Mediacheck

Big Media's Sway Will Be Tested at Ballot Box

Most corporate news outlets buttressed Harper's drive for a majority. But has the game changed?

By Donald Gutstein, 2 May 2011, TheTyee.ca

UBC Vote Mob, photo by Jon Chiang

Game changer? UBC vote mob participant. Photo: Jon Chiang from Your BC: The Tyee's Photo Pool.

Text size:

Rate this:

Login/Register

Related

Richard Nixon famously declared "I am not a crook" in his televised defence of his handling of the Watergate affair. After that, everyone thought of him as a crook.

Did the same misfortune befall Michael Ignatieff when, after weeks of Harper accusations that Ignatieff would form a "reckless coalition of losers," he declared his party would not form a coalition government under any circumstances?

Ignatieff fell into a Conservative trap. His campaign went downhill from there to the point where the Liberals, once the "natural governing party," had plummeted to third place, outpaced by the New Democrats.

It didn't matter that Harper's charge was a great distortion of the truth. He succeeded in implanting a Liberal-led-coalition-whether-Ignatieff-denies-it-or-not frame in the public mind.

University of California cognitive scientist George Lakoff defines a frame as a mental structure that shapes the way we see the world. Once a frame is clamped on an issue of public concern, denying the frame merely reinforces it.

Ignatieff's hesitations and then denials embedded the idea of a reckless coalition deeper into public consciousness.

A surge of support for Jack Layton and the NDP during the election indicates how definitively Harper had tarred Ignatieff. But it was too late in the day to turn his attack dogs on Layton. Successful framing requires patient audience priming and preconditioning.

Layton became the election's most popular leader.

When decrying the frame helps the frame

Harper could not have framed Ignatieff the way he did without the assistance of the corporate media. He could talk about coalitions until he was blue in the face, but unless the media report it and comment on it, his words would not reach the public.

On the first day of the campaign, at a rally at the Pearson Convention Centre in Brampton, Ont., Harper used the word "coalition" 21 times.

The next day, three Globe and Mail stories discussed Harper's strategy to force voters to choose between a "majority Conservative government" and a "'reckless' Liberal-led coalition." The Globe cautioned that this was a "false premise," but was filling the "campaign vacuum" thanks to over-the-top media coverage and Twitter feeds.

The paper proved the point by providing its own over-the-top coverage: its front-page story mentioned the word "coalition" 16 times.

The following day columnist Lawrence Martin picked up the topic, commenting on coalition mania, while the Globe's editorial board chimed in with an editorial complaining that Harper was creating a phony issue, but discussed it anyway.

Harper learned the wizardry of framing when he met privately with Republican spin-master Frank Luntz in 2006. Luntz is credited with the 2004 George W. Bush victory over John Kerry because of his success in framing Kerry as a flip-flopper.

Harper used the same trope against the hapless Stéphane Dion in the 2008 election, framing him as a flip-flopper before Dion could explain himself to the Canadian public.

The media helped Harper frame Dion and they helped Harper frame Ignatieff.

Repetition is the key

As Maxwell McCombs, a scholar who studies agenda-setting, explains, "for all the news media" -- newspapers, television, radio and even the Internet -- "the repetition of a topic day after day is the most powerful message of all about its importance."

Every paper and television network across the country beat the coalition drum, attacking or defending the idea -- it didn't matter which. The word "coalition" appeared, along with mention of Harper, in 543 news stories and columns, news releases and television broadcasts -- and who knows how many times on the largely conservative talk radio networks -- during the first seven days of the campaign. And it dominated Twitter election feeds.

By the end of week one, persistent media repetition helped set one election frame: stable Conservative majority government or reckless coalition of losers.

No one wants this election, right?

Harper also attempted to impose a second and related frame: the election was opportunistic and unnecessary. Like the reckless coalition, Harper started building this frame well before he asked the Governor General to dissolve Parliament and call an election.

The corporate media assisted Harper here too, reporting incessantly about his denunciation of the Opposition parties' ambition for an "unnecessary and very expensive election."

