The George Garrett Story
1996 - Jack Webster/Bruce
Lifetime Achievement Award
2004 – BC Association of Broadcasters
Lifetime Achievement Award
From edited news dispatches
(1) Journalist George Garrett was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Radio/TV News Directors
Association at a ceremony in
Garrett spent 43 three years at CKNW, retiring in
1999.
His contacts in this province are legendary. It was
Rafe Mair who first called
Garrett the ‘Intrepid Reporter’. But it was his work covering the B.C. Pen
riots and as an undercover tow truck operator to expose a scam in 1978 that
gained the
A couple of days before Garrett retired, former NW
news director Warren Barker said thousands of people had been entertained,
informed, helped and sometimes educated by his news coverage. "I cannot
begin to count the number of times George's splendid performance made me, as
his boss, look good," he said.
Current news director Gord
McDonald said: "Maybe what is most important about George is his
compassion. His stories at times may have caused controversy and helped ruin
careers, but George didn't hurt people, whether it was contacts or reporters
who were competitors, he was never mean.
"While George's ability to break stories was unparalleled,
even greater was his integrity. Contacts trusted George completely. In a
competitive business that can often get nasty, George earned the respect and
friendship of other reporters. "Within this business, George was a
competitor without enemies, and that is a rare thing indeed."
(
(2) It was a veritable who's who of the old boys’
network as reporter George Garrett was roasted and toasted upon his retirement
after 43 years at CKNW.
And what a list of guests! Among them: Supreme
Court Justice Wally Oppal, former PM Kim
Campbell, Liberal leader Gordon
Campbell, former Vancouver police chief Bob Stewart and a host of 'NW types,
including Bill Good, Philip Till and the irascible Rafe
Mair.
But the man of the hour was Garrett, who throughout
his career was generally regarded as a good friend of the police, as evidenced
by the sheer numbers of
Its likely Chambers passed on the event after
Garrett broke the story of his encounter with a police counter-attack
roadblock, where it was learned that the chief had consumed a few glasses of
grog that particular evening. By the way, nice touch on the part of CKNW to
carry the roast live. It was a most fitting end to George Garrett's
distinguished radio career. (Province Joe L:eary 1999)
(3) Journalism in
I first met
George when I was a student reporter for The Sun in the late 1970s. I remember
his willingness to explain the craft to fellow journalists, with advice to
rookies and tips to veterans. Subsequently, while working for the B.C.
Federation of Labour and Premier Glen Clark, I was on
the receiving end of the microphone many times, but George was always as
gentlemanly as ever, even if the news story was an unwelcome one. Stories come
and go, but George's class and kindness as a reporter will not be forgotten.
(Georgia Strait Bill Tielman
1999)
(4) It is rare in the media business, like any
other, to praise a competitor. But George Garrett is a rare competitor. In fact
Mr. Garrett belongs to all of us in a way few attain. He has had the grace to
help more than one new or late-arriving reporter to catch up on a story --
right after filing his own. His is a class act. His kindness and, yes,
old-fashioned gentlemanliness is as legendary as his industry and his
insatiable curiosity. He maintained both the trust of his contacts and
professional objectivity -- the recipe for routinely scooping all comers. When
he retires at the end of this month, CKNW will have lost a great
voice, and the rest of the media will praise him unstintingly. And they will
breathe a secret sigh of relief.
(Van Sun Editorial 1999)
(5) He's lucky he married the right woman.
When George Garrett was a little younger, Joan
Garrett usually answered the phone at 2 and 3 in the morning. It was his boss,
Warren Barker -- this, after her husband had already worked a day shift.
"He'd be so polite," said Garrett. “‘Oh,
hello, Joan, does George happen to be around?' Then I'd get to the phone and
he'd say, 'George, my boy, there seems to be a fire that sounds pretty good.
They found a body. Would you mind wandering by there?' "
Would Garrett mind? "No, I couldn't get out
fast enough." Twice, Joan saved him from driving through the garage door.
"That bloody door."
Nothing, not garage doors, not getting pounded in
the
CKNW's top dog has been driving his
competitors’ nuts by scooping everybody in town, day after day for 43 years.
