A reader has asked a very good question – is there a list anywhere of the names of the members of the Ottawa press gallery who walked out on the Harper news conference on Darfur?
I’d appreciate the information, if someone has it to send along or drop into the comments section. The media demands transparency from politicians – Canadians should expect no less from them.
Let’s have the names, and those of their employers.
While we’re on the topic – 75% of callers in an informal poll on John Gormley Live this morning disagreed with the host and believe Harper should tell the OPG to go pound sand. I think the word “crybaby” came up multiple times. The very public pity party the media are holding for each other may be backfiring.
Stephen Taylor;
As I’ve noted before, the press gallery has evolved past its primary role of reporting the news to dictating how the Prime Minister should disseminate information via reporters to the electorate. The Prime Minister refuses to relinquish control over his communications strategy to an unelected and unaccountable body which he has now deemed biased and frankly, that’s his prerogative.
He suggests the Ottawa Press Gallery has more to fear from their impending obsolescence than they do a PM who won’t play by rules designed for a communications age that has long passed them by.
G&M poll
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has accused the national media of being biased against him, do you agree?
Yes (57%) 17477 votes
h/t Hans Rupprecht in the comments.
Eskimo and Robert
The point of a free press is that they report and comment freely without worrying about whether or not what they publish pleases the government. It is not their job to please the government or walk on eggshells but to report and comment as they see fit. Then the people will decide whether or not to buy their take on the governments story. If the government doesn’t like the media’s take they can release and keep releasing clarifications.
Usually there is a variance of opinions in the press. Once in a while, there is agreement, as in the Liberal corruption scandal. That is just reality. That is the way it is supposed to be. It is not a conspiracy. The government has to take a tranquillizer and/or enema and learn to roll with the punches and persist in getting its message out. Focus on transmitting the message not beating up the messanger.
Jim Travesty’s comment after the Cancun Summit calling our Prime Minister “a doughboy in a fishing vest” might make it quite disingenuos if he now pleads “no bias here-run along – doughboy, fatso, angry, scary, hidden agenda Bush-buddy Harpoon is just being paranoid”.
That about sums up the argument various (not all) Ottawa media pundits (not reporters – opinion mongers) have made in the last few days about this.
Now they are belittling the regional press. Duffy or Newman said today “Maybe Harper thinks that the local media are green and inexperienced so won’t know how to ask the tough questions and he’ll get an easier ride”.
Talk about ego about their own self-importance and elitism. Then, that regional media gets “fed” stories from the PPG so that would dry up.
Well, we all know that it works both ways – the regions “feed” stories to the national networks. They all have stringers in the regions.
The Ottawa media can’t even seem to get the story about what happened with the Press Gallery straight and are inacurately paraphrasing what the PM said about it. Proving, as we all concur that they are NOT news reporters – they are spin doctors who truly believe that THEIR opinion or interpretation of fact is more important than the facts themselves and that we the people are too stupid to have our own opinions.
The complete collapse of Qubecor stock should serve as a warning the the paper press.
The complete collapse of Qubecor stock should serve as a warning the the paper press.
Right, Lorraine.
The PPG are in a real sweat right now, for they are realizing that their brinkmanship tactics of all walking out and refusing to play by Harper’s rules, has not had the result they expected. They expected Harper to cave in to them. But he treated them like the adolescents they are, and said ‘OK’ – if you don’t like the rules, then, don’t live here’.
They are stunned.
They are now trying to spin the story to make it Harper’s fault. They are saying that he wants to select reporters, because he will ask those reporters who will support him, and not ask him ‘hard questions’.
First, provide proof of this allegation. There is no proof that Harper does this.
Second, provide proof that you, the PPG, will not select reporters for their ‘hard questions’, but will select them for their anti-Harper bias.
And, provide proof that there is a deeper agenda, about PPG politics, with a hierarchical list of power. You will not permit young reporters to get to ask the questions; you will only permit the Old Guard to ask the questions. The agenda, is not about delivering information to the public. The agenda is front page kudos for Your Gang.
And, how do you get front page Kudos? By a member of the Old Guard, writing a hostile story, filled with emotional allegations.
The PPG is not interested in delivering information.
Their current allegation that their sole concern is that the ‘seasoned reporters’ will not be selected by Harper (why not?) and thus, these ‘young reporters’ won’t ask ‘hard questions’ to fully explore the issue is bogus.
