My goodness. Can the country withstand a repeat of the national outpouring of disinterest that erupted during last year’s CBC strike?
In parliamentary press gallery story #1,356 about the parliamentary press gallery…
Prior to the start of a news conference in which Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Canada would contribute $40 million in humanitarian and military assistance to the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, members of the press gallery simultaneously got up and left, moments before the prime minister arrived in the room, in an act of defiance against new news conference rules imposed against the media.
Seems a perfect time to present the SDA Quote Of The Week – “Ural” on the Media Opposition Party;
“Greens would kill to get the press that the press gets”
If I were Stephen Harper, I’d use the opportunity to change the locks.
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!