For all their mewling, puling and plain old fashioned whinging, the right in this country has a much louder voice than it merit's by it's numbers. They will tell you that all media, in whatever form, it bias and not in their favour.
I for one am sick of that lie. Yes I said lie, which seems to be a word we're not supposed to utter these days, but I suppose that if you make that word unacceptable, then the ones doing it can go on lying without being called on it.
If you aren't familiar with the gentleman depicted at the top of this post, his name is Erik Millett. He is the principal from New Brunswick who stopped the national anthem from being played every morning in 2007. That nugget was considered something to glom onto by every right wing radio host in the nation and the story was as you know, distorted practically beyond recognition. This man became the new target for the pent up rage that many feel the need to discharge on a regular basis. Assumptions were made and his character assaulted without any justification whatsoever. How is it that we allow this to go on?
In a sense, you have to credit the right for being so organised and focused to have brought the country to this miserable state. I however would like to suggest that the rest of us have been far too passive in allowing it to go on. I'm not interested in a counter force in terms of seeing more 'left wing' media. In my opinion, that would be counter productive.
I would like to see the return of common sense however. How is it that these attacks go unchallenged? Remember the phony e-mails being sent to Jennifer Wright re' the Green Shift? That became a cause celebre for the right. What about the lies about the Green Shift and Dion himself? Or the frenzy the country was driven into due to the lies about what a coalition was and what it meant? This is not funny stuff and it no longer is something that I think we can just slough off and attribute to 'a few extremists'.
In the case of Millett, we are talking about a man's reputation and his career. He's now questioning his future.
"I received probably over 2,000 emails, most of them hurling abuse at me, saying everything that I should be at the end of a bayonet, I should be shipped out of the country, I should be put on the front lines with the Taliban," he said.
Where have we heard that kind of language before? From the Blogging Tories, talk radio hosts (here's an example) and Conservative MP's, that's where. Not all of course, but certainly many. Oh, and one new Senator. Let's not forget Mr. Duffy.
It's not Millett's future that should be in question here. It's the power that the right is wielding and the impact it is having on peoples lives. They, the right, will like that sentence of course because they salivate at the mention of power and their unjust denial of it for so long. Is it any wonder?
Enough is enough and I'd welcome any suggestions as to how we counter this destructive culture.
Rant over.
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17 comments:
Excellent rant.
The problem is, with the "dumbing down" of discourse, the public is lulled to sleep about anything Parliamentary. ON top of that, they are deluged with US Media piped in via cable TV and satellite - this further reinforces the "US style" attitude. The right adds to the confusion by poo-pooing any experts or scientists (if 95% of experts agree on something, the right INSISTS that the other 5% get their "say" as loudly and equally as the 95% majority) as "ivory tower elitists". They paint hard-working scientists and experts in fields like economics, social work, health, teaching, etc., as "elitists" who are somehow "different" from the "Tim Horton's Patriots" (whoever the f@*% THAT is).
Once they have their "opinion" out there, they are helped along by a right-wing friendly media (of COURSE the media is right of center - do you think multi-national mega-corps are going to speak loudly in favor of social and labor groups? gimme a break!). The CanWests, Bell-Globes, Quebecors, Shaws, Rogers of the world have an interest in keeping THEIR interests and their ADVERTISER'S interests first and foremost. For some of them, that means "Big Oil" in Alberta... For others that means other advertising interests. WE know what corporate advertisers can do to a newspaper - just look at what lower ad numbers are doing to CanWest right now.
Knowing most "average Joes", when "then news" says something, it "must" be true.
The first step in fighting the lies, in my opinion, is FIXING the media problem in this country. We MUST break up the media "mega"-opolies (not a word). We MUST promote Canadian content better... That is not the best solution - it is the ONLY solution. Political parties on the center and left cannot be expected to fight millions in "hidden newspaper ads" (big newspaper editorials), corporate sponsor interests, AND the Con war chest at the same time.
WG, You wrote:
"We MUST break up the media "mega"-opolies (not a word)."
And how exactly do we do that? Aren't the regulations for the media, in all it's forms, controlled by the govt? Which is now in the hands of Harper & his merry band of right-wing manipulators?
You're leading me... lol... but, I'll bite. Yes, we need to defeat this government when the right opportunity presents itself. Only a Liberal government can or would be in a position to make the needed changes. The (coming) changes to the world-wide economic system will help...
Thanks Beijing. Sometimes you just have to get it out, ;).
WG agreed. I think our current economy might play an interesting role here.
In addition though, I think if common sense voices were louder, more prevelant, that would help.
For instance, most reasonable discussions on mass media are concentrated on alternative channels (tv). PBS and TVO come to mind. I'd love to see more Steve Paiken's on our screens.
penlan, I really do think that the economy is playing a bit of a role now. We'll see.
Paiken?
What's the problem anon? A typo re'Steve Paikin's name or do you not know who he is?
Puffy Duffy as a "Culture "Icon? My god how low we can go?
I Think the National Anthem loses it's Noble Meaning when forced down to sleepy little kids throats every single day... it is getting trite and becomes one Of the Thing what kids just Hate To Do.
The Principal was right..
What To do with these rabid right wingers???
the only thing is tell the media what we think..million times..
but so far it didn't work I must say.
No one has mentioned yet that this guy was both a Green Party candidate and a 'peace activist', so there may not have been any complaints by parents after all. He might have made the whole thing up himself just to foist his own political views on the students under his control. 'Peace activists' like to think that patriotism (like singing national anthems) breeds militarism.
Do you ever deal in reality Fred?
I find this whole theme disturbing. Having grown up and gone to school in B.C. I don't actually remember having O Canada played except at assemblies. The fact that the person interviewed as supporting the singing of the anthem thinks that we are Americans who say a pledge of allegiance is down right frightening. How can we show this man some support.
Blogger knb said...
Do you ever deal in reality Fred?
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Always. It's just that my reality isn't viewed through the same rose-colored glasses as you obviously wear. Even if there were two complaints (and I don't concede that there were) by parents who objected to the word 'God' in the anthem, since when do the objections of two students take precedence over the rights of the rest of the school? When asked, this loser said that he couldn't simply have the two students step out of the classroom because it would be bad for their self-esteem (or some such leftist drivel).
This guy deserves censure, not support. My guess is that he'll soon be looking for a different line of work...
shoot'em!
tar n' feather?
post pictures and their statements and actions like the old WANTED posters all over . Do some culture jamming.
Mass comments and letters in Chatelaine, Ladies Home Journal, Family Circle and Maclean's, tec.
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