Their hidden assumption is that they are saying that Harper KNOWS that their seasoned reporters are hostile to him. How would he know this? Would it be because these individuals have written unfair columns filled with misinformation and fallacious allegations? Is that why Harper wouldn’t select them?
And another hidden assumption is their egoistic assertion that a young reporter would be unable to ‘get the facts’.
We never got the facts about the Liberal government. Not for years and years and years.
But now, the PPG is finding itself irrelevant. And it’s in an absolute sweat.
About those facts – Jane Tabor was grilling the Conservatives during the election campaign about their platform using 100% Liberal smear and fear and false talking notes.
When she was told – all of this is in our platfrom she said, GET THIS, Oh, I Havn’t read it!!!!!!
And of course – they still spread the lies and fallacys about Kyoto – makes for inciting a good political fight – who cares if it is lies.
Harper would have liked to have thrown the PPG out on their asses. Instead, the childish group of putzes did him a favour and threw themselves out. Three steps behind again, as usual.
Well played indeed! He makes it look easy.
Right, Lorraine.
Remember the PPG spread the lies about SSM, never questioning Martin’s lie that ‘it’s a requirement of the Charter’, when it most certainly is NOT a Charter Right. Did the PPG inform us that it isn’t a Charter Right? Did they ask Martin why he kept repeating this blatant lie? Never.
They don’t question the ‘5,000 hits a day’ falsehood with the gun registry. If these guys are so intelligent, such ‘seasoned journalists’, then, it shouldn’t have taken them more than a minute to realize that there was something very wrong with that figure.
It means there are 5,000 long gun related crimes per day, 35,000 per week, almost two million a year, in Canada!!
But, there are only about 15,000 gun related crimes a year in Canada. Most of them are handguns, and these have been registered for over 70 years.
So- did the PPG investigate this ignorant 5,000 hits a day? No. Never. They just keep repeating it.
So, the PPG isn’t interested in information. It has moved, slithered, into its own power agenda, with its own executive, its own rules, its own ‘hidden agenda’ – which is to ensure that the Favored Gang get the front page story, not whoever isn’t ‘in favour’ with The Gang.
Their current blarney about ‘Harper will only pick softie reporters who are favorable to him’ shows us, still, how they continue to denigrate and demean him.
And how they, unconsciously, assert that Their Boys aren’t Harper-Friendly, and won’t ask friendly questions and therefore won’t be picked.
Again, I maintain that the real reason is a kind of internal politics in the PPG, and their control over careers and ‘advancement in the political journalism world’.
After all, if we think of merit, how could clueless and dumb people like Jane Taber, Sue Delacourt, Lawrence Martin, Jim Travers etc, ever have made it into their own columns and front pages, without a helping hand? The world of political journalism is as loaded with political agendas and ‘helping hands’ as any other group system.
And now, that Harper has caught them in their agenda, they are absolutely stunned.
Todd said “if there’s no way to question, what’s the point in being there?”
Todd, the point is that there is a way to question being offered. The prima donnas are not choosing to accept the new PMO protocall which will no doubt bring about an assemblance od order and send the circus packing.
Daniel
Steve D. I can tell by all your comments that you get all your information from the MSM. If you didn’t you would not be a raging Lieberal! Hmmmmmmmm, how come I see you on so many blogs then. Just wondering.
Steve D – “free press”… are you kidding? Look at the ownership/executive management/editorial heads of the MSM in this country and their ties to the lying, thieving, power-hungry, hypocritical Libranos and try telling us with a straight face that we have a “free press”.
He may not have walked out, but this guy encouraged it… the Pres. of the Press Gallary.
“Yves Malo, a reporter with the Quebec-based TVA network, who urged his colleagues to walk out of the Tuesday news conference”
Via The Globe & Mail.
“…if there’s no way to question…”
If that were true you might have had a point.
PPG have decided they’re entitled to their entitlements.
The PM is telling them no.
If the PPG find adding their names to a list is so terribily onerous, they can ask their employers to reassign them.
Once again folks, very straightforward.
eliza
Just like almost everyone else I go to the MSM every day. I also go to the internet blogs every day. I think I get a more complete picture that way.
