Michael Coren spills the beans;
At 6 p.m. on Saturday I received a call from a seemingly embarrassed Ms. Malik. “I’m afraid I have to tell you that we’re cancelling you for the morning. I’m so sorry. I do apologize for the inconvenience.”
I replied that it was indeed rather inconvenient because I had rearranged my Sunday to accommodate her, and that it was purely fortuitous that she had caught me at home. But, I continued, the greater point was why I was being cancelled.
“Well, we’ve just had our meeting and it was decided to change the panel.”
asked if the panel was being changed because of me. There was a pause. And then, “I have to be honest, I’m not going to lie or beat around the bush. Yes, it was.”
I asked how many people were at the meeting and was told there were “about 10.” I asked who some of them were but was told, “it would be unprofessional of me to tell you that.”
When I pushed for a more full explanation, the thickness of the plot became ludicrous. “We have to book panels that work together.” Fine, I replied, you don’t actually have a panel yet and the only person you are cancelling is myself. Mr. Laghi, the other panellist and someone I don’t even know, has not been cancelled and no third panellist yet booked.And, anyway, why would this panel not work?
I had a similar experience during the last week of the election. I was contacted by a producer with George Strombopolous inviting me to be on his show during election night returns. The details had been hammered out and we were setting up flight arrangements – when I was suddenly advised they wouldn’t need me after all. They’d decided to “change the format of the show”. Perhaps that was the truth – but as I was told I was being invited to provide a “conservative viewpoint”, I did wonder what happened to the format that made conservative viewpoints suddenly unecessary.
I feel sorry for those who cannot think for themselves,always taking a blinded partisan view of the world(right or left).
The MSM in this country is shameless with it’s attacks on the right while burying gaffs from the left.But at the same time,I also recognise that the Calgary press,for example,has a right-slant to it.Understandable,looking at the leanings of it’s consumers.
But,to me the line is crossed when these conniving journalists actively try to subvert the sitting government,hoping to replace it with one the voters have just said THEY DO NOT WANT.
To my thinking anyways,this is nothing less than a media sponsored coup attempt!Anyone who has taken time to observe the MSM here and still does not see this is no more than a partisan sheep without the mental capacity to think for themselves.Baaaahhhhh!
My big question is how do we expand this knowledge to “non-blogging”Canadians,as it is the traditional conveyers of information that are the problem?
Rick, don’t rag on me for misspelling “Maclean’s” — not until you learn to spell a simple word like “wear”. (It was late and I didn’t feel like checking). And as for the Alberta Report, I didn’t say it is (or was) “a venerable establishment magazine”. I said it was right-wing. Which it was (is). I haven’t seen the Standard, but I’ll wager it’s as right-wing as its predecessor. As for FoxNews, it’s on my Canadian TV, and can be seen by gullible and/or retarded Canadians. Besides, it’s always you conservatives who can’t distinguish between the U.S. and Canada, so I think your objection to adding Fox is specious.
Christ, if you can’t acknowledge the party organ of Bay Street as right wing, you must consider Ernst Zundel a moderate centrist!
The Globe and Mail, which publishes, or has published, Heather Mallick, Rick Salutin, John Ibbitson, Linda McQuaig – right wing? “The party organ of Bay St.”?
Just the fact that you think Bay St. even has a single, dedicated organ anymore, or that the majority of business executives can be categorized as political or cultural conservatives, shows how outdated your fantasies are, ‘R’, as does sweeping categorizations about conservatives and the U.S.
As for the Report, you made it sound like it was some leading indicator of political opinion, and not what it really was – no offense to Albertans on this forum: the voice of a politically marginalized part of the country. As long as you still look at the world like a Monopoly game, peachfuzz, your arguments will always reek of the soapbox and the mimeographed pamphlet, ‘R’.
And while we’re at it – why the anonymous posting, truth warrior?
Of course, using words like “gullible” and “retarded” is in the fine ad hominem tradition that gives away the depth of your argument in fractions of a millimetre.
