Interview by Vassilios Nicolaos Vitsilogiannis
(IG: @vassiliosvitsilogiannis)
Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco is a prominent news anchor at CBC Ottawa, known for his engaging storytelling and community-focused journalism. Born and raised in Ottawa, he has deep Ecuadorian and Lebanese roots, which enrich his perspective as a broadcaster. Dabaghi-Pacheco joined CBC Ottawa in 2010, where he quickly established himself by covering significant events such as the Parliament Hill shooting and the devastating Ottawa tornadoes. His commitment to documentary storytelling has taken him across Canada and to remote regions in Africa. Recently named the permanent host of CBC Ottawa News at 6, he expresses a profound connection to the community he serves. Fluent in four languages, Omar combines his passion for journalism with adventurous pursuits like paragliding. His ability to connect with viewers and present news authentically has made him a trusted figure in local media, reflecting his dedication to informing and enlightening the public.
What inspired you to pursue a career in journalism, and how did you get your start at CBC News Ottawa?
In many ways, it was my Ecuadorian mother. She passed on to me her deep passion for traveling the world and hearing the perspectives and lived experiences far different than her own. Growing up, she would take my sister and I backpacking three months out of every year since I was a toddler. We traveled to South America, The Middle East, and Eastern Europe…we would live out of a backpack for months at a time, often getting invited to local homes to hear fascinating stories about lives much different than ours. Those experiences planted the seeds of insatiable curiosity about other people, their stories, their struggles, and the commonalities that we all share.
Prior to becoming a journalist, I used to carry every major newspaper I could get my hands on in my backpack. I loved reading them all – I’d spend hours comparing and contrasting how one reporter had chosen a certain focus over another. How the same story, based on the same facts, could be recounted in entirely different ways. It fascinates me to this day. And at the time, it was a reminder of my travels. It has always been intriguing to me how greatly different our perception of the same events can be – and the conclusions we tend to draw from our vantage points when our own perspectives are left unchallenged. I live for those moments now. It’s why I love this profession.
I got my start at the CBC while I was still a student at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication. I spent my early twenties traveling, so by the time I decided to, I was older than my peers and determined to get to work on what I knew would be an extremely challenging, competitive and exciting career.
I pitched to the editors, relentlessly, story after story until – after a few rejections – they bought one of my short documentaries. Once I got my foot in the door, it was a dream come true. I did everything I could to learn from all the talented journalists in the newsroom. My editors liked my reporting and gave me an on-air segment as a daily radio traffic reporter. The shift started at 5 am and I was still in university. I remember falling asleep during my night classes from exhaustion. But I was on an adrenaline rush, loving every moment of what was, for me, a dream come true; the son of an Ecuadorian and Lebanese immigrants working at the country’s national broadcaster!
Eventually, I became a news reporter, video journalist and now, ten years on, the host of CBC Ottawa’s supper hour television newscast. My heart has always remained with long-form storytelling, though, which I am fortunate enough to produce regularly for CBC’s digital and streaming platforms. It’s been surreal.
Can you describe a significant moment in your career that shaped your approach to reporting and news anchoring?
I think it was a lesson learned early on at Carleton University. Most of my professors there were working journalists. The editorial standard at the school was strict. A missed deadline was unheard of. A misspelled name would cost you a grade. The reasoning was simple – if a reader can’t trust your thoroughness to get something as simple as someone’s name right, why should they trust any of the other facts in your story? We were taught by a group of journalists who believed the only currency a journalist had in the field was their reputation. A key journalistic principle they would drill into us was the notion you must be able to defend every word you utter as fact. Those teachers taught me to be critical of my own work, of the impact of the words and the language we use. Those profs never let me forget that one slip can undo years of accuracy. Or, as a colleague recently put it – 99% right is still 100% wrong.
As a news anchor and reporter, what do you believe is your primary responsibility to the audience?
Accuracy. Fairness. Balance. I feel my job is to inform my audience without prejudice. That includes everything from amplifying underheard voices in our community to breaking down complex issues into understandable stories. Our audience needs to make informed choices on the issues that shape their lives in our community. My responsibility is to bring them the voices and perspectives they may not have heard from, to fill in the gaps and maybe challenge their preconceptions.
If someone tells me my reporting inspired them to think more broadly about a topic or inspired them to get better informed about a subject, that’s fulfilling. That’s when I feel I’ve done my job.
How do you see the role of journalists evolving in today’s media landscape, especially with the rise of social media?
It sometimes feels precarious. On a personal level, it feels to me like, with the rise of social media, many people seem to be falling into echo chambers – not getting much information that challenges their perspectives. This seems to be happening across the ideological and political spectrum. The role of journalists is being questioned – that in itself is not a bad thing. Question everything. I believe in that. But with the proliferation of social media, the line between journalism and opinion, to me, seems to have become blurred. I have had conversations with people in my own life who are having trouble distinguishing between news that has gone through the rigorous principles, standards and practices of a reputable news organization versus an anonymous article sent to them by a friend on social media that seems devoid of source material. If asked why they thought it was a legitimate source of information, they might say they ‘felt’ it to be true. You can argue facts, but it’s impossible to debate feelings.
So, for myself, I can say it seems like a challenging time ahead. But, I continue to believe in the power of transparency and education. There is a rigorous debate that goes on through every challenging story I’ve ever put together.
There are Journalism Standards and Practices – checks and balances that guide the work and ensure it stands up to scrutiny. I think the role of a journalist is to be steadfast in their adherence to those standards and practices and encourage their audiences to do the same by scrutinizing and researching the media they consume.
What challenges do you face in delivering accurate and engaging news, particularly in a fast-paced environment?
