PMO keeps reporters at bay with new rules (Warning – Canadian Press item contains scenes of extreme whining that may offend some readers.)
Another useless tool of the CBC responds to remind Canadians just who runs this damned country, and offers up a threat;
Harper�s treatment of the media is that of an ingrate. The media made Harper. The media also first made Trudeau and Mulroney. Later, the media made both Trudeau and Mulroney and their parties suffer at the polls.
A similar fate awaits Harper if he doesn�t change his basic suspicion and hatred of reporters and news commentators.
And thus, in the space of two short paragraphs, we have public acknowledgement of the ethical bankruptcy of his profession, as well as justification for Harper’s suspicion and efforts to restore the Canadian media to an appropriate level of influence.
Nicely done, Mr. Zolf.
via Jack’s Newswatch
update – I’ll give CTV News credit where it is due here, as they actually mention SDA by URL, unlike so many items in which debate on “the blogs” is mentioned without specifying where it can be found. (Or maybe it’s just a sneaky way to send CTV readers to commentary calling Larry Zolf a useless tool…)
Anne:
I already emailed the PMO
I think my vote is what makes a politician, not the CBC. Larry Zolf and his ilk should get a slap up-side the head from taxpayers who are “forced” to contribute to Mr. Zolf’s salary and pension perks, whether we like what he reports or not. Mr. Harper should set the CBC straight – they are employed by taxpayers not the International Workers Party. I say it’s time to boot the CBC into ablivion, because I’ll subtract my tax contribution from this years’ Income Tax filing to prove my point. Try and “force” me to pay up for this group of public employees and I’ll take it very badly. Could be grounds for our own “Boston Tea Party”.
WAY TO GO HANS!!!
Bogus, how much do you figure to subtract? Maybe I will look forward to filing my income tax this year??
Where’s Pam?
Aisle 12. +
All those dick-chicks gravitate to powerful men …. wanting to possess their DNA ….. and rise up the ladder of the Ottawa bureaucracy ….. and maybe if some of the CBC chicks trying to get an interview with the PM would get a scoop if they wore a Monica beany …. slurp slurp …. LOLOLOL …..!!!!! +
http://www.voy.com/178771/8251.html
Its about time PMSH took controll of the media.I say way to go,if there was a burning issue that we as Canadians need to know! PMSH will let us know.
Press Positioning
Well, it’s all over the MSM sites and the blogs, with Small Dead Animals even getting honorable mention on the CTV site.
It seems the press is in a bit of a tizzy because they can no longer roam freely around “The Hill” asking useless questions, a…
The CTV merely mentioned SDA without providing a hyperlink like so many other news outlets, particularly non-MSM ones.
CTV, get with the times or fall behind.
Provide a hyperlink to this post. How hard is it for so many employees paid so well to use state-of-the-art technology?
Or were y’all just following orders?
Wanna be journalists you do have a way to go. You figure your bad, cool language overcomes failure of abacus Harper, he’s an accountant, remember — to provide for the transparency he droned on about ad nauseum on campaign trail.
Immature adults running like lemmings so bent on being cool — how COOL is accountability act which incorporates financial incentives (bribes) to report on corruption. That is NOT COOL FOLKS, nor does it bode well for responsible government.
Wanna be journalists you do have a way to go. You figure your bad, cool language overcomes failure of abacus Harper, he’s an accountant, remember — to provide for the transparency he droned on about ad nauseum on campaign trail.
Immature adults running like lemmings so bent on being cool — how COOL is accountability act which incorporates financial incentives (bribes) to report on corruption. That is NOT COOL FOLKS, nor does it bode well for responsible government.
Wanna be journalists you do have a way to go. You figure your bad, cool language overcomes failure of abacus Harper, he’s an accountant, remember — to provide for the transparency he droned on about ad nauseum on campaign trail.
Immature adults running like lemmings so bent on being cool — how COOL is accountability act which incorporates financial incentives (bribes) to report on corruption. That is NOT COOL FOLKS, nor does it bode well for responsible government.
