Wednesday, December 03, 2008

All the news that fits the spin

So how's our national media doing with this coalition thing?
Not the Ezra/Frum nutter fringe, but the reporters and pundits Canada normally relies on to tell us about the world.
Headlines from yesterday and today :

Don Martin : Led by a loser, bound by the Bloc
It's a personal putsch, not a rational rebellion

Greg Weston : Stooges stage coup
Professor, socialist and separatist make their foolish move

Nat Post : Unholy alliance

G&M : A coalition in a time of economic tumult? No thank you

Ottawa Citizen : Coup d'état, Canadian-style

Ottawa Citizen : We're a silly country with petty leaders

McParland: Liberal coalition could make Canada a colony of Quebec

George Jonas : A mockery of democracy

Barbara Yaffe : Will coalition shut out B.C.?
Coalition with Bloc on board unlikely to fly



With CTV, NaPo and all the Sun papers shitting bricks every hour on the hour as well , it seems a good time to remember who owns and controls what you know ...

CanWest Global owns 11 of Canada's biggest dailies including the National Post, the Montreal Gazette, the Ottawa Citizen and the Vancouver Sun and Province.
CTVglobemedia owns CTV and its 24 affiliates, The Globe and Mail, and 35 radio stations across the country.

... and how much faith you're willing to put in whatever else they tell you about the world.

Bonus : From the G&M's Oct 9, 2008 editorial endorsement of Steve for PM : Harper is growing into the job :
"Two anxieties, neither wholly irrational, have attached themselves to Stephen Harper in his years as a contender for and holder of the top political office in the land.
The first is that he is a right-wing ideologue, badly out of sync with mainstream Canadian values and sentiments.
The second is that he is possessed by a mean-spirited and controlling nature; that his emotional intelligence isn't up to his mental level. "
"He has gotten the big things right."

Um, yeah.

4 comments:

West End Bob said...

Excellent reminder to folks, Alison.

One can't help but try to pull your hair out (what's left of it) while watching/listening/reading the local media on this topic.

If the general public can't see the bias, they need a quick trip to an optometrist . . . .

Anonymous said...

Speaking of the Globe's incredible suckitude, here's a letter I sent today to one of their columnists -- and he's not even the worst of the day.

Dear Gary Mason,

Contrary to your column today, it is not true that BC voted 'mostly Tory' in the last election. Steven Harper won 61% of the seats with well under half the popular vote, and if Westerners are going to feel alienated about anything that would be a good place to start.

As I'm sure you know, it is also not true that talk radio callers are representative of anything other than their spittle-flecked selves. Is that really the best data you can find?

Over half of BC and Manitoba voters and almost half of Saskatchewan voters did not vote for the Tories; even in Alberta, a third did not, and they managed to elect an NDPer in Edmonton. Are all these people feeling 'betrayed' by the coalition too, or are they thrilled at the prospect that they might now, albeit indirectly, get a little representation? Lazy writing like yours today does absolutely nothing to help a Torontonian like me figure out what is really going on in the West. All it does is confirm my suspicion that Canadian journalists have a habit of saying 'the West' when they mean 'loud rural Albertans'. Thanks for nothing.

Patrick C said...

The blizzard hysteria is fully underway here in Alberta. There was actually somebody in the pub last night bellowing on about Stephane Dion being a communist.

* headdesk *

Holly Stick said...

Ah but see Don Martin's column today: http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=3faa9f34-47d7-4242-8af9-9195c926a98e

(Hat tip to somebody, I forget who)

Remember that Martin is a rightwinger but also a buddy of Ralph Klein's, and I hear that Klein and Harper hate each other's guts. So Martin won't be hedartbroken at Harper's sudden unemployment.

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