Global being non-partisan? Note that you can sign the anti-Emerson petition at the bottom. Nit wits.

Change the locks... that's consistent with my own thoughts.

I mean, hahaha... does the MSM really believe that PMSH is going to lose any sleep about not having to put up with that pack of salivating mongrels?

I think perhaps this is what the PM was counting on... now he can get back to the actual job of fixing what the Liberals broke and not have to waste time with those imbeciles with notepads.

Those imbeciles are guilty of aiding and abetting those liberano crooks from the onset.

But to not have to put uup with there shit must be wonderful for our Prime Minister.

I'd say the PM is shaking in his boots... with laughter now that he has more free time.

Personally, I'd revoke the presses credentials and security status and let the MSM try to find new reporters that will report and not make up the news.

Does the Ottawa Parlimentary Press corps actually think that this was a mature thing grownups should be doing?

They have a problem with being told the blunt truth.
They have no issue with being lied to as long as they get their ass kissed.
Sad.
enough

Um, what exactly is being handed out at these press conferences that I can't find for free on the Govt of Canada Web site already? What are we missing if the media walks out? I thought the reason I paid for a newspaper was to get original investigative reporting, not some regurgitated government handouts that can be found online at no charge.

From the article: "The media claim that Harper is attempting to control the parameters of when and how questions are directed at him."

No. Really? No kidding? You mean that the media doesn't really have absolute control over press conferences with the head of the government of Canada? Shocking.

Oh, well. Remember, "they made him and they'll break him."

Self-importance brought to a new low.

I like the previous idea of revoking all their press credentials and permanantly baring them from the hill.

Let the MSM hire and train a new bunch of usefull idiots - more like useless idiots.

What they forget is that Parliament and the government don't work for them to get a news story. They work to do the people's business and in that they make the news for the reporters to report. End of story. Deal with it.

The PPG are getting more silly everyday. The polls are going up the press is being ignored and it is a good day in Canada. The media, like the opposition, are playing right into the hands of the PMO. They don't want to answer stupid questions from a vacuous press gallery who know really nothing about the serious issues and are only after gossip, sleaze and gotcha journalism. So Mr. Harper does not need to worry about press conferences and he can get on with doing the peoples' business...and we like it.

So their amour propre counts more than doing their job as reporters concerning what everyone is trying to make a major issue.

"Pearl Harbor Bombed--Washington Press Corps Boycotts Roosevelt's News Conference"

From sit-in to walk-out. Soon no-one will notice. Or care.

Mark
Ottawa

And we still learned the important facts to be presented in the news conference, which was pretty much all anybody wanted to know. All we didn't get was an endless line of questioning to the effect that it wouldn't be enough, why don't we pull out of Afstan and go there...etc.
I like this new efficient style. More facts, less hissy...

Who needs the PPG now?

All the PM needs to do is post his announcements on:

www.conservative.ca

And we bloggers can post and discuss.

Poor, poor, pitiful PPG moonbats! They had their day... flew too close to the sun of Librano corruption...

(Stifling laughter)

Interesting. What happens to a system when it loses its relevance? What happens if it does not disappear but has lost all meaning?

The political press has, over the years, become the unofficial propaganda arm of the Liberal Party. Now that a different party is in power, it cannot handle its loss of relevance and identity.

The new power is not interested in making the press a propaganda tool. The press is expected to, instead, communicate information. The Press cannot do this; it has, for over a decade, functioned as a propaganda office.

In reaction to this loss of identity, and its rejection of a role of communicator of information, the press turns viciously against the new political power.

What to do? Ignore them. Harper (and we) don't want them as the Ministry of Propaganda. We want them as a method of communication of accurate information. They refuse. Tough.

At http://www.conservative.ca/ you can sign up for e-mail updates which give you are the notices, speeches, announcements etc. coming out of the PMO, so who needs the MSM ???

The sad thing is that they will be back.

I hope the PM enjoys it until that time.

This is like watching every Law & Order episode you've ever seen. The brilliant prosecutor gets the criminal to blow his cool... and spill the beans.

In today's episode, our MSM has outed itself to be anti-CPC. Brilliant strategy by Harper.

For decades, the Canadian MSM maintained the illusion of impartiality. While anyone who cared to notice could see that the press was largely liberal (i.e. pro Liberal & NDP), the masses believed what they were served because the press isn't supposed to have an agenda.

The illusion of impartiality was very damaging to the Tories.

But now the illusion is gone. The Liberal foot soldiers have been goaded into outing themselves.

Harper could have screamed from the rooftops that the press was biased against him. But he didn't. He tricked them into showing their true colours.

How maddening for the liberal media that in spite of their tears about their treatment by Harper, the Tories' numbers have shot into solid majority territory.

The fact of the matter is that these people have been on the Liberal team for years and now they're crying foul because they're being treated like the enemy they are.

Good for Harper. My respect for the man grows every day. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant.

It will be interesting to watch the prima donnas
spin the whole story. They (the press gallery )
are a bunch of disgusting manipulative children.
That they should get a life. Unfortunatley, these are the people who control so much information in our country. Truth has been set aside again

I think the PM should go for a "twofer" and get himself a press secretary like the President of the United States does to play silly bugger with the MSM. Besides freeing up his valuable time (one) the obvious Bushlike move would give the press a regular hissy fit (that's two).

As the folks at Guiness would say,"brilliant".

Great post ET: The Canadian MSM and the PPG as the Ministry of Propaganda!

That's exactly what they've been for far too long, aiding and abetting, heck promoting, the sleaze oozing from the Librano$' corrupt and despicable government (sic).

What does pond scum do when the swamp's been drained and it's left open to the sun?

Well, not being a scientist, I can only guess: dry up, wither, and die? 'Sounds like a good plan to me.

Oh yeah. And I forgot one thing about pond scum when the swamp's just been drained:

It stinks.

Anyone catch Laurie Goldstein in Sun Media? Brilliant idea of moving the press gallery to a barge in the middle of the Ottawa river then setting fire to it! Or else moving the gallery to Kingston - Kingston Jamaica that is!!!

In this day and age who needs the MSM? Bloggers and dicussion forums will keep us all well informed.

If I were Harper, I'd ignore the walkout, whether they repeat it or not.

The MSM are the out-and-out enemies of conservatism, the Conservative Party and Stephen Harper. The MSM have done their worst against them for years, are continuing and will continue to do so.

That being the case, Harper & Co. have and should use the power to force the arrogant MSM to go by GOVT rules, not MSM rules. The MSM will hate it but so what? They can't do any more damage to the Conservatives than they're alread doing and have no choice but to come crawling back.

The funnies thing about this is that they claim it wasn't planned. Yeah... dry that one out you can fertilize your lawn with it.

If I were Harper, I'd simply say that the list stays and if they decide to come or not is up to them. After all, if they choose not to cover the news, what are they going to report about?

I understand that Bob Fife was one of the only journalists that did not walk out of the news conference. Good for him. Have you also heard that Craig Oliver has stepped down and Bob is taking his place as Bureau Chief for CTV News.

The Liberal-controlled MSM will eventually have to come to terms with Parliamentary press gallery protocol. Since everybody knows they are controlled by their Liberal-friendly media mogul bosses they will either accept or lose their jobs. No need to have a dedicated press gallery if they refuse to show up to do their jobs.

A Parliamentary press gallery must abide by the rules or just bugger off. Harper will not give his enemies any advantage so let them stay away and find other jobs.

In another life I was in public relations and organized many news conferences. My client and I would set up the location, the topic for the conference, the duration and I would either ask for the names of the attending media or do an orderly lineup at the mike. I would then invite the reporters one at a time to ask the question. If it was off topic there was no reply from my spokesperson required unless it was a general Q&A session. The answer would be that they could contact him or her at another time for an interview but the topic of the day was ...

No screaming all at once; no ignorant reporters crawling over each other shoving each other out of the way.

This showed respect for the spokesperson and also allowed much more detail to be covered about the story at hand.

I can tell you that if anyone had asked "do you love Canada?" or had been known to call my spokesperson "fatty" or "a lardass in a fishing vest" or his wife a "ballsy biker chick" these reporters would have been black balled not only by me but they would have earned the disrespect of REAL journalists.

That Ottawa bunch have no class; no couth; no scruples and the more they protest the more I believe that many of them were "on the take" so to speak and miss the largesse of the Liberals who bought their favours with OUR money.

I applaud Stephen Harper. I have gotten more access to REAL government information since the Conservatives took over on the regional media; with news releases sent to my inbox and on the government news page.

The Ottawa Press Gallery have not earned the right to be treated with respect by the Prime Minister. They are simply unelected hacks for large for profit conglomerates who have tried to control this country's agenda and hijack it for their own purposes.

The cleaning up of corruption in Ottawa HAD to include the Liberal apologists in the Press Gallery. The regional media is far more relevant and the internet is also replacing this gaggle of self absorbed hacks.

Harper's hidden agenda: Let the PPG act like the corrupt fools that they are and show the voters why the crooked and inept Libranos were able to steal so much without a peep out of these usefull idiots.
I mean really, how were that bunch of dummies in the Liberal party able to steal so much from us without the MSM reporting on it? Was it because the media are stupid and incompetent, or corrupt and biased, or all of the above? You gotta admit, the Liberal party isn't exactly in the intellectual heavyweight division.
Are any of these media clowns even able to feel shame anymore? In real democracies, the media are one of the cornerstones of a successful society, in Canada they are a bunch of pathetic monkeys that dance for the corrupt Liberal organ grinder.
Now they are all confused and whiney because the party is over and they are expected to act their age and act like real journalists, and they haven't the faintest clue about how to do that.

Good riddance to Oliver, if true.

I remember after one of the debates in the last election when he came on ranting like an unhinged lunatic how Martin had won and how the format was rigged in Harper's favour... blah, blah blah... and some guy posted that he sounded like Mortimer Duke screaming pathetically to 'turn those machines back on'.

I've never laughed so hard in my life.

Old Liberal hack. He must be kicking himself for not quitting earlier. Because his dreams of being put out to pasture in the Senate for all his years of faithful service to the Libranos... have gone up in smoke.

This is quite possibly the funniest thing I have read in a long time.

Go Harper go!

Lorraine, thank you, input from an expert is very much needed and apprecaited.

I've worked with PR people and found the scenarios you describe to be the case. On occasion when I didn't listen to the advice of a person like yourself and tried to be be more open is when things could go off the rails. In other words I've had to learn the hard way. Harper obviously is getting good media advice and his ego allows him to take direction from the experts, this is a very good trait for a PM to have.

Harper's poll numbers this morning must have been the final straw.

What a bunch of children.

My little comment is that Nealenews has had this story up all afternoon, while Bourque has had nothing as of 7:15 PM PDT.

Through all the indignant posturing and belly-aching,even the PPG themselves have acknowledged that when replying to a question,Harper is more direct and clear in his response than the previous government.He would also tend to remain longer,however I doubt that is most recently the case.
I have NEVER met a Canadian that wasn't completely fatigued by the doublespeak baffergabble we've been victim to these last dozen years.Yet the gallery seemed quite content to accept deflections to questions such as "Well,what I think Canadians really want to know is...".What a breath of fresh,not-hot air.
I would have guessed that this would be gold to a serious journalist,but instead they rebel against some SIMPLE changes in protocol.
Their overall unprofessional behavior is more enlightening to Canadians than the items they write!
The polls are proving that point!

Prime Minister Paul Martin speaks from the National Press Gallery Tuesday afternoon following the release of the report.

.

(Boycott Bourque)

I actually like Bob Fife. He was a bit partisan during the election campaign (i thought) but he did a good job on the trip to Afghanistan. I think he has been reasonable since. Maybe its just that the others are so far out, lol. Anyway, im interested to see how this all plays out. As has been mentioned before, its easy to get a lot more factual information from the government website.

BTW: 4-2 Edmonton!!!
Go oilers go!!!!!

Last week at the Liberal caucus meeting they had to ban blackberries and cell phones when one of the Liberals was caught blackberrying Bob Fife on speed dial DURING the meeting to give him a leak.

The Harper government have said they are trying to prevent leaks as it is not fair to all of the other media outlets and Canadians should all get the information at the same time.

Poor Bob Fife and others who were on Liberal leaker's speed dials. Like Jane Tabor. Like how many others?????? They also get leaks from beurocrats as we have seen lately - drafts of reports and memos that are incorrect but used anyways without verification; lots of anonymous sources which end up being bafflegab.

This is NOT news about government programs that Canadians want and need. This is this batch of ego maniacs trying to turn the Parliament of Canada into a soap opera for ratings, personal bylines or promotions or to sell advertising.

They have done such a huge diservice to this country treating opinion as "news" and allowing misinformation to stand unchallenged. One small example amongst hundreds - when the media talks about Kyoto they show large polluting smokestacks and let people talk about their asthma or getting sick on the bad air is why we need Kyoto, blah blah. Even the dimmest reporter should know that CO2 grenhouse gas is NOT a pollutant.

But, to further the Liberal lie....

