Taking Control of the Conversation by Eliminating the Noise

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

" ... we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children." - Martin Luther King Jr.

The above was part of a speech made by Dr. King on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It has become a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Many people believe that the Religious Right or Moral Majority, came about because of Roe vs Wade, the case that legitimized abortion. But it did not. It was created in response to the civil rights movement. According to Rabbi Caryn Broitman, it was knee jerk to:

... the Supreme Court decision that ruled that institutions that practiced segregation would forfeit their tax exempt status. This decision led to the withdrawal of tax-exempt status for Bob Jones University, who among other things, did not admit Blacks, and when they did, had a policy against interracial dating. It was race, as well as the desire to maintain control over evangelical institutions, and not abortion, that led to the establishment of the religious right. (1)

This was a shame, because it was the exact opposite of anything true Evangelicals ever stood for:

In fact, before the civil war Evangelicals in the North were leading progressives whose piety gave rise to abolitionism, the female seminary movement, and prison reform. William Jennings Bryan, one of the most famous evangelicals, devoted himself to causes such as the Peace Movement and women’s suffrage and was a leading proponent of the progressive income tax. (1)

But in the same way that the Religious Right hijacked the Republican Party in the United States, they have also hijacked Evangelism, turning it into faith based hatred.

And while the majority of Evangelicals do not follow this dogma, the only ones being heard, are those making all the noise.

This year on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Glen Beck from Fox News organized a "Restoring Honor" 'Tea Party' march, declaring that President Obama was not doing enough to unite the country.

The sentiments were honorable, but the rhetoric was subterfuge. This was a predominantly white people's march against a black president. And in the same way that the original Boston Tea Party was a merchant's revolt against paying taxes, this was a corporate funded revolt against the proposed removal of George Bush's massive corporate tax cuts.

Nothing more, nothing less.

And just as the original Tea Party revellers disguised themselves in black paint and native regalia, these Tea Party revellers are masked in "love of country" and "freedom".

It is Republican political strategy. Advance your cause by exploiting those who will be hurt the most by corporate greed.

And while the majority of Americans do not follow this policy, the only ones being heard, are those making all the noise.

American news satirist, Jon Stewart, is tired of all the noise, and planning his own rally, at the same Lincoln Memorial. He hopes to restore sanity to the United States. Sanity that has been threatened by the Religious Right. Sanity that is being threatened by Fox News. And sanity that is being threatened by the likes of Glen Beck.

Stewart's event is designed is to counter what he called a minority of 15% or 20% of the country that has dominated the national political discussion with extreme rhetoric. News of Stewart's rally came at the end of an extraordinary week. It began with a narrowly avoided Qur'an-burning on the anniversary of the 11 September terrorist attacks and ended with former Alaska governor and right wing darling Sarah Palin stoking suspicions that she will run for the White House in 2012. (2)

His country is in big trouble and he has recognized that the only ones being heard, are those making all the noise.

Canada is not only being threatened by Fox News North, but by the Tea Party North, as the only screeching voices belong to the likes of Kory Teneycke, Ezra Levant, John Baird and Dean Del Mastro. And the only noise is coming from our own Religious Right, inspired and financed by the American Religious Right. And the noisy voices of the gun lobby, inspired and financed by the U.S. NRA, are taking on our values as a peaceful country.

And let's not forget the noise of the American company Lockheed-Martin, who are demanding that we build fighter jets. Or the U.S. private prison entrepreneurs, who are demanding that we build more prisons for imaginary prisoners. Or the American anti-tax movement that has Jason Kenney in their clutches.

Or the Republican strategist Frank Lutz, who is demanding that the Harper government engage in divisive politics to turn Canadians away at election time. Or American John Hagee who is now writing our foreign policy. Or James Dobson who wants to tell us who we can marry. Or newly minted American David Frum who wants to tell us who to hate.

We need to steer the conversation from guns, prisons and fighter jets, to issues that are important to us. Things like health care, and an aging population. Homelessness, child poverty. And rights. Basic human rights that guarantee equal treatment for us all, regardless of race, religion or gender.

