That seems to be the possibility raised by the columnist Lorne Gunter in his piece today at the National Post. A couple of people have emailed me about the subject —Jim Travers and his strange Toronto Star column from yesterday, about what seemed like “inside knowledge” about the soon-to-be-released Gomery Report.
A much more balanced, diligent, not-liberal media in Canada would be all over this like a socialist to “free” donuts and hot coffee provided by the state, but alas they are not. They are giving it a pass. You do have to question that.
I’ve quoted Lorne Gunter a lot lately because a while back I bookmarked his “blog” in the National Post. He seems to be on a real roll these days—in the “right” direction—more than he has in the past. He’s consistently saying all the right things (truth, good insights, facts about Canada and the liberal-left…). Watch as today he unravels what seems like too much information about the not-yet-released Gomery Report by the liberal Jim Travers at the liberal Toronto Star:
Tuesday, in a column that was reported far and wide as though it were incontrovertibly true, Toronto Star National Affairs Columnist Jim Travers claimed that the preliminary report of Justice John Gomery, due out in about two weeks, would largely exonerate Prime Minister Paul Martin of involvement in the sponsorship scandal.
[…] That would be true, if it were true. But read the column carefully. It is written in the style of a news story, presumably to give it the appearance of objective fact, rather than merely the writer’s opinions. Yet Travers never once cites a source. What he is claiming to know is confidential, “secret” even. Who told him? There is not so much as a “sources close to Judge Gomery have revealed,” or even the ubiquitous “Ottawa insiders claim.”
Travers claims to know that Gomery was persuaded by the testimony of Stephane Dion to stop focusing on the federal cabinet and start keying in on the Chretien PMO as the control centre for Adscam.
He says Gomery has found no direct links to Chretien from any of the scandal’s advertising contracts. Nor will many of the judge’s facts be new.
How does Travers know?
Wednesday, this paper and others carried a counter story. “After verifications we have established that there could not have been a leak of the document,” insisted Gomery spokesman Francois Perreault. “Under no circumstances has anyone read the report. I know that there have been a lot of rumours … with people claiming to have seen segments or drafts. No way. No way.”
It is still possible that Travers knows whereof he speaks. It is still possible everything he claims will be shown to be right when the report is released. He may well have an inside source entirely familiar with the inquiry and the contents of the judge’s work and just not be able to say for fear of tipping everyone to his or her identity.
But here’s another possible explanation: The Star wants Martin absolved so he can beat those nasty Conservatives in the next election and restore the glorious Liberal majority. That is what the Star always wants, solid, big, expensive Liberal government that takes policy direction from the Star editorial page.
Martin, of course, wants the same thing, and he and his staffers have been following the inquiry’s every jot and tittle. So the Martin people have poured over the testimony from every angle, and replayed it over and over in their minds, until they have devised what they believe to be the most likely findings. They told their expected version to Travers who relayed it to his readers as though it had come from a fly on the judge’s office wall. […]
There’s a little more and it’s worth reading.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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