Rick, it wouldn’t matter if the Globe and Mail were publishing columns by the channeled spirit of Leon Trotsky, it’s still a right wing newspaper. Just because it publishes a scattered few center-leftist columnists does not change that. In fact, that’s one of the strategies by which corporatist media portrays itself as “fair” — by allowing a few safe and reliable opinion-meisters some latitude in the oped section while using the news to advance a representation of the status quo. It’s story gathering, framing, and selection that does the trick, as you undoubtedly already know. A current example would be crime. Harper wants to waste millions on beefing up the Canadian prison industrial complex, so his conservobots in cabinet pass “get tough on crime” legislation, the oldest trick in the conservative “do nothing and make it look like something” bag of governance tricks. The media in the last week has been on an orgy of true crime stories, which gives the appearance of a nationwide crime wave. Before you try to marginalize me by accusing me of “conspiracy theory”, think about the news over the last week and ask yourself if it could be a coincidence that the passage of the crime bill and the recent orgy of sensationalist true crime news coverage could possibly be a coincidence. I don’t want to sound callous, but why should I give a fuck about some murder in Toronto all of a sudden? Why should I have every lurid detail recounted by the national media? I know neither the victim’s family nor the accused. Stories like that ought to be purely local, unless editors think that there’s a hype factor to be exploited. All it takes is a few overtly right wing editors to push the story and everybody else in the business stampedes to follow suit.
The reason for this is that the news media, especially TV news, is addicted to emotional hype as a substitute for reasoned discourse, just like you conservatives are. You can’t frame an issue without the requisite outrage, macho bluster or, in your case, portraying yourselves as an oppressed minority. these emotions sell, and so in the profit-driven sectors of the media industry the conservative virus finds a fertile host. Try to report the left wing view and you’ve got to do icky hard things like look at the facts and engage people’s intellects. Lazy journalists find it easier to regurgitate the hysteria and xenophobia upon which conservative politics thrives. That’s also why you conservatives hate the CBC so much — it IN THEORY has a marginally less chance of infection by the virus.
In case you hven’t noticed, the current Prime Minister is a conservobot from Alberta. Therefore, I think it disingenuous to claim that the views expressed in the Alberta Report lack influence nationally.
As for ad hominems, just read some of the posts by the conservobots on this blog and pay me a nickel for every comparison to Hitler or Stalin. Over the dinner I’ll be able to afford to buy us both I’ll explain to you why your complaint against my colorful and vivid language is hypocritical.
As for my anonymity, what’s that got to do with the substance of my arguments? If you don’t want to (or can’t) refute my arguments then don’t. Otherwise, my real name is my business, and I have good reason to keep it to myself which I don’t care to share with you.
Just ask Canadian Observer.
The only way to effectively refute R’s arguments are for R to renew his drug prescription.
Blinded by her ideology, R has no clue. Yes, the MSM in Canada as a whole does little investigative journalism. It regurgitated what the Liberal party told it. R does not take into account that the Liberal party of Canada is a party on the left. Just because it is not left enough for R and her ilk does not mean it is still not left. The difference between a Trotsyite and a Marxist-Leninist is no difference for all but the ideologically blinded.
enough
‘R’. – another personal-feelings-in-place-of-facts, retard. Welcome to the roach hotel. You’re the roach.
“The oldest trick in the Conservative do nothing and make it look like something bag of governance tricks.”
How does one even start with a comment like that? Are you not confusing the Conservatives who have been in government for a few months with the Liberals who were in government for 13 years?
“Why should I give a fuck about some murder in Toronto all of the sudden.” Comment on national media coverage.
Well, apart from the obvious – calloused bitch – lets compare that to Harper’s waistline, which was huge national news. Which do you think qualifies more as national news? And which do you think is obviously slanted?
“Try to report left wing views and you’ve got to do icky hard things like look at the facts and engage people’s intellects.”
You make me laugh. Name one fact that you put in your post. Remember, a fact not a feeling. And for more mental distress – name one left wing ‘intellect’ in Canada, who is able to engage anybody, let alone their intellect.
And finally, “If you don’t want to (or can’t) refute my arguments, then don’t.”
Your arguments? You haven’t presented any. It’s amazing that your brain knows enough to stay on auto-function in order for you to breath.
R’s comment about not giving ” a f**k about some murder in Toronto” is rather telling. Don’t worry R, you don’t sound callous at all, in fact you’re probably quite concerned about something crucial like McDonalds exporting US culture!
