Reporter attacked at protest, but media yawns

[Argus]

I didn't hear about this because I don't read the Sun. It's odd I didn't hear about it. A reporter having to be taken to hospital, attacked out of the blue at a political demonstration in the media capital of Canada - Toronto -  and the media collectively ignores it. That's kind of strange, isn't it? Ah, but he's from the Toronto Sun and was attacked by far left protesters.  The narrative the media has been embracing is that of the evil Trump and his minions threatening the press. If that had happened you can bet there'd have been major coverage.

First I heard of it, though, was in a commentary on the CBC site today. Robyn Urback makes the above point, that the story has largely been ignored because it doesn't fit the proper narrative. Our largely progressive media likes to portray all the political problems as coming from the right side of the political spectrum. The far right are evil. The far left, well, y'know, their hearts are in the right place. I personally take the position the far right and far left are mirror images of each other, and can be collectively described as vermin.

And what did the police do, who were watching? They watched. Apparently they had the same sort of orders as the geniuses gave to the cops in Charlottsville last year. Don't intervene, even when you see violence, because that might escalate things by angering the crowd. I'd say whoever gave those orders needs to be removed from any oversight of policing. You don't witness violent attacks and sit back with your arms folded doing nothing.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/toronto-sun-rally-1.4783933

[DogOnPorch]

The wrong folks were doing the attacking of said media. 

Pretty simple...

Treated as a friendly fire incident.

[dialamah]

Good article and makes some very salient points.

What I don't get is why its on CBC, given the assurances found on this forum that the CBC is merely a left-wing mouth piece.

[turningrite]

57 minutes ago, dialamah said:

Good article and makes some very salient points.

What I don't get is why its on CBC, given the assurances found on this forum that the CBC is merely a left-wing mouth piece.

Yes, the CBC, although often fairly described as exhibiting progressive bias, can at times provide glimmers of objectivity. Neil Macdonald's piece on M-103 is a great example of this. The other side of the point, however, is that the Sun and the chain to which it belongs are often dismissed for assumed ideological bias, including by some on this site. It seems the kind of ideological tribalism that's come to dominate U.S. political discussion has had an impact on this side of the border. I guess it was inevitable.

[scribblet]

Interesting that Moore in the morning (1010 radio) said there were neo nazis in attendance, there were not,  only ANTIFA which engaged in unprovoked violence.

 

 

[bush_cheney2004]

44 minutes ago, turningrite said:

... It seems the kind of ideological tribalism that's come to dominate U.S. political discussion has had an impact on this side of the border. I guess it was inevitable.

 

Indeed....it is a Canadian value to voraciously gobble up American media and political discourse, even importing American terms and labels.

As for this incident, there is nothing inherently special about journalists being assaulted in the workplace....it is a common occurrence for many other occupations that goes unreported without media drama.   Methinks some "journalists" take themselves way too seriously.

[DogOnPorch]

22 minutes ago, scribblet said:

Interesting that Moore in the morning (1010 radio) said there were neo nazis in attendance, there were not,  only ANTIFA which engaged in unprovoked violence.

 

 

 

Many influential YouTube bloggers were telling their subscribers to stay well away from this event.

 

[scribblet]

Yup, and note that flag o Antifa is the hammer and sickle 

[turningrite]

Just now, scribblet said:

Yup, and note that flag o Antifa is the hammer and sickle 

I've always found it ironic that self-styled anarchists seem so apparently attracted to the trappings and symbolism of authoritarianism. Do they really understand what they're promoting?

[scribblet]

18 minutes ago, turningrite said:

I've always found it ironic that self-styled anarchists seem so apparently attracted to the trappings and symbolism of authoritarianism. Do they really understand what they're promoting?

Not sure if they do,  but someone else I know said this:   

Anti-fascism is an exaggerated form of rebellion against one's parents.  It is a psychological illness cause by a failure to mature and accept responsibility – a  desire to create a better "parent" by trying to modify society and the State to tolerate ones inadequacies.

[Argus]

1 hour ago, DogOnPorch said:

 

Many influential YouTube bloggers were telling their subscribers to stay well away from this event.

Apparently the police decided to as well, at least in spirit...

[Argus]

3 hours ago, dialamah said:

Good article and makes some very salient points.

What I don't get is why its on CBC, given the assurances found on this forum that the CBC is merely a left-wing mouth piece.

It was a columnist. It wasn't even a news item. Now if it had been a Toronto Star reporter attacked by a member of the Patriot Boys it would have been heavily and breathlessly covered as a sign of the growing danger of the evil far right.

Edited August 14, 2018 by Argus

[dialamah]

1 hour ago, Argus said:

It was a columnist. It wasn't even a news item. Now if it had been a Toronto Star reporter attacked by a member of the Patriot Boys it would have been heavily and breathlessly covered as a sign of the growing danger of the evil far right.

Probably.  And if it had been a Muslim, it would have been heavily and breathlessly declared a sign of the threat of the evil Muslims.

[Guest]

41 minutes ago, dialamah said:

Probably.  And if it had been a Muslim, it would have been heavily and breathlessly declared a sign of the threat of the evil Muslims.

Only if she had yelled Allahu Ackbar.   If he was a sports reporter and she yelled something about a spread, her religion wouldn't enter into it.

[turningrite]

On 8/14/2018 at 1:09 PM, DogOnPorch said:

The wrong folks were doing the attacking of said media. 

Pretty simple...

Treated as a friendly fire incident.

There was an editorial in today's Toronto Star that touched on the incident, pointing to it as an example of the general attack on the media. And the other evening on the CTV evening news broadcast Lisa Laflamme made an apparently pointed comment about the ban that's been applied to reporting many of the details of Fredericton shooting. She might have applied her comment as well to the dreadful suppression of facts about the Danforth shooting. Perhaps some in our media, no doubt trained as journalists, are beginning to realize that media coverage is being so manipulated and skewed as to lose any claim to being objective. And we have partisan activists on both sides of the ideological divide, including 'antifa' radicals at one extreme and conservative 'clappers' near the other, who do everything possible to limit open public inquiry and debate. Without an open and free press, democracy can neither function nor thrive. We have to ask whether the democratic era is in danger of simply slipping into the mists of time?

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2018/08/16/attacks-on-the-press-must-be-challenged-no-matter-their-form.html

Edited August 16, 2018 by turningrite