Hear Hear SDA. If I were running the media companies these clowns were working for, I'd fire them. They became the story, which is a huge no-no in journalism.

Journalism 101 as taught to me by Roy Wilson, Sheridan College Journalism.

1) Verify everything
2) Accuracy
3) Be as un-biased as possible
4) Never become the story.

F-Minus for those clowns!

Phil

"They have done such a huge diservice to this country treating opinion as "news" and allowing misinformation to stand unchallenged."

Lorraine,if I had to choose one sentence to articulate the lack of integrity I feel the MSM has demonstrared,you nailed it!

It was the best press conference I've seen in a long time!! A nice clear crisp message from the Prime Minister directly to the people of Canada. Let the MSM wallow in their own self-importance, while Stephen Harper speaks directly to the people of Canada.

Good riddance to the PPG--here's hoping that they stay away. They are incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial--they only know how to propagandize for the corrupt Liberals--as my mom used to say--"you are known by the friends you keep" so we know what the PPG is--
Edmonton won!!! Now that is something important--not the PPG having PMS!

I'm leaning towards Bourque not posting this while posting the message from the PM as a slap in the face to the MSM in so much as the message still gets out sans their sorry half brained "protest".

Maybe Bourque has it right - this is NON NEWS as the petulance and disrespect by the Parliamentary Press gallery is NON NEWSWORTHY.

WHO CARES! It is about time and they are NOT missed by Canadians. Bourque carried the story about the $40 million to Darfur and DID NOT NEED the facts filtered through some opinionated talking head with half the facts and a personal agenda.

Good for him.

The PPG really stepped over the line today. Not because they are ticked with the PMO over its so called list but because the story was of national importance as it relates to the actions the government is taking to assist Dafur. But no, the whiney media decided to show their petulance and leave with their ball. However, the last laugh was on them. The PM made his announcement which Canadians got unfiltered which as it should be. However, if I were the owners of these newspapers and TV stations I would be mighty unhappy paying a bunch of so called professional journalists who have to write columns made up from their imaginations or based on information they obtained through unverified leaked documents which prove to be untrue. The PPG is making themselves more irrelevant everyday. That's in the best interest of Canada. If I were Harper I would simply set up the podium, make his announcement without the knowledge of the PPG. Nobody would be any the wiser and Harper would have less aggravation.

“It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.”

Joseph Paul Goebbels

Wait a minute now anonymous, you couldn't possibly be comparing the former Liberal Government to the Nazis would you? :P

No, the Liberals used the media to form public opinion.

“It is the absolute right of the MSM to supervise the formation of public opinion.”

MOP

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental
principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."

Joseph Paul Goebbels

Harper's Five Key Priorities?

It's like a pompous, uninvited, know-it-all house guest threatening to leave.

lefties are showing anonymously - haha funny.

Stand your ground Stephen. You can't can't blood from a rock.

I'm so glad I never gave into the Edmonton Journal Salesman the other day, told them they're still too Liberal for me to support.

Boycott CBC.

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental
principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."

Joseph Paul Goebbels

Harper's Five Key Priorities?

Posted by: anonymous at May 24, 2006 12:22 AM

Interesting how you wake up after 13 years of such tactics utilized ad nauseum by the Liberals to severely undermine democracy in this country, commit crimes against the people and theive their way through 4 elections and immediately attach significance to the Conservative 5 point plan.
What a moron. Anonymous or othewise!

Just catching up on news of the day via Nealenews. With headlines about CBC vs. Stompin Tom and the Bush vs U.S. Media. It's becoming ever apparent that m.s.m. has taken on a life of it's own; like genetically modified Frankenfood. Don't want to swallow it, but not sure you can survive without it.

Sorry for earlier error; can't get blood from a stone.

Hey anonymous: One other really excellent fundamental principal to ensure that repetetive propaganda is believed. Do what you say you are going to do.

Whoops, I guess that makes it the truth then doesn't it. Nice try.

Lorraine

I liked your post very much. Its what I like about this Blog. Some really smart folks on here. People not blinkered by current propaganda. A nice change I can tell you.

What disillusioned me about the MSM. Was the entire behavior of these Politicked muck rackers, white washing Shawanagate. During the pontificate of Jean Creiten.

What they did by covering up this evil was extend the rot at the core of this Nation.
They felt no loyalty too there readership , nor there own duty as citizans.
Far from being the watchdogs of the public, they participated in this exercise of greed & sleeze.
They made it into nothing, & billions later we paid for there treachery.

They have still not ralized how close this Federation came to splintering. Why ? Because they have no ear to the ground & lived in the glitter of there political Masters.
In other words they sold there souls for scaps from the totolitarian, kleptomanics at Ottawa's taxpayers table. They ate the bread stolen from there countrymen, & as the wolves took over . Rejoiced at every perversion of civility & reason.

I believe you are correct in the assumption that many where getting sweet side deals. Power as well by being there lap dogs.As well as Senate appointments, I think 3 GG's coming from CBC say's it all. Thank you for your insight.

That the MSM have made it their mission to make themselves the news, they've just cancelled their right to even be there. And I should say, the Ottawa MSM, the rest seem to work just fine and get way more questions asked and answered than we ever had with the Liberals.

This line really is food for thought and perhaps punitive action by the PMO.
"They have done such a huge diservice to this country treating opinion as "news" and allowing misinformation to stand unchallenged."
HT to Lorraine

"The new power is not interested in making the press a propaganda tool. The press is expected to, instead, communicate information. The Press cannot do this; it has, for over a decade, functioned as a propaganda office."
HT to ET

One of the best discussions I've read in a while.
Thanks,
Pat

Sda, and like minded blogs plus WS and Neale's news are the best scorces of news in this country. I actually enjoy reading the news and I like having the opinions of other Canadians to read with the news. Kate, you have excellent reporters right here; they comment in your comments section and often suppy links - esp Mazz.
The press gang is not a Canadian 'value' it is a Liberano/dipper 'value'; therefore it has no value - it COSTS taxpayers $$$. It is time that we, the people, demanded answers from that corrupt outfit; such as why they covered up the corruption in the former pack of thieves that were in office befor the Conservatives took over. Were they accessories? Did they have vested interests in keeping the Liberano/dipper people in power? It is time for them to answer our questions and it is time they started answering.
The PM's office sends me all the latest press releases via e-mail - I know when the spin is 'off the wall' to the wacko left. I bring up the news - and prove the press gang wrong.
I'm so proud of our PMSH for getting those fleas off his back.

Let's see, Ward:

Clean up government by passing the Federal Accountability Act;
(Nothing yet.)

Provide real tax relief to working families by cutting the GST;
(Debateable, since various experts came up with different numbers, some negative and some positive, but no REAL relief.)

Make our streets and communities safer by cracking down on crime;
(Nothing yet.)

Help parents with the cost of raising their children;
($100/mo. barely covers half a week of child care in most places.)

and

Work with the provinces to establish a Patient Wait Times Guarantee.
(Nothing yet.)

So, I'd say that the Harper government hasn't done much yet, other than confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over...

CPAC (cpac.ca) has been showing re-runs of an interesting panel:

"On May 14th Don Martin from the National Post, former Jean Chrétien communications director Peter Donolo, Sandra Buckler the current director of communications for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the CBC's Keith Boag discussed media relations with the new Conservative government in Ottawa at the Canadian Association of Journalists National Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia."

Their schedule is not clearly set out for days in advance, but watch for a repeat of this one.

The panelists take questions from the audience of journalists.

Some very pointed questions, on the cosy relationship between the media and Liberal government were asked.

It was curious to see the Keith Boag skirt around why these relationships have to be 'un-pretty' sometimes.

This kind of stunt today, will have the reader questionning the objectivity of the reporter even more.

Certainly enjoy the regional press sessions, and the regular e-mail updates that allow for the whole context of the speeches and announcements...good thinking to offer that.

Hey Anon...
Clean up government by passing the Federal Accountability Act;
(Started, Don't worry, by the time PMSH is done, people will be accountable)
Provide real tax relief to working families by cutting the GST
(Done, Starts July 1st, 2006)
Make our streets and communities safer by cracking down on crime;
(Started, Lets see...10 million tranferred from the black hole gun registry to front line poilicing...sounds good to me, more to come from Vic Toews in Justice)
Help parents with the cost of raising their children;
(Done, cheques will be in the mail soon)
Work with the provinces to establish a Patient Wait Times Guarantee.
(Nothing yet.) I'll agree with that for now, although I am sure that it is being looked at. Of all the promises made, this is the toughest to bring about. It has been studied to death. It will take some time for good people to wade through the mountain of information and come up with a plan that will bring results.
How about the softwood lumber deal! They promised me that they would address and dismantle the long gun registry- done- they'll starve it to death. First meeting today in Regina today on renewable energy, a campaign promise on its way to being fulfilled. Lots accomplished for the first 100 days or so.
The Liberals and NDP keep howling about the "lost daycare deal". I am so happy that didn't go through. I don't believe it was ever costed properly (training, wages, facilities, regulatory beaurocrats to licence and regulate etc, etc, etc.) by the preceding government and would have been the costliest white elephant we would have ever adopted. It would just be one more black hole for tax money. At least the Conservative plan puts money in the hands of everyone with children six and under and gives them the freedom to spend it however they choose for daycare, no doubt a supplement for many but at least it is fair and treats all families equally, not to mention it is easy to project a proper and accurate cost.
Happy with the Harper Conservatives!
Daniel

Hey Lorraine,
Great post! Thanks for the Media relations insight. Sounds a little too much like common sense!
Are you looking for a job? You might want to send your resume into Ottawa, I am thining that over the next few months as the various Cabinet Ministers begin to start making announcements and doing interviews, they just might need a saavy and experienced Communications and Media Relations director. Listened to Rona Ambrose (Go Alberta!) speak to the press today about the Renewable Energy meetings held in Regina today. It was refreshing to hear the facts laid out without spin and polish. I am not sure if she took questions after or not, but I was impressed and look forward to good things ahead.
Daniel

Hey Daniel:

I'm happy for you that you're so positive. However, if you take a close look at the results, it's hard to imagine what you've presented as anything more than window dressing.

"Don't worry, by the time PMSH is done, people will be accountable." History has shown that, in the case of politicians, this is highly unlikely.

"Provide real tax relief to working families by cutting the GST." Counteracted by raising the income tax rate - any benefit will be minimal.

"10 million tranferred from the black hole gun registry to front line poilicing." Sounds like a lot, but assuming $60k per year salary per cop means only an additional 166 extra police officers for the whole country.

"How about the softwood lumber deal!" When someone steals your money then gives back 80%, is that really a victory? When all the NAFTA rulings were going in Canada's favour (forget about WTO because they have no jurisdiction in this matter)and the Canada capitulated, I think that says alot about our lack of leadership back bone.

I'll admit that promoting renewable fuel resources is a good thing, but let's get real: Harper's results for the last 100 days are hardly earth shattering. It's certainly not the second coming of Christ, as some here make it out to be.

Readership is down in newspapers and their demise is soonTelevision viewing is also down but our taxes support the CBC and the other networks as the government is their salvation.
The internet and the bloggers put forth the truths that our msm have failed to do for years and their readership and numbers are increasing.
No one will miss their words of poison.

Readership is down in newspapers and their demise is soonTelevision viewing is also down but our taxes support the CBC and the other networks as the government is their salvation.
The internet and the bloggers put forth the truths that our msm have failed to do for years and their readership and numbers are increasing.
No one will miss their words of poison.

So it begins.

First get the media to out itself as liberal shills.

Whats next? I don't really know, but I get the feeling deregistration of a "so-called" natural governing party might be coming soon.

Ahhhh, the hill press gallery is not treated well by the PMO. Maybe when they show respect, they will receive respect.

Just some example of media's unprofessional behaviour:

Does anyone recall the media circus last year, when the hill press surrounded Chuck Cadman like a pack of wolves asking how he would vote in the house? Anyone with a half a brain, knew Chuck would not reveal it before he actually voted in the house.

Does anyone recall how MSM made fun of Stephen Harper's cowboy outfit?

Does anyone recall how MSM made a huge news story when Stephen Harper walked his kids to school and shook their hands?

During the last minority government, every single week MSM treated us to polling "news" about "Canadians don't want an early election". Talk about swaying public opinion!

Every single day CTV and CBC have "journalists" commenting? Hey, why not report the facts and have some balanced discussions?

MSM and hill press gallery have become very, very irrelevant by losing their reputation and integrity.

Congrats on being cited in the Toronto Sun's "Best of the Blogs" today!

Great post, BTW.

Anyone know who the 14 journalists were that walked out of the news conference were?

The names of the 14 should be published. The blogosphere could then proceed to rip them shiny new assholes.

Anonymous: If you would be so kind, please compare the first 100 days of Stephen Harper's tenure to the first 100 days of Paul Martin's ...or Chretian's for that matter. I strongly suspect that Mr. Harper's reign will be shown to be far more effective.

