Reader Trent Lalonde emails;
I just listened to CBC’s “The Current” on 540 AM, where heard Anna Marie Tremonti refer to the “Conservative Clan” and how they must pull together Federally and Provincially in order to win. Tremonti goes on to say that Alberta and Ontario are very important members of “The Clan”, not “The Conservative Clan”, but “The Clan”.
I know what she meant.
So does she, Trent.
Contact info for the Current.
Stephen Taylor has the audio.
Paranoia rampant, on a field azure.
I’ve passed on a little note to Tremonti, wishing her luck in her new political career. She may need it if the Conservatives do to the CBC budget what should be done
I heard that program today. I rarely tune in to her program, as it is so over the wall to darkness.
Her guests on that segment were an interesting mix.
Tremonti wanted to have them be *not* in agreement, as they represented Conservatives from Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec.
And we all know that the members of ‘The Clan’ view the resolve to Kyoto, and fiscal balance/imbalance, from potentially conflicting perspectives.
It would all go to making the Prime Minister’s job of soothing the regional conservative voices that much more difficult…or so she thought.
But to her dismay, these spokesmen understood each other’s position very well and were frankly, congenial. Imagine that:)
The opening phrasing was not a slip.
Tremonti is a wordsmith, and using the term ‘The Clan’ suits her need to grab her audience’s attention.
Clearly, she got our attention. It road in right on the heels of the weekend debates about the media fuss-up.
I am of Scottish ancestry. My take on clans is different. Not everything can put down to the “American Klans”. Also I have heard many disparate points from all kinds of conservatives on this blog, everything from Alberta separating et al.
So we can rename it to the Clan Broadcasting Contraption now?
It is fair for them to use the word Clan….it is also fair for them to be asked to defend their choice of word.
Do they use the word socialist when talking about any left wing parties? Generally not, they use the word social democrat. So words matter.
However, I would be interested in hearing what if any editorial discussion there was around the word choice. Is it simply because it is alliteration.
Then the could have used
a few are….clique, clatch, coterie, crew, crowd
see the link for a bigger list..
http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=clan
I would say a choice was made…it may have been a lazy choice or it may have been a deliberative one, but lets be clear a choice was made.
Fergy, you can take the word “clan” anyway you want but here in North America it has really only one main connotation and that is the KKKlan.
It should come as no surprise that the supporters of the PPG in their “noble quest” to save democracy, would open up new fronts in their fear and smear campaign on the PM and all things Conservative.
There would be no more satisfying thing for them right now than to find ways to pit Conservatives against each other. That is why KIng Ralph gets so much attention and airtime- he often takes a contrary view to other Conservatives. Ralph Klein, as pointed out here before is Conservative pretty much in name only.
As for Anna Maria, been quite awhile since I listened to CBC, (since Peter Gzowski passed) so she can go pound sand along with the rest of them as far as I am concerned!
Daniel
That makes no sense. It shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the parties she is discussing.
While I am given to understand that the federal Liberal Party and the various Provincial Liberal Parties are interconnected, the Alberta Conservative Party and the Conservative Party of Canada for example are two distinctly different organizations. They do not share policy or funding, and their goals are often entirely at odds with one another.
Suggesting that they need to “pull together to win” is a politically naive statement that implies that:
A) There is some broad Conservative agenda that they have in common, which is not neccesarily so.
B) “Winning” is more important than representing the wishes of the constituents.
Contact info for the Current.
Looks like Greg Weston was right.
Yeah, I had to chuckle as Luc Lavoie set her straight on what he thought about the Kyoto protocol. I can’t recall what said exactly, but it was something along the lines of it being a nice city…
In Alberta it is the PROGRESSIVE Conservatives – some are still rabid Joe Clark fans.
No affiliation whatsoever except for members who may choose to belong to both.
Are we not getting really really fed up with not only the derogaTORY slant of some media talking heads but tyhey are so ignorant of the facts on so many issues that it astounds me that they present themselves as having “expert” opinions on just about any issue.
Case in point – Jane tabor was lambasting a Conservative over the day care plan using Liberal and paid (with our money) lobby groups talking points. When told there was a plan B to the Conservative platform she was shocked.
When told – It is in our election platofrm she said “Oh, I havn’t read it!!!!!!!”
Yet this uniformed nerdess had the gall to express uninformed opinions as fact.
It is to laugh. Maybe too many years of leaked Liberal talking points has really promoted the gullible reporters to positions of incompetance and the good ones who researched fact over propaganda were not rewarded?