The truth was, of course, as the Vancouver Sun's Barbara Yaffe pointed out, Harper -- and not the Opposition parties -- likely had the most to gain from an election. He was as close to majority territory as he had ever been: the latest opinion poll positioned him 19 points clear of the Liberals. But he couldn't be seen lusting for an election and cleverly turned it back onto the parties with the least to gain.

"Harper (snookered) the Opposition parties into forcing an election," Yaffe suggested.

"Reckless coalition" and "unnecessary election" framed most media coverage of election issues.

The Harper government's lies, ethical lapses and cover-ups should have made great cannon fodder for the battalions of reporters and pundits covering the campaigns. But three weeks into the election, Victoria Times Colonist columnist Jack Knox berated Harper's "sputtering purple-faced opponents" for not understanding that "nothing sticks."

Knox listed the charges: "contempt of Parliament, Bev Oda, intolerance of dissent, the Senate flip-flop, spending violations..."

"What drives critics crazy," Knox offered, "is that the more they holler, the less voters listen."

That's one explanation. There's another reason why Harper government scandals fell into a sink-hole: the media didn't adequately report what the Opposition parties were saying. As Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts once explained, "in a world where media set the public agenda and drive the dialogue, those things media ignore may as well not exist." If a topic is rarely or never discussed in the media, it has almost no chance of being deemed important by the public.

Ethics? Who cares?

Going into the election, the risk for Harper was that the campaign could morph into a debate about ethics. He neutralized that risk by creating the two frames that took attention away from him and his party. By the second day of the campaign, an Ottawa Citizen poll informed readers that ethics was not a "hot issue." And several days later, the Calgary Herald claimed the "Opposition strategy of ethics and contempt" was "failing to register."

The media let the Harper war room spin the notion that ethics issues were just political gamesmanship.

Take the Bev Oda scandal, for instance. In 2009, Oda, the minister of International Co-operation, rejected the renewal of church-based foreign-aid group Kairos' long-standing Canadian International Development Agency grant. She called the rejection a "CIDA decision," but it turned out top CIDA officials had signed a note recommending approval of Kairos funding. That memo was later altered when the word "not" was inked in before "approve."

Oda told a House committee she didn't know who inserted the "not," but later admitted she had ordered the doctoring of the document. "Any reasonable person confronted with what appears to have transpired would necessarily be extremely concerned, if not shocked," House Speaker Peter Milliken ruled after reviewing the file.

But Canadian voters did not have the opportunity to become shocked because of the sparse and misleading mainstream media coverage of the Oda scandal. An analysis that ran in many Postmedia papers during week one framed Oda's behaviour as nothing more than a "mishandled rejection" of the grant.

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix columnist Bronwyn Eyre instead attacked NDP MP Pat Martin for shouting "you're lying" at Oda when Oda was lying to the parliamentary committee. Martin's sin was that he was an MP "with no knowledge of even basic administrative or evidence law." Eyre neglected to mention Oda's sin.

Curiously, the liberal Toronto Star provided the most apologetic Oda coverage. One early story claimed that Oda "naively tried to cover up the exercise of her ministerial prerogative," while a later article asked if the "funding and fibbing flap" would "hurt Oda at the polls," but provided no answer.

Meanwhile over at the National Post, Rex Murphy harrumphed we were ignoring war and peace but wasting our time debating Oda and the census because they are too trivial. But his media colleagues were not debating Oda.

Nor were they debating the other ethics and accountability scandals of the Harper government, at least with the same intensity they did when presenting the stable Conservative government versus reckless coalition of losers frame.

How Layton broke through the frames

Despite a handful of commentators who provided more critical perspectives on ethics issues -- Vancouver Sun's Stephen Hume, Ottawa Citizen's Dan Gardner, Tim Harper at the Toronto Star, and several others -- the campaign was heading in its predicted direction until something unforeseen happened.

Jack Layton and the NDP received a surge of support.

Burnaby-New Westminster NDP MP Peter Julian says the surge occurred despite corporate media efforts to minimize coverage of the New Democrats.

