Media turn critical eye on Canada’s ethics commissioner
The front-page banner is set to print: “Shapiro Resigns.” Journalists merely wait for the event to justify the headline. If there is a man in Ottawa who draws universal media scorn, it is Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro. Fairly or not, he gets the most press of any federal officer since George Radwanski discovered the all-you-can-eat […]
Are media guilty of demographic profiling? You decide
Are media guilty of demographic profiling? Do journalists target individuals for scrutiny solely because of who they are, not what they have said? Unlike Canada’s police, reporters never question whether profiling has become a professional habit. Evidence suggests it has. The Globe and Mail recently carried a front-page headline that “Christian activists” had won Conservative […]
So will end Paul Martin’s career and with it Canada’s most enduring national media myth
With every turn of events, the screw tightens. The Liberal Party, wrote The Victoria Times Colonist, is “sordid,” “rotten,” “corrupt” and “venal,” a party so craven that “its Parliamentary practitioners have used every procedural tool imaginable to cling to office.” Liberals are condemned as “devils” (Sault Star) who are “desperate” (Regina Leader-Post) and “cynical” (Calgary […]
Get in the mud, boys, it’s election time!
Joe Volpe stood in the Commons lobby, his eyes gleaming, and waited for media to assemble. The Immigration Minister was to perform carefully-rehearsed outrage. His opponents, he said, reminded him of the KKK. “The Klan looks like it’s still very much alive,” Volpe declared, “notwithstanding that they don’t have their cowl and their cape.” No […]
Libs haven’t been burdened by unduly critical media
Liberals, whatever their troubles, have not been burdened with an unduly critical Parliamentary Press Gallery. Parliamentary news coverage has a chirpy, greeting-card quality. This must be a comfort to a government in peril. Just a note when you are blue To say that we admire you! Beyond Parliament Hill, Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Liberals get […]
Liberals face worst fate of all: the media death watch
There was a pall over Parliament. The Minister of Immigration huddled with the Minister of Finance. They spoke in hushed tones. Liberals were worn out and too long in office, Immigration said. “If we knew what was good for us, we would lose the election by a relatively small margin, let the Conservatives…go into office […]
No matter how cynical you are, it’s never enough
Few have the throbbing pulse of true patriot love like Quebec Liberals. Theirs is a rich, red patriotism. It thrives amid adversity, as the Gomery Commission grinds their political machine to a fine powder. In this dark hour for Liberalism, the party and media friends spot a shining point of light–the flag! As Sun sage […]
Why erase an ugly truth to replace it with a cheerful lie?
They are twins, like Jekyll and Hyde, in perennial conflict. One is The Official Version, the other is truth. Truth is weaker. Venality is in us; that was the point of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel. Yet when the truth is awkward, our first impulse is to erase it from the records. Media are reaching for […]
Memo to Stephen Harper: make nice with reporters
Stephen Harper may have the worst media relations of any postwar Opposition Leader. Reporters commonly have an affinity for the Opposition — any Opposition. Both are mandated to expose problems in the hope it leads to public good. John Diefenbaker, in his last act as Opposition Leader in 1957, went pickerel fishing with the press. […]
Even bigger crash lies ahead, but few media reporting it
Is it media’s job, when seas are calm, to be on the look-out for trouble? Many journalists scanning the economic horizon recently spotted a large iceberg in the shape of a disturbing federal report. Yet no alarm was raised; coverage was non-existent. Full speed ahead. The hint of looming calamity came in a Statistics Canada […]