Gee Robert, you’re so clever.
Just like Anna Maria. Maybe there’s a place for you at “The Current”.
It’s not such a big deal, remember how the CBC also used to refer the ‘Liberal mob’? Oh wait, that never happenned.
Fergy, I too have Scottish ancestry. My mother keeps in contact with here relatives in Wick Scotland to this day; 94 years after my grandfather came to this country. My grandfather always would refer to his extended family as “The Clan”. However, the rest of us, not having Scottish accents, learned at a very early age that you do not use the word “Clan” in public, as it has a very different meaning.
Perhaps Mr. Robert McClelland would like to prove us all wrong by refering to his fellow “social democratic” bloggers as his “Clan”.
I am glad we have word police in this country. It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy.
“Posted by: Robert McClelland at”
Warren Kinsella’s friend, the Klansman, has come out of hiding. Hey, Himmler, check your sheet…it’s slipping and it’s made by Levi, the Joo. ..
Tremonti’s choice of words is most unfortunate. We can lodge a complaint with CRTC at
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/RapidsCCM/Register.asp?lang=E
Oh, this is getting friggin’ ridiculous!
I’ve heard so many people here piss and moan that the media never invite more than one Tory on a panel.
Tremonti invites an exclusively Conservative panel to discuss what? Same-sex marriage? No. Abortion? Nope. Bilingualism? Nope. She invites them on to discuss the prospects of the Conservatives becoming Canada’s default government party.
And she bases the chat on strategy speeches and newspaper columns delivered and written by none other than the prime minister, and his longtime advisor Tom Flanagan.
And she warmly and fuzzily waxes on about the Conservative family. And in the middle of that she tosses in the word, “clan,” which many of us have probably used to describe our own families.
And what happens?
Conservative bloggers go ballistic. Sigh. Again.
I am Scot by birth.
When referring to my family, its either My clan, or Clan Campbell. Not the clan.
How you say it does make a difference.
Did we all remember to set our VCRs to record Bowling for Columbine, or, as the CBC calls it — “a tour-de-force from award-winning Michael Moore … a stunningly brave piece of work”, last Sunday? Not to worry. I’m sure they’ll broadcast it again. And again.
See the entire slobbering tongue-bath here:
http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeye/columbine.html
“Clan”, indeed.
Bill Good on CKNW in Vancouver, had a panel including Norman Spector, this morning.
Bill Good is a tad touchy when it comes to suggestions that the media is anything but fair and balanced.
If you listen to the audio vault archives from today’s program at the 10:54:10 mark, you can decide for yourself if he holds the same opinion of the two segments of the CPC.
He does feel this scrap between the PM and the PPG is unwarranted.
He thinks the “seige mentality” of the old Reform/Alliance types in the party will eventually find the “common sense” required in this, *because of the Progressive Conservative elements* in the party.
Goodness…no bias there, Bill
For the record, I hate her show and there is no doubt she picked this word delibertly.
However, like Stephen pointed out above the word has many meanings, not all of them related to the K version.
Now while I agreed with the sentiment of the word when it was used whatever way it could be taken, how many people did back flips defending the usage of the word whore in a certain context about 12 months ago.
I tuned out the current long ago so I’ll admit I didn’t hear this but sounds like much over nothing.
The *lan scares the S outa the MM, according to Albone. …
On the spot: ‘Crowd wanted to skin us alive’-(afganistan falling apart)
times online | May 29, 2006 | Times Online
Posted on 05/29/2006 1:00:44 PM PDT by Flavius
Tim Albone, correspondent for The Times in Kabul, was caught in today’s riots which he believes could mark a turning point in the Afghan’s relations with coalition forces
“We tried to get out to where the accident happened on the outskirts of the city. I went in an Afghan car with a translator and photographer.
“We managed to get to within about a half-hour drive of where the accident happened and could hear gunfire. We stopped to ask what was going on.
“The mob crowded around the car and people were shouting: ‘Let’s get them – let’s skin them alive’. We got out of there pretty quickly and as we were leaving we noticed a car was following behind.
“As we came onto a roundabout we ducked behind another car, pulled up onto the pavement and managed to lose him, thanks to the skill of our driver.
“I’ve been in Kabul for nine months and there has never been anything like this before. …
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1640233/posts
Robert McClelland:
It must be hell being you. People like you are not hard to figure out. Deep seated hatred of oneself searches for rejection as a result of parent rejection, probably the father, weak ego projecting itself a better than or arrogance.
