The Press Gallery of 1945, with its fifty or so members, was important. Its coverage was the only way people got the news from Ottawa, and, in those days, this news was very important. The gallery of today is not the gatekeeper of anything. Want the best coverage of Question Period? Tune into CPAC from 2:15 to 3:00 Monday to Thursday, 11:15 to noon Friday (and at rebroadcast times) and see it yourself. Want coverage of debates, written up the old fashioned way? Go to www.parl.gc.ca and look over the electronic Hansards. At least someone will be reading them. Reporters aren’t.
You barely need to be here to cover Parliament. Quite possibly, you could so a good job witha phone, a computer and a TV in Flin Flon. In fact, most reporters never go into the Commons. They watch Question Period on TV, then hike over to collect quotes in the post-Question period scrums. The TVs go off, the handful of reporters in the galleries leave the Commons along with 95% of the MPs, and debate on real laws goes on, with a handful of people talking about bills and no reporter covering what they have to say. Small wonder so many MPs are frustrated.
Read it all, and the comments, too.
Via Hacks and Wonks
See also Stephen Taylor, who has lots of discussion going.
You are correct about the media not being as important as they once were. However, to a large extent that is only true for those truly interested in politics. There are a lot of political blogs for sure. As a percent of the population they are a very small number. So while the political bloggers can inform themselves very adequately, most voters are not so inclined. It’s that large unwashed mass that still depend on MSM to get their information.
Forward articles of interest to your friends and relatives that negate some of the press stories or prove that certain stories about certain Liberals (for example) are NOT being pursued by the media.
Let them know they can get every PMO statement and press release in their in box and give them the link to the government news release service.
Information starts at the grass roots. Misinformation can only be tackled by truth…or at least giving people all sides of the argument.
I gave some links about the Sierra Club and Polaris funding to some of my rabid “Kyoto good” friends who thought these guys were honest experts. Talk about special interest groups.
Ditto the Day Care special interest groups – funded to the tune of millions of dollars of OUR money to lobby the government to keep the Liberal plan.
Disgusting how the dots start to connect on a lot of these scams.
I treat the mainstream media stories often as simply a hint that there is more to the story. I think the time may be ending when Canadians can be fooled and manipulated by clever headline writers or smug talking heads.
Radio talk shows are about the most honest mediums I have seen – current, two way communications – and boy, Harper’s Ministers are sure out there on the airwaves – taking the hard questions from citizens and answering them.
Strange when I see the Ottawa Press stories about muzzled ministers when I’ve just heard one, two, three even four or five on our local talk shows communicating with the people.
Fact and reality puts the boots to the big lies.
I confess I was only vaguely familiar with Mark Bourrie. But I’ve discovered that he’s a male equivalent to Kate … maybe he likes cats and bicycles?
I was fascinated over the last few days that the critiques hurled against him by PPG peers on his Blog always started off with “ Mark, you are one the brightest, gifted people in the PPG …” then it would quickly turn to “that’s why we can’t understand why you are so critical about the media”
It never occurs to them that a sane person could be critical of the media.
It’s the same general rant of the left that occurs if you say to acquaintances that you like Bush and you think that taking Saddam out and trying to install democracy in the ME is a good idea. People suddenly look at you as if you are on drugs.
It never occurs to the left that there is another side to the equation. I guess that’s why Liberals had found a medium they prefer in the collectivism found on 8 bytes of TV clips versus the individualism, choice and “all sides of the argument” found on radio talk shows.
I hope Bourrie stays with his Blog but he’ll need 9 lives like a cat. Those PPG people are suddenly fearful for the first time in their smug careers. Fear easily turns to hate. But the truth always wins in the end.
Here is one possible solution to biased news reporting.
The following editorial dis-claimer should be prominantly displayed at the top of all editorial pages of all newspapers and announced and displayed at the beginning and end of all political comment TV shows.
What if “Question Period on CTV” had to display this at the top of their show..?
….Editorial dis-claimer….
The following is an editorial,
the laws of Canada, allow conjecture, innuendo and insinuation as a guiding principle in forming political opinion, and do not require the use of facts in forming said opinion.
Therefore, readers and viewers should be aware the following article by
..(insert byline writers name here)..
is an editorial opinion piece and may not be based on fact or reality.
It should be displayed at the beginning of every segment of the show and at the end.
I wonder what Fat Duffy and Screaming Taber would think of such a law..!