He attributes the NDP's rise in the polls first to Jack Layton's excellent performance in the French-language debate on April 14. This was followed by positive coverage in the Francophone press which, Julian says, is more balanced than the Anglophone press.

Then social media -- Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr -- began spreading the news about Layton. Young, progressive Quebeckers had become disillusioned with the Bloc Quebecois, which they saw as stale and dated. Layton, who was progressive, born in Montreal, spoke a French they could relate to, and cheered mightily for the cameras when the Canadiens scored a goal in the playoff round against Boston, became a viable alternative. The New Democrats soared to first place in Quebec polls.

Outside Quebec, in Atlantic Canada and B.C., where the corporate media are more imbalanced, Julian attributes the NDP surge largely to social media. People in large numbers began forwarding information that corporate media were not reporting.

In his canvassing in New Westminster and Burnaby, he's finding many more people -- especially young people and marginalized groups -- who say they plan to vote this time (and vote NDP) than in previous elections. The large turn-outs at advanced polls bear him out.

The argument is being made that this is Canada's first social media election and young people, who traditionally vote in lesser numbers, are becoming engaged. A case in point is the website ShitHarperDid, which brings together five years worth of Harper goofs, insensitive remarks and ill-advised actions. Within hours of the site's launch it crashed under the weight of more than a million visitors, as the word spread on Facebook and Twitter. By the next day it passed two million hits.

Another example is the phenomenon of vote mobs. On April 4, 200 students at the University of Guelph suddenly appeared outside a Conservative rally and unfurled signs saying "Surprise! We are voting." Vote mobs are a variation on flash mobs, which organize events online and simply appear at a specific place and time and engage in some collective action. Vote mobs have sprung up at universities across the country.

These groups -- or non-groups -- say they are non-partisan, although with a distinct anti-Harper flavour. But will they increase voter turn-out and for whom? A recent poll suggests young people vote for the parties in about the same proportions as the general population. How can political organizations reach them?

Social media meets political power

Using social media cannot guarantee election victories, but can be effective when used in conjunction with traditional media and election-based organizations. There's the successful case of Naheed Nenshi, a long-shot candidate for Calgary mayor. He used social media, especially Youtube, to personalize his image and bring levity to his campaign. But to win he spent heavily on TV and radio ads and participated in all the traditional campaign activities.

And, perhaps most important, Nenshi obtained endorsements from both major Calgary newspapers. The Calgary Sun liked him because "he's business friendly and passionate about restoring fiscal responsibility and transparency -- and cutting red tape." The Calgary Herald offered that if he can "convince the development industry he is not the liberal bogeyman hiding under the bed, he just might win." He did and he did.

Days before election day, both major national dailies attacked Layton and endorsed Harper.

The Globe accused Layton of "putting a benign gloss on his party's free-spending policies," while the National Post cautioned anyone thinking of supporting the New Democrats that he or she would be "backing a serious gamble with the health and unity of the country."

Only Harper and his party "have shown the leadership, the bullheadedness... and the discipline this country needs," the Globe offered, while the Post claimed that "Stephen Harper's Conservatives are a clear choice in uncertain times."

Meanwhile, with three days to go, Postmedia papers across Canada -- with the exception of the Vancouver Sun and the Province -- put the same story on their front page:

"NDP rule will cost us: Harper" (Calgary Herald)

"NDP coalition would scare away investors: PM" (Edmonton Journal)

"NDP would stop recover, Harper says" (Ottawa Citizen)

"NDP win would kill investment—Harper" (Montreal Gazette)

"Harper's words of warning: An NDP coalition would be unstable and wouldn't last very long. But no one should underestimate the damage it would do to Canada's reputation, credibility and economy" (National Post).

Whew!

The Toronto Sun followed its own anti-NDP agenda, with its Friday front page depicting Layton as the Joker with the massive headline "WILD CARD."

On Saturday, all Sun newspapers, and Sun News, used the same front page picture of Layton and the headline, "BAWDY POLITIC: Layton found naked in massage parlour: Former cop." The story referred to a non-incident that occurred in 1996 when Layton was a Toronto councillor and it should have remained locked up in police files. It was preposterous yellow journalism concocted by obvious amateurs.

