Media Diary in The New Era

Dear Diary:

By now we are all reaccustomed to the giggles and glee of Canada’s mainstream media as their world returns to the control of leaders they can relate to. In other words, insecure, narcissitic people who get confused when intellectual capacity atttempts to interfere with the sheer feel-good nonsense, fawning gibberish and knee-jerk pack attacks that frame their understanding of the world before them.

Happy days are for sure here again, Dear Diary, as we witnessed this past week:

  • We begin with the fascinating defamation trial being conducted in Calgary between home town hero and yummy Stud Scud Arthur Kent, a failed candidate for provincial office in the 2008 Alberta election, and Parliamentary Press Gallery celeb Don Martin. Martin is a former Calgary Herald columnist who was eventually subsumed by National Post, after which he avoided that organization’s drive for efficiencies and replaced the notorious Mike Duffy as host of CTV’s Powerplay. While coverage of the trial on CTV’s website has been not so fullsome, Canadian Press has provided daily reports of the juicy affair on the Calgary Herald website. Setting aside details, surely of great interest to those who deal with media on a regular basis was the revelation in court by one of Martin’s many unnamed “off the record protected” sources (the commentary in question apparently contained no named sources – an increasingly common although once heavily discouraged practice). The poor woman, who testified that she was physically ill upon reading the column in question, also noted that Martin had informed her he would have to reveal her as a source http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/worker-says-scud-studs-political-campaign-suffered-as-result-of-negative-column because, well, he had been sued. Surely all whistle blowers will feel more secure after learning of this courageous stance.
  • Speaking of ethics in journalism (a thigh-slapping phrase in and of itself) all news manipulators living and dead were impresssed with the guile of the CNN reporter who masterfully posed a incendiary question and then was oh-so-cute in editing http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/11/21/cancel-the-debate-cnn-caught-selectively-editing-trumps-muslim-comments/ the response to get the story intended. The noble search for the Truth marches on, with no hint of correction.
  • We felt badly, Dear Diary, for our beloved Mothercorp’s news channel  on Friday morning when it was breathlessly promoting a story on the horror’s- horrors, we say – inflicted on Canadian Muslim’s due to the “backlash” http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/hate-crimes-ontario-paris-attacks-1.3328660 following the butchery of what Canadians generally view as innocent people in Paris by agents of the so-called Islamic State. (Surely, somewhere in the corridors of journalism someone has noted that well, maybe those folks in Paris were decadent carriers of the cross after all, but we’ll wait a couple of weeks for that.) Not only had an incendiary device been tossed into a mosque in Peterborough, a break and enter had taken place at a similar institution in Calgary, a woman was mugged in Toronto and, alarmingly, a young woman was a further victim of “hate” in a grocery store when someone said “please don’t blow me up” to her. Alas for the Mothercorp, they were rudely interrupted when they had to break away to cover the Islamist assault in Mali. Fortunately, our guardians of public morality were able to give full coverage to the atrocities being committed here in The Great White North later in the day – most certainly an enriching and satisfying moment for all.
  • On this note, Dear Diary, surely the headline of the week belongs to the Globe and Mail’s website http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/assault-of-toronto-woman-being-treated-as-a-hate-crime/article27291302/ that noted, in shivering tones: “‘Motivated by hate’: Muslim girls told not to walk alone in Toronto at night.” Well, thank heavens someone finally told them. Pretty much every woman and girl in Canada has been cautioned since a very young age for centuries that girls and women should not walk alone at night, whether in Toronto or Truro. It is good to see young Muslim woman are finally getting the word and integrating into society where by the way, sexual assault far outstrips hate crimes by about 500 to 1.
  • Speaking of hate crimes, our friends in media are often taught in journalism school (a whole other barrel of monkeys to be addressed on another day) to place news in context. As we could find no evidence that this fundamental had been honored, we checked with Stastistics Canada, as Dear Diary, we assume others will be forced to because, well, as they say in the nation’s newsrooms “never let the facts get in the way of a good story.” In a nutshell, most police-reported “hate crimes” in Canada involve “mischief,” and a Canadian Jew is stastically nine times – count ’em 9 – more likely to be a victim of “hate” than a Muslim in Canada. In fact, 51% of a all relgiously-motivated incidents are against Jews, who represent 1% of the population. No doubt further nuance is required. Alas, we can find no stastistics on convictions and less still on the sources of  this anti-Semetic sentiment.
  • A quick note: while there has been much reporting in the British press http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/621254/Global-powers-unleash-arsenal-to-crush-ISIS-terror-terrorism, Canada’s editors appear to have displayed no interest whatsoever in the massive air and cruise missile assaults launched against ISIS last week nor of President Vladimir Putin’s call-up of 150,000 reservists. Nothing going on there, we suppose, but it appears Canada’s ballyhooed new leadership and influence in international affairs may, um, not be consistent with that narrative. (update: as of Sunday PM CTV and CBC news channels began to show some awareness that something counter to Canada’s unicorn and rainbows approach might be going on).
  • A tip of the hat to CBC for liberating itself from tiresome gender political correctness standards last week in referring to Canada’s new Prime Minister as an “APEC hottie.” http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-apec-admirers-apechottie-shrieks-1.3325845 Some women may object to others of their peers who, when speaking of our new leader, display an emotional control typically reserved for junior high girls overwhelmed by arousal  at a Justin Bieber concert, but not in this corner. It is, after all, a new age of transparency. No need to hide our true feelings.
  • Of note also that buried in the wave of hysteria over selfie frenzies with our new “hottie” PM (whom a friend insists he now only refers to as “Margaret” due to his stunning physical and intellectual resemblance of his mother) the Ottawa Citizen http://ottawacitizen.com/storyline/trudeaus-travels-style-mattered-more-than-substance managed to note that in his debut on the international stage “Margaret” merely managed to mispronounce the Mexican President’s name twice and similarly praise China by mistake when unaware he was speaking with the Japanese. Perhaps  unforgivable for a conservative politician who would be assumed incapable of distinquishing one oriental chap from another, but just fine, Dear Diary, for “Margaret.” That, at least, appears to be the assumed wisdom of our media deans who, quite naturally, are in full agreement.
  • And, finally, good for our much-loved Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne for tweeting that she had attended a mosque to “share our grief for those murdered or injured in the Paris and Beirut attacks.” One assumes this included the “martyrs” and that she delighted in the diversity of gender discrimination. We expecct to see her next Sunday at a Syrian Christian Orthodox Church to express solidarity with the their, um, issues http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/08/isis-persecution-iraqi-christians-genocide-asylum, which we all know has been of deep concern to her lately as feelings seem to be being hurt. And we can’t have that.