What does the media know?
I just did the rounds of some of the major Canadian main stream media websites, at 7am on December 23. Here's what I found.
The Toronto Star has nothing about the election on their home page. Nothing praising Paul Martin or criticizing Stephen Harper.
The CBC links to a story about the Conservative plan for arctic defence. The word "Tories" comes up in two headlines. Neither the NDP nor the Liberals are named explicitly. The NDP's Jack Layton gets two positive stories. The only link to a Liberal story is about Marc Garneau's apology for what he said in 1986 about funding (and then you'd have to know that Marc Garneau was running for the Liberals).
The Globe and Mail has a headline story about how the Conservatives would work on an issue-by-issue basis with other parties. The Liberals get two stories -- one about the embarrassing situation in which they'll have to fire VIA Rails Jean Pelletier twice (and mention prominently how Pelletier was a top Chreitien aid), and how the Liberals will need to win big in BC to counter losses in Quebec and Ontario.
The CTV home page for news has a similar mix: Liberal headache with Pelletier, Conservative plan for the arctic, NDP defends healthcare.
Not a single feel-good story for the Liberals at the top level pages. Continued focus on Conservative policy (and in the stories themselves, more about how much better a campaigner Stephen Harper is now compared to 2004).
And one serious story on the front page of the Globe and Mail about how a Conservative government would be run.
Makes you wonder just how the editors at these major print and broadcast media centres are interpreting the polls, and what their gut is telling them about how the election is going.
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Comments
CBC has a story about the VIA strike proposed for Dec. 24--with Fontana whining that if the election hadn't been called Parliament could legislate the workers back to work--he doesn't want to see Canadians used as pawns--hey--it works for the Liberals all the time in playing one part of the country against the other!. Odd--I thought unions were supporting the Liberals this time? Perhaps the BUZZ HUG didn't do it for the union members.
Posted by: George at December 23, 2005 07:43 AM
Well, I saw Martin interviewed on CPAC last night and he didn't look good; actually looks like he's lost it (control of the election) which should mean defeat.
And the awfully liberal Susan Riley, in the Citizen today, thinks so too.
So why do all polls show the Liberals with a healthily 8 point lead????
I await the most incredibly intense negative propaganda barrage ever starting January 2nd.
Posted by: Wimpy Canadian at December 23, 2005 08:26 AM
Susan RIley's article
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=44470fa7-330f-470e-b896-1df3d691dc69
Posted by: Wimpy Canadian at December 23, 2005 08:28 AM
The media took the "Harper is scary" line from the Libs last election, hook, line, and sinker.
After a year of getting to know him it turns out he's actually a very smart, thoughtful, but more importantly, decent person. And funny too. At the Gala press dinner, apparantly he had the crowd in stiches.
The press seems to be learning what many of us figured out long ago: You can't trust one thing that comes out of the Martin camp.
I think the parroting of the Liberal party line days are over.
Posted by: Biff at December 23, 2005 09:30 AM
FWIW, my general impression to date is that the media has been extremely balanced. I would also say that the MSM has been fair to the CPC. I don't look to see if they have been unfair to other parties.
On that basis, I'm satisfied ... so far.
The maximum damage that the MSM can do is in the last stretch, so that's the important one to my thinking.
Posted by: Erik Sorenson at December 23, 2005 09:31 AM
I'm no pollster but I've thought since the start of this election that the polls have never squared with the general mood out there.
I know that the Liberals are in big trouble in Quebec; they know it as well. I suspect that in Ontario the polls are skewed by the big pro-Liberal vote in Toronto. But outside of Toronto, I understand that the CPC stands to gain some seats.
I think that the beer and popcorn comment really hurt the Liberals, but aside from that their campaign always struck me as being very unfocused and poorly planned. It's as if their strategy is to simply coast on the "Conservatives are scary" nonsense. I think that strategy, if you can call it that, is running out of steam. The Chicken Littles are finally being ignored. The only big splash the Liberals have made so far was the proposal to ban handguns, and that, thankfully, went over like a lead balloon.
The CPC, on the other hand, has been very focused and steady, right from the start. The stream of policy pronouncements demonstrates a tremendous amount of planning and foresight. I'm not normally a big cheerleader for the CPC, but this time around they are honestly getting their act together.
