We should call this “Liberal Media Spin-Gate.”
From the very first day, the Liberals’ media was in Liberal defence mode, calling this
scandal (which you would not know from reading or watching the media, is in fact one of the worst political corruption scandals to occur in Canada) “the SNC Matter” or other such tripe. We all know full well that if this corruption occurred under any conservative leadership, it would have specific conservative names or words like “Tory” or “Con” or “Scheer” — and then a “-Gate” attached after it. And then they’d go totally extreme from there. And they would not stop. Ever.
Conservatives still have a “hidden agenda,” even after 15 years of hiding in plain view and being asked about it over eight hundred million times!
But there’s no SNC-Lavalin Trudeau “-gate,” there isn’t even a “scandal” now. It’s an “affair,” if you can find any stories at all today. Last week, Postmedia’s Andrew Coyne went with “the SNC-Lavalin affair,” even though tiny slip-ups by the Harper government were literally the end of the party, if not the whole of Canada. The Globe & Mail either established a firm policy on this, or all their contributors are part of a cult or at least a real tight herd. They join the ever-so gentle Coyne in calling it “the SNC-Lavalin affair.” The Star obviously sucks up to their Liberals with “the SNC-Lavalin affair.” CBC: same, obviously. CTV. Come on. “SNC-Lavalin Affair,” duh.
It’s a mere “affair,” And nary a Liberal to be found. No Trudeau in the room.
It’s like it was agreed by all of the media on a Liberal Party conference call that it shall heretofore be deemed, precisely and identically, the “SNC-Lavalin Affair.” Amen. Also acceptable to make out as if there’s no policy: “the Ottawa matter.”
It’s hard to even find any mention of the scandal in today’s Toronto Star, since as in the Globe & Mail, they’re already trying to move on to other stories — any damn stories (mostly a resumption of the anti-Trump festival) — to help make this little booboo go away. Trump, Ford, Huawei, the budget, the Liberals’ yummy carbon tax, gender equality, all manner of things are suddenly back to the fore in today’s news. The G&M’s columnist Elizabeth Renzetti goes with the hard-hitting: “The path to menstrual liberation: make the pads free” today. Yeah that’s what’s on my mind.
Do no hard reporting. Ask no question. Do nothing that will prolong the agony of this scandal, and this will all go away. The G&M’s John Ibbitson even offers some free advice to his Libs today: “…the smart thing for the Liberals is to do nothing that will prolong the agony of this scandal.” Don’t worry, he’s there to help soothe frayed nerves, too:
So barring fresh revelations – and this scandal has had its share – Mr. Butts will say his piece, Mr. Wernick and Nathalie Drouin, the deputy attorney-general, will return to clarify a few disputed points, and the Liberals will use their majority to put an end to things.Â
Mask this up real good with all the yummy diversions — hey what about those pipelines that we didn’t used to like talking about, and etc?!:
…this scandal will blend with the tabling of the budget, the slowing economy, the effort to ratify the new North American trade agreement, the fight with Ontario and other provinces over the carbon tax and the debate over pipelines that don’t get built in the mix of issues that will define the Liberals, for good and for ill, on election day.
At the Liberals’ trusty CBC division, it’s just a travesty. As usual. I include a link to a graphic I made of their page today — because out of about 65 mostly dumb-ass stories (I counted!) there is but one story even remotely about what they amazingly call, wait for it, “the SNC-Lavalin affair,” and it’s about Jody Wilson-Raybould running again in the next election. It’s near the bottom.
The media didn’t learn a single thing from this. On purpose. They didn’t take the lesson from Jody Wilson-Raybould about standing up to the powerful — to the government — and invoking “truth to power.” By design. Never mind that standing up to, and being cynical of, and questioning, and being unbiased, are the policies the media are supposed to adhere to. As one of Trudeau’s lackies told Wilson-Raybould: “We can have the best policy in the world but we need to get re-elected.”
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Nothing has changed. I got the featured image from this article written back in 2008:
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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