MSM « Blue Like You

Archive of posts filed under the MSM category.

Political correctness takes a back seat (for once)

Posted by Joanne on 10 July 2010, 9:41 am

Sun Media gives the appointment of David Johnston as new G-G a solid thumbs-up in today’s editorial: Hip, hip hooray for the white GG:

An old white guy for Governor General?

How novel, and yet how brilliant of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In fact, we’re giving him a standing ovation. Right now.

Everyone on their feet!

In an age when the federal civil service has taken affirmative action to the extreme, with preference in the federal bureaucracy given to those who are bilingual — preferably francophone, of course — or persons of colour, or disabled or aboriginal, the appointment of David Johnston as Canada’s next Governor General is a historic breakthrough…

Which isn’t to say that persons from minority groups aren’t qualified for their positions, but it sure is nice to see a situation where an otherwise stellar candidate wasn’t summarily eliminated from the running due to his age, gender or colour.

Perhaps the pendulum is finally starting to swing back to the sane middle.

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Sidenote to Susan Riley:

If it’s “classy stilettos” you’re seeking, how about making a trip to the mall?

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Sidenote to Lisa LaFlamme and CTV in general:

You’re acting like this was an appointment to the Senate or something. Get over yourselves. You’re yesterday’s news.

Filed under Canadian Government, Canadian Parliament, Canadian Politics, MSM, Media Watch, Men are people too, Multiculturalism, Political correctness, democracy.

27 Comments

Media responsibility

Posted by Joanne on 27 June 2010, 3:27 pm

The G8 and G20 Summits are going to be fodder for MSM and bloggers for some time to come. For the most part we’re all still digesting the horrible vandalism in Toronto yesterday.

Police seem to be doing as good a job as can be expected under the circumstances considering that they have to act within the framework of laws and legislation whereas the anarchists and criminals do not concern themselves with such things.

Unfortunately the Black Bloc has usurped most of the media’s attention, and peaceful rallies seem to have been overlooked in the melee. The actual summit news itself seems to be almost an afterthought.

Do the media outlets have any responsibility here? If they focused more on the law-abiding citizens who are marching in various peaceful protest groups, would that help diffuse some of the anarchists” enthusiasm?

Obviously they would rather focus on what they perceive would help sell the most newspapers, ads, etc. but do they have any kind of moral obligation here?

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Update

G20 Final communique – Stephen Taylor

G20 agrees to deficit reduction targets – CBC (H/T Proud Canadian):

The Canadian government has won a significant victory in securing specific deficit reduction targets in the G20′s final statement at the Toronto summit, CBC News has learned...

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Monday Update

Don’t miss Rex Murphy – Hooligans coddled for too long:

…Some people are saying that Toronto shouldn’t have hosted the summit of world leaders — because this crowd would cause trouble. Absolutely wrong.

Cities and governments don’t choose to do or not to do things because a couple of hundred hit-and-run artists put up a smarmy threat of “direct action.” The splinter doesn’t direct the oak…

[Also available at The National around the 46:00 mark.]

And pinch me, I must be dreaming! Kudos in order as PM shepherds G20 to surprising consensus – John Ibbitson (H/T JDot):

…But when it was on our watch, Canada performed admirably. Mr. Harper – aided by a Finance Department that has become the elite of the federal public service – leveraged Canada’s economic credibility and his role as chairman of the summit to navigate a significant agreement in development aid and a major accord on global fiscal policy.

It takes more than a little bile not to offer such an accomplishment a nod.

Well, here’s a bit of bile from WLU’s Geoffrey Stevens in today’s print copy of the Record (link not yet available):

…We can blame the federal government for allowing its paranoia about security to overwhelm its common sense.

In its mistaken belief that more security means less trouble, it spent far too much, $1 billion being an absurd expenditure. The result: too many kilometers of riot fencing, and too many police on the street in battle gear with excessive powers of search and arrest for the summit weekend - in all, an irresistible temptation for publicity-seeking troublemakers.”

Just your typical lefty response. Coddle the criminals and blame anyone but the trouble-makers. It wasn’t their fault – the feds made them do it.

C’mon Geoff. Do you seriously think these hooligans urban terrorists would have stayed home if there had been no security fence? Give your head a shake.

- Jonathan Kay: Toronto, city of wimps – Full Comment:

…Here in Toronto, on the other hand, we are in the midst of a spasm of civic mortification. Over the weekend, I listened to radio reporters breathlessly tell listeners that tear gas actually had been used on the streets of “Toronto the Good” — as proof that the city was enduring some Cormac McCarthy-esque apocalypse…

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Canada AM interview with PM Harper. Good job CTV!

