Jan 10 2005 clarification: After reviewing the tape, I find that the report in question never explicitly claims that Conservatives plan to “raise taxes”—only that they plan to “raise income taxes”. Still, though, the general impression that I got from their reporting is that Canadians were purposely left with the impression that the Conservatives plan to “raise taxes” as a general matter. Indeed, Peter Mansbridge introduced the Reality Check segment with these words:
“There’s been a lot of talk this campaign about tax cuts. Tonight’s Reality Check reveals one party’s plan to actually raise personal income taxes…”
I got lots of email regarding last night’s “The National” on the state-run CBC division of the Liberal Party, and its report by Neil MacDonald, who is making a habit of telling less than the whole story when it comes to Conservatives.
This has the additional effect of making himself look like a total fool and a shill for the liberal-left. Shocka. And somehow, I think he feels comfortable in that role (the latter role).
Last night he really made me laugh though with his piece claiming that the Conservatives, ultimately, plan to “raise taxes” if they win. He then went on to explain, as only a left-wing reporter bent on smearing conservatives could do, just how that could be. And he did so by giving approximately 1/5 of the story.
In his supposed “explanation”, he focused exclusively on a detail about the Conservatives’ plan to repeal the Liberals’ income tax reduction plans announced in November. Like an imbecile, he concludes from that fact alone, that the Conservatives plan to “raise taxes”.
To conclude that as a general matter, the Conservatives would suddenly change their entire history of being THE party that has always favored tax cuts, to now be campaigning on a promise to “raise taxes”, is nothing short of a hideous and transparent lie. I hope that isn’t what Neil MacDonald was doing, but he certainly seemed to be.
His was really a story befitting a nasty and really rather dumb grade-schooler’s blog.
Even while calling his own conclusion “puzzling”, he sheepishly admits at the very tail end of his smug “news report” (and I use the term loosely) that the Conservatives haven’t even rolled-out their whole tax relief plan yet(!).
One of the parts of the story he chose not to tell is that ultimately, in actual honesty, the Conservatives’ whole tax plan (and “plans” is what we’re talking about here, right Neil?) will result in deeper tax cuts than the Liberals’ tax cuts, as they’ve already said in news releases—one dating back to December 1 2005. But again—as even a monkey knows —the Conservatives have for decades sought to turn Canadians on to the beauty of reduced taxes.
On the state-run CBC.CA Peoples’ Web Site, they acknowledge the Conservatives’ tax plans but claim there that gosh darn, they didn’t know anything about that December news release and that they had to be told about it by Conservative MP Jason Kenney who wrote to them after the big news broadcast and told them when gosh darn, it was too late, darn the luck.
The CBC, like the liberals in general, think that you are completely stupid.
Yet the joke’s on them. Apparently the definition of “news release” is lost on the state-run employees at the state-run media. It was a news release! For the news media! I personally read it December 1, 2005. It’s on the party’s web site under “News releases”. It was on the news, too. Maybe the state-employees should watch the news, or visit conservative.ca, just once.
Our friends at CBCWatch.ca wrote this up this way this morning:
Neil MacDonald’s “Reality Check” needs a “Reality Check”
Jan 7, 2006Neil MacDonald, on last night’s National, irresponsibly chose to conduct a “Reality Check” on a Conservative decision to cancel the recent Liberal tax cut.
The CBC report failed to note that the GST tax cut proposed by the Tories would save low income earners more money than the income tax cut proposed by the Liberals.
By purposefully and wilfully highlighting this measure first without reporting the entire platform, the announcement has intentionally misinformed Canadians.
[… Read the rest (10 seconds) …]
Here’s what it says on the state-run Peoples’ Web Site with regard to their own (half) story, as if it were an valid explanation as to why they didn’t report the story correctly on the air:
The Tories refused to be interviewed on camera for the story. But [Conservative MP Jason] Kenney later told CBC News Online Friday that this information is not new and referred to Harper’s Dec. 1 news release regarding the GST cut.
I’d suggest that the Conservatives send an advance warning of upcoming news releases to the liberals and Marxists at CBC, but what would they do with a memo that someone at Conservative Party HQ sent them in advance telling them to “read the forthcoming News Release, coming right up, here it comes now!”? I suspect they’d recycle it.
They then went on in their online story to, among other things, quote what the December 1 2005 release said!
“We would suspend [the Liberals] future measures in order to deliver broad-based and responsible tax relief, which will ultimately save Canadians more in their taxes and will be affordable in terms of the delivery of federal services,” the release said.
“The immediate result of cutting the GST will be $4.5 billion back in the pockets of ordinary Canadians. When the GST cut is fully implemented, the total benefit will be much greater,” the release said.
[Conservative MP Jason] Kenney said they voted against the Liberal tax cuts because they disagreed with their fiscal priorities, adding they would have “spent smarter and cut taxes deeper.”
The Tories have also said that their own tax package has not yet been fully announced.
Here’s what the December 1 2005 Conservative Party news release said:
[…] The Conservative Party opposed the Liberal tax package in Parliament. Reducing the GST is one part of the Conservative plan to reduce taxes for all Canadians. We will deliver some additional targeted tax cuts, and will deliver additional broad based tax relief when affordable.
Just before the election, the Liberals promised last-minute personal income tax reductions. A Conservative government would enact the retroactive measures applying to the 2005 tax year. We would suspend their future measures in order to deliver broad-based and responsible tax relief, which will ultimately save Canadians more in their taxes and will be affordable in terms of the delivery of federal services.
“The immediate result of cutting the GST will be $4.5 billion back in the pockets of ordinary Canadians. When the GST cut is fully implemented, the total benefit will be much greater.” […]
No doubt as a result of the CBC broadcast last night, other liberal mainstream media has picked-up on the story and made their own “Conservatives plan to raise taxes” lie out of it.
And so it begins.
The state-run media failed to inform Canadians properly as I see it. I would venture to say that it could be interpreted by some that the CBC purposely misled Canadians last night, again, and revealed their anti-conservative agenda, again.
I’d advise Canadians to absolutely, forthrightly refuse to accept this leftist media perfidy.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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