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Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Memo to Tribune officers
"Shoving liberalism down your readers' throats is not a good business straetgy."
Posted by Kate McMillan on January 25, 2006 | Permalink
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Who cares?
Posted by: Robert Seymour | 2006-01-25 10:20:58 PM
A stock chart for the New York Times has the same downward slope; they’ve lost about 3 billion dollars in market value or almost half their value over the last couple of years. These Democrat propaganda machines are a precursor to what will happen to the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail that are merging to try and stave off the inevitable slide as the media finally gets democratized. Watch what Murdock does to try and figure out where it’s all going. He’s buying up digital news or Internet providers.
This is a fascinating area to watch as more and more voters catch onto the fact that there’s no such thing as “balanced” political news. It’s all biased. Getting at the truth takes a lot of work by the reader; the journalists do not do it as we were led to believe. If you’ve read Margaret MacMillan’s Paris 1919 it’s obvious we’re still trying to figure out what led to WWII, so there’s no hope that we’re going to get any truth on the matter of Iraq out of our MSM.
Posted by: nomdenet | 2006-01-26 5:31:41 AM
"there's no hope that we're going to get any truth on the matter of Iraq out of our MSM"
That's worrisome. What does that say about the news we'll get about Iran?
Posted by: potato | 2006-01-26 6:01:43 AM
You’ll find out more truth about Iran and other topics on sites like this:
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2006/01/terminators-rise-of-extremes.html
than you ever will on the MSM. We’ll always need the MSM but it became very arrogant when Walter Cronkite was able to get away with his lies ( at a minimum he bent the truth) about Vietnam. For the last three decades the MSM have behaved as if they were in charge versus elected representatives who have knuckled under to MSM pressure. Blogs will change the dynamics, and follow the money. If the Tribune and New York Times crash like General Motors, we’ll get a new media.
Posted by: nomdenet | 2006-01-26 7:01:46 AM
"These Democrat propaganda machines are a precursor to what will happen to the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail that are merging to try and stave off the inevitable slide as the media finally gets democratized".
When they finally get democratized? Did you follow these papers in this past election? This so called "innocence" of Canadian politics; and news media; or to those who knew better; the "illusion of innocence" all came crashing down watching Martins despicable campaign and the all to willing news media who were all to eager to spread his filth to an already captive audience in Toronto and to anyone else willing to listen! The left wing bias it total and complete in central Canada and is absolutely unchecked. The first thing that needs to be quashed here in Canada is the CRTC which is in effect a state control on broadcasting.
The power of these MSM outlets cannot be discounted. One has only to look at the Iraq war; easily one of the most brilliant; strategically, well carried out plans in history to see that. To watch the MSM's coverage of it is in a word; sickening. To see them totally ignore the success in Iraq and trip over each other to vilify their own military, leader; and in turn their own country simply to push their own agenda in remarkable.
As that curve shows people down south are beginning to acknowledge the fact they are being lied to and are looking for other markets for their news. But as this past election has proven, particularly in the larger urban cities too many Canadians are still relying on an absolutely unreliable source for their news.
Posted by: Richard | 2006-01-26 7:48:16 AM
The Border Guard Issue
How nice to see/hear Vic T. move so quickly on the issue of giving the Border Service the attention it deserves. This moves quickly to protect the integrity of Canada both internally and externally. The morale of the Border Service must have shot upwards considerably.
NOW
Let's hope that we have people every bit as strong in the Departments of:
Citizenship/Refugee/Immigration and in the Multi-Culturalism area. The entire Immigration Refugee Board - a huge bureaucratic wing in itself - should be under the microscope. IRB adjudicators are a joke!!!!
A great many of the reasons why the Liberals have been retained in the three major cities can be traced to Liberal philosophy, legislation, policies, whatever in these areas. The bottom line is that yes - there are major differences in values/norms/mores (between M/T-V and the ROC) and they are getting wider as each year goes by. The question becomes - what are we going to do about it.
Why wouldn't people in M-T-V cities be afraid of losing all of the priviliges, entitlements, handouts, financing of a whole lot of groups that in the end - do anything but promote unity within Canada. Their only option is to vote Liberal or NDP.
On top of this of course are the Liberal political/financial elite who are also petrified of losing their "entitlements." - and they surely are!
The Dalton's comments in the Globe yesterday were almost pathetic. Just the fact that he was seriously having to consider a lobby about allowing Sharia Law in Ontario should be telling something to somebody. This same question simply wouldn't come up in Alberta - not because we are racist - but because this would be total insanity and would be supported by virtually nobody.
Martin probably believed what he said about his/the Liberals values because he has been so much a part of creating the social engineering experiment of Official Bilingualism/Multi-Culturalism/Canada as a Mosaic (rather than asimilation - just to be different from the U.S.) Wasn't this going to be ohhhhh soooooo Canadian. Well the entire experiment has been a colossal failure and the tri-cities of M-T-V are paying- and will continue to pay - the price. As long as there is a Liberal gov't in power federally, unfortuately so will the rest of us continue to pay a huge price. Socially, Economically, & Politically
To ensure the "success" of all of this, the Liberals passed the Official Languages act (1968), and The Constitution Act (1982-with the famous Charter of Rights and Freedoms embeded in perpetuity). The Departments of Heritage, etc., etc, etc. have been created to perpetuate the myth and now the entire social structure of Canada is divided on a rural/Urban split (not to mention Anglo/Franco).
Thanks to the Charter/SCC decisions - there has been a huge swing towards individual rights and freedoms - these have been much more applicable to life in M-T-V but it is now affecting us in Alberta - and we are not going to stand for it. When a bar owner says (and he did) that I simply cannot allow people to come into by Bar (or I will be accused (probably sued) for racial profiling, my words) - we have a real problem.
