It’s not often I see Rex Murphy get something wrong, but he does here;
As for the rest of Mr. Harper’s cabinet, last sighted wandering through the governor-general’s mansion for the swearing-in, they have been as tight-lipped and invisible as a band of antisocial hermits. A cabinet is not a monastery, and a communications strategy that so far consists in refusing to communicate and refusing to communicate while you are not communicating, is not really so much a strategy as a mindset that cannot attach to the most public office this country has.
It is not necessary to like the press. Majority opinion may even concur with the prime minister there. But it is necessary to talk to them. Until that fairly elementary point is conceded by Mr. Harper, the office of prime minister’s communications director is an emblem of iconic idleness, just a Maytag repairman with a Blackberry.
Of course, by “press”, Murphy means “Ottawa press gallery” – as though there is no other way for a Prime MInister to communicate than be waylaid in a scrum or pick up the phone and gift next morning’s Globe editorial with frothy spin from the PMO.
When Brian Mulroney won his landslide majority in 1984, a talking head (whose identity I’ve forgotten) announced to the nation that in the face of such a one sided parliament, the media would assume the role of opposition .
That was a signal that something was about to go desperately wrong, and it did. The Canadian people had already spoken as to what voices they wanted in parliament. The Ottawa press gallery weren’t on the ballot, yet they declared themselves elected, and they’ve by and large behaved like pompous, entitled Liberal senators with a broadcast license ever since.
It’s time they were forced to relinquished those seats.
When those in media assume a de facto role in government, the instution becomes inherently dangerous. When a declared “opponant” owns the kill switch and the ability to reshape the message to reflect a political agenda, not just truth, but democracy itself comes under threat. Having assumed a political stance of being in “opposition to the Mulroney government” those 20 odd years ago, it’s no wonder that so many have lost trust in what we are hearing and reading – indeed, the mining of the Mulroney era negative messaging to “taint” the Harper government is already in full swing. It matters not what Harper appointees like Michael Wilson have accomplished before or since in private life – if they had any association with the Mulroney government, that is how the media frames them.
If Harper is making a concerted effort to reposition the role of media in this country, we can only applaud – no matter our political views. The opportunity has arrived to push back, because the tides of technology are changing – with subscriptions and television ratings losing ground to the internet and other alternative sources like talk radio, the legacy media no longer have exclusive control of the filter.
The talking heads have had their hands on the levers of political power for so long, not even they realize how inappropriate it is. Now, they’re getting them slapped – and we shouldn’t be surprised that these particular members of the “culture of entitlement” will be bitching and whining loudly about their reversal of fortune.
I also couldn’t disagree with Rex Murphy more.
I’ve found the cabinet ministers with something to say have been very available to the press and haven’t been evasive during their interviews.
I’ll do a shameless cut & paste of something I posted today in a thread further down the page as it fits in this thread a little better than the thread where I posted it.
One interesting branch I can see growing off the Harper Media Policy tree is a new demand on the ministers. The media likes to picture Mr. Harper as a control freak micromanaging his cabinet ministers and the minutiae of government but I see the opposite playing out.
If you look at the handling of the Emerson and Fortier fallout in the press; the Prime Minister�s message to cabinet, not to mention all involved in government, is that a dump-truck full of bull-�spin won�t be rolled out by the PMO for any little misstep. The PMO is not interested in cleaning up, spinning or managing your messes so you�d better be smart, honest and effective.
We�ve already seen Peter MacKay doing a little twisting in the wind. You can bet he�ll be more careful in the future with what he says in public. I can imagine that Garth Turner is gonna be a little more careful with what he says in the future considering how much rope the PMO gave him to hang himself with.
Already I�ve seen more of his cabinet ministers in the media eye doing their jobs, carrying out their mandates and being careful and measured with whatever they say. It is a disciplined cabinet that obviously has marching orders, but they give the impression that they are empowered and they are responsible.
It�s nice for them that the PMO is sticking to it�s role and staying out of it�s ministers way and out of their limelight. I don’t see that Mr. Harper is hiding from the media. He is just respecting some boundaries regarding what his turf is.
In addition, it’s a new government, most of them have _just_ located the closest bathroom to their new office, and are still trying to recall the names of the people who work there.