But this is the end. George Garrett, 64, will sign off for the last time on
Friday, Jan. 29. He started on
Nice symmetry for a man who likes order in all
things. The man they call Gentleman George is as dapper as Fred Astaire, with buffed black-tasselled
slip-ons and a small black comb to smooth his perfectly side-parted grey hair.
He wipes his famously bucked front teeth with a pressed and folded white
handkerchief. Something to do with scum, he says, and "because my wife
tells me to." All this grooming, for a man his public never sees.
Garrett's perfectionism has made him far and away
the most respected working journalist in B.C. Garrett gets it right, and over
the years even the twitchiest sources have learned that he'll nail the details
and deliver the story straight and fair. As a result, nobody has sources like
Garrett. At the moment he has 1,118 names in his Casio electronic organizer.
Reporters joke that when he dies, they want to be named in the will for the
Casio.
His integrity and humanity are, if anything, more
legendary than his accuracy. He has always helped other reporters. He has held
stories rather than burn a source, harm a police
investigation or hurt someone unnecessarily.
He was the first to know of former
Sometimes he didn't have the nerve to ask the tough
questions. In 1978 he didn't have the guts to knock on B.C. Court of Appeal
Chief Justice John Farris's front door and ask him if he was cavorting with the
prostitute Wendy King. He got beaten on the story.
He's still visibly pained about some stories he was
forced to air. In 1978, Garrett was on a police ride-along, tape recorder
running, when the officers pulled over a stumbling-drunk B.C. Supreme Court
Justice E. Davie Fulton at 70th and Granville.
Garrett's invincibility on the crime-and-cops beat
comes from being around first and longest. He was the only night man when he
started as a reporter at 'NW. "That's how I got to know a lot of cops. I
showed up at every two-car accident, and I did a lot of running. When I moved
up to day shift I was still the only guy. I used to cover the court house, city
hall, and cop shop, anything that happened like a fire or a murder, news
conferences. I literally would run from the police station to my car, to city
hall, up the steps and away you go. I loved it."
He still runs all day. His alarm is set for
He doesn't regret not being around more for his
kids. "Joan has often said she'd never say 'It's me or your job' because
she knows she'd lose." She knew what she was getting when she married him
43 years ago. He's got no bad habits -- no boozing, no smoking, no womanizing
-- just an addiction to news.
In days past, he'd hang out at the police station
nights, weekends, after hours. One disgruntled member of the force gave him a
key to the fourth floor, which let him wander into the major- crimes unit. The
cops let him listen to wiretaps before they were authorized. "They used to
climb telephone poles and they'd say 'Hey, George, come and listen to this
tape.'"
He drank with them back in the '50s, too, when the
detectives got together and had a party at the end of a murder case, especially
if there was a conviction. "Some of them were in the back of the old city
morgue and I'd walk by old Doc Harmon doing his autopsy and join the guys having
a drink."
Garrett and those cops grew up together, which is
part of the reason he's ending his career on a journalistic high. He's doing a
series now on the disastrous morale in the police department, his daily stories
sourced by officers he's known for years. They're talking to him in their cars,
or insisting on using land phone lines rather then cell phones. "They know
if they get caught talking to me they're toast."
Garrett cares deeply about the health of the police
department, and he makes no bones about what he thinks
needs to be done. On Philip Till's show Thursday night, Till called him
"the man who wants to bring down the police department before he
retires." Garrett replied: "No, just the chief."
That's Chief Bruce Chambers, the only police chief
in four decades who won't talk to George Garrett.
Garrett is almost stumped when he's asked who he's
disliked over the years, but it's Chambers he finally
names. "That's not personal, it's what I feel he's done to the department
. . . They're behind the eight ball, they're 90 members short on training, and
it'll take a year or more to get them up to speed. They didn't anticipate the
retirements. A lot of people have taken early retirement because they can't
stand this guy.