Filed under Accountability, Appeasement never works, Coddling the real criminals, Crime, MSM, Media Issues, Media Watch, Protests.

138 Comments

Tabloid journalism rampant in Canada

Posted by Joanne on 10 June 2010, 8:23 am

It’s more than just a tiny bit ironic that today’s Sun editorial (Harper’s Bank Win Lost in the Jeers) acknowledges the part its own national affairs columnist Greg Weston has taken in redirecting attention away from the Conservative Government’s accomplishments and focusing instead on the G8 and G20 ‘clusterfest’.

And of course all this helps the Liberals divert attention away from their own internal squabbling. The two stories have competed for media attention and forced the very important bank tax coup out of the limelight.

Whoever wrote the editorial deserves credit for shining a spotlight on the media’s tendency to chase ambulances rather than focus on stories of substance and international importance:

…Timing is everything, of course — in comedy and in politics — and Harper’s coup when it comes to manoeuvring the nixing of an international bank tax simply got overtaken by the sarcastic laughter and ensuing heckling once the extent of the summit’s extraordinary largesse was exposed.

This is unfortunate, but predictable.

When it bleeds, it leads. And that includes the bleeding of taxpayers’ money for a bunch of international bigwigs.

So Harper’s bank-tax victory got limited play, and very little editorial notice in this country’s media, while in Europe it was the talk of the financial pages.

Some credit, however, must also go to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who pushed Canada’s agenda at the recent G20 meeting in South Korea of finance ministers and central bank officials, thereby setting the stage for consensus that a bank tax to bail out future institutional ineptness was not the way to proceed.

In fact, none other than the head of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Angel Gurria, put it out that the entire world should take its cue from Canada, and establish a system of rules and mechanisms that prevented our banks from suffering the disastrous recessionary implosions witnessed in the United States and Europe…

So whoever you are Mr. Editorial-Writer (and I think I who did write it), please accept my congratulations for an excellent example of what Canadian media should be striving to emulate – but of course we know they never will.

But wait! What light do I see shining in the distance? And it isn’t a wooden lighthouse.

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Related

Canada wins allies in bank-reform push – Financial Post

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Update

Quebecor Media and Sun Media Announce Two Strategic Appointments – Marketwire

Whoo hoo! Fox News North! Whoo hoo! – Deborah Gyapong

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Saturday Update

Tasha Kheiriddin: Fox News North a welcome addition to Canadian media jungle.

And here’s my two cents worth: Conservative support is based on grassroots involvement. There is a large portion of the Canadian public that rejects the current left-wing media. But show them some balance and they will come.

Filed under Canadian economy, Harper best PM ever, MSM, MSM bias, Media Issues, Media Watch, Michael Ignatieff, Press puffery, Pseudo-scandals, The LPC is dysfunctional.

119 Comments

Good job Evan Solomon!

Posted by Joanne on 3 June 2010, 8:40 pm

Evan Solomon really shone tonight as a moderator when he had NDP Pat Martin squaring off against Opus Dei’s Father Fred Dolan (H/T Mary T).

I imagine it’s a bit more difficult to call someone ‘creepy’ when he’s sitting right beside you, so kudos to Pat Martin as well for taking up the challenge. Suffice it to say that we all learned a few things tonight:

(1) Jack Layton didn’t know anything about Pat Martin calling a group of Catholics ‘creepy’ (1:16) Memo to Jack’s assistant: Get him a newspaper subscription.

(2) Pat Martin says some would call Opus Dei a ‘cult’ (1:18) Really? Would that include you too Pat?

(3) Piercings give Pat Martin the creeps too (1:18:53) (Memo to Jack – There goes the youth vote.)

(4) Pat Martin was an altar boy. (1:21) Ahhhh….

(5) Pat Martin admits it would be very bad to say the same thing about Jews or anyone following the Islamic faith, but being a Catholic ‘steeped in the faith’ gives him the right to say what he wants about Catholics; and mind you he was the HEAD ALTAR BOY!!! (1:24), and he knows more about Opus Dei than ‘Dan Miller or Dan Brown’ or whoever it was that wrote that stupid book.

(6) ‘Creepy’ is a casual remark – Unless of course you’re labelling Jews or Muslims (1:25), in which case he would ‘condemn it from the highest rooftops’.

(7) The Head Altar Boy is too busy to attend an MP meeting with Father Dolan (1:26).

So, good job everyone. Looking forward to seeing Gilles Duceppe in the hot seat next.

And CBC has made one baby step towards redeeming itself tonight.

