Juliette Powell is a woman of many paradoxes. A hard-nosed journalist, yet a compassionate cat owner.
Kind and polite on the television screen, but rude to student reporters during interviews.
Taken as a whole, the only element that isn’t paradoxical about Powell is her motivation to succeed.
After all, she claims to be driven by the motto “to be good is not enough if you dream of being great.”
In order to be fair, we’ll start with her history and good qualities, working down to her obnoxious side.
Powell’s background contains many contrasts. She holds both Canadian and American citizenship, has a mixed ethnic background and is bilingual in French and English.
Although Powell is renowned for her gift of gabbing with well-known personalities, she readily admits that she “grew up as a very shy girl.”
In past interviews, she described landing her first date at the age of eighteen.
Her life took a drastic turn when she learned of a woman who faced discrimination due to her skin colour in the Miss Montreal pageant.
After much contemplation, shy Powell decided to compete, eventually becoming the first and only black woman to win the Miss Canada title.
Don’t let Powell’s delicate appearance deceive you; she is a strong, ambitious woman who goes to any lengths to get what she wants.
She demonstrated her keenness to gain a foothold in the broadcasting market when she boldly broke into Musique Plus (the sister station of Much Music) through the back door, eventually hosting three of the highest rated shows on the network. Meanwhile, she simultaneously excelled in her academic areer at McGill University,.
After four years at McGill, and with broadcasting experience under her belt, she’s trying to prove something to the CityTV personnel, or maybe she just enjoys putting down young journalists. Nonetheless, I wonder about the calibre of her journalistic integrity. While I must admit I enjoyed every second of it, I couldn’t believe I went to do a routine feature story on an ex-Miss Canada and her accomplishments and came out of the interview with a bag full of goodies.
Things became juicy when I asked her if she could help me obtain an interview with Znaimer.
She began by questioning why I wanted to interview him, and how much I knew about dear Znaimer.
This conversation then took another turn when she decided to criticize my “too nice” attitude and other journalism quirks. I decided to end the pep talk with a polite smile, and she walked me out of the building. Quite honourably, she hollered her last pointer in an obnoxious manner as I was about to exit the building. Powell, in her great experience, told me that if she were in my position, she would have excused herself to Znaimer’s washroom and snuck into his office to snoop around. This helped me finally understand why many members of the public distrust journalists.
Powell is a woman with jagged edges, and perhaps this is why she is so successful.
The tough stance she has conjured is only befitting, considering her future goal is to “own and operate her own television network.”
Powell, I have concluded that your moves are just too daring for me.
However, I am going to mail this article to Moses Znaimer through the back door, and hopefully land an interview through the front door.
Nice people always like to compromise.