Do us all a favor and find another arena to post out your screwed up rants. Warren Kinsella had you pegged perfectly.
Oooh, Robert touched a nerve did he? Suggesting that Greg Westin was right gets him called a Nazi, and then to top it all off, some Albertan psychobabbler does a cheap imitation of Freud on him?
You people are simply beyond redemption.
Dr.Dawg: I thinketh I stung you in the place where you are similar to Robert. Your not that hard to figure out Dawg. Boring repetitive and shallow. Complex people are interesting because they have intigrated but varying opnions. You and and Robert are boring because your one trick ponies, same old, same old.
This is getting friggin’ ridiculous…
I’ve heard so many people here piss and moan that the media never invite more than one Tory onto a panel.
Tremonti invites an exclusively Conservative panel to discuss what? Same-sex marriage? No. Abortion? Nope. Bilingualism? Nope. She invites them on to discuss the prospects of the Conservatives becoming Canada’s default government party.
And she bases the chat on strategy speeches and newspaper columns delivered and written by none other than the prime minister, and his longtime advisor Tom Flanagan.
And she warmly and fuzzily waxes on about the Conservative family. And in the middle of that she tosses in the word, “clan,” which many of us have probably used to describe our own families.
And what happens?
Conservative bloggers go ballistic. Sigh. Again.
Complex people are interesting because they have intigrated but varying opnions.
Well, I’ll admit that I’m not sure how to do this. 🙂
No, it was McLelland’s “fuck the Jews” statement.
It’s easy to call the use of “Clan” in connection to “Conservative” a tempest in a teapot, a mountain out of a mole hill, but that’s just the point and that’s exactly the conclusion the CBC wants people to come to: Oh those C(c)onservatives: they’re so sensitive, they’re so critical, they’re so into conspiracy theories. How ridiculous. How groundless.
The problem, however, is the accumulation of small incidents like “Conservative Clan” and the myriad subliminal innuendos that eventually build up to, well, a mountain.
Dawg: exactly my point. After a very short while of reading SDA it is so easy to predict what you would say on any topic. It is like reading Tommy Douglas’s Regina Manifesto. Its old stagnant,out of date but consistent in its blind hatred of an ideology.
“Oooh, Robert touched a nerve did he?”
Robbo is irritating by his very existence, Dawg – you ought to know that.
“Suggesting that Greg Westin was right…”
Hardly – Westin claimed there was a vast right wing blogospheric campaign to intimidate and harrass journos like his poor self. He asserted that such a thing existed at the time he wrote his little screed, and he was obviously incorrect; you cannot find evidence of such a ‘call to arms’ because it never existed. A subsequent event – the reaction of members of (or sympathizers with) a political party being compared to the KKK – does not somehow make him retroactively correct.
Veterans of the media, like Tremonti, are word smiths of the highest order. She knows the power of words and she knows where the grey areas are and she knows where the line is that you don’t cross over. She knew exactly what she was doing when she used the word ‘clan’.
You know, I went back and listened to the entire radio cast. I then came back here and read all the comments up until now. I think some commenters need to take a deep breath and calm down. I feel there is a leftist bias on CBC Radio, absolutely. But I thought that the discussion was quite good and IMHO amicable.
Perhaps Ms. Tremonti intended to use the word ‘clan’ as follows: The Canadian Broadcasting Clan (CBC), aka the Parliamentary Press Gallery, is upset because it believes that one of its representatives must moderate the Prime Minister’s press conferences. Or perhaps she intended to use it in the traditional Scottish sense to describe families with a common ancestry. Or perhaps she really meant what she said, literally. Perhaps Ms. Tremonti owes us an explanation?
The KKK thing is a joke, Dean. It’s either a desperate ploy for attention–which Kate hardly needs–or a foolish excuse to berate one of the Right’s targets yet again. Just check out the venom that’s been spewed on this thread–for example. The whole thing looks like satire, except that people here are serious. This holds about as much water as insisting that “water buffalo” is a racist term: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_buffalo_incident).
I’m positive I’ve seen similar blog campaigns before now. Didn’t someone once post Belinda Stronach’s cell phone number when she defected to the Libs? Haven’t coordinates of offending journalists been published before now?
