The liberals’ media division are the ones who long ago dubbed Stephane (the “Green Guru”) Dion “the green guru”. It wasn’t me. I just remembered, and capitalized it. I dubbed him the “Liberal Frenchman”. Only the latter moniker is factually true. The former is pure liberal media fantasy and butt-kissing.
The media is doing Liberal leader Stephane Dion’s bidding, as those of us who aren’t high on pot already know. Well actually they’re doing the bidding of all the “man-made global warming” alarmists and zealots. They’re promoting carbon taxes—no matter whose socialist plan it is. As long as it involves raising yummy taxes, the liberals’ media keeps it in the public spotlight—keeps it on the agenda (for a similar trick, look no further than the NDP, which they also keep alive). They (the media!) talk about it endlessly, even when the politicians who would normally be promoting their own tax-raising plans aren’t promoting them, and the nation isn’t concerned about anything but getting through their day. They hire polling firms to do polls and then report the results, write up favorable articles, then rinse and repeat. Soon, it’s an Order of Canada (a.k.a. “Order of Abortion Appreciation”) prize winner and all of Canada must officially celebrate it as a given.
But here’s a small example of how this rinse and repeat thing works:
This article appeared in our papers last month, concerning the Liberal BC government’s “revenue neutral” (or as I call it, “revenue neutral ha-ha-ha-ha-haaa”) carbon tax fiasco:
Anti-tax sentiment a potential threat to Liberals ahead of election, pollster says
Jonathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, June 18, 2008VICTORIA—A majority of British Columbians oppose the B.C. Liberal government’s carbon tax, a new poll reveals.
Ipsos Reid has found that 59 per cent of those polled are against the new tax—set to begin July 1 with a 2.4-cent-per-litre increase in the price of gasoline—with just under half of the respondents saying they oppose it “strongly.”
Better work it up in the press and do another poll to test our agenda-driving effectiveness, fellas! Then we’ll know what to write next!
And so they did. For one thing, the BC Liberals are seen as “right wing” to the far-left press, and they prefer the socialist NDP. So, a subsequent article headline was: “B.C. prefers NDP’s carbon tax plan”. That’s even more yummy. Of course BC doesn’t have an official conservative party political voice to ask, so they didn’t bother asking about any other position. Left and lefter. It’s a media trick.
Then another poll.
Carbon tax gaining support across Canada: poll
OTTAWA – Canadians are warming up to the prospect of paying an environmental tax on activities that cause climate change, but they don’t necessarily expect to get the money back in the form of income tax cuts, a new poll has revealed.
The McAllister Opinion Research survey, commissioned for the Pembina Institute – an environmental research group – and obtained by Canwest News Service, revealed that Canadians would be supportive of a federal carbon tax and would like to see its new revenues invested in improving energy efficiency and clean energy technologies.
When told that the government of British Columbia had recently introduced “a carbon tax on fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” 72 per cent of those surveyed in the poll said that this was a positive step versus 23 per cent who thought that it was a negative step….
What happened to the mass opposition to the tax in BC? Vanished! See it depends who you ask. The Pembina environmental group was a better choice for the right answer! Of course in the meantime the media has been working its magic, pumping up the tax as a good thing.
Now: let’s do some more polling! Keep it in the consciousness of Canadians!
Canadians blind to Liberal ‘green shift,’ poll shows
Juliet O’Neill, Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, July 07, 2008OTTAWA – The federal Liberals have a big sales job ahead of them on their proposed national carbon tax.
A new poll Monday said only one in three Canadians has heard about the “green shift” plan and 60 per cent, who can recall anything about it, say it’s “a bad idea.”
Negative reaction was highest in Alberta at 79 per cent and positive reaction was highest in Quebec at 54 per cent.
Asked what elements of the proposal they have heard about the most, six in 10 could not name a single element.
Fewer than two in 10 named the carbon tax. A minuscule two per cent heard that it’s a tax that’s supposed to help the environment or stop climate change. …
Ugh. That ain’t working out right. Better deploy the liberal media’s editorial devise known as regurgitating Liberal Party Talking Points. Bear in mind that this is what the reporter wrote—not what Dion said:
And two big features of the plan – that it would be revenue neutral and used to lower income taxes – were cited by a tiny three per cent.
Atta girl, Miss O’Neill and Canwest News. Nice. It’s “revenue neutral”. It’s a given. It will be “used to lower income taxes”. Exactly as the liberal-left says in their talking points, and conservatives totally reject as an abject lie. Job well done.
Now many more Canadians will know how to answer properly, next time those pollsters call. Canadians are all about answering the way they think they’re supposed to, as instructed by the media and academics.
But since explaining the plan is the hard part, they should have referred to the poll taken as I reviewed in my blog entry here: “Why by Jim once we “explained” Dion’s carbon tax plan, they all said heck yeah that sounds great!”, in which they said, right in the article, as if by error…
…But once the policy was explained to respondents, the Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey found, close to half – 47 per cent – liked the idea, while 39 per cent said they were opposed.
[…and…]
The survey results showing strong initial support among non-Conservatives came after respondents were read a description of the policy that, while it used fairly neutral language, nevertheless presented the policy as the Liberals would wish.
It’s not Dion alone who has all this work to do to make Canadians love his tax-and-spend-on-social-programs and grow-government plans, it’s a concerted effort with their media division. You’ve seen this before with our side — you know, the way the media is totally on board with the war in Afghanistan, Iraq, traditional marriage, George Bush, saving the lives of unborn babies, Dick Cheney, John McCain, questioning Barack Obama on anything, lowering taxes, and so on, and how they have helped us promote those issues so much.
Expect a headline like :
“Canadians Totally On Board With ‘Green Shift’!
—no explanation possible!”
ALSO SEE PTBC ENTRIES:
• Liberalvision sets up ad campaign for Liberals with misleading headlines
• CTV.ca story on “dishonest” Tory attack on carbon tax… is “dishonest”
• Liberals to promise funky tax hike on gas and “carbon”, in phony – BIGGER GOV’T – enviro-tax scam
• Dear Monsieur Dion, car makers are coming out with hydrogen fuel cell cars. On their own.
• DION: Reveals part of his hidden agenda
• Vancouver Sun invokes Karl Rove to warn of “Tory” Republican-style “attack ads”
• Liberals take a dump on private citizen enviro-entrepreneur
• Took a walk, found no CTV/Liberal Party-style enviro Armageddon
• CBC carries the load (snarf) for Dion
• CBC calls Dion’s “green shift” plan a “so-called” green shift plan
… and more.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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