Transparency doesn’t mean photo-ops, anonymous. Ever notice that Harper actually answers questions instead of dissembling like the former leaders of the transparently (to all but the media) corrupt Liberals?
I have always considered the media to be the eyes and ears of the constituents. We cannot be there to ask the questions that we like to see put forth.
To limit the ability of the media to speak as proxy and ask questions is akin to muzzling the consituent.
What doth Caesar fear?
Larry Zolf should try holding his breath, if his public tantrum does’nt quite work out for him.
Can he find hats in his size?
The thing is, most people pay no attention to political commentary, and little to day-by-day political events.
The longer the governement ignores the media except as necessary the better its chances are.
Besides, which counts? Media or Parliament? After which remain the voters.
Mark
Ottawa
This is scary. Zolf has essentially proclaimed that the media sets the political agenda in this country. That he has said so, so openly, suggests that it is well understood at least within CBC. CBC, then, is openly and unapologetically violating its mandate. And apparently Zolf feels CBC is entitled to do so, and that Harper should be thankful.
I don’t know if we need to kill the CBC, but, clearly, a massive purging of its executive is long overdue.
TonyG, send an email to your MP if you have a question. Do you REALLY need a reporter to ask questions for you? Really?
You seem to have commenting down pat; next step – email. Or the phone, that works too.
My heart is pumping pure porcupine piss for these pompous pin headed parliamentary pen pushers. Talk about the tail trying to wag the dog!
Three cheers for Mr. Harper for starting to bring the government back for the people. These media types who inhabit Parliament Hill may have to find the story and then write it, rather than the story coming to them, at a time selected by them. I, for one, am getting very tired of the media trying to spin things rather than actually reporting ” the news of the day”.
I can just imagine how the media will work the Opposition on this one. There will be major whining and moaning in gigantic proportions, but I hope the present administration will stick to their guns and make this work. We will all be the better for it.
Ha & editors write a good story:
“…organizers for the Liberal Party of Canada sought kickbacks from him.”
This is damning testimony:names named: Chretien, Corriveau,Beliveau, Corbeil, Renaud; secret donations demanded; [24] Sussex Drive & etc.
One word missing, though: Librano$$$$$$$$$$$$, aka Conspiracy: To Defraud & Expropriate the Tax Base of Canada. This was a scheme organized through the PMO/PCO of the time.
Damn you all to hell.
Get them all into the Crowbar Hotel, aka the Pen, aka prison. +
Author: The Legacy.
Of 13 years of(——) rule!
Brault blames Liberals for fraud
TU THANH HA
MONTREAL — A key figure in the sponsorship scandal explained yesterday that he defrauded Ottawa in contracts worth $1.6-million after organizers for the Liberal Party of Canada sought kickbacks from him.
Ad executive Jean Brault, who pleaded guilty last month to five counts of fraud relating to five federal contracts, was testifying at his pre-sentencing hearing.
The prosecution is expected to ask for a jail term of three or four years when the hearing continues today.
Yesterday, Mr. Brault told the court that his fraud followed demands for secret donations.
“I’m not trying to excuse what I did, but essentially it’s the political demands, the demands on me, that led me to take that first step.”
At the same time, he added that “I am the only one responsible for this, no matter what I might say otherwise.”
He apologized to “my children, who before had an entrepreneur father and now have to face a fraudster father.”
As he spoke, he held before him two pictures of his parents.
The political organizers he mentioned are the same he named at the Gomery inquiry: Jacques Corriveau, a friend of former prime minister Jean Chr�tien; former Quebec wing executives Michel B�liveau and Beno�t Corbeil; and lobbyist Alain Renaud.
The end of the presentation of evidence yesterday left an intriguing question unanswered. In an earlier hearing, the court was told that Mr. Brault’s right-hand man, Fran�ois Desjardins, had run errands to the home of Mr. Chr�tien in the late 1990s.
“I went to the home of Prime Minister Chr�tien, on several occasions. Once I drove Mr. Chr�tien’s brother, from Saint-Lambert, to Sussex Drive,” Mr. Desjardins said in a statement to the RCMP that was read in court last fall. + more
http://www.voy.com/178771/8052.html
New Kid on the Block, you’ve said it! Actually, my sister once gave up the CBC for Lent. Then so did I. We never went back: our quality of life’s improved considerably ever since!