Were I in their place, I’d be shutting up and trying to learn stuff too, before I shot my mouth off.
I’ve often thought politicians talked TOO much to the press. It’s a good sign, in my book, when they are more concerned with their actual job than with making nice with press-bots.
So Kate, how is Harper ‘communicating’? Where can I go, mainstream or non-mainstream media, to hear his opinions, his ideas, his thoughts? Or is he communicating telepathetically (my spelling) somehow with the Canadian people?
A lack of communication is not communication.
The Ottawa Press Gallery, the Globe and Mail, the CBC and the CP agency believe they, and only they, are entitled to dictate the terms of engagement in the guerilla war they are conducting against the Tories. Harper knew from the start that the media conglomerates and the Liberal Party would develop a public narrative that his government was somehow illegitimate, would be short-lived, and would go back on all its promises—that is, would act like Liberals: and why, they are implying, have a substitute when you can have the real thing back?
Harper has an absolute right to determine the rules of engagement, not the Press. The election put him in charge, not Tony Berman et al. I believe that thinking Canadians are rapidly recognising we have a grown-up as Prime Minister, that we have level-headed Ministers who are currently researching and questioning prior to putting action plans in place, and we have a parliamentary caucus that is on balance more committed to the interests of the counrty than to the interests of the party.
It is depressing that the media should, four weeks’ after the election, excoriate a new government for not having solved all the problems in the country, paid down the national debt, and brought a paradise on earth into being. The media needs to grow up and show some maturity, assuming, that is, it has any.
Perhaps there’s no conspiracy, though: maybe what we are seeing is lazy pack journalism from people so self-obsessed that they can’t see or think their own hot little world.
I concur with you Kate. It isn’t often I disagree with Murph but on the Ottawa press slugs whining about Harper’s alleged hermatage, I’ll put it down to MSM sloth coming home to burn the lazy butts of a lot of overly snug 4th estate freeloaders.
Given that the MO for these media slugs the past decades has been to interface with some PMO or Liberal party spin thingie and get a daily dose of party-fed misinformation that they want printed with no overly embarassing questions or investigation….in return the news slugs get daily copy to keep the free lunches and bonuses coming from their happy editors and liberal communications officers,… the process for media interface with the PMO and party has certainly changed.
No more guaranteed daily dribbles of disinfo to lazy scribblers to fill the pages of their publications with meaningless partisan pap in return for publishing this shit with an unquestioning non-curiosity.
Structured media press scrums…only when there is actually any news to relate about government that cannot be learned by read hansard or sitting in question period.
In short; it’s time to go to work instead of having partisan spinners write your copy for you boys….and we can see by the reaction that there are a lot of Ottawa media gallery with popcorn and beer swollen rumps that make Duffy’s look miniscule.
Stop your damn sniveling and act like effective journalists.
Todd,
Just as communicating to hear the sound of your voice is nought but the flapping of two liberal gums.
There’s an old saying in the business world, “he who talks first at the boardroom table… just shit the bed”.
Why would Harper say anything unless he actually has something to say… conversely, why should he say anything when the press is cheerfully yakking their heads off about what??
If I were an editor, I’d get convulsively more and more worried that I’d guessed wrong about what’s up the longer I keep allowing speculation to be spewed.
Editors might find themselves discovering how long the rope is when Harper finally does speak, and that might mean they are discovered for being even more profoundly out to lunch than the average guy on the street thinks now.
Seems to me that the simpliest way to overcome the press in the next election is to show them for the syncophantic twits they are now.
Todd . . we just had an election, were you not listening to what Mr. Harper said then ?? If you didn’t hear his opinions, ideas and thoughts during the many, many weeks of the campaign, just use your computer skills and find the CPC website – lotsa reading for you there buddy.
His CM’s are all over TV – this morning alone I saw Day, Emerson and Mackay on the tube news on various channels – not bad for the slowest news day of the week.
Kate:
How is he wrong? Your point is that communication need not be through the Ottawa press gallery, and I agree. But how is he communicating within the Ottawa press gallery or outside of it? I like to consider myself fairly attuned to non-Ottawa press contingent, and certainly have been keen to hunt down information online coming from the new government, but I’m not finding it.