CBC in canuckistan
–a state organ for lieberla brainwashing
–a state organ for denigrating and spreading lies about proper government
–a state organ to foment hatred of the usa
–a state organ to distribute money to the left hangers on
–a state organ to groom future visble minority to gov general
–a state organ to placate qwebec
–a state organ to demonize alberta
–a state organ to subjugate the west
A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY
One could tell on cross country checkup today that the CBC and the left/lib wingnuts in the press gallery had the knives out for the PM.
Posted by “bil” at voyforums
It’s interesting to see how irrelevant the PPG and MSM are to the CPC (goodness, what a set of acronyms)..
And it will be interesting to see how important the PPG and MSM are to the Liberals and the Liberal leadership race. The MSM have been a major, a very important, propaganda tool of the Liberals. That’s not going to change.
I think this current scuffle is a realization by the PPG and MSM that the CPC doesn’t govern by propaganda, and it not only doesn’t rely on the MSM to convey information but doesn’t trust them to do it accurately.
i think the only way to satisfy a right wing ideologue is start Fox Canada, fair and balanced to the right 24/7. until then we will be stuck with 24/7 whining.
What we need 24/7 is a panel of Canadian guests such as Preston Manning, Mark Steyn, David Frum, Ezra Levant, and Mark Bourrie and of coarse Kate.
One thing that really bugs the H___ out of me is how entitled the PPG must feel to justify their contemptuous treatment of our PRIME MINISTER. Who do they think they are?
They weren’t elected to run the country. They don’t have to do the hard slogging of governing. They don’t have to deal with the total mess the Liberal Party of Canada has left for Stephen Harper and his Conservative government. They don’t have to process day-to-day intelligence (via CSIS) or bear the responsibility of dealing with life-and-death issues, not just here in Canada but around the world. They don’t have to deal with the daily niggling of a bloated and increasingly beligerant MSM.
They’re a bunch of overprivileged and entitled dilletantes, and I am truly fed up with them. They’re acting like a bunch of teenaged bullies who have no sense of either decorum or limits.
The office of Prime Minister should be treated with dignity and respect. Stephen Harper, whatever these reporters’ private feelings about him, is due respect, not contempt. That doesn’t mean that the members of the PPG can’t question his policies and the direction in which he is taking our country.
What it means, though, is that when they do question him, their questions need to be asked within parameters of respect and a certain decorum. Walking out of a press conference does neither. It is childish, it is disrespectful, and it shows contempt for not only Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his government but also for the Canadian electorate.
These guys/gals need to take a giant step back from their glizty perks and prizes in order to get a little perspective on reality. Ottawa’s actually a pretty small fish bowl, but when you’re doing business in the rarefied atmosphere of Parliament Hill it somehow takes on bigger proportions. You start to think that you’re pretty important, that your views are all-important, more important than you/they actually are in the broader scheme of things.
PPG: Get a grip. Get some persepctive. Take a “get big” pill rather than the Alice-in-Wonderland “get small pill” you’re used to. Move out of Ottawa and see if the world doesn’t begin to take on another reality. There is life beyond La-La Land.
steve d.: What a brilliant idea. Do keep promoting it on other blogs.
Mark
Ottawa
CTV is mounting what I can only call an enormous propaganda mission against Harper.
Jane Taber, along with Craig Oliver, is gleefully announcing her joy about ‘the battle’ and ‘who will win the war’ that ‘Mr. Harper started against the media’. They are constantly, constantly talking about this; all kinds of guests, all kinds of insults and hostile comments against Harper.
Anything and everything they can mount against Harper – they are doing. They really don’t have to go to the Liberal opposition; they are using all eleven Liberal leader candidates as a mechanism of promoting Liberalism and hostility to Harper. They aren’t focusing on policies in their interviews with these candidates; they are instead focusing on ‘how much they disagree with Harper’. That’s their analysis of ‘being a Liberal’. No policies. Just – how much do you hate Harper.
This is journalism? This is an unbiased media? They are the Ministry of Propaganda for the Liberals. Period.
Oh – Not a word about Volpe and the children donating sums in the thousands to his campaign.
Mr. Harpers actions are validated every time Jane Taber opens her mouth. Her performance today on Question Period borders on lunacy. Regarding fixed election dates:
“How would this work….what happens?” (insert vacuous smile and nausea inducing giggle here)
“What would happen if someone got sick….or the PM were assassinated…..tee hee hee….god forbid”
Not only can she apparently not grasp the relatively simple concept of fixed election dates (which should preclude her from *any* discussion of the body politic), she invokes the image of assassination of Canada’s (literal) head of state.
