Synopsis: Prime Minister Harper made a historic speech to the Israeli Knesset today. At one point, Harper was heckled by a couple of pro-Palestinian, Arab members of the Knesset, who were themselves jeered and eventually they left. Most importantly, the entire Knesset then erupted into a standing ovation for Harper. Here is what the state-owned CBC’s Evan Solomon reported to his 51,000 Twitter followers to explain what happened:
Yes it’s just a tiny thing — a tweet — but add them up and it all serves as irreducible proof of the systemic anti-Harper, anti-conservative (both small c and capital) bile that runs through the journalistic and editorial veins of the state-owned CBC. It’s this drip, drip, drip of left-wing propaganda from the left-wing media that is so pernicious.
While Prime Minister Harper was speaking to the Israeli Knesset today, the state-owned CBC’s Evan Solomon was watching the live feed. At one 
point, I imagine he forgot other people like me were watching too.
It was a pretty exciting thing that happened during that speech, as historic speeches go, but as a news analyst and reporter for a national news network, you have to be very careful about how you present things to your audience, lest your audience be mislead.
Toward the end of the historic Harper speech, a couple of anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian Arab members of the Knesset (yes they exist — a dozen or more, actually) heckled and jeered at Harper when our Prime Minister was bold enough to talk about the abhorrent “Israel apartheid” meme touted by far-left anti-Israel zealots here and abroad.
Being bold and speaking the truth instead of the usual liberal-left talking points and politically-correct platitudes, is risky. So this could have looked really bad for our Prime Minister, had the story ended just there. But it didn’t. The real story is that the two hecklers left, after several other Knesset members turned and sternly told them to shut up. And then the bigger part of the story happened: the whole Knesset stood up in a grand gesture of approval and thanks to our prime minister, who was brave enough to speak the truth in bold colors. That’s huge.
But the story didn’t end right, for Evan Solomon. He preferred this other ending. here’s what he rushed to tweet to his 51,000 followers:
That’s it. No immediate follow-up to that tweet explaining that this big, momentous event was actually received very positively for Harper. Solomon got his preferred headline out there instead, which made Harper look bad. It’s a false narrative when you leave out half the story.
He might have tried to be as good and honest as several others on Twitter, including journalists like David Akin of Sun News, who tweeted:
Simple, right?
In the twitterverse, tweets are viewed by some as the day’s headlines – much like headlines in a paper. And journalists and editors know very well that many people “read the news” by simply scanning the headlines. That’s why some headline — and tweets — are absolutely ghastly misrepresentations of the real, full story. Sometimes the editors/journalists are simply using a quasi-marketing ploy to get your attention so you read the full story (where you may or not find the truth), but in many cases — particularly among the more biased, liberal-left media — the ploy is simply to get their angle on the story out there into the popular culture. That can lead to incorrect conclusions. And that is the whole idea.
For my part, after Solomon’s tweet of half-truth, I tweeted:
Solomon replied, no doubt after seeing that it was being re-tweeted and after getting lots of negative feedback from wary conservatives and other normal people.
No. Again, that’s only half the truth. The wrong half. Solomon only “reported” (tweeted) the ovation that was given to Harper at the end of the speech, literally saying in that tweet (it was three tweets later) that the ovation was received “as he concludes his speech.” An ovation at the end of a speech is something most people would expect to happen simply out of common politeness.
So no, it’s not “fair reporting” at all. It’s utterly unfair. So then as you can see, even in his effort at denial, he did not represent himself and his timeline truthfully at all to me and his followers. That’s two Pinocchios. And he’s a “news” man! On our dime.
And many agreed with me.
It’s no longer important to “watch the news” or listen to it or read it — except to catch journalists in the act as they bend the truth or tell half-truths. Mainstream media has been ruined by the drip, drip, drip of bias and ineptitude.
I view the mainstream media with deep suspicion. I suspect that there is a systemic left-wing, anti-Harper, anti-conservative bias at the state-owned CBC. You should too.
No reply from Solomon.
There is no reply that would change the facts.
UPDATE:
The network is now joining in the half-truth that Solomon started, in what will become their false narrative. On the news.
The whole article at the left-wing CBC.ca is from the perspective of one of the Arab Israelis who heckled. Copious quotes. No mention made of the standing ovation Harper got as a result of his remarks, nor did the CBC get any perspective from anybody in harmony with Harper’s position.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
Contact Mr. Johannesen about this article using this form. Please refer to article's title.
FOLLOW @JoelJohannesen ON X!
- Say something. - Friday October 25, 2024 at 6:03 pm
- Keep going, or veer right - Monday August 26, 2024 at 4:30 pm
- Hey Joel, what is “progressive?” - Friday August 2, 2024 at 11:32 am
@JoelJohannesen shocker.
RT @JoelJohannesen: CBC’s Evan Solomon forgot half the Harper story. The positive half. Golly. Oops. – http://t.co/zGccSVA1hJ #cdnpoli
RT @JoelJohannesen: CBC’s Evan Solomon forgot half the Harper story. The positive half. Golly. Oops. – http://t.co/zGccSVA1hJ #cdnpoli
RT @JoelJohannesen: CBC’s Evan Solomon forgot half the Harper story. The positive half. Golly. Oops. – http://t.co/zGccSVA1hJ #cdnpoli