The Toronto Star is nothing if not consistent. Actually it could very well be both.
But anyway, my wife spotted this ad in our local paper (I suppose it’s running across the country) for something called the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy. Joseph Atkinson was an early editor and publisher of the far-leftist Toronto Star (among the most left wing mainstream papers in North America, which nonetheless holds itself out to be a nice, normal, objective, fair and balanced newspaper, rather than it printing, say, “Good morning readers! We hate Bush, Harper, and well, all things conservative, so let’s get that out there right from the get-go! Have a nice day!” across their masthead to greet their readers).
The ad is headlined “Call for Entries for Canadian Journalists”.
Then it begins:
The Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy is an award designed to further the tradition of liberal journalism and commitment to social and economic justice fostered by Joseph E. Atkinson, former publisher of The Toronto Star.
Who said liberals don’t believe in tradition? This tradition seems to live on and leaves no doubt as to the editorial bias still prevalent at the Toronto Star today. Maybe they could use the words “designed to further the tradition of liberal journalism” across the masthead, instead of nothing. Or that famous code phrase for socialist thinkers: “social and economic justice,” which translates to “gay marriage, socialism, and if it feels good, do it”. (Of course at Christmas time, they could include the traditional “Merry Happy-tree festivus of multicultural color and Godless seasonal values!”)
They’re giving away a one-year research fellowship which pays $75,000 and an additional budget of $25,000 to research “topical public policy [methinks “gay marriage, socialism, and if it feels good, do it”] … culminating in the publication of results in a series of articles in the Star, which the journalist is then free to develop into a book.”
Perhaps this information-gathering and leftist policy promotion and dissemination project is to counter that almost ghost-like, hard to nail down, and yet ever-so-nefarious “vast right-wing conspiracy” and conservative “hidden agenda” and so on! (And I wonder if the book that gets published will get a rave review in the Star’s book section and then be promoted by the liberals’ Chapters – Indigo division as a book with “rave reviews”! I wonder if they’ll also do a feature series of articles on how the left-wing “corporate Canada” is financially supporting Liberal-promoting politics and policies under the guise of “journalism”.)
That would all be consistent with the, um, liberals’ leftist media propaganda “industrial complex” (to borrow one of their anti-capitalist bon mots). But then I read about Atkinson on the Star’s “About” page.
…a 34-year-old Joseph E. Atkinson was appointed editor on Dec. 13, 1899 … The Evening Star had been bought by admirers of Sir Wilfrid Laurier [known as “Toronto Liberals”] to support the new prime minister. When they asked Mr. Atkinson to run it, he agreed on two conditions: The Star would be independent of any political party and he’d be paid $5,000 a year, $3,000 in cash and the rest in shares.
[…]
Through the paper, in fact, and as chairman of a Liberal Party advisory committee in 1916, Mr. Atkinson helped to develop Canada’s modern welfare system. His technique was to publish detailed articles on the social reforms in other lands—especially in Britain—and then to follow up with carefully reasoned editorials, pressing for similar advances at home.
…which reminded me of former Liberal MP Brian Tobin declaring, in 1999, “Michael Walker and the Fraser Institute are the most right-wing, Looney Tune institute [or] think-tank that has ever set foot on the soil of Canada,” only to then read this headline: “Brian Tobin joins Fraser Institute think-tank” last week (blog). Atkinson kind of put the lie to the folks at the Star being “independent” or “consistent”, leaving us with (all together now!)…. nothing.
Actually I could be wrong again! Constantly saying one thing and then doing something completely different is rather consistent. It’s like there is no absolutes and all morals are relative. So I’m confused now. Being liberal is hard!
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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