Posted on 04/01/2006 12:43:41 AM PST by goldstategop
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
ping
I'm sorry, but this just smacks of Soviet-style 'Ministry of Information' tactics that will sanitize the reports rather than calling for honesty in the media. Not good.
Naw. The present generation of journalists are simply idiots. How would you like everything you say filtered through an I-pod connected doofus?
Its called knowing the enemy.
It's too much to copy & paste here, but our friend Kate at SDA:
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/
has a variety of posts regarding this.
Be sure to read the "comments" sections- wit, sarcasm, fact-checking, useful URLs to follow, and a few trolls, shills, and disruptors.
You'll feel right at home...
I'd prefer no filtering. Harper may be a good egg, but he's just put a dangerous control tool into the hands of any dishonest would-be dictator that may follow him. Limiting abuse of power by the press is one thing if its' become an enemy of the state. Limiting the power of your own cabinet to speak candidly to the public is quite another matter. Daylight is no enemy of conservatism, IMHO.
Nevermind that the media does that on their own. Filtering of information that is. Take here in the States for example. For all we know, Iraq is going to hell in a handbasket, when in reality, it's not, and the media bitches they can't move about freely, when they're embedded with the fricken enemy of freedom and democracy.
They need to get their message out and bypass the media. Also a training course on how to interact with the media and prepared talking points.
They are going to face a hostile media no matter what they do, but they shouldn't shut down media acccess to government.
The media just isn't that hard to outsmart.
Who's fault is that?
Long before hi-tech, reporters behaved like a mob. The difference is they used to know they are only hacks and even took pride in it. Journalism schools increase their hatsize by adding the to the fat on the outside of their skulls.
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True, but few conservatives are as skilled at press relations as Ronald Reagan. He was a skilled actor with an extensive resume as a public speaker, before he was ever elected to public office. Reagan also still benefited from the old dinosaurs that believed that they needed to at least up hold the appearance of impartiality, and that the story was more important than they were, something that is increasingly rare these days in the MSM.
The cabinet hashes out its differences in cabinet meetings, the content of which are secret, and then presents a united front to parliament and the public. The principle voice of the cabinet is the Prime Minister ("first among equals"). Under this system the press has no right to advance notice of cabinet meetings and the government has no obligation to submit ministers to scrums following cabinet meetings.
Parliament still gets its crack at the ministers and the press still gets to scrum them. In this system, the government benches face the opposition benches across an aisle designed to be two sword-lengths wide and the cabinet is confronted in an ancient practice called Question Period. At the start of each day's business, the opposition has an opportunity to ask questions of the government. The opposition uses question period to score points, to bring out issues and to generally harass and embarrass the cabinet ministers.
Unlike the Congressional system, the cabinet is part of the legislature and is therefore continuously subject to the cut and thrust of parliamentary debate.
The press scrums the members of parliament in daily scrums in the hall just outside the House chamber. The press focuses on the Ministers and on their opposite numbers in the opposition parties shadow cabinets. The scrums are sometimes rough-and-tumble.
There is a definite difference between a cabinet meeting and a caucus meeting. The doctrine of cabinet secrecy does not apply to caucus meetings.
The so called "tradition" of post-cabinet-meeting scrums is a recent Liberal party device between it and a tame media.
Anyway, the press has an obligation to do its own fact gathering, not merely rely on press releases and scrums.
BTW Yanks might find Hansard to be enlightening. (This is the parliamentary equivalent of the Congressional Record.)Debates of the House of Commons are not in the gentlemanly courteous style of Congress. They are neither as courtly nor as polite as we are accustomed to seeing in US Senate debates.
It is not for nothing that the opposition benches and the government benches directly face each other and it is not for nothing that the aisle is traditionally two sword-lengths wide and that the second most numerous party in the House is called "Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition". Opposition is essential to a parliamentary system, the system depends on it. Trent Lott and John McCain style "bipartisanship" is foreign to the system.
A new government needs time to settle in. You have the problem of inexperienced politicians being confronted by experienced reporters who have their own agenda. Harper is understandably cautious. What Canada needs is for someone like Rupert Murdoch to acquire some Canadian media outlets. Pity he couldn't aquire the "Globe and Mail".
Very informative. I find it refreshing that your politicians do not engage in feigned civility towards one another. Better they're fighting one another than engaging in pack behavior and feeding upon their 'flock'.
If we were to adapt this system to US politics, I might personally reduce the space between the two sides to a single sword-length, and require that they arm themselves. It would make for better theater, and the only laws that would get passed would be those that a legislator would risk his life to see writ (not to mention improving the species by engaging in a bit of self-imposed 'ethnic cleansing').
'Bipartisan' is indeed the most frightening adjective in the US vernacular. It's double-speak for 'the tyranny that one party could not possibly impose upon the electorate without the active collusion of the other'.
I'd agree with you if the press was fair and balanced. The PM is simply telling his aides not to consort with the enemy - and they are that - without prior approval. It's a reasonable strategy to adopt when at war.
bttt [chuckle]
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