Canadian reporters and pundits on Twitter have been in an uproar since Friday night. The cause: Sun Media's report that Jack Layton was found in a Toronto bawdy house in 1996.
On Friday evening, David Akin, National Bureau Chief for Sun Media, tweeted: "!!Breaking news !! shortly on Sun News Network: If you've got a TV, turn it on. Incredible news affecting #elxn41" The story as it appeared on the Sun website is here.
CBC reporter Rosie Barton was covering Layton's speech in Courtenay. She was also exchanging angry tweets with others: "Ya know, wild attacks of my journalistic integrity. Last days of a campaign. Tweeps are pretty amped up."
On elxn41, a Top Tweet was by Jian Ghomeshi: "A last-min story about a massage visit in 1996 (!) to affect opinion? Really? What a shamefully cynical reading of the Cdn public." Opponents of the NDP on cdnpoli were having fun inventing obscene hashtags about the report.
Hill reporter/tweeter Kady O'Malley said:"Okay, so it seems that the 'verse is split on whether this is 'news', but there is a keen interest on both sides in knowing the source." ... "I always try to provide sufficient context to any unnamed source to allow readers to gauge what agenda may be at work, for the record." ... "actually, the question of whether it was 'news', as well as the source/provenance of the leak, was part of that story."
Andrew Coyne tweeted: "I guess all i can say is I'd rather be caught naked in a massage parlour than fully clothed working for SunNews."
Meanwhile, in the blogosphere Maclean's reporter Aaron Wherry was first out of the blocks with an account of Layton's statement in Courtenay and a detailed summary of the speech Layton then made to supporters.
Media tweeters and bloggers are also commenting on the latest Angus Reid poll, showing the Conservatives up 2 to 37 percent and the NDP up 3 to 33 percent; the Liberals are now down to 19 percent. In Quebec, NDP support has now reached 45 percent, and 46 percent in the Atlantic provinces. In B.C., NDP support is at 39 percent, close behind the Conservatives' 42 percent. (For more details, download the Angus Reid PDF.)
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
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RossK
42 weeks ago
This Has Nothing To Do With Barnyard Sows...
...Instead it is pure, out-and-out, "Make the Bastard Deny It!" codswallop.
.
G West
42 weeks ago
Good one
Y'know, I've had my differences with Andrew Coyne over the years, but that comment of his is priceless.
You want to bet there's a connection between this and the Toronto Police 'Service'?
spartikus
42 weeks ago
Ezra Levant's Twitter feed...
...makes me feel physically ill. This is the "great" conservative "thinker"?
He's a sleaze merchant.
Skywalker
42 weeks ago
It's like asking Harper...
...have you stopped beating your wife? Totally sick and twisted.
morechatter
42 weeks ago
Like a virgin
Talk about digging deep to find a little dirt on Layton. This isn't it as Federal NDP party leader hasn't had his kick at prime minister yet as Layton gives it his all to turn Canadians on to the NDP.
Van Isle
42 weeks ago
This whole story could
This whole story could backfire on the establishment and Mr Layton could be phoning up the Sun on Tuesday morning and thanking them for the timely news release.
warbler
42 weeks ago
Layton gains from this
Jack's response was good: "Nothing wrong was done (nice use of passive voice), and this is exactly the sort of thing that has Canadians fed with our political system, which we want to change." [paraphrasing]
The only winner here is Jack Layton. That Sun "journalist" should be demoted to paper boy.
G West
42 weeks ago
@warbler
And the police 'officer' who leaked this utter garbage should be prosecuted for criminal breach of trust.
Ricky
42 weeks ago
That's Life
Can't expect a clean campaign or fair play from the bullies - that would be too Canadian. If we keep it real and push on they'll wither and push off into the corner like every school yard punk. Sticks and stones, democracy-haters.
Didn't the NDP surge teach you something about our country? This is not about the NDP or Jack Layton. Canadians have not suddenly gone crazy. We are not children who can't think for ourselves. And we are not as divided as our cousins down south. In Canada, we don't have to thump our chests to feel patriotic and drum up unity - we take it for granted because that's what built this country. Ever read a history book?
For a couple years now the powers that be have ignored 99% of us and used us unfairly and we are worse off for it. You've pissed us off a bit, guys. So the NDP surge is a friendly message, that's all. If your response is shenanigans, then keep playing games and see where it gets you!
Skywalker
42 weeks ago
Right on G West.
That police officer has no business being on any law enforcement sector in our society. He belongs to Mohamar Khadafi.
Macb423
42 weeks ago
@Ricky
EXCELLENT comment Ricky. Thank you!
I went to Burnaby to hear Jack today. I couldn't actually SEE him, because the hall of 2500 was full and there were at least 500 of us outside. It was so moving to see so many young people there. I talked to two of them on the Skytrain on the way home. They said it was their first political rally and they learned from it. They live in Burnaby-Douglas and are two solid and smart new NDP voters.
At last, a progressive political rally where the average age is less than mine (61) Yay.
Piker
42 weeks ago
Ask Julian Fantino...
what he thinks about the leak. He was after all the Chief of the Toronto police and OPP before coming a politician.
Dan the socialist
42 weeks ago
Harper is a low life dirt
Harper is a low life dirt bag.