Category: Media

Still more fiddleyfriggery from the MSM. But, hey; what else have we come to expect from them? The latest eekings and shreikings from the leftist lapdogs in the national media return, like a dog to its own vomit, to the recent Chicken Little proclaimations that the Tories are actually encouraging each other to support their candidates in the byelections. Sure this is something that all parties have done, pretty much since forever, but when has the media ever placed it in such ominous (“One of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s most senior political operatives is urging taxpayer-funded staff in the Parliament Hill offices of Conservative MPs to get involved in two federal byelection campaigns“) terms? Never, as far as I can remember. Of course they do a lame about-face (“Finley’s memo never explicitly states that Hill staff should use their parliamentary office resources or taxpayer-funded time“) just enough not to get sued, but it really doesn’t take a whole hell of a lot to guess what party membership cards these bozos have in their pockets now, does it?

Yeah, so the Tories are encouraging their staff to help out in the byelections. But then again, most of their staff are Tories, too. And before you have yourself a big, bad, Machiavellian meltdown over that, ask yourself this: how many conservatives do you think were working there when the Lieberals were running the show?

It seems that at least one old adage is holding as fast and true as ever: believe half of what you see and none of what you read. Except for here, of course. I’m a paragon of honesty, dontcha know?

Canada.com
Top Conservative urges staff in MPs’ offices to wade into byelection campaigns*

CTV
Memo urges Tory MPs’ staff to help in byelections

The Freeps
Candidates descend on mall

[* Sure, I could have listed all dozen or so of these stories that I found (from the Montreal Gazette to the Winterpeg Freeps to MacLeans), except for one thing: they were all exactly the same story, word for word. Interesting, non?]

Damn. First Bruce Cockburn grows a brain, and now this. And here I thought all the fancypants types in the entertainment industry were supposed to be all anti-military up the wazoo.

That doesn’t seem to be the case here, though. Canadian-born Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels seems to be the latest in a lengthening line of the supposedly exclusively-left showbiz crowd to yank his cranium out of his colon and say what most of us have known all along:

OTTAWA (CP) – “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels applauded Canada’s participation in the Afghan mission Thursday, saying he’s glad his native country is “back in the world.”

But the Toronto-born Michaels, one of six Canadians being honoured this week with a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement, had some sharp criticism for the previous Liberal government’s reaction to the September 11 attacks.

It’s almost enough to make you want to have faith in celebrities again.

The handwringing continues over the war in Afghanistan. Do we support it or don’t we? Should we stay the course or cut and run? Are we warriors or peacekeepers? What’s the latest from Bin Layton on all this? Has there been another poll on this yet? Why do we see all these antiwar types all over the media when poll after poll shows that most of us actually support the mission? Who, what, where, when, how, why!? ACK!!

For months (no, make that years) now, we’ve been pummelled from all sides by media utterly obsessed with this melodramatic gawking at our collective bellybutton. Sun Media and cnews hopped on that bandwagon themselves today with a whole slew of articles and links on their website chewing over the question of what we think about the war; including:

Waging a war of words
(Adam Clayton, Winterpeg Sun)

[…]The plan was to walk through some of Winnipeg’s busiest spots with a sandwich board sign urging people to support our soldiers in the war-torn country — and then hit the streets a few days later with another sign saying the opposite.

After my first sign sparked virtually no reaction outside the bus shelter at Portage Place on Tuesday afternoon, I headed to Osborne Village thinking I was bound to get a response from a youthful, anti-establishment crowd.

No such luck, as people would read the sign and then quickly look away.

Calling it a day, I hoped the anti-war sign would provoke more of a reaction. Man, did it ever.

Give war a chance
(Dave Breakenridge, Calgary Sun)

Trying to figure out how many people in Calgary support the war in Afghanistan should be like asking first-graders if they like puppies, right?

Drawing battle lines
(Thane Burnett, TO Sun)

Our signs gave no indication we were from the press. We were to stand silent, and let people react to an opinion.

Polls suggest about 59% of Canadians support Canadian combat troops being used in Afghanistan — with about half the country wanting our men and women to all return home when our current military commitment ends in 2009.