Corporate media's power to be measured

Contrast that desperate coverage with the penetrating analysis and commentary of election-related issues provided in some independent media.

The Tyee published Andrew Nikiforuk's superb investigation of Harper advisor Bruce Carson's shenanigans in and out of the Prime Minister's Office, which is in the best tradition of investigative journalism, shining a spotlight on the links among business, politics and academia. It's the kind of journalism corporate media have largely stopped doing.

This may be the first election in which independent media like The Tyee, Rabble.ca and Straight Goods are competitive with the corporate press.

rabble.ca, for instance, saw its number of unique visitors reach an all-time high of 188,000 in March and over 250,000 in April, with three or four days still to go.

Meanwhile, on Saturday and Sunday, the rest of the corporate media trotted out their predictable endorsements: unanimously for Harper, with one exception -- the Toronto Star endorsed Layton.

Tonight we'll know if voters are still swayed by corporate media rhetoric or if a new discourse is taking hold in the Canadian political arena. Will Layton's performance, public disgust with the Harper government's sordid record, and a burgeoning independent media sector prevail? Or will it be business as usual? [Tyee]

Donald Gutstein is an adjunct professor and co-director of NewsWatch Canada in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University and author of Not a Conspiracy Theory: How Business Propaganda Hijacks Democracy. Find his website here.

28 Comments:

Login or register to post comments

  • OhCanada

    1 year ago

    Snakepit

    Excellent article! And why am I not surprised.

    The majority of reporters in the mainstream media have become spineless creatures forgetting that they serve the public not the corrupt politicians. Forgetting that journalism is about reporting and not taking sides.

    One reason that the Tyee is my number 1 source for news.

  • Driftwood

    1 year ago

    Great article!

    'The next step down for mainstream media believers is probably to get down on all fours and start grazing!'

    Here's hoping this 'coalition of losers' finally loses Harper's 'coalition of liars' and gets our democratic country back. And it's very rich to call 65% of the electorate a buncha losers in a desperate attempt to get them to change their votes. Only Pinocchio, they would have us believe, is capable of saving this country from the majority of voters who don't like him.
    Fear is what the Conservatives do best. I hope they look under their beds today and find the bogeyman. I hope it eats them. Yum, yum.

    Just the fact that it was the Harper government which colluded with the Campbell government to give us the hated HST when they both knew the vast majority of BCers were against it will surely turn a lot of voters here off.
    And the fact that an NDP government would scrap the HST and forgive the bribe/threat currently held over us by the provincial Liberal government will surely turn a lot of people here on.

    It's easy. Do you prefer a conservative cavern replete with higher taxes and 5 billion in new prisons (because the Cons won't legalize, control, and profit on pot: It is clearly not going away no matter who controls it.) Do you prefer a Conservative government which harshly punishes even those within its ranks if they dare to utter an unscripted word? Or a brand new sunny day; where even the little guy gets a fair shot at prosperity and where even the old and disabled will be given a decent pension, and where instead of saying there is no money for Medicare the NDP would tax the huge corporations which exploit our resources, and immediately start to hire more doctors which we desperately need?

    Don't be fooled by the Harperites who would have you believe that we must give huge concessions to attract foreign investment. First we don't need it, and second 'peak resources', like 'peak oil' is rapidly approaching or already here: We have it and the rest of the world needs it. Why give it away cheap unless you are a neocon who looks on public resources as your private campaign bank? And third, the only logical result of reducing corporate taxes while increasing public taxes is richer corporations and poorer ordinary Canadians.

    It's time British Columbians realized that the very same band of dour propagandists who aided and abetted the BC Liberal government in its plundering of our province for the benefit of the rich few are now attempting to do the same thing on a national scale.
    Just say no to a conservative/corporate majority. Do it for your children. Do it for a decent society. Do it because the world is changing and it's time for us to change with it.

