And here we see, in real time, a Canadian reporter attempting to smear government MPs. Ms Walsh is not the only one, but the example handy. She links the MPs with a notice from the ethics commissioner's office. No explanation. 1/15 #cdnmedia#cdnpoli
It implies the MPs are in trouble with the ethics commissioner. They are not. Nevertheless, conservative trolls are already squawking on social media about another Liberal ethics violation, where there is none. This is very poor journalism. 2/15
This is using omission of an explanation to cast shade on innocent people. I have no doubt that Canadian media know that most people will not read past the very first couple of lines. They are planting the suggestion of malfeasance by omitting any detail. 3/15
Mercedes Stephenson, of Global news, simply retweets the announcement from the Ethics Commissioner which is also incredibly misleading and suggests the Liberals were guilty of something. 4/15
And, most egregiously, @CBC@PnPCBC posted an alert saying outright that these ministers were guilty. 5/15
I am sure Canadian journalists also know full well that misinformation spreads much faster than a retraction or correction. Which seems to have been their intent. Deleting a misleading tweet does not undo the damage. 8/15
This is totally unacceptable. This is our press deliberately trying to undermine our duly elected government. And they do it all the time. This was just another example. I call on the @CBCOmbud, the @CRTCeng and whomever oversees the Ethics Commissioner... 9/15
To take a close look at this. From the Commissioner's office on down, this news was worded and presented in such a way as to allow the reputation of these ministers to be impugned. This is not what the press is supposed to do. This violates journalistic integrity and ethics. 10/
The thing which actually happened was a former US Ambassador was found in violation and these Ministers have agreed to not interact with him for a year. 11/15
12/15
And yet, CPC fans are racing around announcing 9 Liberals have been found guilty of an ethics violation and they are all criminals. Because such people grab any information that fits their worldview, and also, they don't seem to actually understand how any of this works. 13/15
The wording used by the Ethics Commissioner's office, & the way the real information was buried in a fine print document is very suspect. One might almost think Dion was channeling his predecessor, Mary Dawson. Someone needs to remind him he is supposed to be non-partisan. 14/15
But our journalists, actively misleading Canadians about this instead of looking into why the ethics commissioner's announcement was so vague as to suggest the Liberals had done something wrong.... Well, that is unconscionable. And decidedly not in the public interest. 15/15
Update: The CBC noon hour radio news just did a piece on Eric O'Toole's complaints about waiting in line for hours for a COVID test. He blames the federal government, even though it is provincial jurisdiction. CBC did not correct him.
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This is a "When did you stop beating your wife?" question. The person asking bases the premise of the question on the fact they have been reporting on a rumour all week. Really? So you report something based on speculation, then ask questions as though your speculation 1/
First, this rumour is not, apparently, based on any evidence because no evidence has been presented. Robert Fife's "unnamed sources" have been horribly wrong before. Remember Maher Arar?
So, how does this reporting fit into the principles of Journalistic
2/
Ethics? Let's have a look.
1. It must be true.
Hmmmm. Is it true? What assurances, other than the Globe & Mail has been saying it all week, do we have that there is any substance to this at all?
2. It must be verifiable.
OK, so what proof is there that any of this is real?
3/
I have been listening to @Justin_Ling 's podcast "The Village" again. I listened to the first season when it was new and only just now rediscovered it. It's all dreadful and shocking. The third season goes into what happened in Montreal to the LGBTQ2+ community, while the
1/
first two seasons focus on Toronto. The lack of enthusiasm in investigating murders by the Toronto police is disgraceful. The harassment of queer folks in both Toronto and Montreal by police is disgraceful. The violence towards a group of people for just being themselves is
2/
appalling. Gay bashing is a terrible hate crime, but when the police do it? They should all have been fired, but there were no consequences. So much to make you think in this podcast series. Everyone who feels they don't know much about the LGBTQ2+ community, or who complains
3/
I see a lot of people say they are not into politics. They don't want to hear about politics, or talk about politics. They say it as though that makes them more pure then the people who do speak about politics. Like they are above all that. Certainly, for a 1/ #cdnpoli
long time, people avoided speaking about politicis as a matter of politeness. That prohibition on talking about politics (or religion, or income) was always presented as a way to avoid conflict, but in fact, it is a way for the wealthy to prevent people from organizing,
2/
from questioning authority, and from rebelling against injustice and corruption.
These days, a lack of political awareness is actively encouraged by the far right, for precisely the same reasons. People who don't listen to the news, or read the news, or talk about the
3/
Chris Selley recently published a piece in the National Post excoriating Poilievre's critics. Some of those mentioned were professors and media personalities. Fair enough. But he also had a go at a regular citizen for expressing her political views. Is that what MSM is doing
now? I wonder if we will next see "journalists" like Chris publishing naughty lists, hit lists if you will, of people who hold unacceptable (to the CPC) views.Throwing their names out there so any off the rails CPC supporter who is itching for an active way to show his
devotion to Poilievre has a list of targets? The rest of the article is also trash. Why is Selley writing this lengthy defense of the Leader of the Official Opposition? Does he not know that the CPC has communications people and press secretaries and so on to defend the leader
@angryablib @TheBreakdownAB People in Alberta don't care. As long as it's conservatives doing it, they don't care. Kenney fired the Elections Commissioner that was investigating his leadership election. No one cared. The party was also being investigated by the RCMP. No one cared. They have changed laws to
@angryablib @TheBreakdownAB retroactively get themselves off the hook about things, and also to allow themselves to accept large gifts from lobbyists. No one cares. They want to arrest homeless people and force them into rehab, (which seems like a clever way to funnel public money to their friends who have
@angryablib @TheBreakdownAB suddenly got into the rehab business and no one cares. They created a "War Room" that they fed millions of dollars of OUR money into every year and we can't see where that money goes and no one cares. They were giving billions by the feds for Covid relief and they "misplaced" the
I just feel the need to say, Conservatives go on & on & on about freedom. Yet their campaign team employ persuasion methodology that can affect what you think. Shouldn't freedom to not have your thoughts messed with, without your knowledge, be the #1 freedom?
#cdnpoli
Because, yes, they are doing things to try to influence what you think. And their techniques take many forms. From getting people to broadcast specific messages to their friend groups and encouraging re-broadcast, to buying and disseminating poll results designed to make you
change the way you think about a subject. To repeating simple, sing-songy slogans over and over and over until they get stuck in your head. To spreading lies and disinformation backed up by "credible" MSM who never fact-check and just repeat the talking points as though they