The challenge over the course of the last decade or more has been in fighting the urge to be first. Opinions, feelings and rumors always come first. Facts tend to come later. The challenge is in letting the audience differentiate between them. Being clear about what you know to be the facts so far. Equally important is being clear about what you don’t know as fact. That means being transparent about what you are doing to find out those missing details. It’s hard to say ‘I don’t know’ when you’re a journalist. The lesson over the last decade or so for me has been to follow that up with, ‘but I am working very hard to find you the answer – and I’ll bring you with me every step of the way in that search.’
Can you share your thoughts on the current state of media trust among the public and what can be done to improve it?
No doubt there is a problem with media trust. The origin of that distrust is a broad topic I’ll leave to scholars and researchers. But I do think when it comes to earning that trust in the current, it all boils down to transparency – peeling back the curtain on the work we journalists do.
I’ll reiterate my previous comments about asking audiences to scrutinize the media they consume – including my own. Informing themselves on the Journalism Standards and Practices used by the media organizations they consume.
On a personal level, I feel it’s up to me as a host to speak with people in my community. Let them get to know me. Trust is built, it’s not given. I think in the present moment, more than ever, I, as a journalist, need to find ways of connecting with my audience so they can get to know the real me. That sense of authenticity is something that I try to do through public engagements and social media. But also from the transparency I try to put into my reporting; being clear about what I’m trying to find out, why I’ve chosen to focus on the topic, and why there are varying opinions on the subject.
What are your plans for the future in your career, and are there any specific projects or topics you are particularly passionate about exploring?
I’ve just returned from Paris covering the Olympics. It has been one of the highlights of my career. Covering the athletes’ stories, being there to interview them and their families after every triumph and after every heartbreaking loss.
When it comes to topics, I don’t have one in particular – I love pursuing any story that has soul, grit, anything that reveals something about the human condition- the connection that binds us. If I can find a compelling thread in a story that everyone can relate to in some small way, I’m all over it.
How do you balance the demands of your role with the need for personal time and mental health, especially in a high-pressure job?
Work hard, play harder, and unplug for the really important stuff. My friends say I try to fit 48 hours of activities into a single day, but I try to never take a day for granted. My father died when I was really young. The idea that we can be here today and gone tomorrow has been a very real concept for me since I was a kid. Now, I have two children of my own. Nothing is more important than being a father to them. I don’t compromise on that, and I let people know – whether it’s colleagues or people I’m working with for stories – when I’m on a story, I’m there 100% for as long as it takes to get the job done. Sometimes, it takes me away from my family for long stretches. But when it does, I compensate with long stretches of dedicated family time. And when I’m off, I’m off. I love journalism. I adore fatherhood more. But I can’t be good at either if I don’t prioritize my mental health. Sometimes, that’s a day of paragliding in the mountains. Sometimes, it’s a quiet barbecue by a lake with my kids. Currently, it’s a few months with my infant as I take parental leave to make some special memories that will last my lifetime.
In your opinion, what are the most pressing issues facing Canadian journalism today?
Misinformation and disengagement would be at the top of my list. It seems to me that as the vastness of available online information and opinion grows wider, the drive to scroll headlines and scan articles is undermining our attention to detail and a full understanding of context when reading news.
I’m very excited by the contextual and documentary-style storytelling we’ve been doing at CBC Ottawa. Our latest projects have been focused on the opioid crisis in Canada. The content has landed on our national CBC streaming service and CBC YouTube channel. Judging from the feedback I’ve gotten from across the country, it seems to be connecting with people who say they had previously tuned out of watching traditional news stories. That kind of engagement feels promising to me. I really hope to produce and see more of that style of reporting in Canadian journalism.
The broader issue though is; what is the measure of successful journalism in the evolving media environment, and how do you pay for it?
How do you approach storytelling in your reports, and what techniques do you find most effective in connecting with your audience?
Transparency, authenticity and originality.
I think audiences make a snap judgment on whether to trust what you have to say as a reporter right away. I try to be very clear about what I’m setting out to do in my reports and why I’m doing it. Usually, there is a personal curiosity that drives me to cover the topic – I make sure to express that. If there’s a moment that shocked me, I might make a note of that on camera. I assume the audience is having a similar response to what they’ve just heard or seen. That kind of transparency allows me to be more authentic in connecting with my audience. It also makes me more present and observant in the course of gathering the material for my report.
My guiding principle in storytelling is to amplify underheard voices. To do that, I try to limit my ‘on-camera’ appearances and voiceover to a minimum. I work really hard to build trust with people. Some of those are people in extremely vulnerable situations, who most of us rarely hear from in our daily lives. My philosophy is – the viewers are better served listening to them than me.
Usually, to find those voices in my reports, I’ll spend a few weeks on the phone talking to everyone who has insight into the issue I’m covering. Some meetings will require face-to-face meetings to build trust. Others will require walking around for hours looking for someone who has no home.
My approach to connecting with people once I do sit down with them is the same as my approach to hosting a newscast. Be transparent. Be authentic. Be real.
Even now, more than a decade into my career, I have two things I often do right before the camera lights go on. First, I tell myself: “This is me. I cannot be anyone else. And nobody expects me to be.” Then I picture one of my best friends on the other side of the camera lens staring back at me, eager to find out about the stories my team has been working on. It has been a mental hack for me to supersede the artifice of television. It helps remind me to be myself and create a sense of connection with the audience.
These are small things, but if there is one quality people seem to pick up on whenever I get approached about my work, it is that sense of authenticity. It’s sometimes tough to just be yourself, ignoring the bright lights, microphones and the knowledge that tens of thousands of people may be watching. But it’s a dream.
One of my mentors once told me this: the audience has so generously given you their attention by tuning in, you owe them authenticity. You can be stressed, grumpy or nervous, but for that brief moment; give the audience the best version of yourself that you can muster.
Images by James Park & Michel Aspirot
