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…)
Tony, you’d actually be correct in your opinion, but for one thing – the majority of Canadian mainstream media is little more than the propoganda wing of the left. Thus, not receiving our information from government through that filter does not particularly bother us.
When the tables are turned, their behavior adjusts accordingly. If it were not so, the Liberal government would have never survived Shawinigate, much less Adscam.
Quick question, Kate:
Where did you even HEAR about Adscam and Shawinigate?
Daniel Leblanc at the Globe and Mail broke Adscam and the scandal received blanket coverage in the MSM, and Shawinigate was the work of Andrew Macintosh at the National Post.
Yes, the Liberals survived the first. They didn’t survive the second.
I expect the Grits will fare much, much better next time they’re embroiled in scandal. Because you’ll never see the ministers involved on TV for most of the year and TV will have no pretty pictures on which to hang embarrassing stories.
Hopefully, the day that happens, you’ll remember how you felt in March 2006.
tony,
Quit trying to lay a guilt trip on Kate for something that is but a figment of your wishful imagination (i.e. the moment that the Liberals get back in to office and turn loose the terrible scary tactics of the Conservatives against Canadians)
Tony wonders where we heard about Adscam and Shawingate..
Actually, the first references to either were in the late, great “Frank” magazine. Its demise was the greatest loss to print reporting in Canada since Geoff Stevens was ousted from the Globe.
I’m not trying to guilt-trip anyone.
I’m stating the obvious.
The Liberals WILL be back in power someday. This isn’t my wishful thinking. It’s a truism. It might take a decade or more, it might take a year, but it will happen.
Do you think — do you actually THINK — the next time there’s an HRDC scandal, we’re going to see Jane Stewart’s hapless scrums fuelling TV coverage. And remember Paul Martin stuttering helplessly while trying to explain Adscam away?
You’ll get less priceless footage like that next time.
This has nothing to do with Liberal or Tory partisanship. I’m just saying it’s a bad thing when our country loses the one and only guaranteed way for its media to access the executive.
You’re cheering today because it’s the blue team carrying the puck. You won’t be the next time the red team has it.
End of story. Too bad we’re talking about something a little more important than a hockey game.
Hacks are bloviating again; all in a circle, eh jerks?
Lonely crows croaking in unison: CAW…CAW…CAW..CAW… buzzzzz +
Media Union Calls PM’s Tactics ‘Frightening’
Canada’s two biggest media unions are condemning Prime Minister Stephen Harper for what they call “undemocratic” and “frightening” attempts to limit journalists’ access to cabinet ministers. +
via nealenews.com
I seem to remember that it was the National Post that began the jouranlistic investigations into the HRDC and Shawinigate Scandals. Come on, Tony, these things, and lots more, had been going on under the Liberal “watch” for years, and up to time the National Post came on the scene none of the MSM had reported any of them: neither the CBC, nor the Probe and Fail–er, the Globe and Mail, nor the Toronto Star, etc., etc. ad nauseum.
It should come as no surprise that the left-leaning media are going to give a pass to a lot of the dirty dealings of their left-leaning pals in left-leaning political parties. Birds of a feather flock together. No wonder all this skullduggery was going on, and was never reported until the NP came along. All the MSM crowd and the Liberals were–and still are– schmoozing at the same parties. (Just listen to Mike Duffy crowing about the Martinis on the cocktail circuit he–and, says he, the Liberals–enjoy so much.)
And what planet are you living on when you say that CPC Cabinet ministers “have the luxury of just never showing up.”?
Parliament hasn’t even opened yet!! There’ll be lots of time for Canadians to observe CPC Cabinet members and MPs in action and, no doubt, once they’ve had a chance to actually get a few things done–remember, this Parliament is only two months old–they’ll be more visible and more able to comment on their portfolios. For Pete’s sake, give the CPC a chance to take a breath and begin to figure out their way of doing things without being under the “watchful” eye of the arrogant, never-been-elected members of the MSM.
This is deadicated to Toony with luv from Chuck.
Wait for the Librano$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to bring AdScam Chretien/ recall Martin back to the helm of the good ship C$L\/$$M Martin. In the meantime, enjoy this item. +
Guite trial to begin in May
Former bureaucrat Chuck Guite, charged in the federal sponsorship scandal, leaves a Montreal courtroom Wednesday. (CP PHOTO/Paul Chiasson)
MONTREAL (CP) – Jury selection will begin in early May for the trial of Chuck Guite, the disgraced former bureaucrat at the heart of the sponsorship scandal.
Guite was in charge of the sponsorship program that was supposed to boost the profile of the federal government in Quebec after the narrow victory by federalists in the 1995 Quebec referendum.
A public inquiry found that about $150 million of $355 million earmarked for the program went to Liberal-friendly ad agencies and other middlemen.
Guite faces trial on five fraud-related charges while a remaining conspiracy charge will be dealt with separately… + more
canoenews
My husband buys The Windsor Star. I totally ignore Susan Riley, Yaffee and a few other socialist writers. You just have to read the first line of their column and you know where they are going. It would not matter how well the conservative government does or what they do, these so called journalist will slam them.
The media unions are upset the reporters are kept away from cabinet ministers. Who, by going on strike, kept the ministers away from the media. Funny thing is some cdns think the cbc is still on strike, and others never knew they went on strike. Time to abolish the crtc and the cbc, or at least make them fire a good portion of their people. Anyone watch the HOUR, I can’t, I find the host talks too fast to be understood and supports all the left leaning agenda of the special interest groups. I did notice that Julie Van Duessen has taken some advise from posters and had her hair style changed. Do we really need Harper to be asked if he loves canada.