Do you really expect anyone to believe that a minority government can make any earth-shattering changes in 100 days? Get a grip on reality, please. They are moving forward on their priorities in a focussed manner, unlike the Liberals who were all about just making empty pronouncements on everything under the sun without actually doing anything.

Pick up a copy of the Liberal's Red Book from the early 1990's and document for us what they accomplished in 13 years...then ruminate on what PMSH has accomplished in 100 days.

Quoting Goebbels is presumably meant as an allusion to the "scary Harper" meme (as in...the Conservatives are fascist, right?), but is in reality a useless tactic. Goebbels was EVIL, the Nazis were EVIL, but not every utterance from their mouths was necessarily EVIL...Goebbels insight into how easy it is/was to fool the population through propaganda is accurate (and apparently a must read for Liberals and journalists in the MSM based on THEIR messaging).

Daring to speak on behalf of Kate (very, very unwise on my part...sorry Kate) and other regular contributers here, I would say that you are welcome to contribute here but use your name or select a nom-de-blog...anonymous postings are for trolls.

Anonymous wrote "No, the Liberals used the media to form public opinion."
Well Anon, this is exactly what the problem was.
Canadians don't need to be told what their opinion is. They need to form their own opinion by reading the reported facts and doing a little thinking.
As someone once said "If you think just like me, only one of us is thinking"

I just got back from a 4 day long holiday weekend and guess what I discovered being away from blogging - In the outside world, no one cares - hear that MSM (and all you "anonymous" posters) - NO ONE CARES.

Hence - poll numbers of 43% (the MSM must be very, very pissed off that their continual degrading of the CPC is not working with Canadians and they are coming to the realization that they are not the end all and be all of Canadian politics)

Some critics are saying that the Liberal lapdog MSM in Canada is irrelevant, untrustworthy, and getting exactly what they deserve.

Who reads him? Find the pearls among the slop. What's an ad-versary? (Harper's reading Kinsella, too.) W is a boaster.. but... he has experience.

OK. But... there is/are some wisdumbs in this piece by Barney.... (Nat Post wrote re Shawinigate for months, front page above fold, below fold, & etc. Ad$cam Chretien/Martin/Gagliano bribes carried the day. Human nature?)

Excerpt:

"Part two: voters aren't stupid. They know when someone is trying to bamboozle and beguile them. They knew Conrad Black hated Jean Chretien over some knighthood thing, and they weren't about to let his grudges become their own. The fact that Mr. Black had become a bit of a caricature of a rich guy didn't help his newspaper's case much, either.

In politics, unlike in life, it's usually a good idea to have an identified enemy: it helps to identify you. So we nasty Liberals made Conrad Black and the Post our adversary. It worked.

When and if the Post buys the farm, I guess we'll have to find a new enemy. In the meantime, I'm lobbying for a Royal Commission to investigate whether Stephen Harper has a personality.

Observation two: the National Post's Shawinigate obsession didn't hurt Jean Chretien and the Liberal Party. It helped Jean Chretien and the Liberal Party.

I won't bore you with all the details, because you've already been bored by them. Hotel, golf course, BDC, RCMP, CBC, BBC, ABC, blah blah blah."
http://www.warrenkinsella.com/words_speeches_caj.htm

If I was advising the PMO, I'd be recommending they move quickly into the digital age and began recording all press conferences in a compressed digital format (Real Player or Windows) that was available both for viewing from a PMO website and downloadable so it can be emailed between citizens. In such a way you take the reporters and their bias out of the role of interpretters and give the information to the citizens directly so they can make up their own minds.

Lorraine, your comment is perfect.
"They have done such a huge diservice to this country treating opinion as "news" and allowing misinformation to stand unchallenged."

That's exactly what the Press and Liberals have done. They have assisted the corruption and the mismanagement and the lack of attention to Canada's needs for a decade.

Anonymous, speaking of misinformation, you are misinformed on a great deal. The softwood lumber tariffs are not theft; the USA stole nothing, but Canada DID subsidize its forestry industry by its low stumpage fees. That made their produce unfairly cheap, hence the tariffs. Read up the facts.

No government should act as a revolution but as a 'bricoleur'. Step by step by step. Remember, Canadians have been brainwashed for a generation, to consider the state as a centralist unaccountable authority that is beyond questioning?

Just to take one small yet important example of the Canadian passivity and its focus on emotional opinion rather than fact -

Why would any population accept the state telling them that a long gun registry is vital because it protects them because it gets '5,000 hits a day from police questioning it'? Why? Our population has been brainwashed into submissive acceptance of outrageously dumb non-facts.
THINK.

That would mean 5,000 long gun related crimes per day, 35,000 per week, almost two million per year!!!! Is that factual?
No.
There are about 15,000 gun related crimes PER YEAR in Canada. And, almost all of them are handguns. Handguns have been registered since 1934. Fat lot of good that has done.

So - what's with the news media 'facts' and the Liberals telling us all about 5,000 'hits a day'?

The police computers are all linked. When your local police officer checks on the licence plate of the car blocking the laneway, that check will hit ALL linked data bases. Including the long gun registry, which is not a car.

So - the media and Liberals/NDP are lying to us.

Is that the type of communication system you prefer?

You need to get into facts, not opinions.

Anonymous said:

"Harper's results for the last 100 days are hardly earth shattering. It's certainly not the second coming of Christ, as some here make it out to be."

Well gee if they were earth shattering, we wouldn't be here discussing his results; and secondly, presumably the second coming of Christ would have occured.

I don't know about you Anonymous, but I don't recall that Christ was offered a spot on the ballot in the last election. Perhaps you could offer some illumination in this regard?

Technorati, Topix.net (a Knight Ridder company) and Associated Press have inked a msm / blog deal...

It will link news stories to blogs..

the info is at www.ctv.ca and the real link is too long to post.

I get the sense that the MSM and particularly the PPG has gone too far this time. The Conservatives are showing them for what they are..a Liberal biased propaganda machine. When was the last time you read a report from the Globe or Star which outlined the real facts of a particular policy? You would be hard pressed. The public has bought the Kyoto Protocol saying that we need to meet the emissions targets set for Canada. Nobody is honestly telling them what we as a country would need to do to achieve those targets. The economy of Canada would be ruined. The long gun registry has been a disaster. However, no newspaper has taken upon itself to really get behind the rhetoric i.e. 5000 hits a day to determine whether any of these hits have helped the police or has one crime been prevented. The MSM in Canada needs to abandoned its political biases and begin reporting the real facts without a hidden agenda.

Anon,
I spent several years as a door to door salesman. Something the ones who post at this site should know and remember when addressing people like yourself... "The strongest objections always come from the buyer" Someone who is indifferent is not going to bother to object.
The fact that you raise objections tells me that you are considering whether or not PMSH and the Conservative Party are going to get your vote in the next election. I believe that hey are working to earn your vote. Success in a minority government is going to be measured in small incremental steps... not in the second coming of (name your favorite Prime Minister)
Whether you can see it or not, the Conservatives under Stephen Harper are accomplishing more in the first few months of their tenure than Mr Dithers or the little man from Shawinagan did in several years.
Out on the seas...the bigger the ship, the longer it takes to turn it about. We are in a big ship and are gradually coming about!
Anon, you are welcome aboard but state your name and work with the crew, this ship has been dead in the water for too long.
Daniel

Just heard Hannah Boudreau (sp?) on Global spin the events of yesterday. The PPG's position on the list, that the PMO wants to go from, is that they are afraid of being black-listed from said list if they do a bad story. She concluded essentially, that we're (the public) losing out because all we're getting is the government line - un-challenged. For example she said they didn't get to ask any questions about the Sudan situation, ie: are there any troops going there? Hasn't that been asked, and answered?

Truth or consequences? I pick truth. Leave out the whining and all the rest. You report the facts, all the facts, and I'll decide for myself on election day who's done the most with my money, who's looking after my family, and who's looking down the road. Shut up and drive or get over.

I remember watching "Live from Baghdad", a movie about some CNN journalists just prior to the first Gulf war. In it, they said "The number one rule in journalism is 'Never become the story'". Then during the movie, they got all ticked off because during their efforts to get the story, they said, "Guys, we just became the story."

I hadn't thought of the possible strategy behind it all, but it's so true... the MSM's little stunt may end up blowing up in their faces as outing their true colours. Most people, when I mention this whole fiasco, say "Huh?" THEY HAVEN'T EVEN NOTICED.

Now, there's no telling what the MSM will do to us as retribution in the next election... they may come back and try to kill us. We'll see.

I'd like the names of the journalists who walked out too. Please post them if anyone gets them.

And good for Bob Fife... watch for him to get more scoops over the next little while. ;-) (if I were the PMO, I'd make sure I fed him the goods... he's obviously more mature than many in the PPG)

Everyone needs to stop referring to the event they walked out of as a "press conference" or a "news conference". This was a staged announcement by the PMO. Why does the PPG need to be there? There were still reporters there, and the PM refused to take questions after his announcement. Nothing about it could be called a "press conference" as the PM didn't (and never intended to) take any questions from the media.

I don't know why Tory supporters are so shocked that some members of the press walked out of an event that was a waste of their time, and that they weren't going to be doing anything at anyway. I would think you'd be glad that there were that many fewer reporters there shouting questions the PM refused to answer.

Honestly, the PMO ought to just tape these things themselves and distribute the announcements to the media through fax and videotape. Why people think members of the PPG need to be there to watch the PM deliver a monologue is beyond me. Tories should be glad the PPG did what they did, as it meant there were merely "several" reporters shouting questions at the PM as he walked away refusing to acknowledge them, instead of dozens of reporters doing it.

Stephen Taylor has some info on this tit-for-tat. He makes a good point in response to a friend from the PPG who contends that the PMO is controlling access to the PM : "To that I responded that if the reporters were walking out on principle, the PPG has essentially become a political group and not an unbiased observer of events."

Exactly.

Cheri,

I just don't understand why Tories seem to think it's a reporter's ethical duty to sit there quietly and take notes at a Prime Ministerial announcement. Most journalists can presumably read. They could have just read the announcement from the PMO if their questions weren't going to be addressed anyway.

I just can't believe the PPG is being called "partisan" for refusing to be stage dressing for a PMO announcement at which all they were going to do anyway was shout questions the PM wouldn't answer.

It's like the PM is a professor who insists that everyone attend his class in person, despite the fact that he won't take questions, won't deviate at all from his lesson plan, and besides, the lecture is distributed by his assistant in its entirety before the class anyway. If I were a student in that class, I'd stage a walk-out too.

Lord, you are incorrect.
The Prime Minister would have answered questions in an orderly fashion, if the press had indicated their desire to ask questions by putting their names forward.

Not sure what all the conservative fuss is about on this one. It was actually a lot less dramatic than you are making it out to be.

It seems Harper's communications team announced prior to the press conference that there would be no questions because the press gallery were not signing on to his new rules, i.e. Harper gets to pick and choose who gets to ask questions. So they figured, if there are to be no questions then there is no need for us to be there - which is true - and they walked out and watched it on TV, leaving a couple of reporters/photographers behind.

As for professionalism, there doesn't seem to be nearly as much coverage of the walkout in the real media as there is in conservative blog-land and among conservative pundits, and every article I have read about the Darfur announcement was only about the Darfur announcement. Seems like they are separating their battle for control over the media message and the message coming from the government in a pretty professional way, IMHO.

Obviously this is battle over control is not hurting Harper in the polls, but I expect it will eventually. When he has an important bit of news/message to get out in a hurry, especially during an election, he won't be able to control the headlines as well and the media isn't going to pander to him the way they did the last election. If it's an important message - like reacting to the inevitable gaffe or corruption claim (and I say inevitable not as a partisan jab but because government is too big to be without mistakes) - he won't be able to afford the time to go traipsing across the country giving very open press conferences to local media the way he did with the budget, for example.

Martin choked off the media by being bullish and they turned on him and the Liberals in the last election. The media is not the news but they can add wind to your sails, as they did for Harper in the last election, or you can find yourself sailing into a headwind.

I think the two sides will find some compromise at some point, in their respective self-interests.

Ted
Cerberus

I have found the Conservative government to be the most open in my memory when it comes to diseminating information to Canadians. If the Ottawa Press pack were the ONLY access to government information that might be a problem. But with the advent of the Internet, for one thing, we can all get PMO news releases in our own emails - at times five or six per day; we can access the Government of Canada newsroom at:
http://www.news.gc.ca/cfmx/view/en/index.jsp and there are another 10 -12 news releases packed with information on a daily basis.
The regional media, radio talk shows, local tv news shows, etc. have ministers and the local MPs on consistently and they communicate clearly and without a bunch of bafflegab.
The only "bafflegab" these days seems to come from the Ottawa Press gallery bunch and their "anonymous sources" stories or "leaked drafts" or making "news" of some special interest group who got their funding cut or opposition "opinion". None of this is "news" that affects Canadians lives.
The problem, as I see it, is that the Ottawa bunch think their job is to sabotage government decisions and turn the extremely difficult and challenging role of governing into a political game of gotcha. That is not news - that is tabloid journalism at its worst.
This is evidenced by the disrespect and outright malice they show for our elected officials and the leader of our country, chosen BY Canadians. To them our leaders are nothing more than players in a sordid soap opera of political gamesmanship.