I've harped on this issue before, and I'll say it again: blogs like Angry, Small Dead Animals and countless others like them, are having a significant impact on this election, and on political trends in general. The MSM is becoming more balanced because they have to. Conservative thinkers can no longer be taken for granted by the MSM; thanks to the internet they can go elsewhere for information, and the MSM cannot afford to lose such a big chunk of their readership and listenership. They have to start catering to this part of the political spectrum with more balanced reporting. Either that, or go broke.
The political playing field is finally, finally starting to level out.
Posted by: Dennis at December 23, 2005 10:21 AM
The MSM is beginning to accept that the Liberals are going to lose lose many more seats than they care to admit. The MSM will suck up to the party that appears poised for power, because the MSM wants to remain the beneficiary of the well timed information from the unnamed or named sources in government.
Especially these days when the blogs on the net are continually eroding the level of readership from the MSM. The Strategic Council Poll that puports that in B.C. it's pretty much a three way race are laughable. Only Lie-beral sheep are stupid enough to believe such crap.
Posted by: Bruce Randall at December 23, 2005 10:41 AM
I completely agree with Dennis' analysis.
The voters are not buying into the Chicken Liberal
tactic this election.
Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have to be given credit for learning from past mistakes.
Mr. Harper said he would campaign on the issues and has responded quickly by defining who He is and what is party stands for; rathering than have the other parties do it for him.
I also agree with Dennis' observation that the MSM can no longer make or create news; that they must now report the news thanks to the new checks and balances from the blogosphere.
Posted by: banjotom at December 23, 2005 10:58 AM
One thing that many of the polls have been showing is that if you subtract Quebec, the Liberals and Conservatives are statistically tied in the rest of Canada.
Other things of note that polls are showing is that support for Martin as "best PM" is declining, and that the percentage of respondents who indicate it's time for a change in government is consistently above 50%. I think the pundits in the media are taking these things into account rather than just focusing on the "horse race" party support question.
Posted by: TimR at December 23, 2005 11:12 AM
Not to mention a very positive story by Chantal Hebert...
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1135249509733&call_pageid=970599119419
Posted by: ferrethouse at December 23, 2005 11:40 AM
Addendum: The only issue that I wish the media would run with is the question:
"Where the heck is that $1.14 million form AdScam that Martin said would be repaid to the government?"
My MP can't get an answer either from the GoC or LPC, even Sheila Copps had no success pushing on the LPC for proof of payment.
I think what we have here is the Liberals using our money (which they admitted they stole in the first place) to finance their re-election.
WHERE IS THIS MONEY?
Posted by: Erik Sorenson at December 23, 2005 12:02 PM
The MSM's election coverage so far has been pretty unbiased, for the most part. However, they were also pretty fair in the first three weeks of Election '04, at which time they began to attack the Conservatives in a vicious and relentless manner (especially the Globe and Mail's intentionally misleading two-tier health care headline story). It's as if the Liberals, in their hour of desperation, called in all their favors.
So let's stand on guard and be ready for the onslaught from the Liberals, and possibly also from the MSM as well.
Merry Christmas all!
Posted by: Joel K. at December 23, 2005 02:35 PM
The media has been (mostly) fair so far. This is a pleasant contrast with the bias shown by, for example, the Globe in 2004.
That said, I will believe that "the election is going well" for the CPC when I see a poll that gives them a lead nationally.
Until then, I'm not going to be too optimistic...
Posted by: GM at December 23, 2005 05:59 PM
And yet they keep soaring in the polls. Go figure. Retarded cousins.
Posted by: Chazz at December 23, 2005 07:35 PM
...Erik...I think you meant Sheila Fraser, not Sheila Copps :)
Posted by: David Lockwood at December 23, 2005 10:27 PM
According to Elections Canada, in their last annual filing, the Liberal Party of Canada was $34,818,257.32 in debt, by way of 13 bank loans.
If you review the published fundraising activities of the Liberal Party, they reported $1,702,974.83 in fundraising in the first quarter of 2005, which still left them $33 million in debt.
The Bloc Quebecois has more than $10 million in outstanding loans, mostly from the Caisse Desjardins.
The NDP has several modest loans outstanding, totalling a little more than $3 million.
The Conservatives are debt-free.
Some of the Conservative ads seem to have been made with home movie cameras. They might have had the media giggling, but the party laid off no employees during the holidays. They will enter the New Year with a full war chest.
Sheila Copps
Posted by: Chazz at December 24, 2005 08:13 AM
 
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