Yes it’s my ongoing battle to expose liberalvision CTV and state-run CBC, who have been masquerading Steven Staples as “just another expert” on the war in Afghanistan when as I said, I’d looked him up and and in six seconds found that he was nothing but a far-left shill for the anti-Bush, anti-war-on-terror, and certainly anti-war-in-Afghanistan Lefty crowd. He seemed to mimic the socialist Jack Layton.
He was introduced and interviewed on both CTV and CBC without any admonishment to the viewer about his far-left leanings—in fact they bent over backward to introduce him as the totally neutral-sounding ““Steven Staples is director of the Rideau Institute on International Affairs—it’s an independent think tank” (CBC) and “The Director of the Rideau Institute” (CTV).
He then went on, in both cases, to deride the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and all things that might not test his far-left sniff test. And the news anchors, in both cases, sucked it up like the perfidious trucklers they are. In other words I think they shirked their journalistic responsibilities;—worse: they mislead us. And I fear that was done on purpose in order to advance their agenda, which is sypathetic to Steven Staples’ left-wing agenda.
There’s news today about Steven Staples, but first, here’s my last blog entry—written earlier this week when the state-run media blind sided us with this “expert”.
On Wednesday July 4, I blogged about the CTV Newsnet folks portraying a leftist anti-war activist who is inspired by the far-left MoveOn.org site as just another a regular analyst free of bias and full of yummy objectiveness. I wrote, in my blog entry called “CTV masquerades a far-leftist anti-war advocate as “just another expert” on Afghanistan war”:
I kept seeing this guy’s mug—Steven Staples—on my TV screen as I worked today, trying to not listen to his (and all the other) mind-numbing leftist anti-war-on-terror claptrap on liberalvision CTV today in its never-ending repeated cycles all day, so when I got a chance, I looked him up on the Internet. This was after his interview had been repeated about 8000 times today.
It took exactly 6 seconds to find that he appears to me to be a classic far-leftist anti-Afghanistan war, anti-Bush hack —who calls himself an expert on international affairs; and not coincidentally, that’s exactly how CTV described him. No, not as “a far-leftist anti-Afghanistan war, anti-Bush hack who calls himself an expert on international affairs”, mind you. No no. Rather, they introduced him simply as “The Director of the Rideau Institute”. That’s it. Then he proceeded to recite words that sounded suspiciously like Jack Layton’s talking points.
In other words, it was a segment on a Canadian news show.
And that’s what I call absolutely shoddy, biased journalism, and deceitful to boot. Liberal-left agenda-driven journalism. Intellectually dishonest. Liberal media. Totally typical in Canada today. In fact that’s all you will get until you switch to Fox News Channel.
The “Rideau Institute” web site is not working, so there’s an affiliated site in which it is mentioned that Steven Staples got his inspiration from the far-leftist George Soros-funded MoveOn.org left-wing smear site. And that tells you just about all you need to know.
It features little teaser pictures like the one at left.
…Ceasefire.ca is a project of the Rideau Institute on International Affairs, a public policy research and advocacy group based in Ottawa. Ceasefire.ca is the institute’s main public outreach and advocacy arm.
The Polaris Institute created Ceasefire.ca in 2003 to prevent Canada from joining the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence program, although the name itself dates back to the earlier campaign to stop the invasion of Iraq. Its founders are Steven Staples and Peter Coombes. Their goal, inspired by successful web-based organizations such as Moveon.org, is to provide a web-based tool for citizen action on government policies.
Since its inception, Ceasefire.ca has played crucial roles in many campaigns, including preventing Canada from joining George W. Bush’s “Star Wars” missile defence program. As well, it has pushed Canadian politicians of all stripes to oppose the war in Afghanistan, allow U.S. war resisters to stay in Canada, ban deadly cluster bombs, abolish nuclear weapons, prevent the weaponization of space, and take action on other important issues.
Many well-known supporters of Ceasefire.ca have endorsed its campaigns over the years, including David Suzuki, Maude Barlow, Matthew Good, Mel Hurtig, Helen Caldicott, Tom Hayden, Mel Watkins, and Murray Dobbin.
…Ceasefire.ca is a network of more than 15,000 Canadians who want Canada to be a world leader for peace, disarmament, and social justice.
Ceasefire.ca has a blog too of course. The latest entry: ”Help Stop Harper’s War Agenda”—by Steven Staples.
On state-run CBC today:
Steven Staples: Just another commentator.
An “Expert”.
And he was introduced as follows:
“Steven Staples is director of the Rideau Institute on International Affairs—it’s an independent think tank”.
He suggested we negotiate with the terrorists. Huh. Just like the socialist so-called “leader” of the you’ve got to be kidding party. Weird.
Complain to CBC here:
http://www.cbc.ca/contact/index.jsp
Today Friday July 13, we find that the our country’s military was also aware of Steven Staples and thought it was worthwhile watching him. Of course they were and are spot on. They had no trouble identifying him as a left-wing agitator.
Critic of war in Afghanistan was monitored
Canadian military initially denied existence of report on left-wing defence analyst
David Pugliese, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, July 13, 2007OTTAWA—Military officials kept an eye on an outspoken opponent of the Afghanistan war last year but in a report produced about the Ottawa man’s public comments they determined support for the mission was still high and his criticism does “not seem to resonate” with the public and media.
Defence department officials originally denied the documents, requested by the Ottawa Citizen under the Access to Information Act, even existed. But an investigation by the Information Commissioner revealed the e-mails and a report on the activities of left-wing defence analyst Steve Staples had indeed been compiled by the military.
The report was sent to 50 officers including two brigadier generals.
The release comes as the Defence Department finds itself dealing with charges from critics that Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of the defence staff, has ordered a sweeping crackdown to block the release of all files on the Afghanistan mission requested under the access to information law. Defence officials have denied that is the case and Ward Elcock, the department’s deputy minister, issued a statement pointing out the organization understands the importance of providing information to the public.
The military report on Staples, of the Ottawa-based Rideau Institute on International Affairs, details his speech to a Halifax peace group last year and his views on Afghanistan and Hillier’s plans to move the military away from peacekeeping and into more combat-oriented roles. It stated Staples presentation did not seem to resonate with those attending the speech but pointed out he was expected to give other talks across the country.
It recommended the military be prepared to counter Staples’ arguments.
In an interview Staples said the military had overstepped its bounds but that he is not surprised by such actions.
“This is what happens when you have a different viewpoint on Afghanistan than the government and the generals,” he said.
Staples said it is not the military’s role to sell the mission and challenge those who don’t disagree with it. That is the job of elected officials, he added.
Every federal government department has a communications department with a role to monitor relevant public debate.
Army spokesman Lt.-Col. Chris Lemay said officers were simply doing their job. “It was fair game to know what was out there,” he said. “Our job is to make sure we are aware of the information that is floating in the public domain.”
Lemay said he was not aware if the military followed up on the recommendation to prepare to counter Staples arguments.
Staples, who has criticized the war on TV and in print articles, said such activities set a dangerous precedent. “I don’t hide what I have to say, but I wonder what type of message this sends to others who might want to speak out publicly,” he said.
You can’t trust a media that is driving a left-wing agenda.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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