Sarah, to your earlier post of biased reporting I would add the daycare debate. The press reported this as a choice between a national day care policy under the Liberal plan as opposed to $100 a month under the Conservative plan. This was Liberal spin and was simply not accurate. In fact, the Liberal plan created a limited number of daycare spaces that woulld only benefit those lucky enough to win the spots. The Conservative plan devoted significantly more funds and benefited everyone with young children. The press dumbed down the debate on this issue by presenting it the way they did.

As i understand it, the PPG is concerned that if a reporter wrote a "bad" story, this would result in him/her being ignored.
I wonder what the definition of "bad" is, lol.
Could it possibly be a story that is blatantly biased?

Anon:

You have gone from insinuating that the Harper governments key 5 point platform is (Naziist) propaganda (false or misleading information), to arguing about the effectiveness of the implementation of those policies.

That would seem to me that you discredit your own initial accusation by acknowledging the existence and effectiveness of said policies.

Either its propaganda or its not. You lefties love to have it both ways.

Lorraine:

How is this government the "most" open? All of those avenues of information dissemination are available and used by all governments, including the Martin and Chretien Liberal governments. So, if everyone is doing it, it doesn't make him more open if he sticks only to that means of disseminating information.

But I have an honest question for conservatives here: what if Martin had done this outside of the campaign? what if Martin had said: "I'm here to tell you what I think about childcare/Gomery/defence spending/income trust taxation/Afghanistan/etc. but there will not be any questions. Please just reprint what I say."

How many comments about "sheeple" and arrogance would we be hearing from the conservatives?

Personally, I think this is making both groups look horrible and citizens don't vote for the media so what do they care how they look. Harper, on the other hand...

Ted
Cerebus

I challenge you all to read this entire piece.

Temper, temper, Mr. Prime Minister
Source: WFP - Winnipeg Free Press
May 24 2006

Page: A13
Section: Focus
Byline: Frances Russell
Frances Russell
CANADIANS are noticing something about their prime minister.
When Stephen Harper doesn't get his way, he has temper tantrums
and hints broadly they'll only stop when he has a majority and,
presumably, can do what he wants.
They are noticing something else about their prime minister.
He is a high-octane partisan who has no patience with negotiation,
no truck with compromise and no respect for views other than
his own -- even when expressed by a majority of the elected
representatives of the people in Parliament.
If Harper isn't careful, he will make himself the one real issue
of the next election campaign. Despite the latest opinion poll
showing a favourable rating for his party, he faces a steep
and rocky path to majority government. Previous pre-election
polls also showed him winning a majority, and they were all
wrong.
It's no secret in Ottawa that Harper is keen, not just to defeat
the Liberals, but to destroy them. That ambition played a major
role in the decision to spring on the opposition parties, with
only two days' notice, a quick parliamentary debate and vote
on Canada's increasingly costly and controversial military role
in Afghanistan. The prime minister believes that he scored a
major victory because he not only demonstrated that the Liberal
party is split on the issue, but drew enough support from its
caucus to plunge Liberal hands into the coming bloodshed.
But many Canadians will see in that split a reflection of the
country's own conflicted emotions about involvement in a guerrilla
war that could well become a bottomless pit of death and treasure.
And more than just a few Canadians were revolted by the overt
partisanship of the process and Harper's deliberate use of a
war -- and on the very day that another Canadian soldier died
-- to play political games.
Then there was Harper's fury when the opposition majority on
the Commons operations and estimates committee defeated his
candidate to chair the proposed public appointments commission.
The commission was part of the Conservatives' accountability
package -- a package, ironically, designed to return more power
to Parliament and reduce the historic partisanship surrounding
major government appointments.
Had Harper fulfilled the spirit of his opposition-era commitment
and remained true to his espoused aims to create greater transparency
and accountability, he would have consulted the opposition first,
especially given his minority situation.
Not only did Harper not consult, his candidate was a well-known
Reform/Alliance/Conservative fundraiser whose divisive views
are on the far right of the political spectrum and go well beyond
attributing violence and lawlessness to specific visible
minorities.
In a little-reported speech to the Fraser Institute last December,
Calgary oilman Gwyn Morgan took swipes at a wide swath of Canadian
icons and institutions, including former prime minister Pierre
Trudeau, the CBC, medicare, equalization, public schools, political
correctness, unions and even Canada's equalization system, which
supports public services in poorer provinces.
The prime minister must have known Morgan's nomination would
not be acceptable to Canada's three opposition parties. In opposition,
he certainly would have taken umbrage at a nominee as far left
as Morgan is right.
But when the opposition rejected Morgan, he offered neither
consultation nor other names. Instead, he killed the commission
and said he will make his own execution of it a campaign
issue.
The opposition's behaviour was "buffoonish," an angry Harper
said: "We won't be able to clean up the process in this minority
Parliament. We'll obviously need a majority government to do
that in future. That's obviously what we will be taking to the
people of Canada at the appropriate time."
NDP MP Peggy Nash, who moved the motion against Morgan, said
"the committee did not reject the commission." It simply did
not consider Morgan suitable because of what she called "deeply
offensive" remarks not "in sync with Canadian values." The prime
minister, she said, was "taking his bat and ball and going
home."
Knowing legislation necessary to repeal the registry would be
defeated by a majority vote in the House, the law and order
party simply proclaimed a year's amnesty for those who refuse
to register their long guns. According to the Canadian Professional
Police Association, the last six or seven police officers to
die while on duty were killed with long guns, including the
four RCMP officers shot in Mayerthorpe, Alta., in the spring
of 2005. "That's very sad," said the association's Tony
Cannavino.
In its haste to appease its core constituency, the party that
pledged to fix the democratic deficit placed itself above the
law, Parliament and the two out of three Canadians who want
the gun registry revamped, not abolished.
The Globe and Mail, normally sympathetic to the Conservatives,
took a round out of the prime minister in an editorial last
week. Noting that Harper's setbacks are "life in a minority
government," the newspaper tagged him for "wildly disproportionate
behaviour" and "peevishness." It concluded:
"This inability to negotiate, to seek compromise, sends a disconcerting
signal about how far Mr. Harper might go if indeed he did win
a majority, once he had even more power to override dissent.
That is not a misgiving he should want to plant in the public's
mind."

Bobcaygeon,
I strongly disagree with the Winnipeg Free Press article you posted. In particular, the reference to Gwyn Morgan being unacceptable to the other 3 parties. The questioning and rejection of Mr. Morgan's appointment was the most blatant example of partisan politics I have seen in some time. Accusing him of being a racist was simply outrageous. Finally we get a person with solid credentials to perform an important job (rather than some partisan hack)and he gets personally attacked by all 3 partisan parties. This was not a failure of Harper to consult but rather a failure of the other parties to rise above partisan politics. And we wonder why we can't get qualified people to take on these important jobs.

LKO; I doubt Harper gives a rat's ass if they attend or not. He is saying if you want to be here these are the rules. As pointed out by Sarah, Paul and others,the press is intent on painting the Conservatives, Harper in particular, as scary and worthy of their contempt. They look for any chance to make him look bad, even at the expense of his personal relationships with his kids.

There's a new sherriff in town. Not bad, not scary, just different. N-O-T-A-L-I-B-E-R-A-L.

The rejection of Morgan may or may not have been right, Paul from Vancouver, but your claim that he was not a partisan hack are a bit over the top. He is very entrenched in and loyal to the Conservative Party, and to put him in charge of patronage appointments seemed like yet another Conservative flip flop on accountability.

But, of course, that's off topic from the thread here of Harper trying to control the media.

Ted
Cerberus

Bobcaygeon - well thank you for posting a so called "news article" which is gob smacked with exactly the kind of personal attacks, malicious innuendo, hidden agenda warnings and OPINION we have all been claiming certain journalists feed to the public as NEWS.

This is NOT NEWS. This is opinion, based on bias and this reporter's opinion is no more newsworthy than yours or mine. It is also absolutely loaded with political partisan posturing. Plus, it also proves the point that these "reporters" feed off each other - quoting each other's published biased opinions as if they were somehow factual or worth repeating. I see Liberals "quoting" these opinion diatribes in the house even as if just because a journlist writes it it must be true.

Reminds me of being a female business owner - when a woman is assertive she is "bitchy". When a man is assertive he is "a strong leader"....

Opinion is not news. Opinion has bastardized the news and the reporting from the Press Gallery. You have proven THAT is the reason they are damaging to the very fibre of this country.

Canadians are perfectly capable of having their own opinions based on unfiltered FACTS. But, don't let this get in the way of your own "opinion" based on the reporter's "opinion" which quotes another reporter's "Opinion". Sheesh.

Ted, in your previous post.
We need to clear this up. Harper did not refuse to answer questions.
The press refused to ask them

Lee,

That's incorrect. The Press were asking questions and the PM walked away. Only the PPG walked away from the announcement. There were other reporters still there, and they did ask questions, the PM just didn't answer them.

You can tell the Press that they can only ask questions if they allow the PMO to vet the list of questioners, and determine who gets called on and when, and how often, but I don't understand why you think it's shocking that the press won't go along with that.

Ted, I suggest that you are being purposefully obtuse on this issue. Although you suggest that it was an innocent little event that no one but us conservatives are making a fuss about, the linked story from www.canada.com is making it out to be a big deal.

This is what we are responding to. You are apparently attempting to belittle our concerns by suggesting that we're blowing it out of proportion...making a mountain out of a molehill. I contend that we are not doing that at all. We are responding to exactly what was published by the MSM and our response is appropriate...particularly given our perception of reality on the MSM bias issue (I know you don't accept our version of reality, just as we don't accept yours).

For all those who claim that the MSM is not anti-Conservative biased, I propose you identify four articles from the Toronto Star, Globe & Mail and/or National Post that you contend show pro-Conservative bias (and highlight the bias by providing facts to the contrary) and we'll assess these examples rationally and openly. I'm certain that some conservatives here (not me...too busy...maybe Maz2 or CS or ET) could take the time to clearly demonstrate outright anti-conservative bias in 4 articles, so let's compare notes, eh? We're open to being proven wrong...but feeble assertions about pro-conservative "puff pieces" in the MSM is just empty brainwashing propaganda.

Don't bother with articles from the Sun chain of newspapers...I think its fair to say they are generally pro-Conservative...just as I think it is fair to say that the others are generally anti-conservative.

Lord, im not shocked at all.
Its too much of a stretch to expect civility from the press.
Heres how i see it:
As the duly elected Prime minister of our country, the head of government is entitled to dictate the terms of Q & A processes.
Cant have the tail wagging the dog, can we?

Ted, I guess that depends on your definition of a partisan hack. I have no problem with Liberals appointing Liberal supporters with solid credentials for the job. The same goes with Conservatives. Morgan ran EnCana one of the largest and most respected Canadina companies in the world. In other words, based on his resume, he had the qualifications for the job. We need more people like him working in Ottawa.

Ted, I think that statement should be reversed. It is the media trying to control what our elected Prime Minister is doing or saying. It is about time that they were put in their place. It would be refreshing to see the reporters act professional, but I don't think they have a clue what that means.

Bobcaygeon; In interest of fairness and balance of diet, I challenge you and others to read Link Byfield's take on the Morgan situation. http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Byfield_Link/2006/05/19/1588086-sun.html

I'll save my opinion of Frances for another time/day.

PMSH did not refuse to take questions, the PPG refused to submit their names. Maybe when those idiot females quit yelling, do you love Canada, or shoving a mike in a grieving widows face, things will change. Spin in the Lethbridge Herald says Harper was forced to make his announcement outside the HofC. Decision to walk out made(suggested) by Yves Malo,TVA, president of the Press Gallery. I really enjoy not hearing, Let me make that perfectly clear, at the start of every answer to every question. I also enjoy not seeing arms waving in the air. I await the time that the PM or cabinet minister will turn the tables and ask a reporter to answer a question re their bias. Walking out the same day polls show a 43% approval for the govt must have told the msm they are becoming very unimportant to cdns. and we really don't care what he is wearing, if he has a paunch, or his hairstyle. This group should really look at themselves in the mirror and hit a hair salon, JVD for one. Since Craig Oliver is leaving will he take Giggles with him. In a post someone used the word WISDUMBS, was that a misspelling or a true explanation of the msm views. Love it, and will use it. Who will give in first, Harper or the PPG.

Bobcaygeon:

Yes, I read the whole thing! YEP, Stephen Harper is "SCARY" meme all over again.

Considering that we just had a significant change of government in 13 years, and the press was playing cheerleading choirmembers for PM Paul Martin Team during the election, the press will just have to get over it. Unfortunately, for Team Martin, he opened up the seacocks on HMCS "Dithers" while his battle ship was still in port.

