Jason Cherniak is demanding that Conservative Party candidate Peter Kent be fired from his job at CanWest:

Mr. Kent's biography explains:

Peter is currently working in senior editorial management as the Deputy Editor of Global TV News and with the print and new media divisions of CanWest MediaWorks.

Did you catch that? The television, print and new media divisions of CanWest - the largest and most influential media conglomerate in Canada - employ a current Conservative candidate in senior editorial management.

Some people think it is a big deal that one CBC reporter might have placed one question in a committee interviewing a former prime minister about actions in the past. Surely those same people will demand that CanWest relieve Mr. Kent of any and all news-editing duties.

Well, he's not demanding that Kent be fired.  He thinks that criticism of an active CBC reporter secretly posing questions at a parliamentary committee hearing by having a willing Liberal MP read out questions written by that reporter requires that those critics demand that Peter Kent, who is not an MP, who is not on a parliamentary committee, who is not asking questions of anyone under the pain of perjury, and whom is himself a reporter and not acting as a front for someone who is staying in the shadows, be fired.

I could leave it there, since it's just so stupid.

But then if it was just that, I wouldn't write about it at all.  There's enough stupidity on the web to add to the clutter by talking about it.

To give Jason a modicum of credit, he'd have a point if Peter Kent was writing editorial content.  Not that it would give Pablo Rodriguez a pass for his collusion with the CBC.  That's a dumb connection to make, and that connection deserve no further consideration by intelligent people.  No, the reason this post is worth mentioning is that Peter Kent is not writing editorial content.

Here is a quote from this week's The Hill Times:

All the door-knocking and cultural outreach in the world, however, won't change the Toronto media coverage, or at least in the way the Tories see it. Mr. Kent said there's a bias against the Conservatives in both The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail–the Star for its left-leaning editorial position and the Globe because it has positioned itself more to the left to compete with the Star's subscription base.

"We're fighting the media here," Mr. Kent, a former broadcaster with CBC, CTV and Global, said. (Mr. Kent is currently deputy editor of Global News responsible for technology, infrastructure and convergence and has been out of editorial management since May 2005.)

He has been out of editorial management since May 2005, instead focusing on apolitical questions technology and infrastructure for Global News.

He has been out of editorial management since May 2005!

And guess what?  That was exactly the time he was nominated as a Conservative Party candidate!

So Peter Kent stepped out of editorial management as the price of being nominated to sit for the Conservatives, stayed out all the way through the subsequent election, an election in which he failed to secure a seat, and has stayed out since then.

I'd say that says a lot about the integrity and ethical quality of this particular Conservative Party candidate, and it reflects well on all politicians, whatever their political affiliation.

Pablo Rodriguez, on the other hand, just makes us shake our heads.

Just thought I ought to set the record straight.

Addendum: What do Peter Kent, Stephane Dion, Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae, and Paul Martin have in common?  None of them currently live in the ridings they represent or are running in.  If you're not sure why this matters, you've haven't read all of Jason's post.