Attack of the Conservative Toadies

For the last few months I've begun observing what appears to be a trend amongst right wing pundits in the mainstream press. There has been a definite move to more hardline ideological rhetoric, and a much more attack oriented style. The most troublesome aspect seems to be accusations that are either baseless, or neither sourced nor supported by any sort of evidence, beyond the opinion of the pundit in question. But none the less the opinions are stated as fact.

What also appears to be happening is an adoption by many of these pundits of many of the same talking points. I suppose this should come be unsurprising, since many of them undoubtedly read each other's material, and likely communicate regularly to each other, as the mainstream media pundit circle is a fairly small one in Canada.

While I certainly don't have the time to do a thourough study of pundit behaviour in the press, that for example, counts the number of baseless accusations made and timelines of how and when they begin to adopt the more virulent of each other's rhetoric, I think I am going to begin to try providing a regular feature of the worst sort of abusive rhetoric. I would also encourage others here on the e-group to do the same, because I think it is important that the ultra right wing press tactics that have been so successful in the US be not so easily adopted here.

The repeated harping on press in the US for it's so-called liberal bias by a seemingly endless number of right wing think tanks and media attack dogs all funded by wealthy families and the corporate elite has radically skewed press coverage in the United States. We've all been witness to the horribly poor pro-war coverage by much of the American mainstream media in the lead up to the Iraq War. Just how poor a job the US media has done has only been underlined by the revelations of the Downing Street Memo, and a host of other evidence, frequently buried in denial and misinformation being pedaled by the Bush Administration.

While I agree that I, or anyone else who shares my concerns, are unlikely to make a huge difference, I think it is important to start somewhere. What's more I think it is important to encourage those who have the ability to examine this ramping up of right wing rhetoric to look more closely at any patterns of behaviour that may be developing amongst the right wing press here in Canada, because I think only sustained effort of counter attack has any hope of defusing the sort of ideological tilt they are trying to impose of the media here in Canada.

What I find most alarming about the current trend is the talking up amongst Conservative party toadies, like Andrew Coyne and Lorne Gunter, is their ad nauseum attacks on the integrity of parliment, the focus of their attacks being on the Liberals, primarily on the basis of Adscam, but not limited to just that scandal. Ignored repeatedly is the fact this corruption is being investigated, and that every effort is being made by the Liberal government to bring those involved to justice while still following lawful process, to which even politicians are entitled.

They also regularly appear to be infuriated that much of the Canadian electorate does not share their point of view, and all to often they parse out parts of the electorate for the focus of their fury. Specifically they attack Ontario voters, because it is Ontario that decides the fate of the Liberals staying in power in the next election, and it is Ontario voters that have been steadfast in lack of support for Stephen Harper's Conservatives.

I think, however, it is important to simply go beyond polemic in an article like this, and point to an example of egerigious rhetoric on the part of one of these pundits. This is only one example, but I could easily come up with many more were I able to make a living pointing out the repeated flaws in the stupidity these toadies come up with.

So with that I'll point out the latest column by Lorne Gunter that appeared in the Sunday, June 5th 2005 Edmonton Journal. Before I begin quoting Gunter, I think it important to establish his credentials as a right wing toady. Any Google search will provide you with a host of links of his rather extreme right wing points of view, one conservative website in particular takes the time to provide a list of his more specious quotations (click here). Gunter also makes regular appearances on, of all places, the CBC National, which in the article quoted below, which presumably is a part of the Liberal biased media in parlimentary press gallery, which the CBC National covers extensively.

Gunter started his article with a sustained and blanket attack on the Liberals and the press for their handling of the Grewal tape issue, as so called evidence of this bias he trots out the hoary old scandal of Chretien's interest in the Shawinigan golf course.

"Admittedly, their task is made very much easier by the Parliamentary press gallery's singular lack of curiosity in any and all allegations against Liberals. While the gallery will fixate for days on even the slightest Tory burp, getting them to divert their gaze from Liberal misdeeds is no tougher than distracting a crow with a scrap of tinfoil.

Contrast the gallery's actions concerning allegations that Grewal's tape recordings of his negotiations with prime ministerial chief-of-staff Tim Murphy and Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh may have been altered with reporters' actions four years ago when it was alleged that then prime minister Jean Chretien may have forged -- or at least back-dated -- a bill of sale for his 25-per-cent stake in a Shawinigan golf course to clear himself of conflict of interest charges. (click here for the full article)"

Well of course what we have here is the comparison of a current scandal, fresh in everyone's memory, with an almost decade old scandal, the details of which even reporters who covered it will have a hard time remembering off the top of their heads. It would be difficult at best to recall whether or not Gunter is exaggerating the facts of that case, as he goes on to later frame it to suit his purpose further in his opinion piece.

In the current Grewal scandal, no one comes out looking good, yet the press coverage focus on the altered recordings is entirely appropriate, for this was shaping up to be a scandal the Conservatives were looking to use as justitifcation for yet another attempt to bring down the Liberal government. That the Conservative Party may have tried to manufacture evidence they would use to bring down the federal government is a very important story, but it is one Gunter conveniently ignores in favour of complaining about the media, and trying to move focus away from the misdeeds of his ideological allies.

Moreover, his assertion of a Liberal bias in the parliment press gallery is laughable. The coverage of the Gomery inquiry and the regular lambasting the Liberals receive in the press is simply evidence that the press are, if anything, playing up the scandal. The relentless detail of the inquiry, and the relentless fury of right wing pundits has been legion in every major paper and on every major news program in Canada.

When transcripts of the Grewal tapes appeared in the National Post, they had Andrew Coyne's column attacking the Liberal government on the front page of the paper. So the opinion of a well known ultra conservative pudit was given column inches the front page of Canada's second national paper. It was given treatment historically in journalism restricted to news, to fact.

But this bias is not limited only to the private corporate press. The CBC, particularly the National, is also susceptible to attempting to over compensate right wing pundit coverage in the foolish attempt to appear "balanced", instead of attempting to be accurate in their coverage. As just one example, on the day Belinda Stronach crossed over to the Liberals, three out of the four pundits on the CBC National, talking over the defection with Peter Mansbridge were right wing ideologues, specifically Andrew Coyne, another a professor from the college of Lethbridge (who's name I don't recall) who had written a book about the Reform party, and a former Mulroney era political operator. The other pundit, hardly a Liberal sympathizer, was well know Liberal critic Chantel Hebert. Balance? Not even close. The vituperative nature of the attacks on Stronach by Coyne and the college prof even got Mansbridge's back up.

But what I find most disgusting about the conserted attack on our system of parliment by these right wing pundits is their repeated efforts to over exaggerate and how bad these problems are. They refuse to provide time for lawful investigation and would rather bring down the government at a time when separatists have most to gain from the failure of the current minority, and a summer election.

They seem to have forgotten about the interests of the nation and its citizens, and would rather engage in what ever rhetorical attacks and conflations their sad little imaginations can devise to prompt enough outrage to bring down the Liberal government and see elected their ideological friends in the Conservative Party of Canada. It is a truly sickening form of toadyism that is remarkable in it's ability to ignore the misdeeds of one side over the other, and blindly follow a course of action, specifically a summer election, that would all too likely benefit the separatist Bloq Quebecious over any gain of seats on the part of the Conservatives.