The article fails to note that the LIEberals were the ones who sent troops to Afghanistan in the first place. Further, the LIEBerals were quite willing to paste the SCARY Stephen Harper with the
"Soldiers with guns, In your cities, ... In Canada " bullshit. No those LIEBerals were far from using the military for partisan purposes...cough, cough, hack, wheeze. The towering hypocrisy couldn't find better expression in the pulpit from BABEL.

The LIEBeral 'values' got rejected principally by the hackneyed approach to the theft of taxpayers dollars as enunciated in the Gomery inquiry, the colossal waste of the long gun registry as set out in the Auditor General 2006 report, and on and on. If one took the time to google "199 reasons not to vote Liberal" you can find an expansive list of rubbish that the public got tired of and finally said "Enough".

If PM Stephen Harper is riding higher in the polls now, maybe it is because the public; despite the constant media whining are making up their own minds notwithstanding the cheerleading incestuous press relationship. If they attempted to report facts rather than spin, maybe they would find they had more traction.

After all, the Charter states that we have "freedom of the press". If the press decide to behave stupidly, we the consumers can shop elsewhere. If we don't buy all the "anonymous sources" spin doctoring; maybe it is because free peoples don't respond well to the Ministry of Propanda. Well of course the PPG is free to whither on the vine as well, if no one is buying their "Weltanshauung" (World View).

The PPG is just having their "Grapes of Wrath" moment as they figure out they have pruned themselves from their former food source. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.

Now that these press grapes are left drying in the arid political sun they should strike up a new tune:

"I heard it through the grapevine, not much longer will you be mine."

By the "Dancing Raisin Brains".

Paul and others (sorry for slight O/T); were you aware that Gwynn Morgan and three others were willing to work for free? A little detail the M.S.M. (and opposition) failed to highlight? Thanks to Link Byfield for that little known piece of news.

"The media is the message" is taking on a whole new layer of meaning.

Bobcaygeon, you would be wise to stop parroting the bit about "the last six or seven police officers being killed with long guns." Isn't that an argument for the uselessness of it? Of course, in the mayerthorpe incident it was a restricted (i.e. illegal design) long gun and therefore irrelevant to the registry, which, of course, is an argument for the uselessness of it.

Cheri:
And the three others withdrew their offer to serve after they saw how Gwynn Morgan was treated.

Senior,unidentified,well placed inside sources have disclosed that the Parliamentary Press Gallery is riven with dissension.They report that fear,anger,jealousy,insecurity and mental instability are rampant.They speak of tousled toupees,sabotaged botox injections,unruly Liberal indoctrination classes,and loss of canapes.Truly an organization on the brink of collapse.A suicide.

Harper did not refuse to take questions. He asked the Press Gang to conduct questions in an orderly rather than shouting manner; i.e., to submit a list of people there, and he would select those to ask a question. No, that doesn't mean partisanship. It means answering a question put by someone, not answering a question put by the person who out-shouts and out-screams the others.

As for Morgan being a 'conservative'. So what? Are you seriously suggesting that Because an individual belongs to a particular political party or concludes that a particular ideology is best, that the individual is also biased? That's ridiculous and is actually a claim that any concluion about 'what is a good social structure' automatically makes the person irrational, unreasonable, illogical and prejudiced.

Someone who is intelligent, who selects a particular ideology, whether it is NDP, Liberal or Conservative, is not also necessarily biased, irrational, prejudiced. The appointment process that Morgan was to be in charge of, was to be on MERIT only. Are you saying that ALL people who prefer one political ideology to another, are incapable of reason and analysis?

Again, the gun registry will not prevent crime. Handguns have been registered since 1934. THINK. That's over 70 years. Result? More and more and more handgun crimes and murders.

And kindly remember, don't quote that '5,000' hits a day meme that the MSM love to put forth. THINK. Just because the MSM shows that it can't think, doesn't mean that we have to fall for their propaganda.

Ted @ 12:19 above:

My friend, if I were you, I wouldn't speak as to that... for, as I recall very, very well, the Liberals (of whom you were one last time I checked) were, in my opinion (and in the opinion of a helluvalot of Canadians), pretty much about little more than patronage and cronyism.

So when you criticize the slightest perception of possible patronage on the part of the CPC... keep in mind the cold, hard reality of your own party's past and present... as well as its future (if any) wrt patronage and cronyism. They simply haven't taken any hint whatsoever as to how Canadians feel about that sort of thing.

Besides, if any other party were to be heavy on the patronage, well, if it's acceptable for Liberals, don't suggest it's bad for anyone else.

Bluster if you want. Won't help. Heh. Poor Liberals. :-)

I mean, it'd be like Howard Stern telling me, a nearly bald fellow, to get a haircut...

Hey Ted,
"But I have an honest question for conservatives here: what if Martin had done this outside of the campaign?"

We'll never know will we, Mr Dithers has rode off into the sunset. All that talk about "my Canada" and "Canadian values" and he can't even show his face in parliament to say his yea or nay on the extension of the mission that he helped foster, fund and plan. Shameful!
Daniel

Furthermore Ted...
The way that Gwyn Morgan was treated was one of the rudest examples of partizanship I can remember. The man is well qualified, having been voted top CEO as well as having run a major corporation sucessfully for years. The man is willing to work for nothing and add his expertise and experience to a process begging for sound judgement. So he is a conservative, big deal. Are you (Liberals) saying that a conservative is incapable of judging meritous appointments on an ALL party committee. The Liberals and other parties have sent the message out to many good and worthy candidates who might consider a stint in public service "Stay away or we will make your life miserable" Despicable and Shameful behavior.
Daniel

Sentinel: I don't know enough about Morgan to say he was going to be doling out patronage appointments to Harper's buddies. I was responding to the factually incorrect statement that he wasn't a partisan. He was very much a partisan. (Also, as an aside, thanks for the advice about not being allowed by you to comment on the Conservatives because the Liberals, in your opinion, were bad. That's not quite how democracy works, my friend. Besides, I have been critical of the Liberals when they were government on Adscam, on the way they campaigned, on the way they tried to sell equal marriage, etc. so I sure as heck ain't going to shut up now that the Conservatives are in. Besides, if I did, what fun would you have online?)

Daniel: Nice avoidance of the question. But I really can't fault you. No conservative seems willing to answer the question and I have a funny feeling I know exactly why.

Ted
Cerberus

It's hard to deny the sentiment behind the title of this thread - that Harper's petulance is now being exhibited by the media themselves. They must be very frustrated. I'm finding it pretty amusing myself... I wonder what the relationship will ultimately evolve into (I suppose that will be in part a function of how long the current balance of power, such as it is, remains). In any case, the MSM is obviously relevant, whether we agree with most of what they say or not. The vast majority of Canadians still get their news from the papers and the TV - there are, relatively speaking, very few of us who are fascinated enough or care enough about all of this to be looking around at blogs for fodder. Anyway, I expect that this will continue to be a story, despite the fact that the media should not be.

The Harper government has reached out beautifully to the media that is far more relevant to the various regions of this country - the regional media who then put the government message into context. And the PM answers questions to the regional media clearly and concisely and NOONE is ignored. They just put their name on the list at a news conference and they are called with some semblance of professionalism and order. The regional radio and talk show hosts have also had extensive access - yesterday Rona was on the radio answering any and all questions; today the Justice Minister and almost daily there is a Federal government representative on the local radio.
The regional media have printed numerous in depth interviews that have nothing to do with he said-she said and so's your mother. blah blah. Or, anonymous sources or leaked memos. They get interviews based on fact and then find other local or regional comment that is relevant to the programs being announced.
They don't dig around to find say, an environmentalist whose Liberal grants have been cut off so he has an axe to grind or an opposition member with few facts and lots of "opinion".

Then we can go on the internet and get more info; cross check it and if we still need to know you can contact the departments or your MP.

Unfiltered facts. Information that serves Canadians instead of dividing us into partisan camps. Using our tax dollars for the greater good instead of to benefit the few.

Refreshing? Scary to sjome of those few who benefited under the Liberals? Like many members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery who thought it was their turn to be senators or ambassadors or even the Governor General. Yup. Sour grapes from a more and more irrelevant and irreverant group. Yup.

For the record, here's a first-person account of the two scenarios for media availabilities with the Prime Minister:
PMO version: an official asks reporters who wants to ask a question and puts their name on a list. That official then calls names from the list, in the order of his choosing. (In practice, the names are not called in the order the official received them, nor are all names called. Even if you were among the very first to get your name on the list, you may not be allowed to ask a question. It's up to the PMO.)
PPG version: two microphones are set up, behind which reporters line up on a first-come, first-served basis. The questioners alternate from one microphone to the other. The loudest questioner does not prevail. It is all very orderly. (In practice, the same aggressive reporters tend to be near the front of the line behind the microphones each time, with TV reporters particularly anxious to be SEEN to be asking questions due to the nature of their job).

At other events, such as visiting premiers or heads of government, the media are usually limited to two questions each. That is: two for the PPG and two for visiting press. In practice, this means one English Canadian reporter gets to ask two questions (the initial question plus a supplementary) and one Francophone reporter gets to ask two questions (initial plus supplementary). The reporters decide amongst themselves who will get to ask those questions and usually reach a consensus on the isues that need to be addressed that particular day. The PMO does not seem to have a problem with this longstanding arrangment.

Ralph Klein does ( or did) a pre-arranged Q &A after Question Period in a room that he chose standing at a podium which was also his choice and he personally chose the reporters who would ask him questions. Many Premiers have the same routine.
Klein HATED to be "scrummed" - that is attacked by reporters coming out of meetings and you usually saw the back of his head with the screaming hordes chasing after him. That is what the media wants to do to our Cabinet Ministers and Prime MInister after their meetings.

Gotcha Journalism is not news gathering - it is not fact finding - it is yello tabloid cheap shot mongering.

Ralph Klein made himself very available to the media answering pretty well any questions thrown at him. Just like Stephen Harper. He tried to be open in the Press Gallery - answering all questions but it evolved into sleaze -shaking hands with his son, his hair, his weight, rebutting cruelties thrown at him by Liberals. Criticisms about where he stood or any number of petty minded partisan shots.

They do not deserve special consideration as that is a two way street. The regional media show that proper respect begets respect.

I hope Harper does not back down - and I hope some of the billiionaires and shareholders who own the for profit media outlets do a little soul searching and maybe connect the Liberal dots to some of their so-called reporters.

grasshopper - your error is to assume that the first cause of the MSM problem, is the 'petulant Harper'. Provide proof.

The MSM has for a very long period of time, denigrated from a function of reporting on the news, to acting as Liberal hacks, i.e., primarily as mouthpieces for the Liberal party. They have in the majority, revealed their open bias against the Conservatives and Harper both in their reporting, their comments and their often vicious and ad hominem opinion pieces. They are now being acknowledged as biased rather than professional and they are 'petulant' and angry. I'd suggest you get your causal links in order.

The question to ask, then, does such a MSM deserve respect? I don't think so. Unprofessionalism doesn't deserve respect.

Now, first person outlined two scenarios of reporting of the PMO. I suspect this outline, because there is absolutely no reason for the PPG to get into their current arrogant hissy fit, because the PMO's office is using Type 1 rather than Type 2.

In both cases, it is obvious that all names can't be called; there isn't enough time. In the PMO's Type 1, all reporters have an equal chance of asking a question, if they put their name on the list. The actual calling is done by the PMO's office. That individual can spread questions across the board; he doesn't have to confine himself to a Liberal biased paper (the Star). Now, take a look at the other scenario.

In PPG's Type 2, the only reporters who get to ask the questions are the pushy ones; the aggressive ones, which is akin to 'the loudest'. The point is, in the PPG Type 2, there is obviously some kind of schoolyard hierarchy, an acknowledged hierarchy of 'who's the boss'. The bossiest MSM, the ones with the most financial or other clout, are acknowledged by The Pack, to have privileged access to the microphone. They are permitted, as bullies always are, to move to the front of the line.

Which is the fairest system? The one where all reporters who want to ask questions have a chance, or the one where the Boss Reporters are the only ones allowed, by the meeker small town reporters, to go to the Front Of the Line?

Is that really enough of a reason to have a hissy fit? Because you are treated as an equal rather than as a King of the Hill?

Remember the Charlotte town accord under the Old Conservatives?

The MSM & the Countries intelligentsia where all for this mad plot. If I remember correctly even the Sun chain approved of it.

The fact most Canadians did not, never dawned on the MSM , elites or the "chattering classes". They thought if they wrote blessings on this project it could not have been rejected. That the normal Canadian had an aversion to a cooked up reconstruction of the Country ,never occurred to any of them. Particularly the PPG.

The absolute rejection of this came as a complete shock to the MSM. Which only shows even back then they had no real concern for nor the ear of the public . Most never did care it seems, because they have still not learned the lesson. Given them on that referendum that the majority of canuks seen threw..

Canadians are not all lib-left Stepford clones.

Nobody listened to any of them & voted according to there reason, & the merits of this change.
It died as we all know from both English Canada & French Canada seeing it for what it was threw the media fog. We sure got no facts from the MSM.