If the PPG had a functioning brain cell among them, they would pull Ms. Taber aside and utter just four simple words:
Shut up you cow.
A. Cooper,
I disagree with you on this one … let her talk, the more the better.
Let her show us how unbiased she (and the rest of the MSM) is.
I forgot … giggle, tee hee hee … go jane go.
You know, you’ve just described an 8-hour work day.
Considering that a third of Canadians couldn’t even be arsed to head to a polling station once every four years, tell us, honestly, how many dozen people in this country do you think would actually go out and “unfilter” the news themselves?
The sad truth is the mass media barely cover substantive debate anymore because their newsrooms are less than half the size they once were, and they’ve got their hands full with the feeding frenzy of the day. News organizations used to have people sitting in the House of Commons 12 hours a day, covering even the most irrelevant procedural squabble or the most trivial debate on first reading of the most inconsequential bill imaginable.
That’s so over now it’s not even funny. And one of the reasons — which this website loves to celebrate — is that people aren’t buying papers like they used to, and media organizations can’t spend that kind of coin anymore.
Sadly, nobody has time to go cover a six-hour debate about a piece of legislation. There just aren’t enough bodies to go around.
So instead reporters go and cover the scrums where politicians deliver a few lines of commentary about the bill, and they churn out six print paragraphs or a 15-second hit for the evening news. (These would be the same scrums that the prime minister and most senior members of his cabinet have stopped offering on Parliament Hill lately)
In conclusion, I wish you all the best in your efforts to provide one-man (or one-woman) coverage of all the goings-on in Ottawa over the course of a day, but I must say the odds of you finding more time to digest more information than 200 full-time reporters seem like a bit of a longshot.
And if you succeed, best of luck trying to convince the sizeable number of Canadians who’ve never bought a newspaper in their lives to suddenly spend half their day poring through Hansard.
Hope it works!
Tony – if there is soooo much news to cover with so few journalists WHY then do some of them think they have to make things up??
Since when are anonymous sources, a high ranking un-named beurocrat, conservative, whatever credible sources for a “news” story. There sure have been a lot of them lately.
Then the bogus damning “leaked” memos or “draft” reports. Even a bogus caustic news release printed on the PMO letterhead was passed out to the Ottawa Press Gallery posing as legitimate.
Seems SOMEONE in the Ottawa media has some time on their hands. Now that the Conservatives don’t “leak” stories they have to make them up?
When I get at least 5 or 6 news releases PER DAY from the PMO plus there are about a dozen per day on the government news release site.
That’s a lot of story leads. But, they have to invent stories because the real ones are about programs that help Canadians or good news about what our government is doing in various portfolios that Canadians should know about because it affects them.
Not very interesting to gossip mongers I guess. Not the good stuff like Stephen Harper eats hot dogs and where he gets his hair done.
The trouble is – what the Ottawa press gallery and the opposition parties think is news has no relevance to the everyday person.
Why don’t they just publish a gossip rag on the Hill – we in the real world do not care!!
Hey Lorraine,
I’m not denying your point — that the coverage of federal politics has seen much better days. That was the point I was trying to make, too.
But I was also trying to suggest that the most vitriolic critics of the press gallery, in particular the conspiracy theorists, the folks who find outrage in every story they disagree with, ane those who suggest we don’t need traditional journalism any more, are way, way off base.
Even though your comments were very respectful, they were also a little bit disingenuous about people in my profession.
Here’s two example:
-Even a bogus caustic news release printed on the PMO letterhead was passed out to the Ottawa Press Gallery posing as legitimate.
(That’s right. It got distributed by a clever prankster to all 300 members or so of the Ottawa press gallery. How many people reported the following day about its allegations? Zero. So what’s the point of this criticism — that nobody got fooled by a prankster? I don’t see why this is supposed to be additional proof that we’re a bunch of buffoons.)
-Since when are anonymous sources, a high ranking un-named beurocrat, conservative, whatever credible sources for a “news” story. There sure have been a lot of them lately.
(These guys ALWAYS provide the most interesting stories, and have for decades. Political spokespeople don’t ANNOUNCE examples of policy failures, flip-flops, corruption, military misadventures, etc. Long story short: Without these people, all you’d get from your government is the news you’d want to hear. Think George Orwell. You never would even have HEARD about the sponsorship scandal if it weren’t for anonymous sources.)
