Partisan Hobo

A little dose of CTV bias to get you through the summer
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 2:02 pm

Few things rankle me more than inappropriate verbs in news coverage. Want to bias a news story? Want to identify a biased news story? Start with the verbs. Here is a recent favourite from June 17, 2009, courtesy of CTV News entitled “Summer election averted, Liberals now eye fall.”

I couldn’t find the video clip, but the headline shocked me when I heard the newsreader solemnly declare that a summer election had been “averted”. Averted? Really? As in, “gosh, we came so close to disaster but luckily it was averted”?? Some people - like the Bloc and the NDP and a posse of Liberals for example - actually wanted a summer election. They want the government out and the sooner the better. For them, the election wasn’t “averted”, it was “ditched” or “lost” or “sacrificed”. Yet here is CTV boldly informing Canadians “not to worry, summer won’t be ruined, the pesky democracy votey thingy won’t interfere with your cottage plans or your softball tournaments. We’ve held off on that until the weather is more suitable.”

So watch your verbs, CTV, your biases are showing.

Tags: ctv

Duck, the spin is flying
Saturday, June 20th, 2009 at 2:27 pm

The problem with information is that it’s always got to be delivered by an informant. And most of us are biased in some way shape or form. Bloggers, journalists, news readers, even the town crier is going to have a slant on the news.

You really do need to watch out, though, when there’s a hidden agenda behind information. Sometimes it’s the informant who has the agenda, sometimes it’s the original source and the messenger is innocent. Two pieces of messaging have been flying around the media and the blogosphere lately that raise my eyebrows.

First, this business about the Maple reactors. It is AMAZING that a lot of left-leaning enviro-friendly folk have become staunch defenders of the nuke industry. This Chalk R. scandal has turned out to be a boon for nuke industry lobbyists who are wasting no time playing on our fears about cancer to try to restart a dead project. The MAPLE project was the very first time the Cdn government said no to the nuke industry, and the industry is fighting back. The cry to restart the project is not a grassroots movement. What’s more, the argument that the nuke industry is now going to save us all from cancer is so riddled with irony that I can’t believe no responsible journalist has given that pause for thought yet.

Second, I’ve been watching for years as various journalists (think Royson James in the Toronto Star) and political operatives have blasted Toronto Mayor David Miller for his supposed incompetence. I’ve always been a bit baffled by that because I lived in this city for years under Mayor Mel Lastman who was a terrible, terrible mayor. By comparison, Miller isn’t bad; he’s literate, not racist, capable of stringing a sentence together, and not an embarrassment when he ventures onto the world stage.

If you watch closely, whenever Miller is criticized, there’s never any evidence offered to explain why he is supposedly so terrible. It’s not like, say, Flaherty underestimating the federal deficit by like $50-billion or whatever. It’s random stuff like blaming Miller for a potential garbage strike, when the pundits know full well if Miller gave the union a raise in this economic time he would be equally criticized for being a union stooge. Or, just to use a random example, Kinsella on his blog today somehow blaming Miller for the Taste of Little Italy, a street festival that’s been going on forever and ever. I have no issues with criticizing the mayor about policy, but the debate needs to have some facts if it’s going to be worthwhile.

Tags: david miller, jim flaherty, royson james, toronto star

Please make the John Tory for Mayor stuff stop
Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 6:31 pm

John Tory ran for Mayor of Toronto. He lost. Then he ran for the leadership of the Ontario PCs and he won. He ran for a seat in the Legislature and he lost. He ran in a byelection and he lost again. I get that there are a lot of political insiders who think he’s just the awesomest thing since sliced bread, but c’mon. Move on. Toronto didn’t want him, not as mayor and not as MPP. Rural Ontario didn’t want him either. Surely there are other possible candidates in the world?

Kelly McParland’s plea in the Post this morning is less than compelling: “He really deserves to be elected to something.”

To be clear, no one deserves to be elected to anything. Not ever. An election is won or lost cuz that’s what democracy is all about. Besides, since when does repeated failure become the best qualification for one of the most important political positions in the country?

Tags: john tory, kelly mcparland, national post

No election?
Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 8:13 am

The Toronto Star is reporting that the Liberals may “threaten” to bring down the government later this week, but not today. I interpret this to mean more bluster, but no change.

Meanwhile, Le Devoir is apparently saying no election for sure. (see impolitical’s blog - alas I cannot link in my mobile editor)

I think I prefer a summer election because it means someone is in place and ready to get to work when the fall session starts. Postponing an election to fall or winter just means another period of time when the House should be sitting that our MPs are out on the campaign trail instead.