  • jim1966

    1 year ago

    The Corporate Media

    Great item here today. Well ladies and gentlemen voting day is here at long last. This has been the most fascinating election in recent years. Voting is important and I hope that my fellow citizens will cast their ballot today if they have not already done so. At the start of this campaign I was going to vote Liberal and hopefully stop Harper from getting a majority. Now after almost a month I am walking across the floor so to speak and vote NDP. In my riding Vancouver Center I know that the incumbent will most likely win but I like Jack and his platform. After all is said and done and after all of the ballots are cast I hope that upon the arrival of May 3/11 we all will see some hope come from Ottawa and not what we all had prior to this election being called. That is why it's important that we get out and vote. I certainly do not want Harper to win a majority and hopefully most readers and posters here feel the same way. This campaign has revealed many things to Canadians about all the parties and where these parties want to take our country. I cannot speak for anyone else but myself and I know that I want my Canadian government to represent all the people not just big business or the super rich etc. Hopefully others feel the same way as I do and cast their ballot. Good Luck Jack and well done on your campaign!

  • Dan the socialist

    1 year ago

    Great article. I have been

    Great article. I have been saying since Iggy was anointed how he was not cut our for the job after Dion, yet I was always ridiculed, mocked and laughed at on other forums, blogs like CBC by Liberals and even my own Liberal MP, I was told things would get better, oh just wait the polling will change etc I could see it. Talking to people I do not think I ever heard anyone out here say they liked Iggy but my MP..He did not come across as personable.

    Iggy is probably a nice guy, he is smart but those people do not make great politicians. You have to be a 'snake oil salesman' in part to succeed or a bully/thug/control freak like Harper.

    I do feel bad for Iggy though. I think he was dragged into this in a way and I am sure he will be glad to get out tomorrow or tonight.

    Was it the Liberal back-room establishment that lead to their demise? In retrospect the turning point was turning down the coalition when Iggy was anointed. Harper was down for the count yet the Liberals helped him back up and supported him almost all the time. If the libs would of accepted coalition Harper would of been a distant memory and the cons more than likely would have a new leader and the Liberal Party would not be on life support. Plus Harper would not of been able to do all he has done if the Libs never backed him.

    The Liberal party needs to get rid of the arrogance entitlement attitude too and maybe this will help.

    But that being said I have not liked Liberals since Trudeau (when I was to young to vote) and PET is probably rolling in his grave but I really do not care if Liberal Party ceases to exist. They always treated BC like crap when they were in power anyway. Harper is no better. Hopefully Jack gets a minority or leads a coalition (but I doubt the Libs would be willing though to go that route).

  • White Bird

    1 year ago

    something fishing going on here

    from the link provided, the Sun reporting that:

    Thirty-seven per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 34 who were polled said they would vote for the Conservative candidate in their riding.

    This defies common sense. How is it possible that this distinct demographic would generate the IDENTICAL con percentage as the mainstream media says belongs to the con base?? Answer: Polls are themselves lie, designed to generate a specific "truth." Why have we allowed them to hi-jack our civil discourse?

  • Fiat lux

    1 year ago

    Although the main hope for

    Although the main hope for today is "anybody, but Harper", having lived under all ideologies and seen a long line of dictators hit the dust, in my lifetime, we shouldn't become desperate, if by some miracle he does get his coveted majority and dictatorship.

    It could become the waking up call for people to finally realize what the guy really stands for and intends to do, because all dictators and all empires go that fatal step too far and destroy themselves.

    Unfortunately, their collapse also destroys the lives of large numbers of innocents, as we have seen it in recent history, but we can only hope that humanity may have, finally, reached the level of understanding and take steps to deny the "wealth creating" efforts of any future predators.

    I've been sentenced to death by the nazis, to the gulags by the communists, stolen blind, legally, of the results of 25 years of work, yet, I'm still kicking and better off and happier in my old age, than those who tried to knock me down, long in their graves.

    In other words, we never know what benefits the worst happenings in our lives may ultimately bring, by waking us up to the opportunities to change and better ourselves.