Larry Zolf’s guilty of magic thinking. (Well, maybe not guilty: I think one has to be of sound mind for that designation.) He wrote: “The media also gave Harper credit for change, praising his policy-a-day campaign as proof positive that he was now a moderate and a progressive and not the ‘scary’ right-winger of his Reform days.
It was the media that made Harper a major contender in Quebec, where the Charest machine gave him a modest 10 seats.”
Right, Larry. And I have no clue about the date of my birthday or my children’s names because the MSM hasn’t noted and approved them yet. I fear I waste my breath, but, Mr. Zolf, smarten up!
And, Canada, wake up!
anonymous,
Actually, i welcome financial incentives for exposing corruption. If you knew anything about human nature, you’d realize that this is one of the most potent weapons we have agaisnt it. The motivation behind whistleblowing doesn’t matter. As long as the reward is less than what would have been stolen, everybody wins (except the thief who goes to jail). Whats not to like?
I wish I had a quarter for every time CBC said something completely asinine. Come to think of it … I would, if there was no CBC.
I like the letter response……
LETTERS:
This is quite arrogant and unbelievable of Larry Zolf to surmise that the media elects Parliamentarians and Prime Ministers are mere puppets of these King makers, who will suffer an inglorious fate if the media decide to make it so.
Last time I checked, I the Citizen of this country elect a citizen of this country to be a parliamentarian and in turn to be the PRIME MINISTER. Since when have we surrendered our right to vote to you arrogant clowns in the liberal mass media
? �Ron Adriano | Ottawa
I hate Canadians who wanna be Americans! Move south of the border if you want to act like a gun toting Texan. Your voice does not reflect that of ordinary Canadians.
I get a kick out of the CBC. I bet you they think the TV dial picks up only three stations still. Four if you can get that whacky UHF station from Buffalo. Follow the trend. Declining viewership plus declining readership equals one drowned out message. So go ahead boys, hit your heads against the wall. No one is paying attention anymore.
Real Cdn,
“Your voice does not reflect that of ordinary Canadians.”
So tell me – what do “ordinary Canadians” … the ones you don’t hate … stand for?
This just shows the utter incompetence of the Canadian media. Their obsession over “press gallery rules” is hysterical. Even in our extreme leftist J-schools, they teach rule #1: DON’T MAKE YOURSELF THE STORY!
The story has no resonance. Only two things have connected with the public so far: Emerson, and Afghanistan. Afghanistan trumps Emerson by far. Harper is winning fans, and there’s nothing Tony Burman can do about it.
A Real? Cdn:
“I hate Canadians who wanna be Americans! Move south of the border if you want to act like a gun toting Texan. Your voice does not reflect that of ordinary Canadians.”
Did I miss something? What does guns, Texas and Americans have to do with an ignorant egotistical “journalist” who thinks he can make or break governments at the snap of his fingers?
Let’s try to stay on topic eh? Your leftie anti-American drivel is getting old.
BTW: I am Canadian. I am a Texan. I have Canadian relatives. I have American relatives. I served my country for over 22 years. I have a gun (and a rifle too). Both firearms are back in Canada. Wow.
Sorry Kate. I think a troll just got me. Tsk, the shame of it all.
This is starting to get old but…. “the media made Harper” what a joke. They did their damnest to deride him until they realized the public was behind him. Not wanting to be seen as the dinosaurs they are they went from derision to “grudging acceptance” of Harper.
It’s a about time the MSM got a bloody nose, what a bunch of bed wetter’s!
TonyG, send an email to your MP if you have a question.
Yeah, that makes sense: forget the media, everybody just send your MP a letter or email if you’ve a question. I’m sure that will be, for example, an objective, unbiased, and transparent source of information on any issues of controversy involving the government, and will facilitate a good general understanding of the MP’s performance and behaviour in those circumstances.
