MSM behaves like....
Journalists!

There I was watching Tony Parsons on Glow Ball BC at six, hoping to hear about the latest gang violence in the Lower Mainland and dying of curiousity wondering whether or not Paris and Britney were wearing underwear today. Then Tony casually mentioned that the BC liaRs were facing potential problems related to the sale of BC Rail. Then the usually news suppressing or ignoring GlobalTV showed a number of clips from Question Period featuring three different NDP MLAs trying to get Gordo or anyone to explain why his buddy Patrick Kinsella had been apparently awarded untendered contracts exceeding $300,000 so his LOBBYING firm, Progressive could help grease the skids to remove BC Rail from public ownership.

Not surprisingly Wally Oppal reached for the switch to activate the tape loop that says "so sorry, but it's before the courts."

Then this morning, listening to the CBC radio news out of Vancouver I was surprised to learn that the CBC too had actually heard of the BC Rail trial and thought the exchange in Question Period yesterday was worth sharing with their listeners.

What's next? An open and transparent BC liaR government, being as co-operative as possible to facilitate the BC Rail, as a clip on Global showed Gordo the Pirate stating after being re-elected with a much reduced majority in 2005?

Then Michael Smyth writes in the Province that:

...now the defence wants all cellphone and e-mail records pertaining to the B.C. Rail deal from 17 Liberal backbenchers, mainly from rail-dependent northern ridings. The government, as usual, is fighting to keep the documents secret.

It's important to note that both the defence and government have a stake in delaying the case with these kind of procedural wrangles.

The longer this thing drags on, the higher the chance the case will never be heard.

That's why it's so critical for Justice Elizabeth Bennett to keep driving the parties toward a full and open trial. Her decision to release the 8,000 pages was a bold and welcome move forward.

Now British Columbians deserve a trial

         — and the whole truth.

Of course today is March 11, isn't this the day Lenny Asper has to come up with 11 Billion? Maybe Tony, Michael and the rest of the previously muzzled crowd getting paychecks from Lenny Corp are choosing to exhibit a bit of spine before joining the ranks of the unemployed. Or perhaps this is part of a last ditch strategy from headquarters, an attempt to save the media empire by actually being news organizations rather than PR firms - in other words writing for a larger audience than just the Harper and Campbell cabals.

I was going to post about this development last night right after hearing the words "BC Rail" amazingly pass Tony Parsons lips, but I must admit I was in too much of an apoplectic state of shock. I also was going to post the exchange from Hansard, but it's hard to get up earlier than BC Mary, so to read the exchange (heavy on questions, light on answers) go vist The Legislature Raids and Patrick Kinsella's $300,000. to smooth the way for the sell-off of BC Rail

Michael Smyth's article "Sale of B.C. Rail a tale that needs to be told:History of Liberals' manouevres should come out in court" can be found here.