Anyway, I thought your posting was really thoughtful, and respectful, but I disagreed with it and just wanted to offer my two cents.
We’re not all the swine and vermin some folks on this site like to make us out to be.
tony,
” … those who suggest we don’t need traditional journalism any more, are way, way off base.”
I may be missing something – but I think almost everyone is saying that we need traditional journalism … not the shit we have been force fed for the last couple of decades.
The MSM have made those of that wanted traditional journalism, seek it out in other forms. We have not abandoned it – we embrace it.
One of the most critical aspects of this entire fiasco is the large number of media types who are insulted.
They are not even conciously aware of their own blatant bias.
The outcome of a lifetime of immersion in Trudeaupia.
Sad.
I think Harper has suckered the media. When the next election comes he wants people to understand that the media are pro-Liberal and anti-Tory. I believe it is probably part of a larger plan to offset media bias. I think people like Taber are helping us not hurting us with their antics. The more the “media experts” look like spoiled children now they more it will help us come election time.
Tony, I am incensed by your comment
“But I was also trying to suggest that the most vitriolic critics of the press gallery, in particular the conspiracy theorists, the folks who find outrage in every story they disagree with, ane those who suggest we don’t need traditional journalism any more, are way, way off base.”
I certainly consider myself a vitriolic critic of the PPG, however conspiracy theorist? One doesn’t have to be any type of conspiracy theorist when the news of the day is how the “news of the day” is presented.
When reporters consistently put labels such as “control freak”, “helmet hair”, “doughboy” to name only a miniscule number that have appeared in both print and television, this shows disrespect for the highest officer in this country, yet the PPG all laugh about it. They continually snicker and laugh over the CPC, making pointed comments and asides (such as Jane Taber’s – if he’ll talk to us comment at the close of yesterday’s QP).
A conspiracy theorist sees things where there are no facts bearing the theory out, one can sit on their living room couch and see all the facts bearing out the theory that the PPG are biased against the CPC. They have shown their hand and good on Steven Harper for pulling the curtain aside so even the most unaware would be hard pressed not to know that stories about waistlines and fishing vests and shaking hands being printed and shown over and over as the major news stories for weeks shows that the media have no respect for our prime minister.
The blatant lies that have come out of the mouths of reporters when presenting a story about this situation is appalling and they are never challenged, never have to explain themselves.
I watch Mike Duffy, or QP and see the interviewers sitting there while the panelists spout off about the CPC being muzzled, yet they have just had an interview with them, or they sit there while a panelist or a journalist make innuendos about how “controlling” the PMO yet they never ask those same panelists or journalists any hard questions about their part in this fiasco.
This is a giant pity party broadcast for a national audience and we all know what a pity party looks like to those on the outside – just that – a pity party. They are not winning any friends (other than lefties, who are sitting back with smiles on their faces at the “vitriolic conspiracy theories” that the press are spinning about the CPC.)
So you want to see vitriol – keep this little charade up, Tony – you can’t win this one.
Tony, I don’t know if you are a member of the PPG or just an interested leftie, but when the PPG starts to report on policies, starts to ask questions about policies, starts to dig for stories and report about the number of scandals the Liberals left behind (notice how the gun registry has been forgotten by the press in their rush to get to their pity party) – maybe
they will get some respect back. But for now, Tony, they just look like a bunch of whining crybabies.
“coarse Kate” One of those prickly slips of the keyboard.
I get the feeling that conservatives loath the MSM because they don’t get the attention they desperately crave.
Or is it that conservatism is such a wacked out concept in this liberation seeking world we live in.
What ever it is the cream will rise to the top and in todays instant information age a scape goat for failure has to be cultivated before an ultimate demise.
Cultivate on my wayward friends for yours is the rhetoric of failure.
David,
Just wait until the rules get changed at the CRTC and more chice is allowed for Canadians. Listen to the FOX bashing and watch as viewers stampede to FOX. When FOX has the ratings of CNN, MSNBC, CNN Headline news and the other cable staions all combined, it shows what viewers really want. We are prevented by law from seeing a Canadian version of FOX.
The MSM is in decline because we are not allowed to see what we want. In the interests of “fair broacasting”, we only see one side. In the interests of keeping ad revenue higher, we are prevented from having a free and fair radio and TV market. Another result of Liberal insider connections.
enough
“more chicks”
enough
I’ll point out your typo before that ‘ol school m’arm David does. I don’t want him to have to waste time on these pedestrian matters when he could be giving us the big picture from out in the wilderness where he and his Liberals will be for 13 years. We’ll have a welcome back party someday and he can tell us how he craves more attention on the MSM panels hosted by David Frum and Mark Steyn who will have replaced Giggles and Puffy.