I’m no fan of the MSM, their arrogance, and frequently exposed biases, but too many of the comments here seem to be swinging too hard the other way, as if the fourth estate had no meaningful role to play in disseminating information in a democracy, and we should be content with government press releases and staged “message” events, with bloggers picking up the slack. Does this sound good? I think not.
Remember, this cuts both ways – we wouldn’t/didn’t take it well if the Liberals treated cabinet meetings like state secrets and dodged questioning; why should we be so cavalier when our team does this? Also, just because most MSM sources are of the left dosen’t mean the media should be stonewalled or so tightly “managed”, as this makes it more difficult for *any* reporters to do their reporting. I mean, for example, many bloggers are doing analyses of facts gleaned, not getting them firsthand, and statements from the questioning of politicians in all sorts of circumstances feed into this; while of course this is hardly the only source of info on government actions, overly tight control of media access by a government can cramp analysis and does get me a tad concerned.
Having said that, I assume that this is just a temporary phase until Parliament resumes and the new government gets their “sea legs” in power and some more esprit de corps. At least I hope so. I mean, these folks aren’t dumb or flustered – they can handle themselves when faced with dumbass questions.
Further to the above: there’s a good piece on this whole issue over at S’Wells site, but I suppose most of you will already know that…
so far this week i’ve seen pm. harper once , flaherty once , turner once all giving interviews , and the b.c. premier talking about meeting with harper .its only tues. wheres the damn blackout ?
ooops and i forgot my own mp. monty solberg yesterday , also giving an interview.
A government that does the work we hired them for then at an appropriate time announces all the information and answers questions. Questions that can be responded to with well researched knowledgable facts.
I have got to say I have never felt so optomistic about my country in my entire life.
Prime Minister Harper just keeps getting better and better.
We have grown ups running the Country now.
I can finally relax and know we have competant management running the place.
It’s pure joy waiting to see what he will do next.
This is actually fun.
BWAHAHAHA. NEXT THE WORLD.
You would have thought the MSM would have learned from the Dan Rather debacle.
It just shows the complete contempt they have towards the public at large. An infalted sense of purpose if nothing else.
PMSh id dping the right thing in bring some dignity back to the office.
I remember Ronald Regan having to do the same. Carter had so debased the meetings. They became shouting matches. Sucking up too the press never helped him.
This will be an improvment on news. They will have to dig for substance. Not the dreams they have up too now, equated with truth. Instead they will have to get dirty & ask real people about substansive issues.
The CBC has become a hinderance to our growth. As is the CRTC. I can see the ultimite absurdity of the CRTC declaring 100% Canadian content & only CBC is Canadian. A one station Nation.
I can see the CBC execs praying to the ghosts of the liberal past, this becomes true.
I can’t help but find the subtle comedy here…all the while Mr. Zolf and many like him threaten Mr. Harper’s popularity and credibility, their own has melted to point the point of non-consequence. There are a few good ones still out there, but they are becoming fewer and fewer.
Mr. Zolf et al @ CBC are in dire need of a reality enema. 🙂
Most people who read their news on the internet on blogs like Kate’s sda, Angry in the great white north and Shotgun watch and read MSM for amusement. Those MSM people are in grade two compared to Kate, Steve, Darcy, WS and their astute commentaters who graduated from University of Journalism in the honest real world months ago. Just read over Kate’s CBC election blogs – Dy-no-mite!!It was the bloggers who helped Stehen Harper and the Conservatives win the last election because they held the liars in MSM to the truth fire and charred them!! It was one of the best ‘Roasts’ I have ever seen. I say Bravo Stephen Harper – let the MSM go find something else to do for a living because they are whining to a deaf crowd. ‘What goes around comes around’ the MSM did not report the real news in the last 20 years – they covered up for the Liberano/Dipper outfits – it was not just the Liberanos that lost the election – the MSM lost because the bloggers exposed them. I like the way PMSH treats that murder of crows of so called ‘reporters’. They( MSM) can watch CPAC with the rest of us to get their ‘news’ or read sda!! heh.
