A Waste of Trees
& Bandwidth!
& Bandwidth!
The mainstream media of British Columbia has a shameful almost (at least) twenty year disgraceful record of not serving the public, choosing instead to serve their corporate masters and their masters' puppets the BC Liberal Liars. It has gotten so bad, that Canned Waste and Global were on the verge of bankruptcy and have lost so much respect and market share amongst the public, that should be their market, that they now can only depend on the government itself and the corporate elite (and new ownership) to save them from complete failure.
Back in the day when Glen Clark built a small deck on his modest East Vancouver home, we were treated nightly to rehashed coverage of Glen nervously pacing by his kitchen window and two guys who looked like extras from a Sopranos episode exiting a North Burnaby card club. Meanwhile the NDP today can't get covered at all, unless they can be made to appear foolish, in disarray or somehow inadequate to actually run government.
Meanwhile, the cast of Gordon Campbell wannabe clones are treated as if they were actually bringing issues and real policy options to the table in the contest to replace the completely disgraced Mr. 9% Gordon Campbell, who keeps threatening to someday actually quit abusing the people of British Columbia. The other night CeeTeeVee and Glow Ball gave overwhelming coverage to a bunch of yuppie youth who gathered to hear Ding Dong, Bird Brain and Crusty the Campbell Clone spout nonsense, while almost ignoring the entrance of John Horgan to the leadership contest for the NDP.
Carole James, who couldn't get mentioned for seven years, unless she could be slagged, all of a sudden became all the usual suspects', Vaughn the Pawn, Keith Balderdash, slimey Les Leyne and the rest, favorite choice for leader of the party and her stepping down was surely the death of the party. Of course when you are an ass kisser to the LIEberals, what's not to like about a woman who alienates half of her own party's natural support and can lose two elections to a thieving, womanizing, lying drunk, that is running for your guys. Now that John Horgan is in the race, the knock on him is that he can't appeal to most of the province, because he comes from the Victoria area. Do these fools even remember what they were saying last month about Carole the Greatest (for the BC liaRs) who also represents a Victoria area riding?
Of course now that Mike Farnsworth is in the race, the media is falling all over themselves to say nice things about him - only Crusty herself actually lets the cat out of the bag as she (the biggest baggage handler of all herself) points out that he has a lot of baggage, having been involved with BC's own versionn of Satan - Glen Clark and the dark dark days of the nineties when NDP tyranny was choking the province to death - well that's the "official" story. Of course now that they don't have Carole James to kick around, it is obvious they would rather have whichever idiot wins their leadership go against Farnsworth or Dix, or Lali, than John Horgan.
Today in the Stun Vaughn the Pawn out does himself as he goes after those who dare criticize the weasel Craig James, the improperly appointed and illegally acting Chief Electoral Officer. It seems poor Craig has recieved some death threats. Now it is unimportant that recall canvassers in Ida Chongs riding are being intimidated and blogger Laila Yuile is even assaulted by a Liberal supporter while out with her children, but poor, poor Craig - another victim, just like Sarah Palin.
It isn't right to threaten anyones life. As a matter of fact, it is AGAINST THE LAW to utter threats. So why haven't the sterling RCMP investigated these threats, that came in November and WHY are they an issue now? Could it be that the recall campaign is going better than Ida "Chomp Chomp" Chong would like?
For starters, Craig James is improperly serving as chief electoral officer, the job description requires that he have no other employment, which he obviously does as Norm Farrell has pointed out. At every step of the way Craig James has acted inappropriately from refusing to pass on the original anti-HST petition (until forced to by the court) to firing the 28 year veteran second in command at Elections BC from his "temporary" posting. Then there is the matter of trying to scare 80+ year old women who signed the petition twice, most likely by accident, with JAIL time. And now in the light of the events in Tucson last Saturday, Craigie's death threats come to the fore. It doesn't matter if that was the fault of the media or Craigie himself, they both are on the LIEberal team. Gordon Campbell's personal PR Hack, Vaughn Palmer tried in todays garbage of a column to denounce Chris Delany for the following accurate statement:
"We have a chief electoral officer who makes up the rules when he goes along....whenever you do that you're going to have people get upset because his role, his job, is to actually be the impartial arbiter of the elections process. But what he's doing right now is conducting a surrogate role for the B.C. Liberal government and its interests....He's a cheater, a blatant cheater."
Vaughn, not surprisingly considers that an "unproven, personalized attack on the official and his integrity." I say if it walks like a duck and quacks.....you all know the rest of that.
