CBC’s “Forensic Expert” Turns out to be Record Producer with Government Contracts
June 3, 2005 · By Max West
More on the CBC’s trumped up, highly torqued non-story about the so-called “forensic expert” they hired to try to cast doubt on the Grewal tapes on behalf of their Liberal benefactors.
On the World at Six on June 2, the CBC said they hired a “forensic expert” to examine the Grewal tapes. On the World Report the next morning, they downgraded him to “an independent sound engineer” and “an audio expert.”
Who is this so-called expert and how independent is he?
It turns out his name is John Dooher. He’s an Ottawa record producer who also works on government contracts. Here’s how the magazine, Ottawa Life, described him:
John Dooher began producing records in 1985. Since then, he has produced, written, performed, cogitated, philosophized and engineered music in Ottawa…. Dooher’s label Dark Skippy Records has penetrated the European market with The Radio Kings and is poised to do the same with the upcoming album by New Car Smell.
According to the magazine,
Dooher also produces ads for local radio stations and produces tapes and CDs for Language Training Canada.
Language Training Canada is what it sounds like, a government agency that teaches French to bureaucrats.
That’s the CBC’s big expert: an Ottawa producer-musician who calls himself a philosopher while hyping cheesy bands between day-gigs doing contracts for the Liberal government.
Neither is he exactly “independent” from the CBC. In 1996, Dooher joined a few others to circulate an email petition from someone named “Studio Employee” to “save CBC radio.”
So here’s the bottom line: The CBC hired a friendly record producer with government contracts to cast doubt upon the Grewal tapes to support their Liberal friends.
The CBC doesn’t care, of course. By now other media – primed by the CBC story – have hired real experts to look at the tapes, so CBC supporters will claim it doesn’t matter. So what if they hyped a non-expert to create a phony story?
But that’s how they’re spending your money at the CBC. That’s what they call professional journalism in Ottawa. That’s the kind of media we have reporting on the corrupt Liberals.
It’s starting to smell like my new car…er…like “Rathergate”
BWAH HA HA HA HA (dark malevolent Neocon laughter)
It’s Ottawa. Who doesn’t work for the Liberals?
Why did it take 10 FULL DAYS before even a fraction of those tapes were released? And then it’s a subset of the tapes??? – Give me a break!
Any idiot with a couple of hundred bucks of gear can edit recordings these days – ten days is plenty of time for one of Harper’s staff to hack things up to say whatever they want.
In other words, as far as this reader is concerned – Harper and Grewal are being just as intellectually dishonest to the voters as the Liberals.
To this voter, the timing and shenanigans here look like a pathetic attempt to recoup some political points, no more.
A few minutes ago (it’s just before noon PDT) Dooher was on Newsworld, with the title “Forensic Audio Engineer” under his name on the screen. No mention of what his real job is, nor any mention of his government paycheques, nor any attempt to establish his credentials. Just a lot of nervous swallowing by the guy and puff-ball questions from the interviewer.
ah! this is what bloggers do best. good job, max, and may i say your earlier criticisms of the cbc are looking more accurate in light of this crap. let’s hope someone else picks this up so the story can get back to the troglodytes at cbc.
Hello.
I am the gentleman hired by the CBC to take a look at the Grewal tapes.
For the record.
My first trip ot court as an expert witness was a plagerism trial involving Mr. James Drynan vs. Wayne Rostad and The CBC. I was assisitng in case presentation and appeared on the stand for Mr Drynan who won his judgement.
I have examined many recordings for a number of clients including the federal Government and various criminal lawyers and private investigation firms here in Ottawa.
As a former owner of a major recording facility I did fullfill a number of contracts with the federal government. These contracts were primarily in the area of recording services and software design and or implimentation.
As an engineer/producer/musician for the last twenty years I can assure you I have never been on the payroll of any Government anywhere, anytime.
My recent opinions on Mr Grewals tapes were proven to be accurate by the office of the leader of the official opposition and Mr Grewal himself. I pointed out an obvious edit and subsequently a new version of the recording appeared with some additional dialogue in the exact location of my suspected edit.
Shooting the messanger is a fool’s reaction for not being able to read the message.
Cheers,
John Dooher
So John,
I take it you had the originals?
j.d. – thanks for the background. the question that then needs to be asked is why the cbc did not identify you as an “engineer/producer/musician” rather than granting you a more weighty title. if someone gave me $100 to be a ringer on a city league basketball team ten years ago, i would still find it a stretch to be introduced today as a former professional basketball player. i don’t doubt your conclusion, but cringe at the way the way the cbc consistently gives aid and comfort to the Liberal Party of Canada. Projecting the image of moral equivalence between Grewal and the PMO on this issue is part of the political spin that not only plumbs the depths of silliness but obfuscates the sorry nature our present Canadian government.
you are welcome to disagree – but when one hears lousy music he can blame the band, the song, or both. i’m sick of the song. but if the guy next to me thinks the band sucks – he may yet have a point – even if talented, they should have enough taste to choose good material. as an engineer, you ought to know that your best work can only do so much for crappy music.