I’m wondering if the CBC ombusdman reads SDA? In a comment here yesterday, I noted how I’d been waiting over a month to hear from him about the “Heil Haper” incident (pure mistake by the technician, BTW; I told him I still didn’t buy this reason, though I’d like it to be true) and Julie Van Dusen’s use of “tush”–the body part David Emerson was supposed to have got to a media scrum and didn’t, which really pissed her off. (Tony Burman says she wasn’t angry and that “tush” is part of the vernacular–at the CBC I’ll bet it is; the ombudsman is just writing up his report on this one.) HE had suggested we clarify things by phone and–was I stupid?–I gave him my phone number.
Well, wuddyaknow? Last night, the ombudsman called.
Coincidence?
NKOTB – so what did the ombudsman have to say?
I find it interesting that despite the MSM saying they are getting no “leaks”, “news”, “press conferences” etc. I think we are seeing alot of cabinet ministers and the prime minister himself making annoucements, answering questions and appearing on newsworld, Duffy, Question Period.
I think that the pissed off press gallery members are the ones that used to get the under the table leaks from the Liberals and with little or no work spew out the spin – they are having to work for it now and are pissed off.
I think that there are a few reporters who take the time to find out the facts, ask thought provoking questions, write factual articles – those are the reporters who will get access to the PMO – this will be like the parent who gets good behavior by ignoring the bad and rewarding the good.
The MSM will either fall into line or be “left” out in the cold – their whining is getting louder and more abrasive (just like the spoiled little bratty kid) and needs some tough love to bring them into line.
Just further proof that CBC is Pravda and a tool of the “liberal elite” .
CTV Tass is not much different. maybe a little more dangerous because they hide behind the facade of a public company.
Compare/contrast the MSM here:
Hebert: Forget Harper, Chretien was a master at dodging media
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is hardly the first to use his post-election honeymoon to expand the private space of his government at the expense of the parliamentary press gallery.
hamilton spectator via the star +
White House staff can’t keep Canadian PM straight
Here’s a tip for White House staff trying to pick out Canada’s prime minister at the “three amigos” summit in Cancun, he’s the bookish-looking one with the paunch.
the povince via canwest +
via nealenews.com
As many comments above note, the CBC’s viewership continues to fail, and Canadians are choosing their news from a variety of other sources.
But here’s the thing: outside of hockey and some other sporting events, I never watch the CBC. Usually, it’s because I don’t find their programming interesting, and sometimes it’s because my mind-filter taints anything on CBC as “bad” – perhaps due to earlier exposure to the Beachcombers. But I’m discovering – thanks to Showcase, for example – that some of the shows the CBC put on were actually quite funny. “The Newsroom” comes to mind as a particularly apropos case here, dealing as it did with venal producers and airhead anchors (hi Peter Mansbridge! jagshemash!).
So my point is “Is the CBC brand being ruined by its news department?”. CBC sports does a good job of covering hockey, football, and curling, and meets such as the Olympics (even my US friends who watched both thought the CBC coverage was far superior to NBC’s). As noted above, the CBC has produced some sitcoms that are actually interesting (“Wonderland” is another). CBC documentaries are obviously biased (see McKenna passim ad nauseum), but professionally done. It’s their news department that gets me rising from my chair screaming (when I used to watch them), and now has put me in the mindset of totally ignoring the channel altogether.
Maybe the CBC brass should all go watch the movie “Network” ten times in a row, and learn how their news department is killing their brand. Then they might re-invent it to be less pompous, out of touch, and more reflective of Canada as a whole, as opposed to a few square blocks of people in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal.
Naaaah. Never happen.
Speaking of the media trying to un-seat the bad ol’ Harper Government… Nealenews has a link to Susan Riley’s Column at The Windsor Star today March 29.
Get this, she says “The Liberal party doesn’t need a “mission” statement, either. It needs to defeat the Harper Conservatives before they inflict serious damage on the economy, the nation’s social fabric, international reputation or domestic unity.”
Uh Ms. Riley, I think those things have already been done… by The LIBERALS.
Re: Useless tools at the CBC,
I see they have picked up Heather Mallick, a left handed tool if there ever was one.
Here are a few paragraphs from a recent column she wrote for the CBC about the good people of South Dakota and the attempt there to get a court ruling on late term abortions (BIG BARF ALERT!).