Shaken
You are right. The MSM I think is owned by a half dozen families. Interestingly, the most Left source is, The Toronto Star, which is not owned by those few families.It is not really Left, but they do have a focus on the underdog, the disadvantaged, which I like.
In my view most of the media is more right of centre than it is left of centre. Most visitors to this site would disagree of course. If the Left is not represented and the Right is not represented that leaves the Centre. If the Centre is what is represented by the media then that is just good business because that is where most Canadians are.
steve d.: Do you really think that Giggles Taber was able to write countless articles based on anonymous Liberal sources (i.e. PMO) without compromising her ability to report freely and fairly?
If the reporter doesn’t stick close to the party line, sources that show a reporter huge favour have a funny way of drying up.
Mark
Ottawa
Mark
Ottawa
I don’t think it is even so much a left or right bias with some of them. It is a power trip that somehow some of these unelected hangers on feel they have the absolute God givern right to call the Prime Minister of our country fatso, Stevie, a doughboy in a fishing vest, petulant, angry, iceman,Bush buddy, Neo-Con …(insert your own slanderous defamation personal attack words here)…and they feel somehow that THEY can get away with it because THEY have freedom of the press and THEY are holding the goverment accountable!!!
Would THEY do that to any other citizen of our country and get away with it? Think about it.
The Conservative Reclaimation Of North America
( http://71.18.16.165/2006/05/conservative-reclaimation-of-north.html )
Step 1: Take Back The MSM
Hopefully I’ll get step 2 written before they start doing it…
I think Harper is afraid of the media. He and his party don’t look too good at a news conference.
He says word for word Bush’s speeches. He’s still on the honeymoon and I’m sure their true colors will come out. He’s just boring like Stanfield was. He has the personality of a slug. He’s going to have to be honest because he has an opposition at least part of which will keep us as voters informed.
Oh my God, it’s tony again? I was reading his post and wondering WHO is this guy/gal spouting all this horse***t, and scrolled down to find…tony, a CBC troll, I’d bet my bottom dollar.
Look: If it hadn’t been for the National Post, none of the crap the Libs were involved in would have been exposed. I was actually a subscriber to the Probe and Fail at the time, and they did NOT expose the Libs. They’d had years to expose them and just didn’t.
Re the sponsorship scandal: It was around for YEARS and where were the Probe and Fail, the Star, the CBC? How come it took the Gomery Commission to finally begin to deal with years of skullduggery? If it hadn’t been for the pressure the Alliance, Reform, CPC began putting on the government as they attempted to be “the loyal opposition,” which doesn’t mean gratuitously opposing the government but advocating for the Canadian public, I suspect the coverup would have continued.
Re the income trust scandal: Yeah. And what’s happened about it? Scotty Brison’s running for the Liberal leadership. Why no investigation of him and his part in this? On the other hand, isn’t he being investigated? What’s the upshot? Who’s asking? Who’s reporting? Where the H__ is the MSM on this one? PMSH’s fat belly and oh so inelegant flak jacket were more press worthy, it seems.
Re Paul Martin’s weak leadership: TOO MANY YEARS OF IT. If the MSM had been doing their job of investigative reporting, he’d probably never have become the Liberal leader; there’d have been far too much stuff sticking to him. But he and his cronies got a pretty free ride until the last election, when his performance was so sub-standard (heck, at times I actually felt sorry for him he was so inept) that it was next to impossible for the MSM not to note how well Stephen Harper was doing by comparison. (Of course, he was doing well, period, but definitely beside PMPM, SH was a standout.)
Of course the media had to cover Sheila Fraser’s audits and the Gomery Commission: The public was starved for information about how the government had lied, cheated them out of hard-earned tax dollars, and rewarded their friends and cronies, not to mention themselves to the tune of MILLIONS of dollars, amounts most Canadians never even dream of having as we struggle to meet mortgage payments and put our children through university.
Yes, the Gomery Commission led to an election call, which should have come a lot earlier if the MSM had been doing their job. If they had exposed the true rot at the centre of the Liberal Party/Government, the length of their governance should have been a few sorry years instead of thirteen endless years of fraud, lies, and corruption. The MSM didn’t seem to know the word “corruption” until Judge Gomery began to unearth all the crap, PAID FOR, BTW, BY THE CANADIAN TAXPAYER: SUCKERED AGAIN.