Will we continue to allow the Harperites to monopolize the conversation, and demonize anyone who doesn't agree with them? Haroon Siddiqui is right. Stephen Harper needs to be dethroned. But that's not enough.

Canadians need to find their voices, or risk having them drowned out by too much noise.

Sources:

1. Yom Kippur Sermon 5769: A critical analysis of the Jewish alliance with the Christian Right regarding Israel, By Rabbi Caryn Broitman, Yom Kippur 2008

2. Daily Show's Jon Stewart calls on American voters to rally for sanity: TV satirist Jon Stewart announces Washington march against Tea Party extremism, By Joanna Walters, UK Guardian, September 19, 2010

The Press vs The People. How Canadians Lost Their Voice

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

"The mainstream media in this country no longer represent the views of the majority of Canadians." Lawrence Martin

There was a story yesterday that Kory Teneycke will be leaving the CBC. But the real story is, what was he doing at the CBC in the first place?

Teneycke, a self described Reform Party activist. One of Preston Manning's "storm troopers" who used to go around to Liberal constituency offices to raise Cain. Who only recently left Stephen Harper's office, was working at our public broadcaster. The only place where we had a hope in hell of having our voices heard. But not to worry, he's moving to Quebecor Media Inc. where he will be responsible for the Sun media chain's Ottawa bureau. (1)

He used to write and approve Harper's press releases and now he's going to attempt to offer unbiased reporting on the Harper government. At least he won't have to risk being beat up by the RCMP for asking Harper a question, that he's already written the answer to.

They don't even try now.

In 1996, David Taras at the University of Calgary, wrote an article: The Winds of Right-wing Change in Canadian Journalism. In it he discussed a new phenomenon in the Canadian media; the increasing number of journalists who had become "ardent political activists". (2)

It was in reference to the Winds of Change conference that was taking place to try and unite the right wing parties under one banner.

The Winds of Change conference, which took place in Calgary in May 1996, brought together approximately 70 leading right-wing thinkers and activists in an effort to bring unity to conservative forces before the next federal election, expected in 1997 ...

... The conference's real significance, its real meaning, however, may have little to do with whether the goal of unity on the right is ever achieved. More important perhaps is that the conference highlighted a phenomenon that has been taking place for quite some time in American politics, but seems only now to be emerging full-blown in Canada: that an increasing number of journalists have become ardent political activists. Where objectivity was once the gold standard on which the professional credibility of journalists rested, today the rules seem to have changed. Some journalists have been able to enhance their status by openly championing partisan positions and causes. (2)

Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy went right from CTV to be named to Harper's senate. Peter MacKay's fiance is an executive at CTV. Harper MP Lee Richardson's girlfriend is a journalist for CBC. David Frum, the organizer of the Winds of Change, is a regular contributor to the National Post and a former speech writer for George W. Bush.

The shift to the right started when Conrad Black bought up most of Canada's media in an attempt to shift public opinion to the far-right, but so far it isn't working. Canadians are still Canadians. A few right-wing hacks are not going to change that.

[Lawrence] Martin traced the change of the journalism culture in Canada to the mid-1990s, when Southam, the country's biggest newspaper chain with a history of hewing to a mainstream political course, was taken over first by Conrad Black's Hollinger Inc., and then by CanWest Global, which makes no secret of its pro-American, conservative bias. As well, the conservative tabloid Sun chain became Canada's second largest newspaper group in the last decade. The result was the establishment of two major newspaper chains to the right of the political spectrum, and none on the left or in the centre.

Further, Martin pointed out, the two national newspapers are major agenda-setters: the National Post is decidedly right-wing, the Globe and Mail conservative. At Madcan's magazine, Kenneth Whyte, former editor of the Post, runs the show, and L. Ian MacDonald, a Mulroney devotee, now edits Policy Options, once a liberal magazine. Even the publicly owned CBC gives prominence to right-wing voices. On Peter Mansbridge's "At Issue" panel on The National, regulars include Gordon Gibson of the Fraser Institute, Andrew Coyne of the National Post, and former Conservative pollster Allan Gregg; only Chantal Hebert, national affairs writer for the Toronto Star and a columnist for Le Devoir, represents a more liberal point of view. (3)

Chantel Hebert is our lone voice? I've quit watching this show, because on the last one I did see, they were discussing Michael Ignatieff, and while Hebert thought he could redeem himself, she went on to say that "even learning to tie his shoes will be an accomplishment." A man who got his PhD at Harvard and has taught at schools like Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge, and the best she could do was suggest that he still needed to learn how to tie his own shoes. And she is our ONLY VOICE? And forget them ever having anything nice to say about Jack Layton, Elizabeth May or Gilles Duceppe. Their tongues would catch on fire, I think.