I sense desperation in the Liberal camp and in the fawning media that has supported them and thrown away all semblance of journalistic integrity and I like it!
posted by kootcoot at 2:58 PM
12 Comments:
The only thing missing in the Meyer's Manure Spreader (would that be MSM in french?) ad is the price.
I guess it's one of those items that if we have to ask the price, we can't afford it.
Did you ever notice Koot that Balderdash always tries to slag "citizen journalists" when their opinion (almost always)differs from that of the propaganda machine?
Of course he's not alone in this. Palmer does the same.
I used to be a regular viewer/reader of Vaughn Palmer.
Wholly Crap! not any more.
The past year and the handling of BC Rail enlightened me. I watched/read/listened to Palmer, and with each outing he sank lower and lower on the credibility scale, and until he slid right off.
Koot, I would strongly suggest you add CBC radio (the BC news operation) to your list. Not only do they fawn over Vaughn, but they also have Gary Collin's lawyer (Clark Roberts) as their Lieberal party panel member on the Vancouver Island morning show's political panel. And they NEVER disclose that fact about Clark Roberts, even when the entire political panel show was devoted to the BC Rail matter. I could give you other examples, but hopefully this is enough of an indication that the CBC no longer occupies its former pedestal.
Yesterday the Victoria Times Colonist's editorial leveled an attack on internet blogs, purportedly because Craig James' (BC Chief Electoral Officer) bleated about receiving angry emails re his HST decision a month or two ago.
Apparently those messages were angry (!) and hurtful (!). So someone said they'd pray he got cancer. Big deal. Grow up Mr. James, that's not a nice comment to make, but weren't you once a school child? Didn't you see/receive/give similar comments?
If those emails were so horrible, why did he wait two months to come forward? If they were "dangerous" as the Times Colonist said, why weren't police called? And, if they're emails, why haven't the senders been identified. It's not hard to track down the source of emails, even if one tries to avoid detection.
I smell a well-timed campaign to discredit blogs and Internet sources, a hidden agenda by the newspaper served up in their anonymous editorial.
Here is part of the Times Colonist's (anonymous) editorial:
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/Editorial+ugly+crisis+must+face/4107412/story.html
There is something seriously wrong with us as a society. And the sickness is getting worse. Anger at perceived injustice is understandable. Strong opinions -- ideally supported by facts and cogent argument -- are part of democratic debate.
But insult, abuse, vilification and even threats are corrosive and dangerous.
... It has been sad, for example, to watch the squandering of the extraordinary opportunity that the Internet has provided. The chance to comment on media websites and blogs could have brought an unequalled chance for people to share opinions and ideas, debate policy options and increase their understanding of issues. Instead, the discussions are too often dominated by pointless insult and abuse. Readers are not left informed and with a greater understanding of others' views; instead, most simply feel shocked at the widespread idiocy and invective.
...
We are at the brink of a dark time. Everyone involved in public life, or who cares about shared future, has an obligation to work together to reverse this grim direction.
The Times Colonist says that "most (people) feel shocked" at what's posted on the internet and in blogs. What credible hard data do they have to back that statement up? None that they've reported.
Yes, there are liberties taken and abuses by anonymous internet posters, and the criticism is that anonymity should not be allowed, that people's names and address should be provided on the internet as is required in letters to the editor are in mainstream media newspapers.
That complaint is a double-standard – we are never told who is writing the Times Colonist's editorials (nor those for any newspaper), and come to think of it, their news "stories" and columnist's pieces are often based on a "source close to..." i.e. no facts or verifiable source is provided.
My view is that this editorial is an indication that the Times Colonist knows it's fat, happy life in the sun is drawing to a close. It's the last gasp of a dying anything, to lash out at what is overtaking it.
Citizens and citizen bloggers are overtaking them, taking back democracy from the corrupt politicians, judiciary and media.
Anon @7:14
As a musician I never even thought Vaughn the Pawn was that good as a music critic, though about one hundred years ago he wrote a column about a journeyman musician he had known growing up in Ontario that I had played with out west here and I thought that column was quite touching and well written - as a political columnist he is a Hack of the Lowest Order and his smugness is unbearable.
As to the CBC(radio specifically) , I agree it is going downhill, which is a tragedy. However I still like much of their programming like Ideas, Dispatches, As It Happens, The House, White Coat-Black Art and the Age of Persuasion and many of the music shows that don't involve the arrogant inventor of rock and roll - Randy Bachman - like Holder Peterson's blues show out of Edmonton and Tonic to mention two favorites.
With my morning coffee and breakfast I get to listen to Daybreak South out of Kelowna (rather than the inferior Early Editon) and feel really hard done by when we have to put up with the Cluffy Puffmaster when our more local staff is on holiday or attending staff meetings. Our on air folks sometimes seem a bit naive, but they often try to hold BC liaR MLAs and spokespeople for the Inferior Health Authority accountable, rather than simply swallowing lies and asking for seconds.