Well, tony, of course the MSM gave “blanket coverage between late December and early January of the income-trust scandal.” It was news the Canadian public had been starved of and it sold papers and air time. But does a dog lick the hand of the ‘kind’ person who finally feeds it when the food was there all along and the feeder had decided to withold it?
When, during the last election campaign, “the media wrote Paul Martin’s obituary as a failed leader repeatedly” it was a case of too little, too late. C’mon. Paul Martin had always been an inept leader AND, more to the point, the Liberals had been a corrupt and sleazy party for years before the MSM could sense the tide turning in the last election. The sleeping Canadian giant was becoming restive and the MSM finally clued in.
Your post, tony, is “puke-inducing bilge” to quote yourself. I’d love to know how many members of the MSM/PPG regularly party with the Libs with whom they share a decidedly left-lib-fem-gay world view, and hold in contempt anyone who doesn’t share these views?
As for the reporters who “walked out on [PMSH] the other day because his staff have gone out of their way for two months to antagonize and treat them like crap”: Now you know how the rest of us feel about our treatment FOR YEARS by the MSM/PPG.
News flash, tony: There’s been a changing of the guard at Parliament Hill and the story’s NOT ABOUT THE POOR, HARD-DONE BY JOURNALISTS WHO ARE USED TO LEAKS, AND PERKS, AND HIGH-FLYING LIFESTYLES WHILE LOOKING DOWN THEIR NOSES AT PEOPLE LIKE STEPHEN HARPER AND THOSE WHO VOTED FOR HIM.
If you want anyone to take your rant seriously, you’ll need to substantiate your allegations about threats to journalists, lies, antagonization, and the PMO’s office treating journalists like crap. He doesn’t have to like them, you know. And I don’t know why he would after years of garbage from them.
I’ve been watching a lot of “Politics” and “Mike Duffy Live” and am infuriated by the smugness and self-centredness of these two hosts. They smirk and make in jokes, most often in reference to the CPC and its members. When you write in to object (I am always polite and I always back up my concerns with facts, such as what was said, who said what, etc.), you NEVER get a response, unless you write to the CBC Ombudsman, and then a response takes three months or longer, nearly always with the CBC being exonerated. Tony Burman always thanks you for writing and never agrees with your argument.
Maybe you could do us a favour, tony, and spare us the “poor, benighted, pissed off reporters” crap. When they start doing their job, which is to report to Canadians the FACTS without all of the smirks, the smugness, the contempt, the opinions about the facts, then there will be something for us to tune into or to buy newspapers for.
Until they do what journalists are supposed to do instead of being mouthpieces for one side of the political spectrum (sure you can report on all sides, but body language, gestures, and facial expressions give you away in a flash), guess what?
They’re pissing a lot of us off.
Posted by tony earlier: “As for the allegations earlier, I’m sorry. I’d love to provide more detail but it will have to end there for now.”
Always the lefties’ shelter: I can’t share any more with you just now. I know so much, things that if you knew too you’d agree with me, but because of my superior smugness, you’ll just have to be left in the dark.
Thanks, tone. Looking down your nose at us, are you?
ok4ua – hahaha – that was written almost exactly “word-for-word’ like an Ottawa Press Gallery news story. The right mix of booga booga PLUS you managed to get Bush in there.
You’ve got the Ottawa media’s formula down pat.
Newspapers/TV/radio are businesses, conflict physical or contentions between left/right causes the public to read/watch/listen, thus the adverisers can be charged more, to advertise in papers, on radio, on TV. It is that simple.
I’ve actually shaken David Petersens hand in a non political situation. He does actually stunned/deer in a headlight. His wife is Shelly Matthews daughter of Don Matthews bagman for the the Mulrony govt.
What is the spat between the PM and the PPG about? Everyone admits the PM has been the most open PM in recent history when it comes to answering questions, and in giving everyone the opportunity to ask them. So what is the issue?
Very simple. The one thing that constrains a reporter from being over the top offensive in the questions he or she asks is the knowledge that if the questions ticks off the person being questioned, it’s unlikely they’ll get another lick in. By controlling who gets to ask questions, they are hoping to ramp up the offensiveness of their questions, without any capacity of the PM to respond as any human has the right to do – to simply refuse to let them get away with it time after time.
There is NO other agenda here.
patrick
Now that has the ring of truth. Thanks for the prespective.
Yes, Let the Mainstream Media pound sand!