Even the PMO press releases which come into my inbox are not giving me a lot of information.
Maybe Rex meant the Ottawa press gallery or maybe not, but I read his point to be that the government must communicate with the population, however they might choose to do so. Surely you aren’t saying he’s wrong about that?
Ted
Cerberus
If they aren’t spoon fed “leaks” from the government, how will they report? Are we suggesting that they should actually have to CHASE stories and report FACTS? Preposterous!
I tend to agree with Adam Radwanski. They can draw straws. The winner will dream up a storyline that suits his own particular agenda and release that. Then, the rest can simply file variations on the theme. Gathering facts from elected politicians would just overly complicate things
Todd – try the PMO’s email alerts.
Kate et al – how long do you think it will take them to figure this out????
Yesterday’s Question Period was interesting – Oliver Craig asked Minister O’Connor what his “personal opinion” was on something controversial – and got the response “I have no personal opinion, I’m a Minister of the Government of Canada” or words to that effect. Beautiful.
Just Who Is In Charge Here?
Silly me. I thought Canadians elected Stephen Harper & his crew to run the country. Apparently, we hired the Ottawa press and they are angry.
Uhh one question/clarification on your summations here Kate: If the 4th estate installed themselves as the official opposition in a Tory majority what where they in the Liberal majority?….defacto government?
Great post Kate, and dead on!
I wonder if Canadian journalists are paying close attention to your posts.
If they are not, they should be. In my view you are one Canadian whose assessment of the connection between MSM and past Canadian governance is absolutely correct.
Sadly the beat appears to continue.
However the internet and clear thinkers like yourself using the tool will eventually (if not already) force MSM media from the position of mouthpiece to the place of neutral news disseminators.
That was Martins problem Ted, all he did was talk to the press… would have been nice to see him do a little real work instead… you know, on things like the commitments he made.
For far too long now, the likes of Craig Oliver and Robert Fife need to be taken down a peg or two.
The press can try all they want, but, as they say, Stephen Harper wouldn’t say “shit” even if he had a mouth full of it. It must drive those scrum scums crazy that Harper is largely unflappable.
Just look to the south at the crap Bush has to put up with during press briefings. Reporters with egos of Titanic proportions thinking they can get a scoop and advance their careers by childishly trying to annoy the leader of their country. Is that what they learned in “journalist school”? Probably.
Sorry Canadace, I must’ve missed the e-mail alert saying that Harpo would only be communicating via e-mail alerts.
MSM seem to think they need to provide us with ‘Analysis’. CBC’s self-promoting commercials do nothing but emphasize that while all I want is just the facts. I’ll come to my own conclusions thank-you!
Hey I know! They all could get a precorded phone message of what PMSH had for breakfast/lunch/Dinner, followed by a snack summary. That’s news isn’t it?
Hey Todd,
It seems to me that Stephen Harper communicated with you and the rest of Canada for 8 weeks straight what his “opinions, his ideas, his thoughts” were. If you are in need of clarification, go back and read the speeches. The man has work to do and he is doing it! Leave him alone. He said that when he has something to announce, he will announce it.
As for the MSM, it is nice to see them out there twisting in the wind. I wonder if it will inspire them to get off their collective butts and dig into some research on real stories since they have so much time on their hands. How about finding out where billions have gone in the gun registry or tracking down the billions spent in the brewing “relocation fiasco” over at Public Works while it was under the former regime of “Ali Baba (Paul Martin) and the forty thieves!
Scott Brison, Alfonso and others still have questions that they need to answer. Get the MSM go ask them. I am sure that they have time on their hands to answer some questions and the MSM seems to have plenty of column space needing to be filled.
As for Prime Minister Stephen Harper every day that goes by, I appreciate him more. I was getting sick and tired of Ali Baba or any one of his forty thieves coming out and spinning the stories any which way they wanted and the MSM lapping it up and regurgitating it back out to the public without any investigation or further questioning. The silence coming from Ottawa right now is sweet music to my ears!
Daniel
A careful measured approach towards the media? Horrors!! What was wrong with the constant spewing of spin, lies, deception, and deflection the Liberals were so adept at? 🙂
All the information they want is on the public record, either through the election platform, the cabinet ministers through local media or national media or via new releases from the PMO.
