Tuesday, November 20, 2007

The opinions of media pundits and a dollar will buy you a coffee

This is why I have absolutely no respect for media in general and media pundits in particular.

When the Gomery Inquiry began Mr. Travers had no qualms about its effectiveness or whether the political parties trying to benefit from it were hurting themselves or the government. He also did not have too many complaints about the issues that were taking a back seat as a result of the focus on that inquiry.

Now we are talking about an inquiry that may find out about a former PM accepting cash payments from one shady character while that former PM was still in office. So how does Mr. Travers react? It is a non-issue, he implies.

I would really love to know if he would say the same thing if, in this affair, the name Mulroney was replaced with the name Chretien? Would he have a different opinion about the inquiry's effectiveness and its impact on the political scene? You are fucking right he would.

Before the Sponsorship Scandal broke the media narrative was Paul Martin would roll over the Conservatives and win one of the biggest majorities in Canadian history. Mr. Travers was one of those who said as much. When the Sponsorship Scandal broke the media narrative changed to Mr. Martin would be lucky to hang onto power. Again Mr. Travers agreed with that narrative.

When the Mulroney-Schreiber affair broke I was wondering if the current media narrative would change as well. This pundit and others that I have read would seem to indicate that it will not.

Ah for the days when the media actually told us what was happening in the world, a narrative was something you only found in a novel and spin was something you did on a midway ride at the local summer fair.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The RCMP investigated Mulroney and found no evidence of wrong-doing. Matter of fact, the Liberals even paid his legal expenses because they knew they had no evidence at all. The only reason why Liberals are making such a big deal of this is because they are trying to tie the current government to Mulroney . . . and it's not working. Just check the polls.

It seems to me you are more ticked off with the media not siding with the Liberals than you are with what actually happened.

Don't worry. CBC and the Toronto Star will keep digging into this file to try and keep it alive. Too bad the Conservatives don't have a media outlet that can dig into the banking fiasco that Chretien was involved in. I'm sure Francois Beaudoin would love to find out why Chretien had him fired and ruined his life.

ottlib said...

Kid:

I always love it when people who have never met me make assumptions about my motives. It is particularly satisfying when they do it with such certainty, as you just did, and I know that those assumptions are completely wrong.

As for the RCMP investigation it ended rather abruptly when they jumped the gun and sent a series of accusations to the Swiss authorities before they could back it up with anything resembling evidence. Whether that evidence exists or not is an open question but the reason the RCMP ended that investigation is becaused they so publicly botched it.

This affair is only two weeks old so I would not draw any conclusions on its impact on the current political scene just yet.

wilson said...

Ottlib, the RCMP continued to investigate Mulroney for five years *after he was awarded costs and an apology, they quit the investigation in 2003, minutes before Martin was to be crowned.
They were not able to find evidence that the $300k was linked to Airbus, info they received in 2001.
The CBC fifth estate and a reporter turned informant with 'unknown sources' got the scandal and the RCMP going.
Eight year witch hunt and they turned up nothing.
Schreibers sworn affidavit, which contradicts his testimony under oath, is all they have or will have.
Now whats got Travers warning the Libs they could set their own hair on fire is likely the 'unknown sources' being exposed thru an inquiry.
Perhaps there is a vendetta, and Mulroney will win again.
Now that CBC is under the Accountability Act, we can follow the money re: vendetta.