Where Have the Media Been All Summer?

Throughtout the summer, I've followed where Michael Ignatieff has been speaking and to whom. It wasn't difficult to do of course, as most of it is hidden in plain site at the Liberal website and of course media outlets are apprised of his whereabouts.

I've been following something else though too. I've read at least one opinion per week, by lazy scribes like the one featured above, telling me that the leader of the opposition hasn't done anything, hasn't been anywhere, only to go on tell me that everything he has done is wrong.

I don't know from where this antediluvian opinion writer is plying his trade? A cottage? A dock? A dusty old office that is unable to inspire him to generate even one original thought? I do know that neither he nor his colleagues have taken it upon themselves to actually expend some energy and follow Ignatieff across the country in order to form their opinion.

Sorry. Do I sound a bit harsh? Well, this kind of tripe has hit every publication this summer written by various columnists. Really, they could have saved themselves a lot of time by just agreeing to have everyone contribute one sentence, then change the byline every week. Each and every one of them has said Ignatieff hasn't been in the media enough, while somehow oblivious to the fact that they haven't taken the time to do the work they lament not seeing.

I don't expect opinion writers to traverse the country, but I do expect that instead of chastising their victim, they'd take aim where it is deserved...at their compatriots.

What is particularly insulting to me as a reader, is the manner in which people like MacDonald write. They sit perched, prepared to tell us all precisely what is and what is not. What is good, what is bad and why, in Ignatieff's case, he can do no right.

If you've ever watched this man, L. Ian MacDonald, on television, you'll note that he almost inevitably makes reference to the Mulroney days. No surprise there, he worked for Mulroney for years. But he seems to use that period as his benchmark and unless you are following those stale outdated formulaic political calculations, you are deemed inferior.

He purports to possess the most intimate detail of all that goes on inside the LPC and OLO for that matter and expects us to believe that whopper without once ever indicating that he has even the slightest bit of knowledge of what is going on inside the party.

Oh, and I love this deep bit of insight:

They allowed Iggy to go to London to give the Isaiah Berlin lecture, and have his picture taken in a tuxedo. A leader should never be photographed at a black-tie event until after he has won an election.

Um, what? Gawd! No one will ever vote for him now! The shame! I think we know what side of the debate MacDonald was on concerning Michelle Obama wearing shorts, don't we?

Then there is this:

Here's something else for the Liberals to consider: With a new leader taking advantage of the worst economic downturn in decades, they should be running 10 to 15 points ahead in the polls, easily leading every region of the country except the West. Instead, they're running no better than even with the Conservatives, given polls' margin of error, with both parties in the mid-30-per-cents.

Really? That's the conventional wisdom is it? Based on....? Is every opposition party, (where the gov't isn't dealing with scandal) 10 points ahead of the incumbent? No. Of course he goes on to say what a fab job Harper is doing...so, shouldn't he then be 10 pts. ahead in the polls?

Anyway, the article isn't worth picking apart. It's the same pap we've read all summer. Until their vacations are over, the next time you read a headline like: 'Where has Ignatieff been?', consider that he worked throughout the summer while those asking the question apparently didn't feel the need.