The MSM should have learned there lesson then. Never rely on Government largesse & know your audience. Do not treat adults as ignorant children .That you have to led like a Sheppard against any ill thought towards there beloved ideas of socialism, & anti Americanism.

The PPG became whores for the lib-left, when there natural buddies, the liberals took power. It went even further down the road of compromise. If not blatant propaganda for this group. They did this out of laziness , graft, & Liberal ideological triumphs. Of which the majority of the Press had become devotees of. Blame the journalism schools for the embedding of a socialist world view exposed as the end all & be all of truth. They compromised there calling for the dubious pleasures of becoming elites themselves . If not political activists for lib -left plutocracy.

They looked down on regular Canadians. This is the fruit of the tree they planted. May they enjoy its bitter harvest.

Canadians have grown up while they have degenerated in the coddled hands of bias. Sold there integrity for trinkets.

Lorraine:

The Press Gallery was forced by the Conservatives to give up on scrums a while ago by the Conservatives.

The Press Gallery was forced by the Conservatives to give up on direct access to Ministers after cabinet meetings a while ago by the Conservatives.

The Press Gallery was forced by the Conservatives to give up on even knowing when cabinet meetings were being held a while ago because it was Harper's constitutional "right" to have secret meetings.

The Press Gallery was forced by the Conservatives to give up on where press conferences are to take place.

This is not about chaotic press scrums vs orderly press conferences. As noted above, the PPG has been conducting themselves in an orderly fashion by lining up behind microphones and asking questions in order.

They just don't want the government to decide who gets to ask questions and who doesn't. So Harper refuses to allow questions and they refuse to sit there when they can watch him on TV just like anyone else.

Ted
Cerberus

Lorraine:

The Press Gallery was forced by the Conservatives to give up on scrums a while ago.

The Press Gallery was forced by the Conservatives to give up on direct access to Ministers after cabinet meetings a while ago.

The Press Gallery was forced by the Conservatives to give up on even knowing when cabinet meetings were being held a while ago because it was Harper's constitutional "right" to have secret meetings.

The Press Gallery was forced by the Conservatives to give up on where press conferences are to take place.

This is not about chaotic press scrums vs orderly press conferences. As noted above, the PPG has been conducting themselves in an orderly fashion by lining up behind microphones and asking questions in order.

They just don't want the government to decide who gets to ask questions and who doesn't. So Harper refuses to allow questions and they refuse to sit there when they can watch him on TV just like anyone else.

Ted
Cerberus

Ooops. Sorry about the double post. Tried to correct a typo but the first one slipped through.

OT, as always... but here goes...

Millions flowed into AdScam, trial told

The money was spent on everything from a television series in China to breakfast meetings at the Hotel Newfoundland for David Dingwall, then public works minister, according to documents.

"Wine for breakfast?" Justice Fraser Martin quipped as the court examined the $2,526 tab.

"At least it wasn't screech," Guite retorted.
cnews

It is really rather amusing to see the PPG and the majority of the MSM throwing a hissy fit over the changes that the new government wants to establish in order to return to a sense of decorum at Press briefings and conferences. If I was a junior reporter right now I would be lining up to get my name on the list and abide by the new guidelines. This collective pity party by the "seasoned" group of veteran reporters should leave room for a newcomer to step in enjoy the steady flow of info from the PMO.
What has happenned to investigative journalism? One would think that with todays tools to ferret out information, we would be hearing stories about the topics of interest to many Canadians... namely "Where did all those millions of dollars wasted in Liberal friendly ventures end up?" There are many of us still waiting for answers on the Liberal HRDC boondoggle, Liberal adscam, the Liberal long gun registry over runs, the Liberal relocation scams etc, etc, etc. How about some good honest fact finding jounalism on those four topics alone complete with dates and names?
The veteran jounalists have been spoon fed information by the Liberal propoganda machine for so long that they have collectively forgotten how to:
1: Recognize an important story when it is presented
2: Investigate and plumb the depths of a story
3: Present a factual step by step explanation of a story complete with names and a timeline.
Time for someone to get back to the basics of jounalism...
Who?...(took the money and was complicit),
What?...(methods were used to defraud Canadians)
Where?...(is the money now)
Why?...(haven't there been more charges yet)
When?...(do they go to jail and we get our money back)
...and for the sake of completeness...How did they do it and get away with it?
Daniel

Daniel-good post. As to your question How did they get away with it? There are many of us who believe because the media who should have plumbed these stories instead spun the coverup.

Perception is everything. As long as the same Liberal apologist media are running the press gallery they will not be trusted to report or even seek the truth about Liberal corruption. Some even believe that some of the links could implicate various media outlets.

After all - ad agencies were "given" hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars which, it is well assumed, they then used to buy advertising FOR the Liberal election campaigns. WHO would have been the recipient's of this stolen money.
TV stations, radio stations, newspapers and magazines who sold them the ads.

Connecting the dots...don't count on any of the old boy and girl press to help.

Maz2:

Yeah, I liked that quip "Wine for breakfast?"

Hats off to Justice Fraser Martin.

But hey if you are going to party at taxpayer's expense why not do it around the clock?

Why observe the unwritten, no drinking before noon custom?

Bill Halley revised:

"We're gonna ROB, ROB, ROB around the clock!!"

ET - I didn't actually assert that there is a causal relationship between Harper's petulance and that of the media. Right now, both Harper and the media are behaving like asses, and I don't see how it will be resolved. If He picks a reporter to ask a question and doesn't like the question, assuming for the moment that he'll answer it, will that reporter be selected next time? How open is that? The press gallery getting up to leave moments before Harper enters the room has the markings of a tantrum, but perhaps in a more generous mood one could see it as a protest. Anyway, I think it is pretty interesting to watch...

The so-called Liberal propaganda machine of the MSM was the same MSM that broke the Adscam story (Globe and Mail) that cracked the back of the Big Red Machine and the same MSM that first covered the "Income Trust" leak story that was the final straw breaking the camels back? The same MSM that broke the story on Chretien's hotel sale?

With friends like these, the Liberal Party sure doesn't need any enemies.

Ted
Cerberus

So Ted where is the story about the relocation program that the MSM promised it would release right after the election? I think it got buried so the media wouldnt get caught with its own hand in the cookie jar.

Good comments, Daniel. Excellent.

You are exactly right; a junior reporter ought to be now, getting his name on the list, and showing up the old warts for what they are; biased opinionated hacks, acting as propaganda mouthpieces for The Old Way of the Thieving Liberals.

A junior reporter ought to be getting into valid journalism, not acting as the Ministry of Propaganda for the Liberals/NDP socialist agenda. Valid journalism would mean ferreting out the answers to all those questions you outlined, and a lot more besides. Where's the tsunami money that was promised? Why did it take DART two weeks rather than 48 hours to move? What exactly, are Chretien's links to Chirac and Oil? What, exactly, was done with our money in Quebec? Could we see a lot more expense accounts?

Ted - who gives a damn about reporters lining up in a row. Is that your criterion for 'orderly'? Those rows are made up of old hacks, biased and ignorant, with frozen opinions, who are given 'the front row' only because of the cat-mouse game of priority among these old cronies.

Who needs 'scrums'. Do they provide accurate information? No.
Why should they have 'direct access' to Ministers after meetings? Why not wait until the Minister gets his thoughts in order and issues an 'orderly' outline and analysis of the issues in that meeting?

Why on earth should the press know, or care about, where meetings are held? What business is it of theirs? Are they running the government?

And quit with the emotive conspiracy loaded words: 'forced by the Conservatives', 'secret meetings'. We've had enough of this Liberal propaganda of 'hidden agenda'. The 'hidden agendas' are all our tax money stolen by the Liberals.

And I applaud the PM's office deciding who asks questions, rather than the insider and malicious hierarchy of only Old Dogs Get To Ask Questions, while you newcomers or Conservative-friendly ones..don't get to The Front Of The Line.

By the way, the Toronto Star's Susan Delacourt was NOT one of the reporters to walk out on Harper. From Ms Zerbisias's blog (http://thestar.blogs.com/azerb/2006/05/i_found_my_thri.html):

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today the Star ran a CP story with more on the journalist walkout yesterday during Prime Minister Stephen Harper's press conference -- the one without most of the press. Note the conclusion.

"The Star was one of the media outlets that chose to remain."

Today my friend and colleague Susan Delacourt, Ottawa bureau chief for the Star, emailed with a comment. I thought it better to give her a posting of her own. Here it is:

"It looks like a silly spat. It many ways it is.

For print reporters, this whole business of scrums and how they run is a sideshow. We don't need TV or voice clips to write about the Prime Minister.

So I haven't leaned in any strong direction on the list until recently, when I started to see that Canada's Prime Minister, personally, was taking a keen interest. In fact, it was so important to him that he waded into the fray personally, rather than leave it to his handlers, at the now-infamous accountability announcement. (Where he refused to recognize the reporters lined up at the microphone and tried to choose his own questioner.)

The fact that the top politician in Canada thinks this issue is worth his while means, I'm sorry, then it becomes important to us too.

Why is it so important to him? We don't know.

Why is it so important to us that we decide who ask questions? Let me just give it a try:

The Parliamentary Press Gallery is an elected institution in Ottawa. Every year, we vote for its executive members who have regular meetings. There is a PPG staff, with a budget, to serve as a central clearing house/operation centre/hub between the government and the media. These are the folks who call all of us at home when there's a disaster, who make sure that reporters aren't paid lobbyists harassing politicians, who oversee decorum and civility on the Hill.

We want the PPG to run the news conferences because if they do a bad job -- giving all the questions to the CBC, or English language or Toronto-based media, or men/women only, for example -- we can hold them accountable.

Note that word: ACCOUNTABLE. We like the concept too. We believe in it. We have built rules around it. These are rules that have functioned for many years, to the benefit of reporters AND politicians. Because there are organized scrums after cabinet, for instance, ministers aren't chased around the clock at restaurants, at their homes and outside their offices. Canada has not seen the kind of excessive camera-stalking of politicians, for instance, largely because we've had a civilized dialogue on the rules of engagement here.

If that relationship is to be revisited, we do not think it's unreasonable for it to be a two-way conversation. So far, the PMO has not proposed any new arrangements that involve compromise on their part, or even input from us. Nor has anyone explained why PMO needs to run the scrums.

I grew up, journalistically, at the Globe and Mail, where the motto still runs on the editorial page every day: "The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures." Why don't I just leave it at that?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ted
Cerberus

An exhibit of a fawning, obsequious, butt-kissing, MSM hack here: Fineman. ...

Al Gore: Selfless Oracle

In an article giddy with admiration, Howard Fineman asks the question, “Is Al Gore happy to be a selfless oracle?” (Hat tip: Amer1can.)

Compare to any MSM article, chosen at random, about George W. Bush.

WASHINGTON – In Washington the other day, I got a chance to tell Al Gore something I’d meant to say for a long time, which was that I thought his real strength, his real contribution, was as an observer — writer, explainer, outsider — and not as a politician.

The new movie about him was evidence of that, I said. He gave me a blank, dismissive look, and an “umm” for a verbal response.

I’ve known and covered Gore for decades, so maybe his reaction was inspired by Groucho Marx, who always said that he would never join a club that would have him as a member. But I think the brusque reply carried a different message: don’t assume that I’m ready to be put out to that pasture just yet.

Gore has a certain aura of nobility about him these days — a mixture of rue, acceptance and lofty goals that makes him almost, well, endearing.

Whew. Maybe you can make it through the whole thing, but that’s about all I could take. via LGF

Ted:

Well of course we are delighted that the PPG aren't ALL useful idiots.

The point many are grousing at; is why did it take 10 (TEN), that is, one DECADE to uncover massive governmental malfeasance? The proposition that there was collusion is not entirely unwarranted.

Moreover, no mention of the relocation scam. Why the deafening silence? Would the trail lead too close to home base?

Lastly, I find it staggering that the PPG would choose the timing of helping the helpless in the SUDAN to walk out. Thanks to the PPG for underlining in an emphatic way their concern for humanity. I got that "VALUES" statement loud and clear.

Truly, a pack of muttonheads, ie those who walked out. Yep, my place in front of the microphone is more important than those who are starving, raped, pillaged, plundered and occasionally killed.

I would like to thank the PPG for their "LEADERSHIP" in this regard.

Hans, seems like all of the press covered the announcement, so what is your issue.

I would think you'd be quite pleased in fact, since none of the stories I read about the Harper Darfur press release (a) mentioned the Harper-press fight or (b) mentioned that this is a fraction of what Martin promised.

Seems like one of those one day stories the conservatives are insisting on making into a months long story.

Ted
Cerberus

The MSM were spoon fed by the Lie-beral's for far too long and now they're having a temper tantrum, TFB!

Bobcaygeon, vis a vis the Winnipeg Free Press offering:

It's a darn good thing that "Gwyn Morgan took swipes at a wide swath of Canadian icons and institutions, including former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, the CBC, medicare, equalization, public schools, political correctness, unions and even Canada's equalization system...", ALL things that Canadians should be taking a second look at.