    I still hope never to see Stevie in the news again, but certainly won't give up if he does, as it will become the kick to work and start a new world.

    Ed Deak.

  • dashwood

    1 year ago

    media influence

    good article.

    here in bc almost all media outlets are owned in groups, by friends of right wing politicians, and these outlets are used to shape public opinion in favor of the right (as opposed to the correct).

    luckily we still have the internet, and can search for dissenting opinions, and facts, that are not reported by the friends of govt and big business.

    i believe most canadians who bother to do even a minimum of research will find that harperism is repulsive to their sensibilities.

    hope i am correct.

  • Jerry Munro

    1 year ago

    Everything Changed?

    I'm not so sure everything has yet changed of course, but it is clear that "something" is happening here. After tonight, we will have a better idea what, and just how much.

    But it is clear that the ruling class ideas hold of "corporate media" influence over the broad mass of the working class MAY be in the process of at least being weakened.It's role in the ruling order better understood by "the targeted masses" themselves.

    Also, I do think it is clear that the mood in the country, and the tolerance for Conservatism/fascism in particular, extended even to the "conservatism-light" of the Liberal Party, is in the process of seriously unravelling. Which MAY be about to break in favour of the more true liberalism/capitalism light, at least rhetorically, of the NDP. Here too, we are going to see just how much.

    And while one should certainly not "over project" one's partisan desires onto reality here, especially those of us on the more serious Left of the NDP, I think we can quite safely at least be buoyed by distinct signs of changing times and political inclinations. A popular desire for "social change" and casting about for different ideas and approaches to getting there has begun... JUST, but nonetheless...

    Which immediately, the NDP can be excused for being some ecstatic about, but also our more modest "Serious Left" hopes for a more receptive/tolerant socio-political environment for those of us with a more challenging/transformative attitude toward the very capitalist underpinnings of the social order. There, the NDP has shown little inclination and will not go... which in my view says that new political, more "revolutionary" creations are likely going to be called up, going forward.

    8-D lol Though we may yet find the NDP playing the same role in this emerging time, as the Liberal Party did during their heyday time, at the height of the postwar II Social Democratic State of Capitalism... stealing their then CCF ideas and policies, and sounding more "progressive" themselves than they really were prepared to act. Which would still be a good thing :-), as part of getting it done and the ideas out there, moving beyond capitalism, which is the more important anyway. :-) And their "help", assuming, should be welcomed. :-)

    In any case, my prediction? Interesting times. Prepare for them. This is just the start of the period for the struggle to seriously extricate our country from the grasp of the US Empire influence, and our society and economy from the choking grip of free market "Corporate Casino Capitalism".

  • WC Hermit

    1 year ago

    I agree with most of the

    I agree with most of the comments.
    Don't lose faith. Keep your glass half full. Ed Deak says it best, I can't improve on that.

    I am in the old fart class, have been an ndp'r since coming over from the CCF.
    Most interesting and exciting election in my lifetime.
    Thank you Tyee. The rest of the papers, I use for comic relief.(and to post silly stuff to the con trolls)I know I am not supposed to feed them but some old habits are hard to break.

    Remember, if you see a con lying in the ditch, dying of thirst, don't urinate on him.
    If he's not dying of thirst..............well, whatever.
    Duncan

  • SharingIsGood

    1 year ago

    small media

    A series of small media clips (vignettes as only women can portray them) can be found by googling:
    "YouTube Bad Dates with Stephen Harper"
    or you can click the link to find Rebecca Northan's tell-all with several similar vignettes showing up in the YouTube tray and sidebar:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6aI8ryABkM&feature=related

    So far, I have watched 5 or 6 of these clips and I believe there is at least one more. Each woman shows aspects of Harper's petty and mean-spirited personality/leadership. I found them sadly humourous.

    All Canadians, particularly in BC - Please Vote!

    (Side note: Ed Deak may be amused to hear recurring references to his eyes.)

  • Fiat lux

    1 year ago

    Sharing....I have good

    Sharing....I have good plastic eyes, from cataract operations, don't have to wear glasses, and as an old classically trained artist on the female figure, can still have xray vision through the clothes, when I see a good model prospect.