Mr. Sheikh-Iran, off the record, give us your opinion of Moh & Al.
Well, Ali, off the record, they are schmucks. That’s off the record, KO? +
Iranian Reformist Website: The Regime is Trying to Silence Internal Dissent Regarding Iran’s Nuclear Program
The reformist Internet daily Rooz recently reported that several reformist papers and news agencies had been threatened by government officials for publishing criticism of Iran’s nuclear policies. The media were also instructed by government officials as to the preferred manner of reporting on Iran’s nuclear crisis.Commenting on this issue, reformist journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi [1] reported on an open letter signed by five reformists criticizing the situation in Iran. Zeidabadi claimed that reformists avoid criticizing the regime in an explicit and unconstrained manner, since if they did so, they would be presented as enemies of Iran and its national interests. Their forced self-censorship, he says, enables the regime to present a united domestic front, and to claim that there is a national consensus regarding the necessity for the regime’s nuclear program.
The following is a report on the Rooz article regarding the constraints imposed on the Iranian media, and excerpts from Zeidabadi’s article:
MEMRI- Iranian nuke program……..
These warnings came at a time when the Iranian government had officially instructed the media not to publish critical reports concerning Iran’s sensitive nuclear talks or decisions. The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, had specifically instructed the press not to present Iran’s nuclear situation as a failure. More recently, he also met personally with several managing editors. He instructed them to write about Iran’s perseverance in the nuclear talks, and to refrain from publishing news about the possibility of military action against the country, threatening to revoke their publishing licenses should they fail to heed his instructions.
The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which is responsible for monitoring the media and press in Iran, has recently formed a new committee to oversee and closely monitor the materials published by the news agencies, especially [the reformist news agencies] Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) and the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA). +
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD112706
via newsbeat1.com
Tony, you’d actually be correct in your opinion, but for one thing – the majority of Canadian mainstream media is little more than the propoganda wing of the left. Thus, not receiving our information from government through that filter does not particularly bother us.
Yikes, I never thought I’d be on the other side of Kate on an issue, but I am somewhat here. The point is not tht the media is mainly leftist and arrogant – obviously this is true in this country. But I cannot sing hosannas of a government for practices that protect its representatives from questioning that they themselves do not frame or control. As has been noted elsewhere, much can be learned when politicians are confronted with questioning that they then dodge, or cannot answer, or start stammering when trying to answer. And remember, we do not want to set precedents/standards that any Liberal (or worse) government might adhere to.
Let’s watch Peter Mansbridge’s head explode on national tv. How do we do that you ask?
Announce that we are selling the CBC to Fox News.
Stephen Harper is doing the right thing by telling the media to stick it in their ass until they start actually telling the truth.
Is that too much to ask? Just the truth without the social engineering spin or their own personal biases.
If the MSM in Canada has nothing to do with their time, maybe they could cover this story, or would that be unacceptable because it might make the Lefty’s buddies at the UN look bad?
I’ll go out on a limb here and suggest that if it was the US instead of the UN involved in raping little girls in the Congo, the CBC would have it on morning noon and night for months on end.
Are the little children that were filmed being raped by these pigs simply collateral damage in the CBC’s war on George Bush and therefore expendable?
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/001492.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/UnitedNations/story?id=489306&page=1
“A scandal about the sexual abuse of Congolese women and children by U.N. officials and peacekeepers intensified Friday with the broadcast of explicit pictures of a French U.N. worker and Congolese girls and his claim that there was a network of pedophiles at the U.N. mission in Congo.
ABC News’ “20/20″ program showed pictures taken from the computer of a French U.N. transport worker. The hard drive reportedly contained thousands of photos of him with hundreds of girls. In one frame, a tear can be seen rolling down the cheek of a victim…
”
My heart is pumping pure porcupine piss for these pompous pityful pea-brained parlimentary pen pushers ( most of whom have the personlity of a peeled grape). Talk about the tail trying to wag the dog!
Good going Mr. Prime Minister!!! Thanks for starting to set things straight in regards to who really should be calling the shots in this country.
Tony – it was the Bloc that was on to Adscam, and the Canadian Alliance was right behaind them in breaking the biggest (so far!) filthy scam of the Liberanos. The CBC was just not doing their jobs by REPORTING. Wake up! Where was the MSM when the Cretin was waving around his scap of paper claiming it was a recipt for a multi million dollar sale of a hotel and golf course? Give your block head a shake.
Tony writes: “Do you think — do you actually THINK — the next time there’s an HRDC scandal, we’re going to see Jane Stewart’s hapless scrums fuelling TV coverage. And remember Paul Martin stuttering helplessly while trying to explain Adscam away?
You’ll get less priceless footage like that next time. ”
Er, priceless maybe, but effective? Jane Stewart didn’t lose her seat in the 2004; Paul Martin wasn’t exactly clobbered in the last election either – he lost, but didn’t lose to a majority.
So, while the scrums may make good theatre, they don’t do a damn thing to change either the policies of the current government, or the life of the government. You can scrum Belinda Stronach indefinitely, let people see just how unintelligent the high-school graduate is, and she’ll still win a ton of votes from people who like the way she dresses.
You might miss the scrum, Tony; I’d rather see intelligent essays based on something more than off-the-cuff comments. Somehow, I think we are both to be disappointed.
The Liebranos made Harper.