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Related

Gilles Duceppe owes an apology to Catholics – Barbara Kay, Post

Opus Dei’s motives far from ‘subversive,’ priest says – Charles Lewis, Post

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Friday Update

Please check out Alberta Ardvark’s post on this story – Kudos to CBC’s Evan Solomon.

Ardvark has a clip up that must be savoured with your favourite morning brew.

Filed under Bloc, Hypocrisy, Jack Layton, MSM, Media Watch, religion.

33 Comments

Rescuing the Ziffy Liberals

Posted by Joanne on 5 May 2010, 1:22 pm

Interesting columns this morning by both Lorrie Goldstein and Chantel Hebert – and both having to do with the ongoing Liberal misfortunes. Many pundits have acknowledged that the Grits do indeed have a problem and several have offered observations and advice, whether solicited or not.

When I first read the headline of Lorrie’s column I thought he had gone over to the dark side – Why Tories should think kindly of Frank Graves … a little. However he makes some excellent points. There within Frank Graves’ now infamous advice for the Liberals is an admission that the Conservatives are ‘winning the culture war’, according to Goldstein’s interpretation of Lawrence Martin’s paraphrasing of the interview (whew!):

“In contrast to the Liberals, Stephen Harper has been able to define what his party is all about. The Conservative base, says Mr. Graves, is remarkably unified and committed. ‘It isn’t fiscal conservatism which sustains this true-believer status. It is a sense of moral mission and rightness.’ Canadian progressives, on the other hand, are scattered and demoralized, their torpor a product of having no sense of ringing purpose.”

If we concentrate solely on that paragraph, I suppose it could indeed be taken as a compliment but the Liberals would be quick to attack nasty religious or moral overtones to it. And we can’t have any of that in Trudeaupia.

But I think there may be a grain of truth in Goldstein’s interpretation in that Liberals do seem to want to be in power at any cost, whereas Conservatives are more driven by values, principles and a non-Nanny State ideology. I realize is a very overly-simplistic view but perhaps it deserves some thought.

It does seem to be true that the Liberal sense of entitlement includes being in power and that ‘right’ has been denied them ever since the reunited Conservative Party defeated Paul Martin in 2006. The Liberals have been desperate to get back to 24 Sussex and almost made it there during the Coalition crisis of December 2008, with the help of the NDP and the Bloc.

Chantel Hebert picks up this theme in her column which has various headlines depending which Torstar site you visit. The Record has labeled it A year into the job, Ignatieff’s Liberals are lost. She lists various blunders by Mr. Ziffy and his sorry band of advisers, including his latest gaffe on Sunday when he deliberately politicized the Governor General’s appointment for partisan gain. Hebert points out:

Many found Ignatieff’s apparent willingness to turn the selection of the next governor-general into a partisan exercise unseemly.

It does not help that at the time when he was in opposition, Harper resisted the same temptation. When rumours that Jean was sovereigntist sympathizer surfaced mere days after her appointment, Harper turned down calls from within his own inner circle to press for the nomination to be rescinded.

BTW, major kudos go to the Conservative war room for resisting the temptation to take potshots at Ignatieff’s lack of good judgment there. Don’t mess it up guys!

But back to Hebert. She either suggests or advises that the Liberals’ only chance to get back into power may be to rekindle the Coalition in spite of Mr. Ziffy’s assurances that he would not do so:

Ignatieff spent his first year as leader telling all comers that he would not entertain power-sharing deals with the NDP.

Yet, based on current polls, a governing arrangement with the New-Democrats offers the Liberals their best (and possibly only) hope of coming back to government after the next election.

A year after Ignatieff’s coronation,the party is more than ever without a roadmap.

So will that final lifeline that saves the Ziffy Liberals be sent by their opposition partners?

Or will they try to actually put together a plan to save themselves from drifting any further from the Canadian centre and from a rudderless journey that’s going nowhere?

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Update

Mr. Ziffy steps in it again – Sammy catches the action.

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Friday Update

More talk of coalitions from discontented Liberal MSM – Liberals are spinning their policy wheels.

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Saturday Update

Even more coalition talk – Familiar drama across pond – CH

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Tuesday Update

Ex-minister has some advice for the Liberals - Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun

Filed under Canadian Parliament, Coalition of the swilling, Goldstein, Iffy, Iggo Waffles, Iggy, Iggyssiah, Ignegative, Liberal Party of Donolo, Liberal Party of Toronto, Liberal arrogance, Liberal entitlement, Liberal machine, MSM, Media Watch, Michael Ignatieff, Peter Principle.

