 'no comment, thank you.' "

Reporting on a murder trail during which both the defence and the Crown relied heavily on the use of testimony from psychiatrists, Christopher described the evidence as shrinkwrapped.

With Christopher now no longer reporting from the courthouse, fans of his style can re-live some of the memories through a series of clips rescued from CHED's Audio Vault. Note: files open in .wav format.

Crime School Dropout
In this clip, Byron describes the case of a "not too bright" wheelman charged in connection with an armed robbery.
Deja Vu Fifteen Times Over
It was old times for one repeat offender, and a lawyer fights to stay home to watch the Grey Cup.

Byron Christopher's dedication to ethical journalism was more than apparent in an open letter that circulated over various wire services and the internet in June 2003.

The letter was in response to the firing of Jayson Blair, a New York Times reporter who was dismissed over issues of plagiarism and faked news stories.

According to his own web site - www.jayson-blair.com - Blair is a self-confessed manic depressive and suffers from bipolar disorder. His story is about – in equal parts – his own mental illness and an industry without checks and balances.

Despite an increasingly-mounting track record of incompetence, Blair rose through the ranks of journalism and succeeded at the New York Times through "a series of management and operation breakdowns" and "a stunning lack of communication within the newsroom" of one of America's most respected newspapers. Allegations of "cronyism" surfaced, along with a suggestion that affirmative action hiring was partly to blame.

Blair was forced to resign in May 2003 and the New York Times held an internal investigation. For a summary of the matter, visit the Wikipedia Jayson Blair entry.

When Christopher heard of the Blair firing and the reasons behind it, he wrote an open letter that not only underscored his own values regarding journalism – but exposed still-ongoing practices in the radio news business, including those in Edmonton.

Christopher's letter is reprinted below – with permission.

An Open Letter to Jayson Blair – fired NYT Reporter

by Byron Christopher

June 2003

A lot has been said about your reporting for the Times, how you faked headlines, submitted phony expense claims and most damning of all – stole the work of other reporters: plagiarism.

Your name has now become a lightning rod of sorts for dishonest reporting. That's a bummer. Don't fret, Mr. Blair. There's a new career waiting for you – in radio news.

You'll fit right in. You'll be happy to know that in most radio newsrooms in the U.S. and Canada, it's accepted practice to steal the work of other reporters. Unlike your old bosses at the New York Times, management at radio stations will welcome you with open arms. That's because you'll save them a pile of money.

Plagiarism is as common in radio news as corruption in law enforcement in Mexico. Perhaps that's not a fair analogy: Mexican police can't be that bad.

Theft in the radio business shouldn't come as a big surprise to you. From time to time, on your morning drive to work in New York, surely you heard on the radio news stories you'd written the day before. Bet there's not a print reporter in North America who hasn't tuned a station in and had that gnawing feeling, “Hmmm ... where'd they get that story?”

Perhaps you wondered how a radio station (with fewer reporters than the Times' mailroom has staff) could match the big stories of the Times, the Post and other New York newspapers – at 6AM? Well, now you know. Those stories were often lifted, scalped ... you know, stolen.

It's been going on a long time. It just that no one talks about it. This may be the first time you've ever read about it.

The Concise Oxford dictionary says plagiarism is taking and using another person's thoughts (or) writings as one's own. The Merriam Webster's Collegiate dictionary defines plagiarize as “to use a created production without crediting the source.”

More than dictionaries warn reporters about literary theft. So do textbooks used by broadcast journalism schools, although the part on plagiarism is sometimes skipped over. Newspapers print warnings to help protect against theft of their material. The Edmonton Journal prominently posts the following warning on page A2: “The contents of this newspaper are protected by copyright and may be used only for personal, non-commercial purposes.”

Journal Publisher Linda Hughes says she doesn't mind if radio reporters use their material – as long as they get credit.

So it's pretty clear. If you lift stuff out of the papers, give attribution. It's dumb not to attribute, really. If a reporter can't match the story or independently verify the information, why wouldn't they want to tell their listeners where it came from?

Should you land a job in radio news, here are a few pointers on how to ... how do I put this tastefully ... “play the game."

* Never announce you're about to plagiarize a story from the papers. God, no. Plagiarism sounds too much like stealing. Better “lift” or “scalp”, perhaps “rewrite” a story. Plagiarizing is what poor university students sometimes get caught doing, before they get kicked out of class and become the focus of national stories – including radio news stories lifted from newspapers. Funny how that works.

* Never scalp a newspaper story word-for-word. If you do that, you're not only a thief – but a lazy one. Take a tip from car thieves: repaint that sucker or strip it down (makes it harder to tell where it came from).

* Be careful with direct quotes. At six in the morning, even the most trusting listener will wonder how you got quotes identical to what's in the morning paper. You don't want to make it too obvious. I mean, what if companies got wind they were sponsoring a plagiarized newscast? They might demand refunds. That would be another public relations disaster.