This is our problem in Canada, aided and abetted at every turn by the propagandist MSM: We have too many so-called "icons" and "institutions" which have been taking Canada down the tubes, many of them mentioned in this article. (Who, BTW, is Frances Russell? A PET worshipper? A "Canada is open, diverse, and tolerant" person?)

PET, IMO, is the worst thing that ever happened to Canada and his Conservative opponent at the time, Bob Stanfield, is sadly the best prime minister Canada never had.

That Canadians have accepted and adulated empty institutions (what's so great about our health care system? You could be dead before you get that CAT scan) and icons (PET was a philanderer, a sometime Nazi-sympathizer, and a Rosedale, well Westmount, Socialist) says a great deal about how bankrupt we've become.

Members of the MSM, with personal advancements and perks to gain from pushing these icons and institutions, have done a great disservice to the Canadian public, which now needs to do its homework and take back our "story."

Thanks to blogs like Kate's this is beginning to happen.

Ted where did you get to go on the relocation dollar?

FREE:

You take it too far, man. Here we are having a civil discussion about how the MSM is no friend of government - whether Liberal or Conservative - and you feel the need to go and make a personal insult. Nice one.

Ted
Cerberus

Ted:

The issue is simply that the press gallery has been hammering the "lack of access" to the PM for some time now.

See for example:

http://channels.netscape.ca/home/article.adp?id=20060514183909990009

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060329/media_harper_060329/20060329?hub=Canada

Media unions attack Harper govt's restrictions
Updated Wed. Mar. 29 2006 11:36 PM ET

It seems to me that the press are just looking for an opportunity to bait and hoping for a nibble. So far PMSH, has told them to fish in another pond, he is not biting.

What the journalists might have asked is whether this was the opening of aid to Sudan or the final package? What further plans are in the offing? Are officials working on other measures? What is happening on the diplomatic front, going forward etc.?

At least be seen to be working an angle, rather than truculently doing the "I'm taking my marbles home and I'm not playing."

Given the above articles, it would appear the PPG is making a months long story. It is just getting old.

Dang MSM, er Min. Of Prop.™ is popagandizing again:

Paul Who? said there will not be one at Xmas... but what does he know? "I know nothing". ...

He warned, says MSM. Scary. ...

He warned about 900 listeners at a London Chamber of Commerce luncheon the next election could come at any time and if they like what his government has been doing they should contact their local Member of Parliament to say so - regardless of his or her political stripe. ...
cnews via nealenews.com

Ted:

I agree the ad hominem stuff is not helpful to the discussion.

Of course this Harper vs PPG stuff is getting old.

A google of this shows the following:

Media unions attack Harper govt's restrictions
Updated Wed. Mar. 29 2006 11:36 PM ET

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060329/media_harper_060329/20060329?hub=Canada

Further, by walking out the press gallery gave up the opportunity to ask further questions in regards to the ongoing situation in Darfur.

Maz2:
And he took 15 minutes of questions from reporters

Harper says national media are biased against him and he will avoid them
OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the national media are biased against him so he will avoid them from now on. cnews

Great posts Lorraine and Danial, Ted, you are giving far too much credit to the spoiled, juevinile, malicious goofs in the 'press gang' OR you do not watch the House of Commons live on CPAC; if you had been watching you would know that the Bloc and the Canadian Alliance broke the egg on adscam MONTHS before the Press Gang said BOO!! The Press Gang were forced to say something or loose all their credability - not that they ever had much of the latter; heh. The Liberano shrillers tried their best to downplay the scandal and mop up the mess so Canadians would not see the Liberano/dipper types floundering in their own cesspool but the Bloc and the Conservatives would not shut up - neither would the radio shows like Dave Rutherford. Even more dangerous for the Liberano outfit - the WS was connecting the dots in the Oil for Food scam that the MSM is STILL pretending is a non issue. These press gallery prima dopas are NOT journalists, Ted. Call them amature writers, call them propagandalists but do not call them investigating journalists - at least not with a stright face!

I'm squarely on the conservative side of things (though not always the capital C Conservative). I dislike what I see as liberal media pushing their opinions into news stories. Without fully understanding the situation, I have some difficulties with Harper isolating himself from media. I think the media has an important role to play in keeping government honest.

On the other hand, the fact (as I see it) is that the media has injected their opinion into the story so much and so often that some kind of realignment has become necessary. I don't have a glib solution - it'd be good if the media played their role properly. On the other hand, I can't keep track of all the stories that should have been investigated more fully about the Liberals, and which have simply disappeared from the news pages - something in me tells me that the media had this coming to them. I'm unhappy that the natural check they're supposed to provide isn't being done because of this 'payback'. On the other hand, as others have noted, this is an ideal opportunity for new up-and-coming reporters to make their name doing the right thing.

Ted, you are consistently attempting to explain that the MSM are unbiased. I disagree; they are biased; pro-socialist Liberal/NDP and against Harper.

I think one could do a data search of basic terminology used by political commentators of the MSM, and it would show, overwhelmingly, that the MSM is anti-Harper, anti-conservative and pro-Liberal.
That is, I disagree with your conclusion.

I also think it quite a problem that the MSM has done so little about uncovering the major scandals of the Liberals. How many years to uncover Adscam? And most of the uncovering has been done by Sheila Fraser, not the MSM.

Shane, with regard to governmental honesty, it is not simply up to the MSM to keep the government honest; the gov't should have that agenda on its own. The Liberals didn't.
And, for the MSM to assist in this task, they have to be unbiased. They aren't.

Furthermore, as new kid points out, our basic ideologies are never examined by the MSM, who remain hostile to dissent and questions about them. For example, health care; the military as policemen rather than soldiers; anti-Americanism as a means of identification of Canada; the empty imagery of 'tolerance'; bilingualism and how it has set up an elite governance; multiculturalism and its isolation. etc, etc.

Hellooooo, McPress.... Only YOU are interested that YOU walked out of a press conference. Stop telling us about yourselves and report, oh I dunno, how about THE NEWS.

I question the motive of anyone that defend the MSM. The first thought that comes to mind is how are they involved with these slime and how much did they profit from them.

Oh and Ted why dont you tell us where the relocation program sent you? Or is the truth to painful to divulge?

CBC News offers the following news item: Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he'll no longer give news conferences for the national media, after a dispute led a number of journalists to walk away from an event when he refused to take their questions.

ET:

I'm not sure I've ever said the "MSM" is unbiased. What I've said it is not credible to claim the "MSM" is pro-Liberal.

To say the "MSM" is pro-Liberal is to ignore the entire Sun Media chain, the National Post and rest the CanWest Global empire and every local paper. The Sun Media chain is decidedly pro-conservative and pro-Conservative. The NP and CanWest Global is decidedly pro-conservative though not distinctly pro-Conservative Party. The Sun chain has a paper in every major urban centre. The MSM is no monolith and, with all due respect, it is deliberately disingenuous.

Even if you want to argue that this half of the "MSM" is not pro-conservative, it is still a real stretch to claim them as pro-Liberal and, no offense, borderline delusional to claim them to be pro-NDP. None are clearly pro-NDP - just look at the scant coverage given to federal and provincial NDP statements - except maybe sometimes on occasion the Toronto Star.

There are certainly pro-Liberal media. I'm not denying that. I just think that the monolithic "MSM" pro-Liberal meme is too separated from reality to be taken seriously. I mean to call the Globe and Mail pro-socialist means you gave up reading them a long long time ago and forgot how beholden they are to Bay Street.

You just have to look at the coverage of the last election in which the media by and large was out to get the Liberals and pandered to the Conservatives. Strange behaviour if the "MSM" is your in-house communications department.

How long did it take for the Globe and Mail to uncover the Sponsorship Scandal? Well the sponsorship program started in what 1996/1997 and, given how complex the scandal was, I hardly think it was immediately as corrupt as it became. But the first Globe stories came out when? in about 2000? The Watergate scandal took longer. And that's your evidence the whole "MSM" is a propaganda arm of the Liberals? To laugh to laugh.

What I really really don't get though is the complaint that "our basic ideologies are never examined by the MSM". With that statement you've verily summed up how mixed up so many conservatives are with the media. First, so many complain that the "MSM" does too much examination and not enough simple reporting - the mantra of "give us the facts and will make up our own minds" comes to mind. It is precisely that interposition of their opinion that is supposed to be so objectionable to you conservatives. Second, "hostile"? Every single paper I know of deliberately goes out of its way to carry at least several full-time and guest columnists of a contrarian view. Rondi Adamson in the Star, Marcus Gee in the Globe, etc. I'm not saying this counters alleged "bias" just that if they were "hostile" then you'd see the full-court press bias of, say, the National Post when it was under Conrad Black.

Ted
Cerberus

This is a partial transcript of questions and answers in an interview with Prime Minister Stephen Harper by A-Channel London in London, Ont., on Wednesday.

Question: "How (do) you consider the allegations from the national media, that you're trying to hide from them and decide who gets to ask you questions?"

Harper: "There's really not much I can say about that. Unfortunately, the press gallery has taken the view they are going to be the opposition to the government and they don't ask questions at my press conferences now. So we'll just get the message out on the road. There's lots of media in the country that do want to ask me questions and do want to hear what the government is doing for Canadians, or to Canadians. So we'll get our message out however we can."

Question: "Is it not a distraction?"

Harper: "Well, it's certainly unnecessary and I have trouble believing that, frankly, a Liberal prime minister would have this problem. But you know, that's as I say, the press gallery at the leadership level has taken an anti-Conservative view. Unfortunately, most journalists would like to ask questions and the press gallery is forbidding them from doing so. I think that's unfortunate. I think actually that speaks to freedom of the press, but that's an issue they're going to have to work out."

NOW - watch how these comments are already being spun by the so-called honest unbiased mainstream media who claim they just "report the news".

I have already read/heard at least 5 different spins on these comments - all negative to tyhe PM.

Enough said.

CBC coverage seems pretty neutral actually Lorraine. Puts up both sides of the story and finishes off with a few quotes from Conservative speakers calling for calm and a solution which it doesn't do for the media.

Reminder: not being pro-Conservative is not the same as being anti-Conservative or pro-Liberal.

Ted
Cerberus

Stephen Harper said "the press gallery at the leadership level..." - who would that be?

Thanks Lorraine for the PM quotes. It sounds like PMSH already has some alternatives in mind for information dissemination and Q and A. I for one certainly do not blame PMSH for being careful around that pit of vipers. There are several just waiting to strike if they can get the right quote to spin.
Stephen Harper is under no illusions. We all saw what the MSM did to Stockwell Day after one bad photo op, a couple of twisted quotes, and the rattling of some old skeleton bones in the closet. This pack of dogs would like nothing better than to "become the news" once more and find something that they can spin out of proportion to try and bring the PM down. It seems to me that so far PMSH is a couple steps ahead of them like a good chess player would be.
Daniel

Personally I'm quite happy about this situation too Daniel. When a crisis within the government occurs or the Conservatives decide an issue needs a particular spin or when the election comes, the Conservatives will find that they are right where the Liberals were in December 2005 with the media.

No longer happy to just regurgitate PMO statements or spin, they instead regurgitate the criticisms levelled by the opposition parties. The Libs lost the congeniality with the press (they never had a staunchly pro-Liberal press gallery of course to begin with) and they stopped putting up any semblance of trying to report on Martin's press conferences.

This is all good for Liberals.

Ted
Cerberus

I'm aware of your points, Ted, but I don't think that the 'two sides' is as even as you suggest.

I admit that the G&M is most certainly not pro NDP. My merging of the Liberals and NDP has become automatic, as they are both socialist. I'm aware that Layton is trying desperately to differentiate himself from the Liberals but, since the old type of Workers of the World, union-led, all public infrastructure of 'pure socialism' is fading, then, the only viable type of socialism, is Liberal style.

The Sun is indeed, in great part, pro-conservative, but the Sun is denigrated by the Big Papers, as a 'tabloid'. The NP moved from being pro-conservative to its current state, which is, in my view, nowhere. There is no television show that is either pro-conservative or is, in my view, fair. Duffy and Newman's shows, which are the only TV shows on politics that I'm aware of, are in my view, biased against conservatives and Harper.

The Press Gallery has its own executive and is not just the 'gang' of reporters. It is that executive who decides who will ask questions, and they don't like losing this power. And, it is that executive that decides to walk out and insists that its members not ask questions. It's not the choice of the individual reporters. Most Canadians don't know that the PPG is not just an open set of reporters but is a tightly organized 'bloc' with their own agenda.

No, I don't think that our basic ideologies are examined by the MSM. Health care is an example.

Even if one were to concede non-bias of the MSM(and i dont), there is no excuse for their sloppy reporting. Gun registry- They keep repeating the same 5,000 hits per day without finding out what these hits are all about. They never question whether there is even one instance of where the registry did any good.
Child care - They never mention that there is more to the plan than the 1200/yr.
witness "thats news to me" Taber, lol.
They are lazy at best, dishonest at worst.

