Mayor Stupid, the Star, and another question | #TOpoli

Mr. Ford, your accusation of a vendetta is, to use your word, ridiculous. Toronto is entitled to straight answers to straight questions, and here are a few being asked in your city right now over this holiday weekend:

• Do you understand why this damning videotape requires a proper and thoughtful explanation?
• Have you ever smoked crack cocaine?
• How well do you know the men in the photograph that appeared on Friday’s front page? Did you know the man who was subsequently shot dead?
• Did you refer to Justin Trudeau by a homosexual slur?
• Did you refer to your football team as f------ minorities?
• Will you call for a police investigation into these latest allegations?

So many questions. No real answers.

In what has become a long list of questionable incidents involving your behaviour, does it ever occur to you that you have a problem and it isn’t the Toronto Star?

Source here.


So to sum up: A decades-long record of fuckups, vulgarity, buffoonery, drunkenness, ignorance, racism, homophobia, entitlement, laziness, lawlessness, denials, lies, avoidance, playing the victim, blaming other people, paranoia, and above all, Zero Effort to Take Responsibility For His Own Behaviour. And then we have a substantial proportion of the electorate who excuse, identify with, and enable this, and even see it as evidence of leadership ability.

To paraphrase Michael Cooke: Does it ever occur to you, Toronto, that you have a bigger problem, and it isn't Mayor Crackhead?

Related posts:

• @ThomsonTO fires back at @TOMayorFord. Cue flying-monkey / Sun "reader" attack | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid plays grabass with @ThomsonTO. Fuckwits rush to excuse it | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid on the Danzig shootings
• The downtown/suburban divide and its fetid offshoots
• Rob Ford's mayoral trajectory | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid makes @KeithOlbermann's list ... AGAIN (h/t @OccupyTO)
• @TOMayorFord puts Toronto on @KeithOlbermann 's map
• So Mayor Stupid takes one in the nads on the waterfront ...
• @cityslikr on Team Ford's bullshit, and our complicity therein | #TOpoli
• Team Ford's malignancy: It's not just the Jarvis bike lanes | #TOpoli #bikeTO

Did anybody see where Margaret Wente?

Yeah, well.

Not like any of this is new or anything, but for some reason it's suddenly getting traction. An overview:

First, some serious acknowledgement to the heroic Media Culpa, who is, evidently single-handedly, doing more quality control for Canadian journalism than the entire corporate media sector combined. No point in going through it all again. Read Media Culpa (and keep your Gravol within reach).

What to do about Wente? In a way, she does the same thing as Blatchford: create controversy, be contrarian, pose as the great crusading sacred-cow-attacker with the courage to say what everyone else is thinking, masquerade as the purveyor of "common sense," take a perverse pride in being "politically incorrect," and so on. There are a lot of people on that gig, of course, but Wente's been riding it so successfully for so long that she must be up to her ass in frequent-flyer miles.

But where Blatchford was all about visceral gut reaction and stoking the lynch mob, Wente's shtick is more insidious — and, just maybe, more fundamental to the Globe and its mission. She is the stinking, unrepentant, unreflective id of the smug entitled boomer demographic — people whose biggest complaint, apparently, is that they can't fit enough cases of wine into the SUV for the cottage. And uppity waiters, baristas and service staff, and why the hell are my taxes so high when these overprivileged brats don't want to learn marketable skills because they're being indoctrinated by entitled leftist tenured academics?

You know them. The generation who had it all their own way, and are insisting on keeping it that way. The ones who ran up such a giant fucking tab economically, environmentally and socially that the planet just won't be able to carry the interest, and can't be bothered to give a shit because they'll be gone when the bill arrives, and shut up and quit your whining, you pampered kids don't know how good you have it compared to what we went through …

Self-awareness and critical thought aren't part of the equation for the Wentes of the world and their milieu. They've never had to practice it  themselves. They don't want their privilege or worldview challenged, and they especially don't want the kids for whom they're leaving such a giant mess  questioning any of the assumptions underlying the generational and social structures sustaining that privilege. (Which is part of why you see such condescending contempt for the Occupy movement, but that's another essay.)

As for the alleged instances of plagiarism / manufactured quotes / fabricated sources / sloppy or non-existent attribution, well, no point in going through that when MC's done such a comprehensive job listing and documenting it. Why does the Globe allow it? God knows. Maybe they've made a strategic decision that that suppurating pile of aging biomass is their core demographic, and Wente, predictable and lazy as she may be, is their entree to that market. It's not about informing them, it's about reinforcing their prejudices and ensuring that their eyeballs can be reliably delivered, en masse, to advertisers.

I could be wrong, of course. But it's worth asking ourselves whether this is what we have in mind when we talk about "journalism."

See also:

Saskboy and Jymn rub The Globe's nose in #RoboCon | #cdnpoli
Media culpa catches Wente being sloppy again | #journalism
How The Globe channels the 1 per cent | #Occupy #classwarfare
The Sun's effect on our national conversation is obvious, but what about the Globe?
Media culpa: George Monbiot’s unedited letter to the Globe and Mail

Fiscal demonization of @OccupyTO continues on CTV | #classwarfare

Like clockwork, the corporate media are swinging into action. Or perhaps like robots.