Does anyone remember the Mulroney years and all the negative ‘man in the street’ interviews? Especially the ‘Charlie Brown’ lady. How silly!
Then,they were cheerleaders for Cretin and Dithers. So the Conservatives could never please them anyway.
Steve D. said:
“Interestingly, the most Left source is, The Toronto Star, which is not owned by those few families.It is not really Left, but they do have a focus on the underdog, the disadvantaged, which I like.”
No offence Steve but that was so funny I almost spilled my coffee. If you can’t see that the Star is left no wonder you think most of the media is in the centre. I think you perceive them as being in the centre because they generallly conform to your views which you see as being in the centre. Most Liberals do. That is why they run on the “Canadian values” mantra every election.I would consider most Liberals to be left of centre, certainly much further left than the Democrats in the US.
I am heartened to see that based on the Globe and Mail poll most people agree that there is an anti-Harper bias. I guess you can only watch so many CBC “news” items comparing Harper to Bush before you come to that conclusion.
You also say that appealing to the “centre” is good for business. Maybe you should take a look at the stock price for the Toronto Star and the ratings for CBC’s the National to see how good it is for business. The left may be noisy but it is a shrinking base.
The Toronto Star…not really left
Whoa!!!
I think even most left-leaning people would concede that the Star is -the- flagship left-leaning newspaper in Canada.
steve d. Why are you a liberal? Honest question.What makes you defend liberals?
Patrick:
The point is, the media is SUPPOSED to tick off the government. It’s not doing its job if it is not asking the difficult questions or the embarassing ones. As much as everyone here seems to hate the MSM, their whole purpose is to dig, dig, dig and ask questions that those in power might not want to answer.
I’d find it very interesting to see how y’all would have acted if Paul Martin had only allowed questions from his handpicked reporters.
I wrote them using the e-mail option on their site. I asked for the names of the reporters who walked out and the news organizations they represent. We’ll see if they answer. I hope they don’t insult me by trying to claim it was spontaneous.
phil
Todd said:
I’d find it very interesting to see how y’all would have acted if Paul Martin had only allowed questions from his handpicked reporters.
It was 100% irrelevant who asked him questions. First of all, the left lap dog MSM never asked him a tough question except when they had no choice. Second, when asked a question, tough of not, he never answered it. A little bit of oooing and ahhhing followed by Canadian values this, let me tell you that, does not an answer make.
Tony says ‘Harper needlessly pissed off 300 reporters’…
300 reporters pissed off the Prime Minister of Canada and the Canadian people!!
Bite on that, Tone!
Todd – Where were the questions about Adscam? Where were the revelations? There were none because there were no press releases.
Where was the media as far back as te HRDC stuff? Again, no press releases and we all know when there are no press releases, there can be no issue – nothing hidden, no cover-ups.
Lazy media? Or perhaps a biased media? Think about it.
CRB
Todd; you are partly right about the purpose of the media. Except when it come to their relationship with the Liberals there is a mutual respect and even if the questions seem tough they know it’s nothing personal. As I understand it, the Liberals usually present the media with ‘talking points’ which is usually understood and respected. The Liberals and their like-minded media pals share the same level of contempt and mistrust for Stephen Harper’s Reform Alliance Party (to be said with a sneer) and would love to see them fry. There is no good will intended and never will be as long as there’s a secret agenda to get to uncover.
You are right though about the shoe being on the other foot. I for one would be screaming blue murder if I sensed the Liberals were trying to limit access to the press.
I hope that you and others would at least grugingly admit that Harper doesn’t deserve the open hostility he has been treated to as Prime Minister, Opposition Leader and even as a plain ol’ ordinary citizen, a hockey dad.
Todd said:
Patrick: The point is, the media is SUPPOSED to tick off the government. It’s not doing its job if it is not asking the difficult questions or the embarassing ones….Their whole purpose is to dig, dig, dig and ask questions that those in power might not want to answer. I’d find it very interesting to see how y’all would have acted if Paul Martin had only allowed questions from his handpicked reporters.
———–
Todd, first of all, the media’s job is not to tick off the government. That’s the job of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition, a post currently held by the Liberals. If the media wants the job, they need only run for the Liberals, who are going to have it for some time to come.
Principally, the media’s job is to ask the questions necessary to report both the facts and the context of the news it reports. That’s its sole role in our democratic society. That, and to fill the spaces between the ads.