    I paint them and then give them the pictures to enjoy for the rest of their lives.

    The only reason I'm writing on politics and economics is, because I hate them for the terrible damage they've been, and are, doing to the world and the human race and, and artists have usually been in the front lines for change.

    Ed Deak.

  • SharingIsGood

    1 year ago

    Ed Deak

    Ed,

    I should have been more clear, Ed; I was calling attention to the TouTube video clips references to Harper's (predatory) eyes. You have to go to the video clips to hear the references.

    I have been blessed to have seen some of your artwork, and I have always been very impressed with your vision (both: literally and metaphorically).

  • terminalcitygirl

    1 year ago

    'The next step down for

    'The next step down for mainstream media believers is probably to get down on all fours and start grazing!'

    ROFLMAO! It's funny because it's true sadly.

    This is an excellent article. Thanks to The Tyee and others for getting the real stories, the stories that matter, out. I've been linking to alternative media stuff like crazy this election hoping friends and family will get a clue. It will be an interesting night.

  • Fiat lux

    1 year ago

    Talking about the mainstream

    Talking about the mainstream media....

    I've spent the last 6 months of WW2 in nazi Germany, as a soldier of the Hungarian army, most of the time digging holes and building tank traps in front of the advancing US Army, then marching in the nights, starving and eaten up by lice.

    Yet, according to their media, the nazis were wining the war, with great victories and advances on all fronts, even when the Russians were already in the half of Berlin.

    Then, something happened on May 5 and they lost it over night. Still wondering why, with all the victories in the nedia, fighting for "Freedom, Christianity and Western Civilization"

    How could anybody lose a war, fighting for such noble causes, as now for "globally competitive wealth creation" ?

    What could be a more beautiful and nobler cause to fight for?

    Ed Deak.

  • Skywalker

    1 year ago

    Excellent article and posts.

    One can only hope that finally the corruption of the once influential media will be its demise. I for one pay less and less attention to the MSM as do most people that I run into during coffee at Tim Hortons.

  • Skywalker

    1 year ago

    Excellent article and posts.

    One can only hope that finally the corruption of the once influential media will be its demise. I for one pay less and less attention to the MSM as do most people that I run into during coffee at Tim Hortons.

  • OwlRol

    1 year ago

    Two Georges worth reading, Lakoff and Orwell

    George Lakoff's "Don't think of an elephant" text nailed it, including the different frames between tolerant liberal thinking and paternalistic conservative thinking.

    When asked what Canadian news he watches, little Stevie responded that he only watches American news. He was interviewed twice on only one U.S. network, Fox. His association with Republican Frank Luntz should have been a wake up call, but the mainstream media wouldn't touch it, because they were pushing the same agenda.

    Time to set some new, more honest and tolerant frames.

  • alice in Tahsis

    1 year ago

    Who invented the coalition? Not Harper

    Sorry, but the LIberals adn NDP came up with the coalition, not the Conservatives.

    And Ignatieff cooked his own goose with an inept campaign.

    Maybe Harper is just smarter and more disciplined.. isn't that a better set of characteristics for a Prime Minister?

    And if the NDP ends up as a bigger force in the Opposition than the Liberals, that will be a refreshing change.. like the Conservatives, the NDP at least have principles that they stick to, election after election.

    Might make for better Government, even if it is another Minority.

  • Norman Farrell

    1 year ago

    @ Alice in Tahsis

    In a letter dated Sept. 9 2004 to the Governor-General of Canada, Stephen Harper, Jack Layton (NDP) and Gilles Duceppe (Bloc) claimed the right of minority parties to form a coalition government.

    It is simply not truthful to suggest Harper did not favor coalition when it was to his advantage. As a matter of fact, coalition governments are a healthier reflection of democracy than a government holding power with support of fewer than 40% of voters and perhaps less than 25% of citizens.