... "The conservative media tends to favour a closer embrace of the United States and its values. Canadians themselves show little inclination to go that route. It is a story line — the press vs. the people — that runs right to the heart of the debate over the future of the country." Martin added that as a result of the corporate takeover of the Canadian print media, the largest segment of the population, centre-left Canadians, were at risk of losing their voice. (3)

The press vs the People. Very well put. In 2007, Frances Russel wrote for the Winnipeg Free Press:

Lawrence Martin has written several articles about the Canadian media's rightward migration. In a January 2003 column headlined It's not Canadians who've gone to the right, just their media, he quoted an unnamed European diplomat saying "You have a bit of a problem here. Your media are not representative of your people, your values." Too many political commentators are right of centre while the public is in the middle, the diplomat continued. There is a disconnect.

Martin believes the disconnect began when Conrad Black converted the Financial Post into the National Post, hired a stable of conservative commentators like Mark Steyn, David Frum and George Jonas, bought the centrist Southam chain and turned the entire package into a vehicle to unite Canada's right and retool the country's values to U.S.-style conservatism. Even further right rests the Quebecor-owned tabloid Sun Media chain. Mulroney was chairman of the board of Sun Media and sits on Quebecor's board. (4)

So Stephen Harper's former communications director will now be reporting on his government, in a vehicle that is further right than the National Post? Wow. I thought the only thing further right than the National Post was Fox News.

And speaking of Fox News:

CanWest's 'Global Sunday' bills itself as "Canada's number one current affairs talk show." But a lot of Canadians won't find their views reflected in the talk.

... The program's rightward tilt is not accidental. Indeed, Global Sunday's wider purpose may be to shift political discourse to the right. The model for this mission can be found on the Fox News channel and, in particular, the falsely balanced Hannity and Colmes debate show. This show pits the aggressive conservative Sean Hannity against the mildly liberal, often conciliatory Alan Colmes in a format "where conservatives outnumber, out-talk and out-interrupt their liberal opponents," as Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting explains the strategy.

Global Sunday follows the same formula, tilting sharply to the right. Progressive and left-wing perspectives on public policy issues are blanked out – they don't seem to exist in Global Sunday's world. Host Danielle Smith has a long history of advocating for the libertarian right. She started her career as an intern at the Fraser Institute, then launched the Canadian Property Rights Research Institute. This short-lived organization was sponsored largely by Alberta ranchers and its goal was to promote private property rights, opposing endangered species legislation and bans on smoking in indoor publicly accessible places.

Smith was a natural for this job, having written a turgid essay for the Fraser Institute titled "The Environment: More Markets, Less Government." She left the property rights organization in October 1999 to join the Calgary Herald as an editorial writer – perhaps they liked her Fraser Institute screed. (5)

Danielle Smith is now head of the Wildrose Alliance Party and will probably be Alberta's next premier.

We're scewed!

Sources:

1. Conservative pundit Kory Teneycke quits CBC, By Jane Taber, Globe and Mail, June 8, 2010

2. The Winds of Right-wing Change in Canadian Journalism, By David Taras (University of Calgary), Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol 21, No 4, 1996

3. Too Close for Comfort: Canada's Future Within Fortress North America, By Maude Barlow, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2005, ISBN: 0-7710-1088-5, Pg. 13

4. Right-wing media covering up political scandal, By Frances Russell, Winnipeg Free Press December 12, 2007

5. Fox News Format Infiltrates Canada: CanWest's television talk show. Fair? Balanced? You decide. By Donald Gutstein, The Tyee, March 17, 2005