Friday, September 23, 2005

Shoot the Messenger

Harper said he will win the next election not through the media, but by reaching
out to people locally.

I'd be very curious to hear what Conservatives think about this. The media has been pretty important for politicians over the last...oh, I don't know...75 years.

posted by calgarygrit at 1:15 a.m.

15 Comments:

  • CG,

    I think the key is not to hold the media in disdain, but it's not like they've been making or breaking campaigns over the last couple of decades. That power still resides in the hands of the political parties.

    The Hack

    By Blogger The Hack, at 1:47 a.m.  

  • Stephen Harper's whistle-stop tour? Maybe instead of debating Paul Martin on TV, they can face off on a couple of tree stumps...

    By Blogger J. Kelly, at 1:51 a.m.  

  • QuebecHarpermaniac says:

    I don't want to sound too paranoid, because I think individual journalists can be courted and will keep an open mind if you are friendly.

    However, Globe says never more than 20 people showed up at the Quebec gatherings to meet Harper this summer.

    That's a lie.

    I went to one. There were 80 people there. (10 tables of 8).

    Maybe its not a lie, maybe its a mistake. They aren't exactly rushing to correct the impression they left.

    So, I think he should stop bringing up the media bias, but he must acknowledge it and work over it.

    Of course, Grits don't see media bias. And to be fair to them, Liberals get a rough ride occasionally too.

    However, if you wanted a healthy democracy where all ideas are giving a fair hearing to make sure we implement the best one, it would be hard not to see this bias.

    Example: Mario Dumont in Quebec was doing well early in the last election. CBC morning man in Montreal hammered him for a week with: "When Quebekers find out how right wing he is, he's toast."

    Never critical of his platform or ideas, just happy to throw the label "right-wing" and let the listeners think of the KKK and neo-nazis.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:37 a.m.  

  • QuebecHarpermaniac adds:

    And there are Christians in the Liberal party. Grits aren't all heathens, you know! Still, the Globe pushes "Christians are taking over the CPC" pretty hard. Why? I guess in Toronto the good, being a practicing Christian is about as evil as it gets.

    Is this not true?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:40 a.m.  

  • QuebecHarpermaniac adds:

    Journalists are idealists who want to make a better world. They are good and decent people however, they typically come with little education in economics, business and engineering.

    So, it will always be hard to win them over to Conservative thinking but conservative thinking usually starts with a hard headed look at how the world actually works.

    Blue Grits have the same problem.

    Okay -

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:42 a.m.  

  • I didn't think Harper was this stupid.

    And don't all the conservatives complaining about the 'liberal media' and all the liberals complaining about the 'conservative media' ever notice each other's complaints?

    How can one side truly think that they are the victims of media bias?

    I can't be the only person reading liberal and conservative blogs?

    By Blogger Matthew, at 11:30 a.m.  

  • Even if the media is biased against Harper, I just don't see the logic in being this hostile to them.

    You think he'd try to play nice and let the fact that he despises them come out in a Peter C. Newman book 15 years after the fact or something.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 11:49 a.m.  

  • People that choose careers in business tend to be right wing, people that go into careers like journalism tend to be leftwing. Maybe commentators are often right wing. Blogging is more like a commentary.

    ...and lawyers tend to be corrupt liberals.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:37 p.m.  

  • Except for Mulroney, who was one those rare corrupt Tory lawyers.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:17 p.m.  

  • CG, according to your post on Stephen Taylors blog,

    "Good work pulling all this stuff together Stephen.

    As much as I think Harper is a bafoon, it's a little disengenuous of the media to give so much credit to a few disgruntled members who don't like him - These people never liked Harper.

    You could just as easily find 6 or 7 Liberals disgruntled towards Martin with equivalent status in their party.
    CalgaryGrit | Homepage | 09.21.05 - 6:05 pm | # "

    Then you mention that Stephen Harper shouldn't shoot the messenger. So in your mind who has the high ground in this.

    Stephen Harper who muses aloud that the Canadian Media will never give the CPC a break; or,

    The Media who are taking every little snippet of discontent in the CPC as a full fleged revolt?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:38 p.m.  

  • "The party has raised big amounts of cash, signed up thousands of members and his summer tour attracted big crowds this summer, he said, but virtually all of that has been ignored by the media."

    After reading this comment, I went to CPC's website to see if I can find any news relating to the statement. I didn't find a single news article.

    How do they expect anyone to waste time on such news, if they don't see any merits in it themselves?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:17 p.m.  

  • The Conservative web effort is horrible (so are the Libs and the NDP) which is odd because as Howard Dean and Joe Trippi proved, an intern with a personality and a blog can make a big difference in galvanizing an online community but the CPC seems stuck in 1993 with infrequent updates or even things like web logos making it easy for the three conservative bloggers in Canada to help them out.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 9:17 p.m.  

  • Don;

    Maybe the media is being hard on him but it's stupid to complain about it.

    No matter how unfair they're being, Harper should suck it up and play nice. You can't win an election while being openly hostile with the media.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 9:55 p.m.  

  • Fair enough, but does the media (Globe and Mail) report on the front page every low level Liberal who is pissed off about Paul?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:04 a.m.  

  • Media need to cover everything especially when it comes in politics.

    By Anonymous mens overcoat, at 7:38 a.m.  

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