112 Comments

Globe supports PM’s silence on allegations

Posted by Joanne on 13 April 2010, 7:14 am

The Globe and Mail has restored some credibility as a newspaper rather than a Liberal mouthpiece with this editorial – Let the Mounties explain the Helena Guergis allegations:

…Prime Minister Stephen Harper acted properly in passing on the claims made against Ms. Guergis to the RCMP. It is not within the normal duties or skills of a prime minister to formulate and announce suspicions of criminal wrongdoing, while avoiding the shoals of prejudicing a possible future trial, on the one hand, and of compromising a current investigation, on the other. This task is rightly to be expected from the expertise of the police…

The Globe goes on to urge the RCMP to disclose those allegations to the public as soon as is reasonably possible, but all within the context of due process.

If only the Liberal Party would be as responsible, and stop wasting valuable time in Question Period. There are bigger issues that matter to Canadians like jobs and the economy.

Sadly for the Liberals though, PM Harper seems to be doing things right.

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Wednesday Update

Private investigator source of Guergis allegations – CTV

Guergis says report on drug link a rumour gone amok – CTV

Helena Guergis: Much ado about nothing – King Township Sentinel

Jaffer/Guergis allegations partisan-based social “injustice” – Sandy at Just Politics

Committee calls on Jaffer, Guergis to testify in House of Commons – Bill Curry:

A Parliamentary committee is calling on the key players involved in stories of strip clubs and boozy dinner talk about government grants to testify before a House of Commons committee.

Rather than a direct probe to find out why Helena Guergis was required to resign from cabinet last week, opposition MPs on the Government Operations committee voted Wednesday to launch a probe into the lobbying taking place to secure federal funding for environmental projects.

The committee probe seeks to hear from former minister Helena Guergis, her husband Rahim Jaffer and the two business men Mr. Jaffer met with who are now facing fraud charges…

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Thursday Update

RCMP’s Guergis probe: ‘Drugs and stock fraud’ – Kevin Donovan, Star:

An investigation into Toronto businessman Nazim Gillani’s business affairs thrust a GTA private investigator into a world peppered with allegations of cocaine use, laundered money, a “pump and dump” stock fraud, busty hookers and political intrigue.

Ultimately, it led private eye Derek Snowdy to a plain boardroom at a Conservative party lawyer’s office in Toronto Friday morning, where he laid out allegations that involved cabinet minister Helena Guergis, husband Rahim Jaffer and Gillani.

“I talked, they listened. They asked a lot of questions,” said Snowdy, in an interview with the Star. “They asked me back the next morning and then by noon came the announcement.”

The ‘Private’ Eye divulges lots more information.

Filed under CPC majority solution, Canadian Government, Canadian Parliament, Harper best PM ever, Liberal Party of Donolo, Liberal machine, MSM, Media Watch, Stephen Harper, The LPC is dysfunctional.

166 Comments

How do we stop aborting the abortion discussion?

Posted by Joanne on 6 April 2010, 8:03 am

Brian Lilley’s column in a must-read this morning – The truth about abortion polling in Canada.

He integrates the results from several different polls on Canadian attitudes regarding abortion and then comes up with the following analysis:

...So if we put all four polls together what we find is that Canadians likely find abortion to be morally wrong, something they think should be restricted at some point before birth, something that should receive limited public financing, something that should remain legal and a true hot button issue as to whether Canada should fund abortions overseas...

And then he points out the present reality:

…What we currently have in Canada or have had is a policy that is completely different. Abortion is legal right up until the point that the baby takes its own breath, independent of the mother, the best estimates are that of the nearly 100,000 abortions in Canada each year, 5,000 or so are in the last trimester. In all provinces but New Brunswick, abortion is funded entirely by the public health system even when performed in private clinics like the one that sits a block and a half from Parliament Hill. Canadians, as Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has been reminding us lately, have been funding abortions overseas for 25 years or more through foreign aid grants...

Lilley then goes on to explain how politicians are reluctant to attempt to bring up the topic of abortion in a context that might be closer to prevailing Canadian attitudes, because the pro-life MPs are quickly attacked by the choice side and intimidated by the feminists and activists.

So Brian Lilley would like grassroot Canadians to have this discussion. But how? Blogs are certainly one way, but how do we engage everyday Canadians?

Liberals and the media want to have an ‘adult conversation’ about the supposed need for raising taxes.

Can we do the same with abortion?

Because when you think about it, it’s all part of the same discussion.

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Related

Note to Liberals: Obama banned funding abortions – Just Politics

Kenya: Abortion Harms Women’s Health, U.S. Physicians Say – AllAfrica.com (H/T to a loyal reader)

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