If it isn’t new it isn’t news and the PM knows it.
For example, the gun registery.
MSM reporting after 1 month in office that the Tories have lost the will to scrap the registery.
In spite of that, BC papers had Day on record saying the thing was even more bloated than thought and they were gonna kill it. Briekretz was on record, I believe in a Manitoba paper, saying that he and the two ministers involved were gonna kill it.
So we had party platform and election promises and two ministers and a deputy minister speaking after the election that the gun registery was going down, but the MSM for some reason seized on spoken worries of conservative supporters and the fact that a civil servant invloved in the registery was ‘promoted’ as grounds for saying the Tories were about to scrap the plan to scrap.
But I suppose this is the PM’s fault for not sitting down with the Ottawa Press Gallery every day for an hour to reassure them of his current thoughts on the matter.
The press better get used to the concepts of: ‘if it’s not new it’s not news’, and ‘you’ll hear about it from the minister closest to the action’.
PARTICIPACTION for journos? They’re gonna have to hustle, eh, get gum on their shoes, what!
Todd: what is to learn when government is not sitting?
We also note the silence from the opposition is deafening as well….and they just love producing reams of mindless “press releases” on everything from the color of the toilet paper in their leader’s loo to how they feel about the olympic athelete’s costumes…but damn little that is pertenent to the governing of the nation
If you feel the need for a steady stream of rumors, non news and misleading partisan misdirect, and some how confuse this with being “informed”, by all means bemoan the imminent demise of a superfluous Ottawa nattering class and their constant stream of redundant philistine pap.
My guess is that you could cover all pertinent governmental news coming from parliament with 3-4 reporters….the MSM make work project which the Ottawa press gallery has become is just whining about the inevitable downsizing that will result when government is done openly in the house and not the hallways, restaurants, press buffets or studios of CTV or CBC.
The mainstream press including CBC and CTV are largely ignored in my home or viewed/read for amusement only. There is very little new and even less of great importance produced by them.
Most of what they purvey is designed to convince that Liberalism, multicuturalsims, socialism are all good and the American way of life is bad.
Piss on them. Thankfully there is often enough information privided by the new gathering agency to work with and have some clue about what is happening. Just give me the facts and I can think for myself and draw my own conclusions.
I find that I get better and more varied new and information from a handful of reputable blogs, such as this one.
I am enjoying their losses. Sold my Quebcor stock long ago.
It does appear to me that Harper is quite content to let the Minister of which ever portfolio to take the lead on his or hers domain… quite rightly I might add.
It’s rather novel to see a Prime Minister who perhaps puts a bit of faith in his people, as opposed to one who sets his against each other.
Most famous qu0te from a Chretien/Martin cabinet… “I didn’t do it, he/she did”.
Or was it “I don’t know, you’ll have to refer that question to the RCMP”.
Oh wait, it was “Of course we are concerned, that’s why we have repeatedly committed to committing to doing something about committing to the problem, and we’ve made this commitment in every election in the last 12 years, and this time we are really gonna get a handle on the issue of making any commitments to “place problem here”.
I think you may wish to have a look at Jay Rosen’s posting here:
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/04/25/bush_muscle.html
I mention this link because it occurs to me that Stephen Harper, for good or ill, is adapting the Bush position vis-a-vis the media, to wit: Reporters do not represent the interests of a broader public. They aren�t a pipeline to the people, because people see through the game of Gotcha. The press has forfeited, if it ever had, its quasi-official role in the checks and balances of government.
Todd – I live in a small town in Alberta and I know what the conservative plan is – I didn’t even have to leave the big comfy couch in my living room – it was all over the the TV, radio and if I wanted to find out more, I just had to get up off the couch and go to my computer – google Conservative Party of Canada and voila in a second (now that we finally have high speed out here in the boonies) up would come the whole platform for my reading pleasure.
So – get up off your fanny – go to your computer and follow my instructions and I am sure you will find the answers to your questions.
Unfortunately, you sound like the majority of leftist voters – you want to be spoon fed your views and opinions through newspaper headlines and 30 second sound bites on the TV.