Despite the numbers, any debate seems low and muffled.

When I suggested this national project to test our convictions, I assumed almost everyone — as Canadians often do — would walk politely past any controversy.

I thought you wouldn’t have much to say. And I was wrong.

Battle on homefront
(Nelly Elayouby, Ottawa Sun)

A dishevelled homeless man wearing a camouflage cap charges toward me, the smell of booze wafting in my direction.

Arms stretched out, he grabs at my picket sign as I walk through a downtown underpass.

The sign reads “Support Our Troops in Afghanistan,” a message he doesn’t agree with.

“You’re brainwashed just like the rest of them!” he yells, pointing his head toward Parliament Hill.

“Give me that sign, let me rip it for you!”

A war of words
(Joe Matyas, Freeps)

Tyler Fairweather had only been on the street for a minute with his “Support our troops in Afghanistan” sign when a man in a cube van flashed a thumbs-up in approval.

As he walked to the busiest corner in downtown London in the late afternoon, the affirmations kept coming — nods, waves, winks, a few “yeses” and “right ons” and more thumbs.

Fairweather, 17, has a 19-year-old cousin enlisted in the Canadian Forces who’s now in Edmonton preparing for a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Strong views on either side
(Andrew Hanon, Edmonton Sun)

In my case, the people of Edmonton were too polite to get up into my face, no matter which placard I wore. The one that read “Support our troops in Afghanistan” earned more honks and thumbs-up from passing drivers, but drew more dirty looks and clucks of disapproval from pedestrians along Whyte Avenue. One young woman glared through her eyebrow piercings and shook her head, but never said anything as she shouldered her way past me. I even marched into HUB Mall at the University of Alberta to see if anyone would challenge me there. But the of only people who spoke to me were a former soldier and two active reservists, both whom had done tours in Afghanistan. Cpl. Marta Rzechowka said the media’s fixation on body counts has helped people forget the reason our soldiers are there in the first place ­ rebuilding a shattered country and routing the despotic maniacs who previously ruled it. She added that the federal government hasn’t done a very good job of explaining the mission to Canadians. Cpl. Greg O’Neil agreed: “The media report a lot on casualty rates, but nobody seems to hear when we build a bridge or a school. I guess that just doesn’t sell papers.”

So, just where the heck do Canadians stand on this issue these days, you ask? Well, the online poll at canoe.ca which was put up yesterday is still running and, while the number of votes has more than doubled, little has changed:

And yes, the poll that has been running here (at the top of the left sidebar) is still unanimous. That’s never happened before.

There’s been a lot of musing of late about the media’s role in the war on terror. Just what the heck do they think they’re doing, anyway? The way they slant the news, it’s enough to make you seriously wonder sometimes if they really aren’t on the terrorists’ side and deliberately trying to undermine our efforts to preserve our freedoms (including, ironically enough, freedom of the press). Why are they like that, anyway?

Over at the Calgary Sun, columnist Ezra “The Lip” Levant publishes his take on that question today. It makes for an interesting read, I’ll say that much.

That is the lesson every terrorist learned during the Vietnam era — if you can just survive long enough without being killed by the military, the media will save you. In Vietnam, for example, the 1968 Tet Offensive by North Vietnam was a military disaster — more than half of the 84,000 Communist troops involved were killed, and no territory was won.

It was a wipe-out. But anti-war media, led by Walter Cronkite, declared it a massive victory for the Communists, demoralizing Americans and undermining the military.

The full article can be found here.

Yeah, it’s the weekend again, which means that I don’t have the time to shoot my mouth off. Well, okay, I do have time to shoot my mouth off; I just don’t have time to put it all on the net. So, as usual, instead of sitting here banging away at my keyboard when there’s beer to be drunk, meat to be barbequeued, games to be watched, etc, etc, ad nauseum, here’s some interesting stuff to read:

Jim Brown
Crime agenda grist for next federal election

OTTAWA — Stephen Harper’s law-and-order agenda may be in trouble in Parliament, but he’s betting that even if he can’t get all the legislation passed, he can win on appeal to a higher court — voters.