    You might believe in the Conservative Party of Canada; you do not believe in democracy.

    http://northerninsights.blogspot.com/2011/04/hypocrisy-can-afford-to-be-magnificent.html

  • aqualith

    1 year ago

    Why is there an election? It's a question of who's in charge.

    Mr. Baird, a leading Harper minister, has said voters are asking "Why is there an election?"

    There's an election because Mr. Harper's Conservative party government was contemptuous of Parliament, and Parliament’s the boss. Mr. Harper's government was insubordinate. They frustrated the boss in-house. They badmouthed the boss in public. They repeatedly refused to tell the boss the truth about what they had been doing, or the cost of what they planned to do.

    The boss finally said, OK that's it. Out! This isn't about what you're going to do for us anymore. This is about who's in charge. And in case we need to remind you, in Canada, for Canadians, the boss is us, Parliament, not you, the gang that reports to us. You're gone. We're getting someone else to work for us. Someone we have confidence in.

    Mr. Baird and other Conservative leaders know this. Pretending it didn't happen is even deeper contempt. It denies the boss is the boss. It puts it out that what Parliament says doesn't matter.

    Maybe, just until the broken electoral system lets that gang get a hammerlock on the boss, by getting a minority of Canadians to elect a majority of new MPs.

    Have a listen to Peter Russell http://thestar.blogs.com/politics/2011/04/peter-russell-speaks-out.html

  • Driftwood

    1 year ago

    Best srategic voting analysis yet

    If you haven't voted yet here is an in depth guide on who to vote for in BC to defeat the Cons:
    http://pacificgazette.blogspot.com/

  • Driftwood

    1 year ago

    Sorry that's strategic

    Lots of really bright people are dyslectic but I'm not one of.

  • Skywalker

    1 year ago

    Baird know why there is an election.

    He knows exactly why. It is because the Conservatives refused to recognize they were in a minority and instead thought they could govern like they had a majority. That sounds pretty dumb but that is what caused an election. LKook in the mirror Baird!

  • Lawrence

    1 year ago

    Soooo

    When Jack becomes PM what are the first things he should do?

  • RickW

    1 year ago

    Lawrence

    Everything he said he would in the next 100 days........?

  • RickW

    1 year ago

    Mildly pissed at CBC Radio One

    In the news this morning, CBC played a clip of Harper's last harangue, where he gave us the "choice" between a fair and balanced government and a socialist, big spending, big debt, big job loss, big unemplyment government (I paraphrase).

    OK I thought - and waited for Iggy's last harrah, then Jack's, DuCeppe's, and May's. But alas, none were forthcoming.

    Is CBC currying a subtle favour with the Cons?

  • Carol Pickup

    1 year ago

    The Corporate Media including the CBC

    I am disgusted with our corporate media in Canada,including the CBC. I fully support a public broadcasting corporation along the lines of PBS in the USA and our own Knowledge Network in B.C. But the current managment of the CBC is obviously in the business of promoting the Harper Conservatives and right wing ideology to save their own jobs!!!
    Carol Pickup, Victoria, B.C.

  • vdhsdh

    1 year ago

    accept paypal free shipping

    ====== http://www.clothes6.us ====

    you can find many cheap and fashion stuff

    30—39 USD jordan air max oakland raiders;

    17USD Ed Hardy AF JUICY Bikini

    38USD Handbags (Coach lv fendi d&g) $38

    16USD T shirts ( edhardy,lacoste) $16

    36USD Jean(True Religion,edhardy,co ogi) $36

    14USD Sunglasses (Oakey,coach,gucci,Armaini) $14

    12USD New era cap $9

    17USD Bikini (Ed hardy,) $17

    DELIVERY TO YOU DOOR TO DOOR

    we can offer NFL,NHL,MLB,NBA jerser,the NFL jersey 18usd each,

    the NHL jersey 38USD each.

    MLB jersey 18usd each,NAB jersey 18usd each.

    we have many jerseys of other players,

    accept paypal free shipping

    ====== http://www.clothes6.us ====

    ====== http://www.jordans2011.org ====

    ====== http://www.jordans2011.org ====

    • The discussion for this story is closed. No more comments can be added.