The media’s job requires it to also, as you say, to ask the “tough questions”, but only if the government is not forthcoming. No one claims that this government has been corrupt, as was its predecessor. When confronted with scandal, yes, the media should be asking the tough questions, but that isn’t the case here. Nor do their questions carry with them the entitlement to the answer they want to hear. They are simply the messenger. It is not their role to influence, only to report.
Oh, and Todd, Paul Martin DID answer questions only from those he (or more specifically his office) handpicked. This happened in both the press gallery news conferences (which he rarely held) and in the day-to-day way the Liberals dealt with the media. When did you ever see PM Martin give a one-on-one with the Sun newspaper chain? It never happened, but it was a regular occurrence with other media outlets. How many Sun editorial boards did Liberal Ministers make themselves available for? None.
You really should do your homework before you pontificate, especially when you’re comparing the actions of the most open PM in recent history to what went before.
The facts, truth and all we learned about
the sponsorship scandal was told to us by
a American Blogger, Captain’s Quarters.
Did you forget who had the courage to do this?
It was certainly not one of the Canadian msm.
This truth changed our history as I believe the
left would have kept the scandal from the
people as long as they could and certainly not
before the election. Once the truth started coming out, the msm had no choice but to try
and put a good spin on this corruption.
This is reporting, and if we learned nothing,
we have to see these publishing bans on this
type of issue stops NOW unless it can hurt
national security in regard to the war.
Prime Minister Harper is doing the right thing,
the blantant arrogance of these people is so
liberal, I don’t think they realize a new man
is in town and they better sharpen up.
“The lobby group Democracy Watch has launched a formal complaint with the federal ethics commissioner accusing the Conservative government of breaking election promises.
The same letter of complaint also repeats Democracy Watch’s call for ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro to resign for failing to vigorously enforce ethics rules.”
Huh?
I dont think there is any question about the bias against the CPC. I am still astounded at the sight of Julie van Dusen chasing M. Verner in Quebec City during Harpers first elction campaign stop,Quebec City to hammer her on the wrongs of SSM in Quebec. She was interested in nothing else and never once ackowledged that the policy was actually to have a free vote, not to dictate to the people of Canada the most recent Liberal position.
Our national media has also portrayed the American president as a war monger who violates human rights. Then they associate the CPC with Bush as often as they can. They do Canadians the disservice of treating one of our national political parties as an American subsidiary, and that is wrong and that is BIAS.
I now depend on bloggers such as SDA(my personal favourite) to weed through the bull sh1t so I can read some fact. I am tired of hearing that our western cousins are electing right wing extremists like Stockwell Day who wants women to be submissive to men. That is complete crap. I’ll never forget the rude sexist comments reporters made about his female relatives. And there is no bias. You would have to be blind not to see it. Remember Jason Muscovitz or Senator Munson in action and you say there was and is no bias.
Is Wallin enjoying NYC? There is no bias. There have been rewards for loyalty to the Liberal propaganda message. Muscovitz,Wallin and Munson are ample proof of that.
They allowed the Liberals to trumpet loudly that Ralph Klein was a threat to medicare in the Maritimes as if he had any jurusdiction there, as if there was no medicare in Alberta. Do you know that a lot of Canadians actually now believe that garbage. Harper is scary because he will eliminate medicare (just like in Alberta). Dividing Canada with lies(the LIBERAL AGENDA).Rural vs urban, west vs East, white vs native, gay vs traditional family….A campaign of lies , division and sowing mistrust, and the national media and the LPC were lockstep in it together.
And now it will stop, and our representatives will communicate with us more directly with respect to policy without pushing an agenda on the great unwashed. The PPG can go to h…. for all I care.
How stupid can you people be? Can’t you see what’s happening? The Prime Minister of Canada is following the Karl Rove playbook to the letter. By bypassing the national press (who are are never adversarial enough these days IMO) Harper will go on local talk radio or TV where the local yocals will go “Gee whillikers, Mr. Harper! What’s your grand vision of our future!”. This is exactly what the Bushites did, and it worked for a while, but it resulted in the current administration — the worst disaster for the United States since the Civil War. Is this what you want for Canada? A lying corporatocracy in charge of your country enabled by a Pravda-like press which acts as a dutiful stenographer? Harper stood there and LIED to our faces about what happened at the Darfur press conference, just like his hero George W. I realize that you conservatives don’t have much of a problem with lying, but surely you meritocracy freaks must be disturbed by Harper’s insistence on imitating the least competent American president ever.