* It's okay to use stories from a wire service your radio station subscribes to. The wire service has permission to run stories from certain news organizations and to pass them on to member stations, for a fee. With wire stories you may want to give the original source credit, out of professional courtesy. Just to warn you, some people in radio news management don't want it known that Pam Coulter doesn't work for them, but actually works for ABC News in New York; same for Steve Fairbairn of Broadcast News in Toronto. It's an image thing. Like much of the news media, a good impression is just as important as good information.

From time to time you'll be doing stories on petty thieves. You might feel awkward about this at first, but the more you do it the easier it becomes. Think of it as a good “career move."

You may wonder why more radio reporters and newsreaders don't give attribution. Seems like an easy thing to do, and it is. Think ‘image' again. Some radio stations want to give the impression they have lots of reporters and their newsrooms are on top of things. Truth is, most stations have few reporters out on the street chasing stories. Some radio newsrooms have no field reporters at all; perhaps a news reader or two, and that's it.

In a city the size of Edmonton (with a population of about 1 million, served by more than two dozen radio stations), there may be one field reporter working weekends. That's one radio field reporter to cover the entire city. In fact, Edmonton has more radio stations than radio field-reporters and I suspect the city is not unique.

Don't waste your time applying for a reporting job at most FM radio stations, because few have their own newsrooms anymore. Times have changed. If you're applying for work in Canada, keep in mind the laws here have changed too. Canadians can thank the former Conservative government of Brian Mulroney for amendments to broadcast regulations more than a decade ago that paved the way for owners of radio stations to cut back on newscasts – and reporters. Combined with the new right of owners to own several radio stations in the same market, it was the end of many broadcast newsrooms. For a good number of reporters, it was a golden opportunity for a career change.

By scalping, you actually provide a valuable service to the radio industry. More than ever, there's a strong demand for reporters who steal. Plagiarism plays a vital part in the healthy bottom line of a radio station, although I'm sure you won't see reference to that in any mission statement.

Hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of stories is stolen from newspapers each year. This is money newspapers have invested in salaries, travel, equipment, phone calls, rent, etc. Do the math: it takes a good radio hack only 30 minutes to steal half a dozen stories. Try and find a body shop worker who can spray paint half a dozen cars in an hour. Fat chance. Over a month, a radio radio plagiarist can steal news stories that far exceed the value of a Lexus.

Don't look for newspaper owners to take stations to court to help recoup their losses. Why this is, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's because newspapers and radio stations are involved in so many ‘cross-promotions' or that stations spend good coin on newspaper advertising. Money talks, and legal action is expensive. Embarrassing too: it would sure put a damper on media executive get-togethers on the golf course.

If you continue plagiarizing on a regular basis, take a tip from the mob and find some “moral cover”. Help a charitable foundation. Better yet, frequent a house of worship. If you plunk yourself down in church every week, who will suspect you're a thief?

If you are still bothered by all this, take comfort in knowing the practice has been going on for a long, long time. It's the original recycling program. Some editors think plagiarism should not be taught in journalism school because it's not applicable anymore. If you are still uneasy, ask yourself ... why would management allow the practice if it's underhanded? Part of a good con game is that you sometimes have to fool yourself.

Keep in mind you're providing a valuable service – not necessarily to the public, perhaps – but certainly to the broadcast owners. Remember, the bottom line here is not free-flow of information and healthy competition, but profits. Stealing saves money. That may sound crass, but it's true. Some people believe it's cheaper to steal than to buy or produce (that's the general idea behind, say, stealing cars). The more stories you “lift” from other news organizations, the fewer reporters that are needed.

Generally speaking, to work radio news and not plagiariaze is not a good career move, especially if you're doing a morning run.

Another tip: when you start your new job, not a word about “ethics”. Don't ask stupid, booby-trapped questions like “Hey, where is our code of ethics?" That's like working at Fox Television and suggesting a story on President Bush's conviction for drunk-driving, or asking if “regime change” violates the UN Charter. Again, not a good career move.

If you are applying for work in Canada, keep in mind there are two main journalist organizations up here ... the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) and the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA). After 20 years, both now have a code of ethics or a “statement of principles.” In the CAJ's statement of principles, we find this on plagiarism: “There is no copyright on news or ideas once a story is in the public domain, but if we can't match the story, we will credit the originating source.” Sounds serious, but relax. Some CAJ members regularly plagiarize. I bring this to your attention to again illustrate just how common the practice is. These organizations are not likely to audit the source of radio newscasts to make sure things are on the up and up.

Never point out in your application to a radio station you no longer plagiarize. That's the dumbest thing you could do. Your resume will hit the garbage before, well, a hack has had time to scalp another story.

In recent years, Jayson Blair has re-gained public acceptance as an advocate for the mentally ill.

Byron Christopher, who was employed by 630 CHED at the time the letter was written, continues to work as a free-lance journalist in Edmonton.

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