From the beginning of his tenure, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has gone to war with the media. He took his cue from his predecessor, Andrew Scheer. Max Fawcett writes:
Former Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer hinted at this in his 2020 resignation speech. “Challenge the mainstream media,” he said. “Don’t take the left-wing media narrative as fact. Please check out smart, independent, objective organizations like the Post Millennial or True North. There are other places to get news. Let’s stop being the silent majority.”
In his war, Poilievre has allied himself with Elon Musk who has labeled the CBC as "government-funded media:"
To be clear, there is nothing in the new label — one that, so far, has only been applied to CBC’s corporate account — that actually says that. It’s no secret that the CBC is funded by taxpayers, and it remains editorially independent of the government of the day, just as it was when Poilievre and prime minister Stephen Harper were in power for almost a decade. More to the point, government funding is not tantamount to the dissemination of propaganda, and if it is, then someone should tell the good folks at Postmedia, which collects many millions in government handouts every year.
Poilievre's motive is as clear as crystal:
Poilievre’s provocative use of the term “propaganda” speaks to his real mission: not informing Canadians but confusing them. Former Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer hinted at this in his 2020 resignation speech. “Challenge the mainstream media,” he said. “Don’t take the left-wing media narrative as fact. Please check out smart, independent, objective organizations like the Post Millennial or True North. There are other places to get news. Let’s stop being the silent majority.”
Poilievre has taken that argument to a whole different level. In addition to his now-familiar broadsides against the CBC, he took a run during a recent press conference at the independence and integrity of The Canadian Press, an organization that has always remained steadfastly apolitical and nonpartisan. “The CBC, frankly, is a biased propaganda arm of the Liberal Party, and negatively affects all media. For example, CP is negatively affected by the fact that you have to report favourably on the CBC if you want to keep your number 1, taxpayer-funded client happy.”
Unfortunately, the stunt is having its desired effect:
That torrent of turds, and Poilievre’s willingness to open the sluice gates here in Canada, is already having an impact on our democracy. EKOS Research founder Frank Graves created a “disinformation index,” a 15-point scale that “measures how strongly respondents have bought into four pieces of disinformation and how strongly they reject one piece of correct information: vaccine-related deaths are being concealed from the public, COVID-19 vaccines can cause infertility, COVID-19 vaccines can alter a patient’s DNA, inflation is much higher in Canada than in the United States, and climate change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions.”
The first casualty of war, they say, is the truth. In Mr. Poilievre's war, that most certainly is the case.
Image: The National Observer
12 comments:
In pp’s little mind truth isn’t some hapless bystander casualty, it’s the target.
I don't have a problem with this kind of tagging in theory.
The venerable BBC got tagged too. But in their case they get "Publicly Funded" instead of "Gov't Funded" in order to reflect their (claimed) non-partisan editorial stance.
So Elon is definitely messing with us Canadians.
And to be consistent and fair, a lot more effort is required by lazy Elon. He should be tagging the other outlets with appropriate corporate/country of ownership.
Hence the money-losing National Post and all its Canadian siblings would get:
"Golden Tree Asset Management (American) funded".
Perhaps this serves as an apt response to PP's deplorable tactics, Owen: https://twitter.com/j_pedneault/status/1648232072039870464
"Poilievre has allied himself with Elon Musk". This statement is meant to confirm some ignominious point I would hope. I can't see where any other point could be made. Surely allying oneself with Musk isn't a cause for celebration. Skippy hasn't been around long enough or accomplished anything to merit such an exhaustive claim of propaganda merchant, the C.B.C.. As everyone of any experience knows that the C.B.C./Radio Canada has had a stellar history since it's introduction in 1936 as a voice of the people. That's what a public broadcaster does. Would Skippy rather we get our news from private broadcasters like Fox news? Anyone who has paid attention over the last thirty years can bare witness to the fact that many governments from Muldoon, Cretien and indeed the Gangster Harper have gutted the C.B.C. forcing it to rely on commercial enterprise. They have all systematically cut funding and reduced the Corporation to a third rate broadcaster who rely on the crumbs thrown their way. I am sure Musk has taken many a government hand out and I don't need to remind Skippy that he has been on Government assistance his whole working life and I would bet a dollar to doughnuts his pension will make an average C.B.C. employee drool. Skippy should scurry back under the rock he came from and count his blessings.
He knows what he's doing, Graham.
My impression is that Musk's mind is very narrowly focused, PoV.
He's right, Lorne. Poilievre is being "despicable and childish."
Skippy has relied on a government income since he graduated from university, zoombats. This is the pot calling the kettle black.
PP - “goverment-funded” a$$
UU
You could argue, UU, that -- in Poilievre's case -- that money has been misspent.
Actually, the BBC gets money from TV licenses "The licence fee accounted for 71% of BBC funding in 2021/22". HOWEVER, I would like to find a way to determine if Pierre Poutine and Pierre Poilievre are the same person. LM
Perhaps one is masquerading as the other, LM.
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