Just as the MSM is proving too lazy to actually work to research a story and have been relying on “leaks” for so long they don’t know how to do anything else – it is obvious that a vast number of voters are also too lazy to actually find out what a party stands for before they put the x in the box!! (Just so you don’t have to work at it Todd – this means you!)
It is hearting to know that the PM isn’t just running off at the mouth for the sake of making noise for the media. I suspect they will speak when they have something to say.
The media should be patient when Prime Minister Harper does finally speak it will have substance and the government will be moving. The media will actually have something important to discuss rather than the usual non-information that came from the liberals to fill up the news day.
Murphy seems to me a bit like those small wind driven fir trees on the coast. They keep flinging out branches in weird directions but the wind whips them into a mares’ nest and the result is one disorderly tree. But then on this post we see Murpy accused of declaiming from on high, when he has enough to contend with just flinging out a thought to meet a deadline. And then the poster takes the further liberty of stomping on the helpless critter.
Can this be one more sign of incipient Conservative hysteria? Their man has not appeared to change in 20 years. He is secretive, full of undeveloped notions that some have taken to be a sign of deep thought. And if you tell him he has the power to push some button, he will push it without hesitation, and possibly without any good reason at all. There is no concealment of deep plans because he has not got any. Perhaps his acolytes are uneasily beginning too see that.
Maybe Calgary is still a hick town and one of their own is loose in Ottawa.
While you’re all twiddling your thumbs about Canada’s new PM (who is obviously a brilliant tactician) the rest of the (sane) world still has it’s mind in the right place:
David Warren: Oncoming
I’m surprised the Ottawa Press Gallery hasn’t come out with a new joke about Groundhog Day. as in:
” That’s when Stephen Harper comes out of his office, sees his shadow and goes back into his office for another six weeks.”
Kate:
This is one of the best comments you have made, and there have been many excellent ones with which to compare.
One of your biggest fans, I find your comments always have the aim and accuracy of a Robin Hood arrow!
I have taken exception to several comments of Rex Murphy’s lately. His articles are mainly well uttered but in them can be found sentences that betray his own bent and leanings regarding the ‘inherent right’ of the press.
And here you have nailed him with pin point accuracy.
And that of all the ‘media’ who have exhibited their own bias with petulant and pouty impatience with the way the PMO is handling things.
They DEMAND access and feel entitled to DEMAND of an elected leader answers from an unelected and most often uninformed but critically biased media. They see themselves as an entity to which accountability is assumed. Instead, THEY are in the way of the message from an Elected Prime Minister and his cabinet to those who elected them.
More often than not, the media act on behalf of the liberals and as their toadys, can be assumed to have a bias that precludes their assumed right to a response to their demands.
Bravo, once again, Kate for zeroing in with a sharp eye and pen to these foibles that will, in the end be the downfall of the ‘legacy media’..their maladay perfectly matching that of their cousins in the US.
Another load of socialist bull from the Leader-Post.
Third place in the medal crop brought to you by Canadian Olympic Marketing Board (COMB)?
Socialism hates excellence; hates being a winner. Touting a 3rd rate performance? Canadian maple syrup as third place prize?
Why, even the USA finished in Numero Duo place with 25 firsts. Canada put its foot down… into a third rate performance.
The Olympic Games: another culture of entitlememnt. +
The Games where we Stopped being Average
Russia? Austria? Norway? In the rear-view mirror, this time
After a lifetime of looking ever-so-slightly uncomfortable about flexing its muscles in the Games of ice and snow, Canada put its foot down in Turin, and stopped being average. +
http://www.rapp.org/url/?96USHTQ9
“Can this be one more sign of incipient Conservative hysteria? Their man has not appeared to change in 20 years. He is secretive, full of undeveloped notions that some have taken to be a sign of deep thought. And if you tell him he has the power to push some button, he will push it without hesitation, and possibly without any good reason at all.”
What the hell are you talking about? Why don’t you speak english? You speak like some whiney little liberal speaking like the jesuits with doublespeak and false prose; go hug a tree.
The MSM can’t be trusted anymore in Canada to report the facts.
Harper knows that they are out to advance their own made-for-TV-movie, and as an economist could’nt give a flying f if the MSM like it or not.
Good on him.