I wonder what Promo Girl and Disenfranchised Guy think of all this.
well, I’ll take the Conservative Clan over the Liberal Mob any day. And I would sooner listen to fingernails screeching across a blackboard, than to any of those brainwashed CBC ‘journalists’ regurgitating their liberal mantras. 🙂
Say Steve D, of course we have word police in this country.
Wouldn’t your “not very left” Toronto Star be a key member of the force?
there are only a few of us that ever hear the word ‘clan’ used in regular conversation. Most families in North America never refer to their extended families as their ‘clan’. When the word ‘clan’ is used in modern English, it is usually spelled with a “K”.
Anna knew exactly what she was doing, I doubt she has EVER referred to her own extended family as her ‘clan’.
Come on, Trent.
You can’t possibly tell me you’ve never used — or at least heard — a variation on the following phrase a few times in everyday situations:
“We had the Peterson/Johnson/Tremblay/etc. clan over for burgers/a barbecue/supper/a pool party.”
If so, punch the offender in the nose next time and tell him to stop using racist slurs.
Or, alternatively, simply chill out.
Never heard clan used that way, and my mother is of Scottish decent. Once I got hell from a grade school teacher when I referred to my own family reunion as a gathering of the clan. Parents even got called on that one.
Keep in mind that the CBC program “As It Happens” also compared Stephen Harper to Adolf Hitler during the last election, but hey, they meant the OTHER Adolf Hitler.;-)
new kid on the block: That is an inciteful analysis I feel:
Quoting:
It’s easy to call the use of “Clan” in connection to “Conservative” a tempest in a teapot, a mountain out of a mole hill, but that’s just the point and that’s exactly the conclusion the CBC wants people to come to: Oh those C(c)onservatives: they’re so sensitive, they’re so critical, they’re so into conspiracy theories. How ridiculous. How groundless.
The problem, however, is the accumulation of small incidents like “Conservative Clan” and the myriad subliminal innuendos that eventually build up to, well, a mountain.
——
Here’s one: has anyone ever heard the CBC refer to a liberal think tank as a “left wing” think take. Nope. Left of course is the default position so so say it would be redundant.
And don’t we all like the word “progressive” … I mean what’s the oppositie of progressive? regressive. And “right wing” is a very handy proxy for fascist/nazi, always the intended association when heard on the CBC.
For sure the use of the word Klan to describe Conservatives was intentional. What do you expect from the CBC. They, like the shrinking Liberal base of support, can’t do otherwise. They’ve achieved greatness by such actions and just don’t get it that the world has moved on.
I especially liked the response to Kyoto being heard only on the CBC. That climate change is not Kyoto and Kyoto is not climate change. Well put, I thought.
Pat
She was referring to the Klueless Klepto Klan… you know, those guys we just threw out of office in H’Ottawa…
Me No Dhimmi… the opposite of “progressive” is “sensible”.
Timestamp: 2006-05-29 13:13:02 EDT
a_firstName: John
b_lastName: Noyb
c_email: john@islandnet.com
ca_city: Nanaimo
cb_province: BC
d_feedback: I very much resent being referred to as a member of “the Clan” as Tremonti likes to call us non-communists AKA Conservatives.
I suppose her being an employee of Canada’s Pravda explains her belligerence.
Like many others, I am a big supporter of the “death to the CBC” lobby and this is why.
Reply =========================================\\
From: “The Current”
Sorry to hear you were disappointed with us today … I will certainly
pass this on to Anna Maria and the staff.
Thanks for the feedback.
Take care,
Lisa Ayuso
The Current
=============================================
I especially the heartfelt “take care” wish at the end of the oh-so sincere regret. These people are from another planet.
Hey Trent,
Well, shut my mouth and call me speechless!
I’ve used the word my whole life and still feel the way you did when you were in grade school.
Maybe Anna-Maria Tremonti feels the same way I do.
And another reason I think this whole thing is blown way, way out of proportion is this: Do you have any idea how absolutely RETARDED a radio personality would have to be to use a slur like that on the air?
For all your qualms about the mass media, they’re really not THAT stupid. Seriously.
While we are applying labels I move to officially declare the Liberals a Tribe if the Conservatives are a Clan.
I think the difference is that Clans form exclusive societies within a family structure while tribes gather like groupies around a pack leader who rules absolutely. Tribes live in communes while Clans live in family units.
As much as I can’t stand CBC radio(what was Sirius thinking), I can’t see what so offensive. She was using the term “clan” relative to a family.
Seems like proper English to me…
I liked that post about a knee-jerk reaction Kate…