Licia Corbella
Judging people at face value

Over the past two weeks, following the comments of high ranking European politicians, the debate about whether or not Muslim women living in western societies should cover their faces has erupted.

Michael Coren
I sympathize, but Fox is still wrong

It is impossible not to be moved by television ads showing a shaking, obviously profoundly ill Michael J. Fox asking American voters to elect politicians sympathetic to stem-cell research. The actor has Parkinson’s disease and he is convinced that he and others could be helped by such medical efforts.

He might be right.

Ted Byfield
‘New’ Quebec abandons its own heritage

The cry of the Quebec separatists, who now sizably outnumber federalists, is they must leave Canada to preserve their heritage and culture. This is simply a lie.

Paul Jackson
Liberal record tells the story

As the Second World War loomed, when Jewish men, women and children were fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe and trying to enter Canada, Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King’s regime had that infamous policy: “None is one too many.” Jewish refugees were denied entry, sent back to Europe and ended up in the death camps.

Ian Robinson
Posties have no business sorting the ‘truth’

As regular readers know, I have a dislike that borders on insane hatred for: Small-l liberals, big-L Liberals, 90% of environmentalists, brussels sprouts, Miracle Whip, the doggedly irrelevant Belinda Stronach, young women and men with facial piercings that make them look as though they lost a fight with a nail gun, Saskatchewan drivers (I got your angry e-mails last week, lighten up) and the U.S traitor whom Lenin would’ve called a “useful idiot,” Hanoi Jane Fonda, who spoke here Thursday.

Earl McRae
Misconceptions abound

The minimum recruitment age is 16. There’s no age ceiling. Their only weapon is a cellphone. They must pass a police background check. They can’t be druggies or alcoholics. They must provide character references. They can’t approve of, or be affiliated with, any group that supports sexism, homophobia, hate crimes or prejudice in any form. They can’t be profane. Or excessively absent. Or disrespectful to fellow Angels or the public.

Lorrie Goldstein
Hey Rick, what about Bob?

Still, I suppose there wasn’t much from Rae’s five great years as Ontario premier you could have satirized. After all, he only taxed dirt, had one cabinet minister who took a lie detector test to prove she was telling the truth when she said she lied, and another who was caught in a sex scandal where there was apparently no sex … I think it’s a socialist thing.

Michele Mandel
Ask soldiers about Afghanistan, not protesters

There is nothing wrong with a debate about our role in Afghanistan — that is a democratic right our armed forces have waged battle to protect. Let it be fought in Parliament or on the election stump. But in the meantime, our soldiers deserve more than to be accused, as they were by Layton yesterday, of taking part in a mission that is only making matters worse for Afghans.

Linda Williamson
This ain’t the ’80s

A report circulated online by the group “Homes Not Bombs” goes even further: “On one hand, kids are told to stay away from guns in their communities… However, if you do like guns and want to learn how to kill people in communities half a world away, you can actually earn not only high school credits, you can also get paid for it.”

Ah, where have I heard this kind of nonsense before? Oh yes. I once propagated it — to my everlasting shame.

Peter Worthington
Bring back Soldier Apprentice Plan

The need for more soldiers has provoked some who know — like retired Lt.Col. David Geary of the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RCEME) — to urge the Defence Minister to reinstate the Soldier Apprentice Plan (SAP) of 1952-68 that was the most successful training plan ever implemented by the Canadian army.

Tom Brodbeck
Boot ’em into camps & Boot camps best option

The first thing the pointy-headed social-worker types tell me when I propose correctional boot camps for hard-core young offenders is that they don’t work.

Bon apetit 😀

Well, this is differnent. After years and years of hysterically villifying anyone who dared to disagree with them, it seems that someone out there has decided to give the radical treehugger crowd a dose of their own medicine. Conversations with environmentalists have often reminded me that Churchill was right when he observed that a fanatic was someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject. Granted, this vid is equally thickheaded, just in the opposite direction. As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle, but it should be entertaining to see how the Gaia goons respond to the kind of villifying ravings that they’ve been flinging themselves for years.

Let the fun begin… 😆