Thanks for recognizing the "MSM" is not one single monolith, ET. Your conservative colleagues would do well to be as honest about the "MSM".

"I don't think that our basic ideologies are examined by the MSM."

But what is it you would prefer? Most conservatives complain that reporters should report and not examine things for us. Are you not in that group? Are you saying you prefer the "MSM" interpose itself between reporting facts and "examine/interpret" just with a different political ideology?

(As an aside, it seems to me, if there is any "MSM" consensus on the issue of healthcare (and there is no consensus), that most admit that there needs to be major change, that we must preserve universal access, that we must be open to some a lot more private delivery, that the provinces must be given more flexibility and that we should look at healthcare systems like France's which allows more private care but is way better than the Canadian or US systems. But then again, I read the Globe and the NP a lot so that may just be the consensus of the two national dailies.)

Ted
Cerberus

In the next election, date to be determined, of course we'll get the Stephen Harper is not "Prime Ministerial" meme; and other assorted slights to his character.

Remember the 'not fit for office' dribble trotted out by the LIEBerals and duly proclaimed in the MSM.

Oh the MSM will cover PM Stephen Harper they just won't be flattering. But then were they ever?

PMSH will get his message out in many and diverse ways; it may just require a more hands on and personal touch.

So far poll numbers would indicate he is connecting with the public if not the disjointed Parliamentary Press Gallery (PPG).

In the internet age, the PPG is just not as vital as they continue to imagine themselves. Let them preen themselves with "Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?"
The current dust up is just a reflection of their own waning importance and insecurity for days of old.

Wakey, wakey PPG, Prince Stephen is not going to kiss you awake!!!

"Remember the 'not fit for office' dribble trotted out by the LIEBerals and duly proclaimed in the MSM."

No. We kept reciting it, and subsequent events have proven us at least halfway right, but the "MSM"? Don't think so. Please provide examples.

"Oh the MSM will cover PM Stephen Harper they just won't be flattering. But then were they ever?"

Yes - the last election. Fawning over every photo op, ignoring gaffes, regurgitating Conservative talking points, regurgitating Conservative criticisms of the Liberals.

Ted
Cerberus

i like your posts ted, they're pretty clear and unbiased ........or at least relatively clearly and unbiased. Its seems weird to me how the media can still be generally referred to as proliberal, after the beating they took from the media during the last election.

Ted,
I think the present situation is O.K. I think a resetting of Press protocall and Press boundaries was necessary in any case. It became obvious that during the last few months of Martins term that things had degenerated into a free for all. I think that by and large Martin lost the respect of the electorate, the Press and much of the Liberal party. Inquiries and mounting lost millions will do that to you.
I think that PMSH will come to some kind of terms with the PPG and the rest of the Press. There is a symbiotic relationship between the PMO and the MSM. They need each other to some extent. I am very glad that Stephen Harper is being careful and making an attempt to change the relationship from that of a mob mentality to that of some assemblance of decorum.
What will happen during a crisis when he needs to get a message out. First of all that presupposes that there will be a crisis to manage. Assuming there may be a situation, as the PM said today "There's lots of media in the country that do want to ask me questions and do want to hear what the government is doing for Canadians, or to Canadians. So we'll get our message out however we can." It seems that perhaps using the Internet in more ways may shame the MSM into providing coverage. Perhaps he'll broadcast on "Fox North". At least he would be guaranteed an audience!
As for the Liberals, I am so glad that you find "This is all good for Liberals." I guess when you hit bottom, the only way to go is up, assuming that you've hit bottom that is.
I find it incredible that the Liberal party has been able to maintain as much support as it has. To me, looking at the party from the outside, there has been a string of sorry scandals so long we can hardly remember them all, and yet they have been quickly hushed and left to quietly fade away. If it had been Conservatives that had such a record we would never hear the end of them i.e. Mulroney and the airbus affair is kept alive after all these years. In 15 years do you think we will still be hearing about:

Shawinigate (no Liberals charged)
HRDC boondoggle (no Liberals charged)
Long gun registry over spending (no Liberals charged)
Income Trust scandal (no Liberals charged)
Ad scam (not enough Liberals charged)

There is a pattern of contemptuous behavior on the part of the "natural governing party" who felt not only entitled to their entitlements but also entitled also to millions in taxpayer money...most of which will never be recovered or found. No doubt some of it will filter back in from the Cayman accounts just in time for future Liberal campaigns, unless of course it has found its way into private or corporate hands like...! Hopefully someday someone will connect the dots and there will be justice and accoutability. It would seem to me to be in the best interests of Liberals like yourself to be doing some internal investigations during this iterim period and hand any evidence over to the RCMP. There needs to be a good house cleaning in the Liberal party and better it be done by Liberals than by others. I would imagine you have no room for thieves and liars in the Liberal party you envision, unless I misread you Ted?
Daniel

Hey, I'll be the first to admit we need a good house cleaning. I'm ecstatic about most of the Liberal leadership candidates for that reason: none were involved in the scandals and so many of them are not at all tied to the old guard for their support and loyalties. Brison's quasi-involvement is the exception that proves the rule: the single silly email and his response to it have completely doomed his candidacy; regardless of whether it was plain stupid or corruption, the mere whiff of a connection means he doesn't stand a chance. Too bad, he's otherwise got some immensely good qualities and is more in line with my political leanings (socially left, economically centre).

A reason for the ongoing strength of the Liberal Party is that it is more than just individuals and a lot of us, like me, are probably more outraged by the corruption than you because we saw it right away as dooming the chance for some good liberal policy. The idiots that got let out of the asylum to run the place squandered the chance - with a weak and leaderless opposition for the most part - to implement some good policies. Some great things were done fiscally and in some discreet areas, but Chretien traded political wins for political change because, well, he could. And that pissed me off.

(As an aside, on your list: the HRDC "boondoggle" was not in the end a boondoggle, they found all but $100,000 of the unaccounted money, it was just poor management that got corrected; overspending on gun registry (another example of my comments above) is not a criminal offence, Daniel; Income Trust "scandal" has yet to be proven a "scandal" and I have serious doubts it will be - as even many conservatives conceded in the end, it was more likely incompetence combined with the obviousness of what the announcement would be; Adscam? let's wait on that one, lots more information is coming out in the Guite trial.)

Ted
Cerberus

Happy house cleaning Ted, it is easy to see why the big push in Liberal ranks to crown the "sudden Canadian" Iggy. He definately had the most distance, pardon the pun.
As for the scandals...where there is smoke...
Daniel

Re Morgan, one of the people that had agreed to work with him for $1.00/yr was a former liberal minister. This group was never going to make appointments, they were going to set up the critea (sp) for how these positions should be selected, not make the selections. The biggest shock to me was that a liberal would work for $1.00/yr, with no entitlements. As for the gun that shot the mounties, it was restricted and would never have been legally registered. Also, the killer was forbidden to own a gun, and was let out of jail by our injustice system. The president of the press gallery was on the national tonight saying things got out of control and it would never happen again. Harper stated he would no longer deal with the press gallery. Will these members have to find another job, will their bosses keep paying them for doing nothing. Do these members come from across Canada or just Ottawa and Toronto. Where is JVD and Keith B. Are they AWOL. I wonder if members of the PPG read the blogs and are discovering how cdns really feel about them. Some of them might get a job as a communications consultant for the ndp or libs but that would show their bias.

Maybe I am just being naive, but I don't actually believe the problem is whether the reporters are biased the problem ,as I see it, is in Canada we don't have reporters in the press, we have a bunch of columnists.

At least when we watch the Sunday morning talk shows, we know that the columnists are expressing their opinions and their version of the story. We know Novak and Safire are not going to see things through the same prism as Dowd.

In Canada, the head reporter or bureau chief, is also a pundit on the talk shows thereby presenting his/her opinion, you can't have it both ways.

In fairness to CBC (I can't believe I am wrting this), their "At Issue" panel is the only true reflection of what punditry should look like. If Taber, Boag, Van Dusen and their ilk want to be syndicated columnists, so be it. But get off the public teat nad go earn a real living, otherwise get off your high horse and REPORT the news and let me form my own opinion.

Ken

Mary T; thanks for reminding people of another commissioner, who was a Liberal. The chronology of events was as I understand it, Morgan gets villified ( BTW, Weston it wasn't Harpers fault), the other three appointees then withdraw their appointment then Harper says screw it, let's call the whole thing off. We didn't go from step one to step three.

Ted: I too am actually excited about some of your candidates. My personal favourite is Iggy, not because I think we can beat him (we can) I just look forward to a campaign based upon ideas and substance rather than platitudes and style (See my naive comment above, HAHA)

Ken, do we really want or need another intellect leading the liberals, even in opposition. Reminds me too much of PET. I can't stand his attitude that he exhibits in public-I am so smart and you are so beneath me.

I haven't seen enough of Ignatieff to agree or disagree with you, Mary, but don't you get a similar sense of superiority complex from PMSH? Who would you most like to see and least like to see leading the Liberals?

ignatieff hasn't really come across that way to me, although i haven't seen him on tv alot lately.
He seems rather humble himself, just the media makes such a deal of his being an academic. Maybe I just don't watch enough tv

http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/Weston_Greg/2006/05/25/pf-1596517.html

To get a feel for what one member of the PPG, Greg Weston this time, thinks of those who write in to show their support for the Prime Minster.

He has chosen to include specific names of e-mailers in his column, although we do not get the names of the PPG members who did walk out on the PM.

This ought to help, making the story about their readers now:

"They are the merry messengers of Conservative hate-mail, an apparent army of Harper devotees ready to administer their unique brand of Internet venom whenever The Enemy dares to question anything or anyone in the glorious kingdom of our beloved prime minister.

Of course, The Enemy consists predominantly of us leftie-pinko-commie journalists who, as Harper will tell you, have long been part of the great eastern-media conspiracy to keep the western-based Conservatives from power.

Question anything the Harper government is doing, and we are inundated with fan e-mail that may contain scenes of violence and offend some viewers.

Some of the e-mails we get are definitely from Mars, the work of assorted anger-management drop-outs and otherwise ill-meaning kooks who have tragically slipped off their meds.

But the preponderance of identical themes, comments and buzzwords across dozens of e-mails on the same topic suggests that many of these electronic write-in campaigns are just that -- orchestrated Internet campaigns by Conservative partisans, designed to harass, intimidate and even threaten journalists into backing off a party of such fun-loving people."

My problem with Ignatief is how he is a "sudden Canadian" Where was Iggy over the past thirty years if he has such a love and a passion for Canada. The Liberal Party realizes that they are in big trouble so they parachute this guy in and promise him who knows what! I don't know the man well enough to judge his charachter or his motives but something just doesn't seem right. To me he doesn't pass the "sniff" test. Something stinks!
The Liberal Party has been doing this alot lately, bringing in star candidates to prop up their fortunes. I don't like it. Politicians should have to pay their "dues"... but this is really a local issue that the electorate in that riding must judge. However, when it comes to one who has the potential to be our national leader, there should be some kind of a test in place like "where have you paid your taxes over the past 5 years?" or "What have you done for Canada lately?" After all, we are talking about the higher good for Canada through public service.
In the end it really doesn't matter to me as I will not be voting Liberal in an election for the foreseeable future but in as much as he has the potential to become the PM, I take an interest.
Daniel

Buffalo Bean:

For any doubt as to whether there is media bias try the ctv website:

Do you think the national media gives Conservative prime ministers a tougher time than Liberal ones?
Yes
6962 votes (55 %)
No
3958 votes (31 %)
About the same
1850 votes (14 %)

out of 12800 votes

To add your vote:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/HTMLTemplate

Gee, I wonder if the sample size is significant enough for Liberal apologists?

In other news Skilling and Lay of Enron infamy are both found guilty. Conspiracy and wire charges come with a maximum of 30 years.

Will our own governmental fraud artists ever do that much time?

From the Mop and Pail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/poll/pollResultHub?id=40779&pollid=40779&answerid=&poll=GAMFront&save=_save&show_vote_always=no&hub=Front&subhub=VoteResult

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has accused the national media of being biased against him, do you agree?

Yes

17477 votes (57%) 17477 votes

No

12962 votes (43%) 12962 votes

Total votes: 30439

This shows that the folks who frequent those websites and who answer such polls feel that the media are biased. It's statistically significant within that population, but researchers looking for a random sample in order to get a genuine picture of whatever it is that they're studying go to great great lengths to ensure that randomness. I concede that these outlets don't have that luxury, but if we're posting the results, it bears mentioning.
ps- Globe results have changed a bit - now 54% vs. 46%. Haven't checked the other...

Online polls are utterly useless. Especially when they get freep-ed like these ones.

Ted
Cerberus

Lying liberanos cant be trusted, like the ones who wont admit to having there hands in the relocation cookie jar.

FREE, your incessant personal attacks do not belong here. I personally have no idea what the hell you're talking about and I don't care. I'd be willing to bet any amount of money that it's off topic. Kate, help!