Unfortunately the CBC is under attack as it offends the ideology of Harper and his Corporate Masters and the Canadian Taliban, and I'm certain that they feel the need to be ever more vanilla to avoid further cuts to their allowance or complete cancellation to satisfy the owners of the absolutely hideous private broadcasters - when I'm in the US I really miss my CBC and only NPR and some college stations help to take up some of the void.
Since I believe, like others, that the disgraceful BC media are acting in a biased, unprofessional manner, may I be permitted to offer to your readers a snippet of an email I received from John Horgan's leadership campaign?
We are in a race against time - the deadline for new membership sign-ups is midnight on Monday, January 17. Only members who have signed up by then will be eligible to support John in the April 17 leadership vote.
...Think of five friends who share our desire for pragmatic, honest leadership that puts the environment and people first. Now forward this e-mail to them and ask them to go to:
www.horganforbc.ca
and sign up right away.
...Please don't delay, we have just 48 hours left to bring in new members to elect John Horgan to lead the BC New Democrats to government in the next election.
http://www.horganforbc.ca/join-ndp-january-17
The media, is now just a propaganda machine, for Campbell and the BC Liberals. Global TV was one channel I did watch. Since the segment regarding Craig James' said, abusive e-mails, I quit watching Global as well. We all know, the bloggers have death threats, constantly. A blogger physically attacked, while children along side. An office broken into and trashed, with a message left, as a threat. A death threat for a bloggers wife and children. Canvassers stalked, by people in dark clothing. People with "observers" badges pinned to them, hovering over stationary canvassers. Over 121.000 BC children living in poverty, children so hungry, they are unable to focus on school work. Ida Chong eating $6,000 of food, for her fine dining. Where are the media? Why, they see nothing, hear nothing, and do nothing. They support a, sick, cruel, sadistic monster, who fully knows of BC's hungry children. When we finally get rid of this sick monster and the BC Liberals, out of our province. I would ask the people, to remember our media, who are just as sick as Campbell is.
Talk about timing (and sanctioning deceit)! This just in...
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/922697--crtc-may-ease-ban-on-broadcasting-false-or-misleading-news?bn=1
CRTC may ease ban on broadcasting false or misleading news
Joan Bryden The Canadian Press
OTTAWA—The CRTC is proposing a regulatory change that would give Canadian TV and radio stations more leeway to broadcast false or misleading news.
Current regulations contain a blanket prohibition on broadcasting “any false or misleading news.”
The Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission wants to considerably narrow the scope of that prohibition.
It is proposing a ban on the broadcast of “any news that the licensee knows is false or misleading and that endangers or is likely to endanger the lives, health or safety of the public.”
The CRTC quietly posted notice of the proposed change, which is slated to go into effect on Sept. 1, on its website last week. The agency is accepting comments from the public until Feb. 9.
Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor specializing in communications issues, says the proposed prohibition is far too limited.
“If we're setting a high standard that you've got to actually endanger someone's life, health or safety, frankly almost anything that's false or misleading that's obviously outside of that fairly narrow scope would be fair game,” Geist said in an interview.
For instance, he said false news that caused financial harm would not be covered by the more limited prohibition.
A CRTC official explained that the proposed change is in response to concerns raised several years ago by a joint parliamentary committee on scrutiny of regulations.
The committee feared the sweeping ban on false and misleading news was too broad and vague and wouldn't withstand a challenge under the Charter of Rights. Its concerns were based on a number of court rulings at the time involving freedom of speech.
For the same reason, the committee urged — and the CRTC is now also proposing — to narrow the scope of the current sweeping ban on programming that contains “obscene or profane language.”
The proposed change would clarify that language is obscene if its dominant characteristic is “the undue exploitation of sex or . . . is sexual in combination with any one or more of the following subjects, namely, crime, horror, cruelty and violence.”
Geist finds it ironic that the CRTC wants to limit the scope of the prohibition on false or misleading news in Canada just as debate is raging over the impact of venomous, often grossly distorted, political discourse on the U.S. airwaves.
That toxic environment has been blamed by some for the tragic shooting rampage at a political meeting in Arizona last week, which killed six and injured 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head.
Yet American broadcasters face a more stringent ban on false or misleading news than the prohibition now being proposed by the CRTC for Canadian broadcasters. U.S. law refers to knowingly broadcasting false news that causes “substantial public harm” — a phrase that Geist said can be interpreted relatively broadly.
