All eyes remain fixed on the TorStar newsroom as we await the decision of the editorial board….

Now, a major motion picture!

“Harper ready to give us the squeeze. Tells Canadians to tighten their belts as U.S. financial collapse looms” (Ottawa Sun, December 21, 2007).

In the immortal words of John Travolta – “Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin alive, stayin alive.”
In an echo of this memorable moment, this morning Stephane Dion is hard at work ensuring his meltdown before CTV Halifax remains in the news cycle, where it will spark curiousity among those who may not have yet heard about the incident.
Then, there’s the other problem – the shattering of the “fourth wall” and the reaction of journalists in certain quarters. There is outrage among LIberal friendly media that one of their own has had the audacity – the audacity! – to actually broadcast the unvarnished truth.
This, you see, is inappropriate.
That outrage has less to do with what happened to Dion than it does the fact that Canadians just caught a glimpse of how this business operates, and they don’t like it. It’s a “gotcha” moment all right, but this time it’s the media with their pants down. The restarts, the admission that ATV had first agreed to bury it before succumbing to sober second thought – that’s too much information.
For as hundreds have already pointed out across the blogosphere over the night, the very suggestion that Stephen Harper would have been afforded equal protection under the circumstances is laughable. The tape would have led the national newscasts, political analysts at the ready to drive the point home, pollsters already tasked with gauging the reaction of the electorate.
If broadcasting the Liberal leader’s performance before a running camera is a breach of journalistic ethics, I wonder what they’ll say about Greg Weston’s teleprompter-bites-man story?

“Thank you to welcome me in the chamber of commerce of one of the most successful city of Canada and certainly the most resilient Halifax,” Dion began ad libbing as he waited for the teleprompter.
Thanking the person who introduced him and saying a word about local Liberal MP Scott Brison, who provided a warm-up act, should not have been too tricky for a prospective prime minister.
“Thank you very much, um … Thank you. Uh, and thank you also. Thank you, Valerie. I think exactly like … I will speak with my heart, okay?”
“Thank you Valerie. Thank you so much because what you have as an agenda is at the core of a plan that Scotch, um, Scott has shown, a plan that want development and for the next generations as well, build on the economy and environment together.”
The teleprompter finally operational, the Liberal leader reads the rehearsed script, decrying Stephen Harper and telling the crowd why Stephane Dion should be the next prime minister.

He reported verbatim! This is not fair!
Update; What would we do without CBC campaign aides?

Well that’s interesting because we hear about [Dion’s plan] every single day,” said the CBC’s Julie Van Dusen, who is covering the election.
“It’s … about meeting the premiers, it’s about creating infrastructure jobs to kick-start a slowdown in the economy. It’s about his $1 billion fund that he has for the manufacturing sector in case they want to tap into it.”

h/t the Rat
Update: The launch of the Dion Excuse Platform.
Welcome Hotair readers, where this comment captures the essence of the matter perfectly;

“Hilarious! The ultimate softball question – where one gets to use perfect hindsight to flog the predecessor – left this dolt speechless.”