Outrage? Bluster? Xenophobia? Hysteria? You have to be kidding, no one makes more use of those emotions than the Left. Layton, Parrish, Jennings, Martin et al come to mind. Think – healthcare, weaponization of space, American this & American that.
To convince a Leftist you have to do icky hard things like convince them the concept is too nuanced & intellectual for them to understand & they’ll throw their full support behind. No one can march in lockstep like a Leftist.
You’re absolutely laughable! Thanks for the amusement.
The Liberals are not left wing…they are shape shifters who can appear left wing at certain times and right wing at other times. Certain social policies promoted by the Liberals are left wing, but when it comes to money matters, trade and being pro-business, they behave more like right wingers.
A part of the MSM reflects Liberal values (CBC, Toronto Star) but you can’t say that Canwest Global or The Sun aren’t right wing. They are a large player in the MSM of Canada. There is no true “left wing” viewpoint in the MSM.
What anon and ‘R’ – who’ve never worked in a newsroom, as far as I can tell – are blithely happy to ignore is the fact that conservatives are scarce on the ground in the print media, and positively endangered in the broadcast media. A paper – the Canwest-owned Post – can have what’s perceived as a conservative bias, but that’s usually limited to a handful of op-ed columnists, perhaps the editor and chief and publisher; the rank and file of the reporters and editors will (and are – I’m speaking from experience, children) be liberal, in the generally accepted use of the term: in favour of punitive and redistributive tax and economic policies, reduced military funding and capabilities, no change to public healthcare (if pressed, they’ll say that there’s nothing wrong with the current system that more money won’t fix), some sort of national day care system (don’t press them for details – they just want to save money and time raising their kids, and this is the only thing that makes sense). They’re also believers in some fuzzy version of nationalism that would like to see Quebec remain in the confederation at almost any cost, and whose jagged edge manifests itself as a knee-jerk anti-Americanism.
As such, they’re not terribly different from the average civil service worker, and are a perfect support base for Liberal and occasionally NDP political initiatives. They’re the people who really run the papers – they assign and write the stories, edit and fact-check them, and implement editorial policy in the manner that feels best for them. If you judge a newspaper by the people who work there, I doubt if there’s a truly conservative paper anywhere in Canada.
hmmm…I smell a troll…
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….
Bush is a small N nazi. He’s facist and elitest. He’s a meglomaniac.He white,uptight and outa sight. He’s a tampon. He’s a dictator that’s for sure. He’s admired by our own little Hitler,Harper.I hope he doesn’t piss off China and Russia over Iran. These are big guns not Iraq.
Let sleeping giants sleep.
Check out wordy rappinghood, here…
Well, a little balance. I once took part on a regular local radio show on CBC called the “Business Panel” or something like that–I got them, on-air at least, to change it to “Business and Labour Panel.” I represented a large federal public sector union at the time.
We ran about three or four times, and then I was dropped. I was told that this was due to “CBC renewal” and that the format was changing. And so it did–the other two panelists continued to get regular air time, their pro-business views now unimpeded by contrary opinion.
The CBC, like any other entity composed of human beings, is no monolith.
Well, a little balance. I once took part on a regular local radio show on CBC called the “Business Panel” or something like that–I got them, on-air at least, to change it to “Business and Labour Panel.” I represented a large federal public sector union at the time.
We ran about three or four times, and then I was dropped. I was told that this was due to “CBC renewal” and that the format was changing. And so it did–the other two panelists continued to get regular air time, their pro-business views now unimpeded by contrary opinion.
The CBC, like any other entity composed of human beings, is no monolith.
All the major papers are right wing. The national Post all radio talk shows. Just here in Sask,980 CJME hosted by a former Tory MLA,CKCK 620 that once offered Devine free air time,The Leader Post.
New media tries to make you Tories look good but it’s hard. You make yourselves look so bad. You have too many misguided fools in your party.
You give the media lots of ammo. Canada was just asked this week not to be chair persons of KYoto Accord. We’re too pro American and not independant. They want us off the committee. You do it all the time. Keep kiss assing the states and you’ll see what you’ll get. A shitty taste in your mouths.That’s all. You’re a joke party who are destined to be remembered as a ship of fools.