Canada BS Thread

Yeah , I wasn't exactly trying to be factually accurate . I guess if you never hold press conferences or answer any questions from the press you can pretty much let anybody cover that without issue

 

In all reality the Alberta provincial NDP are ticked at the amount of coverage the Rebel had received and what it has done to their popularity ratings. I can think of two rants that were circulated rather quickly amongst my friends and really did have an effect on how they feel about Notley. This, however, is the absolute worst way to go after media you don't like. It's a shame.

 

I agree , wrong way to address the situation , I disagree that The Rebel is press in the usual sense of the word . I have never seen The Tyee , which is one of the alternate press outlets cited as an example in the federal press conferences ever produce divisive rhetoric like The Rebel produces

 

Even Ezra said that hes not a reporter. Why does he insist he is all of a sudden?

I watched the video. The guy asked if she had credentials, which she didnt, and he told security to take her off the property. She didnt have proper accreditations for press so why does she expect that she will be treated equally? Get the proper credits and then we can talk about equality and democracy. Talk about blowing things out of proportion.

 

In the court case in 2014 Ezra was talking about his time with Sun media. He was an opinion column writer for them at one time. Which is not the same thing as a reporter. Then again the same sort of people are allowed on parliament hill in similar media scrums.

The issue isn't just that she was kicked out. It's that when the Rebel wrote in to address the problem they were told they would not be allowed at press releases because they are banned.

Freedom of the press is pretty important to me. Especially when this looks so bad from the outside. If CBC is reporting it this way you can tell it looks that bad. They don't make this type of shit up. This looks like a pissed off NDP government boycotting a media outlet. That's not right, no matter how you try to dress it up. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it but it is what it is.

 

It says they are not considered reporters by the Justice Department

 

I guess the real question is, at the end of the day, if the NDP would simply let one of the Rebel media "whatever they are" into the media events if they completed the proper paperwork. If that's the case then I don't think it's a big deal. If that's not the case and the NDP willingly made sure that personnel from the Rebel can no longer attend their media releases then I think that's a real problem.

BTW why is it okay in Alberta for the ruling party to control who gets into a media scrum but at the federal level a neutral body is responsible for that?

 

I don't disagree on the first point , not sure on the second

 

It's quite the leap in logic to say that Levant can't employ reporters because he testified under oath that he is not a reporter. The fact that "reporters" from the rebel were banned when Trudeau was in town is a little suspicious.

 

I was just clarifying what the article said , not stating a position

 

right, it seems a little contrived and likely won't stand up in court, but that's what it says.

 

from the article:
Darcy Henton, president of the Alberta Legislature press gallery, confirmed that journalists do not need accreditation from the gallery to cover news conferences at the legislature
"It has long been the practice in Alberta that reporters and photographers who present their news credentials to legislature security can acquire visiting media passes to cover news conferences," he said in a written statement."

I would assume "news credentials" are employer issued. If that is the case then it looks like someone directed legislature security to reject credentials from the rebel.

 

That could be. Who knows. I'm guessing though CBC isn't reporting a technicality.

 

IMO the rebel is, for the most part, rhetoric filled garbage. The sad part is there are valid points to be made, typically the rebels presentation of those points is shameful.

Having said that, here's a video from the rebel that I found on reddit a few days ago (Levant isn't in it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Kald7sly4

 

I don't disagree

 

The NDP realized they got caught:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/notley-the-rebel-1.3451838

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ezra-levant-neil-macdonald-1.3452671

 

Professional controlled journalism sounds like a really bad idea, no matter how that writer tried to spin it.

However the rest is on base and totally makes sense. Nothing shocking. Actually, you could of been here for the last 2 pages of talk and caught most of the rest of the article in the conversation. Free journalism was supported here. Not a particular "journalist." If that journalist wants to spin it as support for himself he has that right. Take that right away and you end up crossing a line that, if crossed regularly, may as well not exist at all. That would be a very scary world.

 

I don't think Neil MacDonald was trying to spin anything or for that matter suggest there needed to be " professional journalism " , he pointed out there was no prerequisite to being a reporter and no prerequisite to tell the truth

He's an excellent journalist BTW

 

I never said he wasn't an excellent journalist. Just his premise is a little off. His third line is:

When that's wrong. You need to be a CPA to be an accountant. Even then plenty of accounting offices hire non certified people to do work that is "supervised" by accountants. Lawyers and other management professionals can write the CPA exams too, so you don't need a degree in accounting to get one.

You shouldn't have to get a degree in journalism to be a journalist. Some of the great journalists do not have a degree in journalism. To say you need a degree to write good journalism is similar to saying you need a degree in english to be a great writer or you need a degree in political science to be Prime Minister when I'd argue the best people in those professions did not have degrees in the field they ended up in if they even had degrees at all.

Journalism, and other social sciences which evolve and change with society, should not be a mandated profession IMHO.

BTW I'm going to come right out and say I am a part of a professional program that requires a degree, several years of experience, several unbiased references, continuing education, and several ethics courses. I don't believe it's being run well at all because some of the best people in my field are missing one or two of the qualifications but do not have any easy way of acquiring them to become licensed professionals. It's not a great system, it's a boys club in a lot of cases.