"I talked to an inspector I know very well and
I said 'Am I on the right track?' He said, 'George, it's a mess, this guy is
not a leader,' meaning the chief. People may think its some kind of vendetta,
but in my mind it's not. It's a responsibility to the working members of the force,
to make sure their frustrations are known."
Garrett's ethics compel him to go after Chambers, and they're the only thing that ever stopped him
from getting a story to air. Injury and loss never have. He kept working in
1987 when his only son and youngest child, Ken, drowned in a canoeing accident
near
The most famous obstacle Garrett ever faced was
when he covered the
Garrett still didn't stop. He drove himself back
from hospital, through the ghetto, to his hotel, and proceeded to file a story
on carjackings, all the while spitting blood on to
his notebook. He came back to
It's a long way from
He has never asked for a raise, although he gets a Buick Regal compliments of the station.
He wanted to retire a year ago, but his bosses
wouldn't let him. So he struck a deal: two months on, two off. Then he made a
few mistakes on stories and couldn't shake the feeling that he was slipping.
Now he's going on to another career. As George Garrett Consulting, he'll tell
police how to deal with the media. People keep telling him to write his
memoirs, but he never kept a diary and says he's not sure he can remember what
he'd need.
He'll golf a little, maybe join a gym. He doesn't
really have hobbies. "My work is my hobby."
His idols? "Hmm.
Well, I deeply love my wife. I'd say she's an idol. My family, of course, and
we're very fortunate to have two great sons-in-law. Politically, I thought a
great deal of W.A.C. Bennett. He was a very nice man. I had respect for Bill
Bennett because I thought he was a great manager."
He chokes up when he talks about Warren Barker, 'NW
news director for 32 years. It was Barker who took him back after Garrett
detoured out of news between 1964 and 1976, and finally got fired as station
manager in Trail. "I came back with my tail between my legs and went to
see Warren, whom I idolized. He said, 'You have a job and I'll pay you the
highest that I can for a newsman.' It meant so much. Then after I'd been back
for a couple of years he made me a so- called investigative reporter, which
meant that I could just go dig. He never let me down."
Reporters he most admires? The three Jacks --
Webster, Wasserman and Brooks; Tom Ardies; and -- the
only one still working -- Tom Barrett of The Sun.
Garrett may be famous for modesty, but he wants a
mighty fine goodbye. He wants a reporters' party at a restaurant somewhere, and
he's thrilled that a massive roast is being organized to see him on his way.
After his last day at work, he'll go out for dinner with Joan, his daughters
Linda, and
Lorrie, and their husbands.
After Friday, there will be a huge hole in
He leaves us, at least, with hints of a tantalizing
Garrett tip, this one about the APEC debacle. "I don't think the RCMP did
everything right nor do I think they did everything wrong. I think there's a
valid reason for them acting very quickly to get people out of the way. I know
what it is, but I can't tell you. It's part of the evidence, and I haven't used
it because I think it would harm the commission." George
Garrett - to the end.
(Elizabeth Aird Vancouver
Sun 1999)
(6) Garrett has twice been severely injured on the
job, once while reporting from a war zone, once in a ferry lineup. While
covering the 1992 Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King trial, Garrett was
phoning in a report (``live'') when he was attacked on the street by four
thugs, one of whom crushed Garrett's jaw, nose and cheekbone with one punch and
stole his tape recorder. This summer, returning from a legislative session,
Garrett's car was broadsided by a cement truck on the Tsawwassen
causeway. He took 30 stitches to the head, suffered bruised ribs and bleeding
contusions in one lung. He believes the fact that he prefers heavy cars saved
his life.
Fractures, stitches and prolonged pain are a heavy
price to pay for the most prestigious journalism award in the province, but
Garrett figures he got a deal.
Returning a call from
If Garrett is a timely choice, I think it will also
be a popular one. It's hard to gauge the radio audience's opinion of Garrett,
but in the media community, he is regarded with great affection and deep
respect. He is scrupulously fair. His reports are balanced. He is compassionate
but does his work with objectivity. He is proud of his profession but has no
visible ego. For that alone, may God, Hutchison and Webster bless him. (Sun
Denny Boyd 1996)
Born
(Nov 16/34)