With a new right-leaning all-news network, Sun TV News, about to launch in March, Geist noted there's concern in some quarters that Canada is about to import the more aggressive, American approach to political coverage. He suggested the CRTC's proposed regulatory change will only magnify those concerns.
“I think that those same kinds of fears are out there in much the same way (as they are in the U.S.). This just provides freer license to do it,” said Geist.
The CRTC is not empowered to fine or imprison radio or TV executives who breach regulations.
The agency typically tries to persuade broadcasters to change bad behaviour and only takes punitive action — cancelling or refusing to renew broadcast licenses — when a broadcaster systematically and deliberately flouts the regulations.
The obvious bias in reporting or investigations into crime has never shone so brightly when you compare the the request by EBC to investigate emails to James yet I see no such investigation of Krueger for suggesting that Adrian Dix should be in someones gunsight.
Amazing how the bias works.
Anonymous at 12:11:
Thanks for sending this along, it is certainly relevant to the post and stunning in its stooooopidity!
Wow Anon from Sunday, January 16, 2011 12:11:00 PM re: OTTAWA—The CRTC is proposing a regulatory change that would give Canadian TV and radio stations more leeway to broadcast false or misleading news.
What's next, getting a free pass for taking bribes as a member of the legislature staff??? Oh, right, we already have that now in BC.
Seriously, here's where I have to broadcast a BC CBC Radio news horror story. The Vancouver newsroom fabricated a George W. Bush news item one fine day in 2003, when Dubya and his pal Tony Bliar, former PM of Britain gave their first joint news conference after invading Iraq.
I was listening when the CBC interrupted programming to bring the news conference live to its audience. This was way back when Dubya had pretty much everyone in the US of A eating out of his hand, and when Dubya had been very shy about encountering media.
So, the public and the media, especially, were very deferential at that time. So both George and Tony read their prepared speeches, and then (oooh) members of the media get to ask them questions directly.
A couple softballs were lobbed by US reporters, then a Brit (who'd accompanied Tony over to DC for the occasion) asked what we'd now consider a slightly probing question, can't recall the nature of the question now.
And then the most amazing thing happened: for a good long 20 seconds or so (time it, that's long), Dubya went into brain freeze so badly that he just uttered incomprehensible sounds -- not words or phrases, sounds. Continuous sounds, like his brain was on acid or something. He couldn't form words, but he couldn't shut up either. I was stunned. So apparently was everyone else, until good old dulcet-tones Tony stepped into the breech and answered the question for Dubya.
The next thing we heard was someone saying "No more questions." and then in the background thinking all the microphones/cameras were off, Dubya saying in a quiet aside, "Thanks man" (presumably to Tony).
Then we returned to regular programming. At noon, the CBC province-wide newscast came on, and it led with "Bush gives strong response to... blah, blah (whatever the subject was of the Brit reporter).
I thought, "What the hell? No he didn't!"
So they play the news item, starting off by saying Bush faced tough questioning from Brit reporter but stands his ground or word to that effect, ...
AND THEN... they play an audio clip of the reporter's question, followed by Bush's response to that question. Except what all the CBC Radio newscast audience across BC heard was FALSE. The CBC staff in the Vancouver newsroom had inserted some of what Bush read earlier in his opening remarks instead of what he actually said!!!
Yes, people, the CBC not only mis-reported the news, they deliberately went to great effort to alter the "news" and mislead the public across BC.
Seconds after the item ran, I phoned the CBC Vancouver newsroom number and spoke to a producer there. When I told her that wasn't Bush's reply because I'd heard it live a couple hours ago on the CBC, she just giggled and said, "I know." She thought nothing of it.
A couple days later, I filed a complaint with the CRTC, and in about 4 months I received an email from the CRTC saying my complaint was acknowledged as accurate, and the I should expect a response from the CBC soon. I got an email from the CBC a couple weeks afterward, in which they admitted to an "error" although never admitting any wrong-doing. Error, my a*s, it took a fair bit of work to find and splice out something from Bush's opening speech, and surgically replace his real 'reply'.
Now, I no longer trust any mainstream media outlet, and perhaps CBC is the worst, given that they hide behind an image of still being "the people's network".
Most (but not all) north American news outlets pale in comparison to the BBC - not only in their delivery (excesses and vagueness) but in their accuracy and reporting (standards).
Corporate greed has and continues to ruin what is left of a reasonable world.
The British Columbian 3D, 9% political leader Gordon "the liar Campbell", being just one of many that continues to corrupt what should be democratic principles.
3D - Deliberately dishonest and despised by the people of British Columbia.
9% - total approval of British Columbians at a history making, never before acheived rate of 9%. Surely 91% of the people cannot be wrong !
Thanks
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