Toronto Star & other Left Media under Harper

[August1991]

This article by Susan Delacourt is silly. When PR flaks no longer have access, what are they? Well, they are certainly not journalists. It is almost embarrassing to watch.

Apparently, this is a whole new world we are entering.

It was notable that Harper, at this week's first news conference, told reporters that he had held post-victory phone calls with Australia's John Howard and Britain's Tony Blair.

We can only speculate as to the content of those calls, but Harper may well have told these two men that he owed some of his new success to studying their examples.

Toronto Star

We? Speculate?

How about the article's idea that Harper's reason to merge the Alliance and Conservatives was "economies of scale"?

The sad thing is that this was considered journalism a few weeks ago, when in fact it was just copy editing.

[Shakeyhands]

August... Are you saying that the Conservative papers, The Post and The Sun chain are the only media outlets that are going to be privy to Harpers agenda during this sitting of parliament? Maybe.... kinda sounds alot like Fox news to me..?

[August1991]

August... Are you saying that the Conservative papers, The Post and The Sun chain are the only media outlets that are going to be privy to Harpers agenda during this sitting of parliament? Maybe.... kinda sounds alot like Fox news to me..?

No, Shakey, I'm not saying that we have changed one group of media for another.

My point is that the so-called journalists at the Toronto Star are not journalists at all. They are PR flaks. All they can do is take a phone call, and then write up the copy. The Liberal Party made them. Now that the Liberal Party is no longer the place to be, they're lost. The idea of actually finding something new and figuring something out is foreign.

Here's another example:

Just days after defeat, federal Liberals are frenetically looking here, there and everywhere for a new saviour. Their time and energy would be better spent searching for the party's soul.

James Travers

All he can do is write about the Liberal Party because he's not really a journalist, he's a PR guy and the only client he's got is the Liberal Party.

Here's another example:

Surprise. It seems that Stephen Harper will save us from the Americans. At least that's what the prime minister-designate volunteered to reporters this week when, at the end of his first formal news conference since winning Monday's election, he answered a question no one had asked.

....

"The United States defends its sovereignty; the Canadian government will defend our sovereignty," the Conservative leader warned sternly on Thursday. "It is the Canadian people that we get our mandate from, not the ambassador of the United States."

Huzzah. Take that, George W.

In fact, most media hadn't paid attention to Wilkins' remarks, largely because they weren't news. The United States, as well as Japan and the European Union, insist that the ice-choked passage, which winds through the archipelago of the Canadian Arctic to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is an international waterway.

Thomas Walkom

"...answered a question no one had asked..."

"...most media hadn't paid attention..."

----

It is easy for me to sit on the sidelines and criticize someone else. Thomas Walkom has probably forgotten more about journalism than I'll ever know.

My point is that the Liberal Party spoon-fed selected journalists and for these journalists, that was their meal ticket. Now, under Harper, they're out of the loop and they're going to have to work for a living - like everyone else, including other journalists, have been doing.

[geoffrey]

I really hope they don't try to pass that stuff of as journalism. There is critical review yes, but that is just shooting in the dark. Speculation that Harper held a press conference on the other side of the road to imply to the Canadian people that he's not right wing?? Someone's fighting desperately for a pay cheque.