Whoops, I got prickly again on the keyboard, it’s not “chicks” it’s “choice”.
enough, how are you ‘prevented by law’ from having a Fox-like news channel in Canada? If CTV newsnet wanted to take a right-wing stance tomorrow, I’m pretty sure it could.
Do you know the long process CTVNewsnet had to go through to be other than a headline news service?
CRTC regulates fair and equal broadcasting.
Supposedly what we watch is fair and equal. To be blatantly left or right radio or tv would be in violation of CRTC regs. Another reason media disavows any bias claiming that the left is center. This truly was one of Reagans great achievements when FCC regs were changed in this regards.
Radio and TV must strictly follow their licensing mandate. To deviate they must apply for permission. CTV Newsnet fought for years to break the headline news format until in the last year or so allowing programs such as Duffy live or even live broadcasts.
enough
Yes lorraine, It does help to Email short news insights to friends outside of our local political blogosphere.
This exchange is refreshing. I understand the ground covered and conclude that many reporters are doing a decent job of bringing news to light.
I think much of our frustration lies with editors and editorial choice.
Editors seem to think lead stories should have *National Enquirer* qualities to incourage impulse newsstand sales.
Maybe editors are correct in thinking that sensation and fluff come before substance.
I prefer substance however. Facts and the workings of government are not a bore to me at all.
I want to know if Martin*s lifetime secrecy edict on four thousand government workers is going to be allowed to stand.
Twenty years is reasonable.
I want to know how Bill C-11 is doing and if a worker who exposes graft and the leaching of public funds will be treated as Allan Coulter was.
Harper*s haircut and spare tire are self evident in photographs.
I do not require crack investigative reporters to tell me what I can see in pictures.
Seems there is no Editor*s school in Canada, and it sure shows. TG
Guess that was a low blow, come to think of it.
Editors are facing a downhill slide with a growing tide of video there is a shrinking tide of *readio*.
Television, X-Box, Nintendo, Computer topic feeds, computer search, Blogosphere, BlackBerry, even the time demands of cell phone and digital camera screens.
Who has time to read the Mop & Pail?
We have a magazine format free daily newsprint here on Vancouver Island that is trying to become a pick-up habit to the young reader on the go.
Stories are summarized in four or five paragragh block form across the page.
Headlines are all in a row enabling one to *see the world condition across two pages.*
Do you have a similar newsprint *survival sheet* in your town? TG
Todd asked: “enough, how are you ‘prevented by law’ from having a Fox-like news channel in Canada? If CTV newsnet wanted to take a right-wing stance tomorrow, I’m pretty sure it could.”
Well, Fox asked to broadcast in Canada. The CRTC said it would not be permitted to. At least one of the cable giants and one of the satellite giants asked later to carry Fox, and they were told ‘no.”
That was “prevented by law.” If you are an American, you may be unfamiliar with fascism as it is practised by genteel Canadian socialists.
And yes, CTV could adopt a right-wing stance. It would find itself marginalized and bankrupted by the multiple layers of government who take a dim view of such things. You see, governments are the largest advertisers in Canada.
Just ask Conrad Black. His National Post went bust because it was “too right wing,” and governments shunned it. They advertise in the new, Liberal version, however. You coul look that up — just buy a copy.
Not news to SDAers.
Cover-up by AdScam Chretien/Martin, Brison,Giuseppe Volpe, Annie-has-no-guns McLellan, Dosanjh, Goodale, Graham and……….. Librano$
Will Mark Bourrie comment? …
Gun registry cover-up politically motivated: official
OTTAWA (CP) – A former top bureaucrat says political expediency – not sound accounting – was the key factor in a decision to fudge a report to Parliament two years ago on the cost of the federal long-gun registry.
John Wiersema told a Commons committee today he thought $21.8 million in computer development costs should have been reported as part of the registry’s budget for fiscal 2003-04.
Wiersema said he was overruled by other, more senior bureaucrats who decided to put off booking the money until the following year.
The result was that the troubled registry barely managed to stay within the yearly spending limit promised by the Liberal government of the day.
Wiersema, who was acting comptroller general at the time, quit within days of being overruled. cnews