As election day approaches here in Canada, we find ourselves in the middle of a fascinating case of a purely manufactured media dialog. Harper’s got a solid, unassailable momentum, CTV and the Globe and Mail tell us. Canadians have displayed an unprecdented level of support for his policies. We’ll have a Conservative Majority government for sure.
(More after the fold…)
And yet, recent polls show a drastic reversal of Conservative momentum. Martin’s ratings have jumped, as his party’s slowly clawing its way back up. The CTV/Globe and Mail poll still shows Harper with a solid lead, but that’s no surprise. They’ve aggressively resisted linking Harper with anything negative for the entire duration of the campaign. Even when one of Harper’s advisors travelled to BC to help a Conservative candidate accused of smuggling, they resolutely avoided linking the two stories.
There’s an even bigger elephant in the living room, to boot: the environment. Again, CTV and the Globe, and other media outlets, have done their best to avoid bringing this to the public attention, but Harper’s stance on the environment is positively terrifying. The environmental section of the Conservative Platform is loaded with promises and programs… But, unlike the rest of their platform, there’s no money allocated to these planks. Not a cent. I wonder why Harper thinks he can get environmentalism for free?
Maybe because he thinks the environment isn’t really important, and is just lying to Canadians to try and get into power? After all, Harper’s stated in the past that he doesn’t believe in Global Warming. One would think this would be a major news point during the campaign. We’re having an unseasonably warm winter here. Some winter roads in the west that rely on frozen rivers and lakes have been kept closed, as the ice hasn’t formed at all or is too thin to support traffic. We’ve had very little snowfall, and what snow we’ve had hasn’t lasted very long.
And yet, none of this receives anything more than a cursory mention in the media, and never in connection to the election campaign. WTF?
This is especially serious given the recent doomsday predictions by James Lovelock. While his science seems dubious (it relies on certain cooling factors simply disappearing entirely), one would think that the severity and potential consequences would lead to the electorate and media taking this issue a tad more seriously.
So, what do my fellow Tribbers think? Clear evidence of a pre-selected media dialog ignoring inconvenient facts? Simple incompetence? And what of Lovelock’s predictions?
(I’ll be coming back to some of these issues in my next New Environmentalism diary, which should be going up Saturday morning. Same Boo time, same Boo channel!)
Unfortunately, it appears that your media are falling victim to the same temptations that corrupted them here south of the 49th:
PBS and NPR were created here to help keep the flow of ideas to the general public open, and I presume the CBC is supposed to serve a similar purpose? Has the CBC fallen on hard times like our public media?
This is an alarming trend that Canadians must address to avoid the fate of us in the States. Strong public education is the factor which allows people to not fall victim to either-or fallacies and seeing issues only in black-and-white (sound like any particular politicians we know?). Jefferson knew this; he considered founding the University of Virginia an accomplishment on a par with authoring the Declaration of Independence, as evidenced when he penned his epitaph:
The media fall prey to the temptations bulleted above when they consider their work a business to make a buck, rather than a noble calling with a responsibility to the public greater than money alone.
[Yeah, I know, I’m awfully quaint.]
At least the heirs to that tradition cling to life in cyberspace. Hopefully reaching enough of our fellow citizens to turn the tides of our time, before we are all swept to destruction.
[Yeah, I know, I’m awfully florid when I get worked up.]
I think it’s also something to do with the perception that the Liberal government is “played out”, scandal-wise. They want a Conservative government so that they can get a fresh set of scandals for the next year or two. And the fact that they’re probably going to benefit from a Conservative government just happens to be a coincidence.
The CBC’s actually still doing pretty well, but they aren’t connecting the dots quite well enough.
Great diary E.
At least the CBC & Toronto Star have been more balanced and have dutifully reported that it is neck and neck between the Libs and PC’s in Ontario now… that is “big” news for Martin considering ON has the most seats up for grabs to shift the balance between a majority and a minority gov’t… either way.
In terms of global warming, the winter here has been ridiculous. One day it’s 9. The next day -2 and freezing rain. And nary a peep from anyone.
The CBC had Suzuki on the other day and he was lamenting the fact that it wasn’t a bigger issue in the campaign… he was particularly hard on Layton for not speaking out more.
They have, and I think that’s a very good sign indeed. Contrary to the CTV/G&M report, things seem to be closing up in Quebec too. Which just leaves the Atlantic Provinces and the Prairies.
It’s bouncing around like mad here in Halifax too. -9 to -1 yesteday, 2 to 8 today. And the only mention I remember seeing in the media was some articles about those winter roads I mentioned.
I’m not sure why he isn’t. It seems like a really obvious way to hit both Harper and Martin. Wrong time to play it safe, Layton.
For the past two months we’ve had temps ranging rather consistently between +5C (+41F) for highs, and lows of -15C (+5F). We’ve had very few days, (3?) with a low below 0F. So it feels more like one continuous spring. Another anamoly is that we’ve had little to no wind.
Reviewing my 5 decades of memory on ND winters, all of the above seems highly unusual to me.
Of course, no one is complaining about the “nice weather”, but for me it’s getting spookier by the day.
This is the 5th mild winter in a row. However, the previous four all had elements of normal winters.
A 2-3 day Alberta Clipper, 30+ mph wind from the NW, at a temp of -25C (-13F) would alleviate some of the guilt associated with our perpetual-spring weather.
I’m more worried about what this summer is going to be like. Things have been a lot windier here too – another sign of global warming.
More proof of the media bullshit: an excellent article on polling. Looks like Strategic (the pollster used by CTV and the Globe and Mail) is skewing its figures by doing suspect things with leaners.