[...] #8220;forensic expert” hired by the CBC to listen to the Grewal tapes, has responded here to [...]
Hate to tell you gentlemen this, but being a record producer, recordist, or what-have-you for the length of time John Dooher has been at it, OVERqualifies him to evaluate audio and determine whether there have been edits made. My fricking semi-clueless assistant is qualified to do that! Contrary to popular opinion, this ain’t brain surgery.
Now, if based on these statements, you’re going to begin to question MY political motives, well I can assure you that as an ugly uncaring self-centered American, they have nothing to do with Canada. Hell, I can’t even understand why in the hell you still have ANYTHING to do with the damn Queen of England. So don’t bother trying to determine any kind of political motivations on my part.
I CAN tell you this, if the audio was edit free, that’s what John Dooher would have claimed. As a colleague that has neither his reputation nor his good name making up shit a teenager with a Digi 001 rig could figure out. If you don’t know what a Digi 001 rig is, then maybe you probably shouldn’t be questioning about the man’s motivations, ’cause you don’t shit about what you’re talking about.
In other words, if the man says there are edits, there are edits. So put yer conspricay theories away gents. You’re way off the mark here.
Other than that . . .
Enjoy,
Mixerman
Hate to tell you gentlemen this, but being a record producer, recordist, or what-have-you for the length of time John Dooher has been at it, OVERqualifies him to evaluate audio and determine whether there have been edits made. My fricking semi-clueless assistant is qualified to do that! Contrary to popular opinion, this ain’t brain surgery.
Now, if based on these statements, you’re going to begin to question MY political motives, well I can assure you that as an ugly uncaring self-centered American, they have nothing to do with Canada. Hell, I can’t even understand why in the hell you still have ANYTHING to do with the damn Queen of England. So don’t bother trying to determine any kind of political motivations on my part.
I CAN tell you this, if the audio was edit free, that’s what John Dooher would have claimed. As a colleague, I know that John would risk neither his reputation nor his good name making up shit that a teenager with a Digi 001 rig could figure out. If you don’t know what a Digi 001 rig is, then you probably shouldn’t be questioning the man’s motivations, ’cause you don’t shit about what you’re talking about.
In other words, if the man says there are edits, there are edits. So put yer conspricay theories away gents. You’re way off the mark here.
Other than that . . .
Enjoy,
Mixerman
john,
Commenter number 8,
Bands, songs, professional basketball. What the hell are you talking about? Listen, (that being the operative word in this thread) if you’re going to use metaphors, at least use ones that make some sort of sense. The CBC did what any good news station does. They sensationalized. They do this because if they didn’t, some crack-head conspiracy theorists (much like yourself) would instantly claim that the evaluator was not qualified.
You may not know this about me, but I was around during the Watergate scandal. Yes. It’s true. And let me tell you, recognizing that entire 10 minute passages had been erased off of the Nixon recordings would be almost as simple as recognoizing major shifts in the noise floor of some crappy recording with a built-in condensor mic some 10 meters from the sound source. Further, seeing as some of the missing audio has now been released and so conveniently explained away by a “machine malfunction” (ahem) I’ll proceed to tell you what SHOULD have happened:
The guys that got caught by those CBC commie-sensationalist bastards should have hired John Dooher in order to do the edits FOR them. THEN I can can assure you, the edits would have been so invisible, as to fool JOHN DOOHER HIMSELF!
Okay. So, do you really believe there was a “machine malfunction,” or are you going to continue to cry foul at the media for incorrectly hyping a man’s qualifications, despite the fact that they, and he, were RIGHT!
Do you see what I’m saying here? They were right, but yet YOU are focusing on an exaggeration by the media, rather than questioning a highly suspect “machine malfunction”.
You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
Let me close with an apology to all the readers at this fine site for my double post above. I realized (after the fact) that there was a paragraph that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Since one can’t edit one’s own post here, I fixed said paragraph, and posted the entire explanation again. I feel it was worth reading twice, but then, I’m biased. I would certainly give permission to the webmaster of this fine establishment to remove the FIRST of those two posts.
Just so we’re clear, if the first of the two similar posts is removed, it’s not a conspiracy.
OK?
Enjoy,
Mixerman
Being a truly ugly American I couldn’t care less about your political squabbles up there, but John Dooher is a friend of mine and I’m here to defend his integrity.
Point 1) He IS an expert in all aspects of audio and considered one of the best in his field. Get over it.
Point 2) He’s a very busy man. If it took 10 days to review the tapes in question, then that’s how long it took to scan the contents with a ‘microscope’ and verify that it had been altered. He’d do nothing less that perform this task perfectly if he was hired to do so.
Point 3) If he was paid to do this work, it was entirely appropriate because he is a professional.
Whatever got your collective panties all bunched up, you’re barking up the wrong tree with this guy.
Please feel free to resume your petty squabble.
[...] “Experts said the tapes may have been altered,” the Post writes in an isolated sentence-paragraph. Well, actually, that one has been done to death. The CBC “expert” had no forensic experience. But the Post does not say whether that was the conclusion reached by the RCMP. At least some “experts” concluded the opposite. This is thorough, informative, and balanced reporting. [...]