I hope he says it outloud!
Rex missed the point!
Has anyone noticed how boring the columns in the press are lately. When the House is back in session and the throne speech is delivered, then ministers and the PM can be questioned. As for the head of the gun registry being promoted, this was probably cheaper than giving her a huge severance pkg aka Dingwall. What is she doing now, and what useless position does she have. Will we ever hear from her again. Lets start a petition to get rid of all the old foggies at the CBC and CTV. I am sure there are much younger men out there that could do the job. I think most of these anchors etc are stuck in the sixties and haven’t changed their opinion on anything since then. I am still waiting for them to admit their errors in false reporting the true facts about PET. and getting him elected for years to ruin Canada with his socialist ideas. Hey, I read that Buzz Hargrove is a possible replacement for martin. Another thing the press has ignored is that the leftists were reduced by over 20 seats in the election. Add the total lib and ndp before and now. That is a good start to bringing Canada back to a democratic country. Any truth that Emmerson will be a flag bearer in 2010 or will light the flame. Wouldn’t that be a kick in the face for V-K voters.
Snowbunnie: Er, your Kate’s aim is “like a Robin Hood arrow”, may not have been your finest simile, considering what RH was most famous for.
You said it, Kate. The reporters and commentariat in Ottawa think it’s up to them to write our national political narrative on behalf of all Canadians, and to decide the success of a government.
They don’t realize that their criteria are completely different from that of the rest of us.
The capitol press corp are primarily concerned with their own incestuous web of connections and inside information. Now that they are finally being positioned appropriately — as a separate entity from government — they are desperately attempting a communications-based form of extortions.
But inasmuch as their previous job description was “Liberal PR wonks”, they have been reassigned. That’s why we get to watch them go through the various stages of mourning — grief, anger, Boag-face, rage, denial, Van Dusen hair, and finally, acceptance.
They’re not at the “acceptance” stage yet, but judging by the tenor of their blatantly self-serving and self-pitying sob-stories, surely they must be getting close.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but how many times can a reporter whine about his/her own sudden irrelevence before readers/viewers start noticing the irrelevence of former Liberal toadies to the governing of this country?
‘sir rex’ simply doesn’t understand silence can speak louder than words!!
EBD – thanks for the laugh!!
I would have loved to see Julie(get a haircut) Van Duesen when PMSH dismissed her question with- when I have something to say I will say it – her hair must have been standing on end with the steam rising from between her ears!! I love it!!
Harper’s approach with the press reminds me of a law school demonstration I attended, given by an accompished lawyer. He pointed out the wisdom of not questioning witnesses more than was necessary – that way when you speak, the jury figures you have something important to say and they listen.
And that press conference thing – why do so many pundits think the PM holds press conferences to inform them? In my experience, they hold them to tell the press what they want them to know and keep them occupied.
Well Said, Kate.
“Mr. Harper doesn’t like the media, and he doesn’t think he needs them either, the columnist said…….. Harper thinks he’s very capable and doesn’t need the media to carry out his agenda.”
PM Harper is a smart guy.
The MSM overwhelmingly spins to the left, so how could they help deliver his message?
The old hacks are just trying to protect their investments ( ie-careers).
I believe that there was a similar perplexity among the buggy whip makers, about 100 years ago.
But unlike the buggy whip makers, they’ve brought this upon themselves.
They long ago stopped reporting the news and began to deliver their interpretation of the “news”.
Hear Hear!…good post Kate.
D
i love PMSH’s idea of having scrums in the house instead of over in the press gallery. my only wish is that he call them on a saturday or sunday as the news business is a 9-5 mon-friday industry. that might shake them up a bit in their thirst for recognition. keep it up PM.
Right again Kate.
It’s a red letter day when I disagree with Rex, but he really has reads this wrong. The purpose of government is clean, efficient running of public affairs. It is not there to generate headlines for lazy hacks. The stories are out there, and the first one they can write up is the sea change from the politics of sound bites to the politics of plans.
garhaneg
If ignorance is bliss, you must be very happy as well as totally incoherent
OT: Where is “Angry”?
jlc…
he’s having problems with his site for the last few days. its up then down. not really sure what the problem is.
Thanks, Spike.
I’ll try again later