10.10.2008

We are big boys, get over it

I choose not to play the video of Dion and the do over video. I did so because I felt for him at that time. I recall the media going afterBob Skelly in the BC election many years ago, refusing to let him have a do over. It killed the NDP then.

I have little sympathy for all the bloggers going crazy about this. The holier than though Liberal bloggers that have jumped on this and screamed bias in the media, the mean Mike Duffy, the nasty conservatives etc.

We are big boys in this work. If New Democrats screamed every time they were portrayed in a poor light they would be doing nothing but whining about the media. I can cite article after article, issue after issue where the media have been less than fair in their coverage of NDP or Green candidates.

Some Liberal bloggers have been much nastier than the do over video is, making a practise of being absurdly scandal driven. I have also seen some New Democrat bloggers get a little high over this video and they have expressed their reasons. Its a news story and fair comment to do so in this blogger world. I can see what would happen if it were Jack Layton asking for a do over.

If Harper asked for a do over to adjust his sweater or to revise what he said, you and I know there are a ton of bloggers and politicians that would be leaping for joy congratulating the media for showing it.

All that said, I don't care for much of the main stream media's penchant to look for an exciting clip or statement and blow it up.

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9 comments:

susansmith said...

I agree. Buck up! Jack Layton takes on the hostile press, and New Democrats always expect they will not give us a free ride. Get over liberals.
Dion blew it and that is the way it goes!

Greg said...

Dion didn't blow it. He was asked a question in two different tenses. The interviewer was illiterate.

I'm not a Liberal supporter. I intend generally to vote NDP. But even so I can clearly see that the question was impossible to answer because it didn't make sense.

Simon said...

I disagree. As a gay man like I am you should recognize a bully when you see one. But you've allowed your blind partisanship to get in the way of your common sense. Shame on you....

James Curran said...

You're wrong on this one buddy. The question asked was ambiguous. It shows Dion understands English better than Murphy can ask it.

The showing of the clip was unethical, journalistic integrity.

Greg said...

To whom is Simon speaking? I can't even tell what he means.

Are we to presume that the game here is making illiterate, tangential sentences? Because then I am to have known what you would have wanted to have had communicated.

Simon said...

Greg....I was addressing my comment to Rick. I....um....agree with you. My point was that making fun of a French-speaking guy with a hearing disability be getting confused by some meat puppet who mixed his tenses up wasn't a big deal. And making it a statement on whether he is fit to run the country, struck me as more Tory bullying. More of the same shite that they have been doing for about two years.Which triggered my well developed bully sensors. That's all...

James Bowie said...

2 things.

1. "Holier than thou."

2. I agree you've got to be tough. But I also think that journalism has to have some standards. If we accept that any "off the record" content can be published just because the media company wants to report it, then we're in trouble. An agreement is an agreement, and what CTV did was dishonest.

Just because we're in politics doesn't mean there are no rules at all.

Anonymous said...

As to off the record. That is something that is not really possible. I have had off the record discussions with reporters and so have the politicians I have worked for in the past. There is no "off the record".

If a reporter here's it, they can report it despite your agreement to be off the record with them.

The treatment here by CTV of Mr. Dion was wrong but totally within the their right to do so. The fact they can do this does not make it ethical in a broader sense.

Anonymous said...

Simon,

I wrote that i did not like the clips that CTV showed, i think it is unethical but within the rights of CTV to show it. That said, they broke an agreement with Dion's staff not to show it. That then becomes a lesson learned for Dion etc. You never trust the media.

In the big world most people would view the clip as unethical, me among them.

Where i say we are big boys, move on, i mean that you cant put this in a bottle now, you need to quit whining about it and move on.