The Winnipeg Sun strangely, perhaps, comes out against the blatantly biased mainstream media coverage of politics in Canada—which as they explain is against Conservatives and in favor of Liberals wherever possible. The Toronto Sun did the same yesterday. (Hat tip: Ross M.)
If anyone needs more proof that most of our media are far more sympathetic to Prime Minister Paul Martin than Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, they got it again this week when London-Fanshawe MP Pat O’Brien announced he was leaving the Liberals to sit as an Independent. O’Brien, who is opposed to legalizing same-sex marriage, said Martin had not, as he promised, allowed a “full and fair” debate on the issue and was instead just trying to ram it through.
Here’s how to spot that our overwhelmingly pro-Liberal media are biased in favour of Martin over Harper: Watch for how many of them argue that in losing O’Brien, Martin has demonstrated a clear inability to retain the loyalty of socially conservative Liberals, whose support he needs if his minority government is to survive for any length of time.
We predict there will be none, even though more than 30 Liberal MPs oppose same-sex marriage and Martin clearly can’t afford to lose many more. Despite that, count on our pro-Liberal media to never suggest that O’Brien’s defection shows any failure on Martin’s part. This, even though these very same pundits have argued for weeks now that when Belinda Stronach dumped the Conservatives for a cabinet seat offered by Martin, that was a clear sign of Harper’s lousy leadership.
Remember all those pieces the pro-Liberal punditocracy churned out in the wake of Stronach’s defection, saying it showed Harper couldn’t appeal to socially moderate voters? Indeed, in their rush to bash Harper, the pro-Liberal punditocracy suddenly, and laughably, made Stronach out to be the intellectual voice of moderate conservatism in Canada. Right. Before her defection, they had always regarded Stronach as a glamorous but lightweight political novelty act, and as someone with far more chutzpah than common sense, as shown by her decision to run for the Conservative leadership without having any prior political experience.
So, why the different treatment of Stronach’s defection versus O’Brien’s? Because in the overwhelming view of the Liberal punditocracy, Stronach holds the “correct” view in favour of same-sex marriage, while O’Brien, who is opposed, can be dismissed as a “dinosaur” whose loss to the Grits is no big deal.
This, by the way, even though opposition to same-sex marriage is a view supported by about a quarter of the Liberal caucus and half the country. Nevertheless, in the pro-Liberal punditocracy, opposition to gay marriage is routinely portrayed as “extreme” and “bigoted.”
All this, then, is yet another example of the very different ways in which our pro-Liberal media treat Harper, who, we’re assured by the pundits, even scares little kids, based on absolutely no evidence at all, as opposed to Martin who, no matter how demonstrably corrupt and incompetent his Liberals become, is always to be preferred to the “angry” Harper.
Welcome to media “objectivity,” Canadian-style.
Welcome to half the reason for this web site being here.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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