“If I were pregnant and earning working-class wages in Canada, Sgt. Harper’s decision to destroy national daycare in its infancy might well make me decide to have an abortion. You can’t be a single mother and prosper; it isn’t possible here.
I greatly enjoy mocking the red states as they eagerly damage their own interests by increasing the misery quotient for women. South Dakota is a vital part of what the New York author Jonathan Franzen calls the “strategic national reserve of cluelessness.”
But of course it’s only funny because I’m not there and never will be. It’s not funny ha-ha, it’s funny-evil, like serial killer John Wayne Gacy in his clown costume.
What vast realms of cruelty lie in the blank American Midwest, not a heartland but a land of heartlessness. You look out the window of the plane in shock and awe.”
Wow.
They hypocrisy on this page is stunning and — I guarantee you this — will eventually come around to bite a few right-wing butts.
If the Liberals had attempted six months ago what Harper is trying to do now, there would have been an uprising on this site. But, to a punch of political homers like yourselves, I suppose it’s all fine and dandy when the blue team — not the red team — is committing the infraction.
Now here’s the fun part — and I’m sure you’ll love it.
The Liberals WILL eventually be back in power — maybe in 10 years, maybe in five, maybe in one.
And when they are, you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll stick to Harper’s gameplan.
So remember this the next time there’s a gun-registry fiasco. Or an HRDC boondoggle. Or a sponsorship scandal (which, by the way, was completely, entirely uncovered by your much-loathed MSM, whose reports led to an auditor-general’s investigation, which led to the Gomery inquiry, which led to the election of a Tory government).
Please keep your blind, partisan cheerleading in mind the next time the Natural Governing Party’s in power and its ministers can basically go an entire year without taking questions from the press as they use escape routes in elevators and back doors to slide away unobstructed.
And if that accepted secrecy helps double the length of the next Liberal government, I hope you’ll all be proud of how loudly you cheered on the blue team.
Wow.
They hypocrisy on this page is stunning and — I guarantee you this — will eventually come around to bite a few right-wing butts.
If the Liberals had attempted six months ago what Harper is trying to do now, there would have been an uprising on this site. But, to a bunch of political homers like yourselves, I suppose it’s all fine and dandy when the blue team — not the red team — is committing the infraction.
Now here’s the fun part — and I’m sure you’ll love it.
The Liberals WILL eventually be back in power — maybe in 10 years, maybe in five, maybe in one.
And when they are, you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll stick to Harper’s gameplan.
So remember this the next time there’s a gun-registry fiasco. Or an HRDC boondoggle. Or a sponsorship scandal (which, by the way, was completely, entirely uncovered by your much-loathed MSM, whose reports led to an auditor-general’s investigation, which led to the Gomery inquiry, which led to the election of a Tory government).
Please keep your blind, partisan cheerleading in mind the next time the Natural Governing Party’s in power and its ministers can basically go an entire year without taking questions from the press as they use escape routes in elevators and back doors to slide away unobstructed.
And if that accepted secrecy helps double the length of the next Liberal government, I hope you’ll all be proud of how loudly you cheered on the blue team.
Tony, if the Liberals when back in power hold press conferences where they honestly answer questions and provide relevant information as PM Harper is doing it will be a great improvement over the Liberals’past performance. The problem with many in the media (and some in the public) is that they confuse accessibility with information. How much information did we get from Chretien and Martin in the media scrums? None. Basically the media and the Liberals used this for theatre, nothing more. I have learned more on our reasons for being in Afghanistan in the last 2 weeks from PM Harper than I did in the last few years of Chretien/Martin.
All true, Paul.
Alot of those news conferences were indeed crap.
But at least ministers in trouble had to stand there and stew in controversy, answering uncomfortable questions.
Or they had the option of walking past the cameras and looking all the more guilty — or imcompetent — on the 11 o’clock news.
Now they have the luxury of just never showing up.
And, as I said, I’ll bet you a few bucks that in the long run this will help a Liberal government to a degree that will someday infuriate all those people so eagerly and blindly waving that blue flag today.