O.K. My statements will be construed by many as God knows what - racist, bigotted, unpatriotic, - whatever. Lay it on, because there are a whole lot of us out the the ROC (west and east) who probably feel the same way. I'm not a far right nor a far left - my color is purple if we had to choose a color. I used to be a proud Canadian, but for quite a while, have not had these feelings.
I would urge the thinking people in M-T-V to give PMSH and his group the chance to do some very constructive things for Canada and you might not be as disappointed as the Liberals might have you believe.
Posted by: calgary clipper | 2006-01-26 8:07:53 AM
Richard, I’m not sure we’re disagreeing.
Just to clarify I agree the MSM is still left-wing but I’m saying follow the money as shown on the downward sloping graph on Kate's post. The MSM can’t afford to stay distorted on the left and survive. Even the despicable Globe and Mail, reluctantly supported Harper: that’s a major breakthrough that surprised me. Ditto Power Corp’s La Presse. Also, on CTV Mike Duffy took on John Duffy with “we won’t be intimidated by Liberals, our job as journalists is to question blah blah blah”. Also a shocking breakthrough.
But I’m the first to agree that it’ll take another 5 years minimum for conservatives to get equal time and space in the media, simply because the MSM continues to be run by leftist baby boomers who have a Vietnam/socialist distortion of how the world works.
I agree the CRTC fosters patronage/corruption and distortion. Redefine it or close it. Ditto the CBC.
Posted by: nomdenet | 2006-01-26 8:46:23 AM
nomdenet; I believe we are in total agreement,
I was just making the case how entrenched they are now and the lengths they will go to distort the truth. I agree there were some moments that could give one hope; I remember the day when one could have called the CTV at least a little to the right. Hopefully they will return to being reputable. I think your estimate of 5 years could be a little optimistic but I hope your right. It has been interesting to watch what is happening down south; much of the MSM is beginning to see the light but the extreme far left if anything have gotten worse. They are paramount to treasonous. Its sad but I guess there will always be a market for that kind of drivel. It was also interesting to watch some of the middle of the road personalities; Adler comes to mind; who finally saw and woke up to the true face of Liberalism. I don't think the personal attacks the Libs used in this past election are going to be forgotten by these people; at least I hope not. I know they are not going to be forgotten by Albertans.
Posted by: Richard | 2006-01-26 9:35:38 AM
So, just to recap...
Right-leaning media = honest and unbiased.
Left-leaning or centrist media = evil and corrupt.
Small-l liberals = easy to brainwash.
Small-c conservatives = perceptive and too clever to brainwash.
Alberta and Ontario do have pretty different outlooks but I don't think it's because the media in either place brainwashed anyone. I give people more credit than that. Albertans are not the stupid rednecks Ontarians seem to suggest, and Ontarians are not the stupid sheep Alberta would like to believe they are. They both look at the facts, assess things critically and decide who they want to vote for.
People of differing political beliefs tend to react emotionally to any reporting, making it hard for anyone with any political lean whatsoever to look objectively. Anyone who has read my posts here before knows I'm a left-leaning guy, and I won't deny that I sometimes am filled with a blood-boiling anger when I see the stories and especially comments that fill this site. I'm sure the average Western Standard reader feels the same way about Salon.com or the New York Times.
A recent study shows the same thing. Both Republicans and Democrats were willing to shrug off the mistakes of their own candidates while getting upset about the mistakes of their opponents.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65521,00.html?tw=rss.TOP
Anyhow, now I'm cutting to my point: Don't be too hard on the masses. We're all a part them.
Posted by: Greg | 2006-01-26 10:41:31 AM
Greg, I’m not saying right=unbiased
Nor am I saying right is honest and the left isn’t. We both have our share of good and evil and we’re both biased. It’s human nature to be biased.
I am saying the MSM and academia are mostly biased left. It wasn’t a problem until everyone got a BA.
I’m also saying the democratization of the MSM is starting to happen. It is now finally apparent to lot of Americans that the New York Times is not balanced. Nor is CBS. They are propaganda arms of the Democrats. Just like the The Toronto Star is here.
Yes, I’m admittedly whining that it hasn’t been fair. But conservatives are gradually overcoming the media problem. And if we get school vouchers and privatization of universities we’ll overcome the academia problem.
Then we’ll have choice. Equal choice of left and right in academia and the MSM (or something closer to equal choice, I’m under no illusions life will ever be fair). But conservatives will never even attempt to have equal outcomes, which is what the left wants. The outcomes are based on personal choice, which is why I’m in favour of lots of choice because “we’re all part of the masses” and choice makes it interesting.
Posted by: nomdenet | 2006-01-26 11:32:05 AM
Consolidation of MSM is a part of the problem.
Once upon a time there was so much diversity in ownership and slant that it really did not matter if any paper or radio or TV news source was biased because you could always pick up a counter POV.
Consolidation has led to less choics and the issue of bias has become more of a problem.
I agree that some of the owners think they can use their media empires as propogande tools to support their agendas. And some of the media orgs are just plain rife with liberalistas.
But ......as the consolidation continues the backlash increases in the form of lost subscriptions followed by lost ad revenue.
People are finding their own way to create balance and the web and bloggosphere is part of that.
If anything comes of this change I suspect it will be the disappearance of the old world MSM and resurgence of small media services who act as aggregators.
Posted by: PGP | 2006-01-26 3:06:02 PM
By the way... All you guys and gals who are buying into this Urban/Rural disection of Canada just stop it please.....it is nothing more than the latest urban myth.... a complete fabrication.
Resist the temptation to regurgitate this kind of tripe that is born in the MSM.
Posted by: PGP | 2006-01-26 3:18:45 PM
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