By the way, some of you idiots keep referring to “the Americans” when you’re actually talking about the Bush administration. Speaking as an American, I resent this a great deal. The two are not synonymous and they never have been. In fact, 71% of Americans hate Bush by last count.
If Harper doesn’t quit his mini-Bush act, he’ll make Mulroney’s collapse look like a birthday party, and you conservobots won’t be allowed to govern again until the year 3000 at the earliest.
You might be mindful of who you’re dealing with. If anything bad comes of this, I will make sure you are held criminally liable.
Sincerely…yer friend, Tigger
Let’s stop the mini-Bush stuff. For starters, Stephen Harper is more intelligent than George W. Bush. He’s not “following” Bush in anything. He’s been hammering out his own policies and talking points for years, long before George Bush became the U.S. President, first as a Conservative behind the scenes guy, then in the private sector, and now as a duly elected member of Parliament.
The creatively challenged copy-cats are the journalists in the MSM. They don’t recognize Harper’s political smarts (‘guess he doesn’t wear the right kind of clothes, have the right hairdo, believe in SSM) or give him any credit for managing an amazing amalgamation of three separate parties, a minor if not major miracle in itself, and then steer it to an electoral victory, with little or no help, thanks very much, to the left-leaning, mean-spirited bias of the majority of the Canadian MSM. They’re the ones who feed off each other in their closed shop and at their la-dee-dah soirees, where the finger food is far better than any I’ll ever eat, quite possibly having been paid for by taxpayers should the Librano$ be hosting the festivities.
Forget the “well we gave Harper good press during the last election.” Too little, too late, guys. You didn’t really have any choice, the Librano$ were just so appalling. Harper earned the good press, with his one policy a day plank, and the fact that the CPC ran a very tight ship, unlike the clowns in the Liberal circus tent who were running amok every which way.
And what about the National Post’s role in getting the ball rolling to uncover the rot and corruption at the centre of the Librano$? The OLD NP, with writers like Mark Steyn, David Frum, George Jonas, Barbara Amiel, etc.? Give them some credit. Though I cancelled my subscription to the NP, when they turned left and massacred, then published, one of my letters to the editor, they were doing a creditable job at the outset. Without the pressure they put on the other MSM to actually do some investigative reporting on the HRDC scandal, Shawinigate, etc. I don’t think we’d have come as far as we have in unearthing the Librano skulduggery.
BTW, I don’t think it is either the MSM’s or the Official Opposition’s job to “tick off” the government. (That conception plays right into the MSM’s agenda to sell more papers.) How is the Canadian electorate served in that? It is the job of the loyal Opposition to question the Government to the point where things get done to benefit the country; it is their job to dig for the pertinent facts, or to add them to the debate, so that Canadians can clearly see what policies the government is putting in place and why.
Government should work for the people, not the party running the show. Stephen Harper understands this and is not going to let the petty, me-first, naval-gazing, ninnies in the MSM or the Libs and Dippers highjack this agenda of his.
He’s going straight to the people of Canada with his message, admittedly a great risk given the visciousness and bared fangs and claws of the so-called unbiased Canadian media, especially in the PPG. But the risk is worth it. PMSH doesn’t need to be playing tug-of-war with the MSM for the rest of his time in office.
What can be said for his calculated risk, however, is that a lot of Canadians are onto the MSM, got that tony, and aren’t buying the bilge they’re pumping out.
Did anyone catch Julie Van Dusn’t last night(new hairdo, BTW) running around being a productive and investigative reporter in Ottawa and St. Catherines concerning the Hepatitis C issue? She can be contacted via the CBC by anyone wanting “Julie’s help,” droned I’m Peter Mansbridge You’re Not. Wow! Julie’s becoming a watchdog for the little guy. Too little, too late, Julie…
More names of journos quoted in another Globe & Mail story on this non-subject. That noise you hear in the background is them grinding their teeth.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060526.wxharpermedia26/BNStory/National/home
Slightly off topic, but: when will the Liberal Party of Canada repay the millions they stole during the sponsorship scandal? You can bet that if it were a private company that had ripped off the government, the Mounties and CCRA would be there with padlocks and paddy wagons. So why do the Liberals get a honeymoon?
And, to get back on topic, why does the MSM fail to stay on this story? Could it be that they know that the party is broke right now, and couldn’t even pay the interest on the debt? And, thanks to Papa Doc Chretien, they now have to live in a world where corporations can’t open their chequebooks and make the debt disappear. I wonder if Harper’s thought of passing a law saying you can’t contest an election until you’ve repaid any money stolen from the people? That would be funny.
I’d be happy with some Liberal politicians being charged.
I stand by my statement. If the media isn’t ticking off the government, they aren’t doing their job. If you are not asking questions that the government would rather not answer, you’re not asking the right questions. No, this government does not have any scandals behind it (well, other than Emerson, Vellacott and perhaps environmental policy), but unless the reporters are pushing questions at any politician that they’d rather not answer, what’s the point.
Dave says GG and Steven are not about to attent the Press Gallery dinner..
In Ottawa, justures of that magnatude can be fatal and final..
So refreshing that Harper is putting a stop to the governance of Canada as twisted through the Press Gallery filter.
This is all so satisfying, must be careful not to get too complacent.
The Liberal*s shop of dirty tricks is still capable of low blows, but Canadian*s are not as easy to fool now.
Best dirty trick so far? The fear CPC agenda… gave us a minority instead of a majority. TG
In the interest of reader*s data safety. Wait till the new smart cards cards come into use before on line card – buying.
Until Smart Cards come into use in North America, as they are in Europe, Credit Card dealings are not fully secure on the web!
E-Commerce in Crisis: When SSL Isn’t Safe
================================
http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=12100DICXAH7
May 25, 2006 11:31AM 
*It’s not a problem of authentication but one of transactional authorization,* says Bruce Schneier, leading security expert and CTO of Counterpane Internet Security. *No matter how hard you make the initial authentication for the end-user or hacker, the malware can just wait until the authentication is done and then manipulate the transaction.*
Robbing a brick-and-mortar bank seems like petty theft compared with a new breed of cybercrime that, according to a growing number of security experts, is siphoning untold millions of dollars from banks and their customers using SSL-evading Trojans and ever more refined phishing techniques.
Yet as phishing gets slicker, users are getting smarter. As the average Joe becomes less likely to type in authentication information in response to an e-mail, more and more cybercriminals are turning to SSL-evading Trojans.
These Trojans install themselves on unsuspecting users’ PCs and either capture user log-on credentials or manipulate transactions after a successful log-on.
In both cases, the SSL connection between PC and bank remains intact. The user may think the confidential online transaction is protected against mischief — but it is not. (continued…) TG [From the pros… not just this foggy dude.]
http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=12100DICXAH7
cjg; You pinned the ‘turning point ‘ in the ‘underpinning’ of the MSM – Liberano/dipper vomiting heads spouting socialist propaganda to the people of Canada. The day the loyal yapdogs refused to report the testamony of Jean Braut (I hope I have spelled the name correctly), Captain’s Quarters was visited by every curious citizen in the country. It has been all downhill since…Captain’s Quarters linked us to Steve Janke at Angry in the Great White North, sda and Shotgun and so on and so on. New blogs appeared on the net and it was the msm going out with a sniviling, whining, obnoxious scream. The blogs have left them eating dust. They lost their relevance as anything but buffoons. If you don’t like what they write don’t buy their product. If you do want to listin to their drivil do so with a computer handy so you can check out the FACTS on any issue they report about. Stephen Harper knows all about the MSM stab-you -in-the-back Liberano/dippers; we can trust him to deal with that riff raff. I want the Liberano gang hauled into court like the enron crooks so they can be ‘entitled’ to pay us back the $$$ they stole and they can be ‘enabled’ to rot in a jailhouse somewhere. I will help pay for that jailhouse, anytime.
Despite how messy this thing has become Mr. Harper has once again shown his strategic thinking. He believes the media is biased. There have been many articles written and the globe conducts a poll showing the majority believe it to be true that the media is biased. If this does not give cause to the PPG and other media to begin thinking about how the Canadian public perceives them then they deserve to fall into the abyss. Maybe Mr. Harper has caused the media to rethink their role in public discourse. On the other hand they are a much of hacks who really can’t be taught anything new.