Either way, the narrative is being reinforced and amplified. Just now on CTV a "news" report is pegging the cost of Occupy at something over $714,000. Police, EMS, landscaping, etc.

How The Globe channels the 1 per cent | #Occupy #classwarfare

Managing Occupy protest cost city $1-million, city says - The Globe and Mail:

'via Blog this'

It's masquerading as "objective" "news," but in fact it's anything but.

@GeorgeMonbiot takes down the corporate media

George Monbiot – Unmasking the Press:

'via Blog this'

Too bad about Hitchens, but the best thing I've found about the corporate media this week comes from Monbiot. Everything you need to know, including the essential 99 percent versus 1 per cent dynamic, is in here.

@cityslikr lights @SueAnnLevy up like a pinball machine

(With an apology to pinball machines everywhere.)

That @cityslikr fella can be wonderfully succinct sometimes. I retweeted this earlier, but it deserves a whole blog post.

Word. If you're ever curious about why so many of our fellow citizens seem ruled by fear, resentment, and ignorance, the Venomous Loser^TM  and her hateful little screeds are a big part of the reason. Sun Media's toxic effect just wouldn't be as toxic without her.

Some years ago, a singer / songwriter / satirist by the name of Tom Lehrer was said to have summed up his musical career thus:

If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while.

He was talking tongue in cheek, of course.

Related posts:

• BCL catches @SueAnnLevy rewriting history, smearing brave firefighters
• @SueAnnLevy in her own words
• Best use of the word "socialist" this month
• Winning back the words: a subversive's work is never done
• #SunMedia and journalistic ethics: another juxtaposition

BCL catches @SueAnnLevy rewriting history, smearing brave firefighters

BigCityLib Strikes Back: In Case You ARE Wondering

Don't know why BCL isn't on the Tweeter, but that's up to him.

In the meantime, seems the Venomous Loser^TM is perfectly happy to use Toronto's firefighters and their taxpayer-funded equipment as a campaign prop ...

Click to view at full size

But, well, you know ... that was then, and this is now.

... one wonders, is it unseemly to point out that the guy has to be there whether there's actually a fire or not, just in case? Just in the cause of raising the tone of civic discourse, instead of pandering to the lizard-brains and all that ...

As BCL writes:

So, no, Sue Ann, the union hasn't been keeping a file on you.  Turns out you were keeping one on yourself. By the way, if you want to theorize on why Sue Ann has gone out of her way to trash T.O. firefighters, well, consider this: their union took her to the Ontario Press Council in 2007 and hosed her down.  

Sue Ann? Time to stop digging, maybe.

Related posts:

• @SueAnnLevy in her own words
• Let's hear from a couple of Sun News Network fans
• Why the liars are winning
• Winning back the words: a subversive's work is never done

On that whole Nycole Turmel thing ...

While we're on the subject of journalistic ethics, let me just cite pogge and thwap. They've already said it better than I can.

From pogge:

Every year or two I find a reason to point to Declan's post on the Media Failure Two-Step. (And actually I could find a reason much more often than that.) To review, the Two-Step looks like this:

Step 1) Cause something (bad) to happen through your reporting.

Step 2) Report on this (bad) thing from the perspective of an innocent bystander.

And then you just repeat indefinitely.

Our latest example? With the Globe and Mail leading the charge, since yesterday many in the media have been having a great old time implying that a Quebec politician who has previously been involved with the BQ is somehow unfit for her position as an interim leader for the NDP. That in turn would imply that about half the voters of Quebec are illegitimate participants in the democratic process until they somehow redeem themselves to the satisfaction of the Globe's editorial board. And in case it isn't obvious, deserting the BQ in droves to vote for the NDP isn't sufficient for the purpose.

And from thwap:

Whether the NDP has tossed a rope down to allow the Liberal Party of Canada to clamber back up out of the grave is something I'm not prepared to speculate upon, nor is it something I'm inclined to speculate upon.

I'll let the voters decide. And I can't predict that.

It does show that the Liberals are looking to knock the NDP off from its perch as the second party in Canada. For the issues of economic and foreign policy, I hope they fail. I hope, for reasons of foreign and economic policy, that the NDP hews closer to the principles of former BQ voters in Quebec. Because given the failure of mainstream (read: harpercon and Liberal) economic and foreign policies, the NDP might just find that adhering to Quebeckers values will resonate with more and more people in English Canada.

It's just this sort of stupidity from the Village that's brought us to the point we're at now. I'm not carrying water for anyone, but if the NDP chooses not to play this game by these rules, then I say good on them. The reaction from the political and media establishment will, of course, be furious – and predictable. That's up to them. Whether we allow it to matter is up to us.

Related posts:

• Opposing the #HarperRegime: thinking strategically over the next four years
• Woodward and Bernstein are dead
• Working against a permanent Conservative majority
• Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold

Kate's royal ass cheek: #sunmedia triumphs again, @davidakin makes sure we all know about it

Sad, isn't it. When this is what occupies our imaginations and dominates public discourse, is it any wonder that so many people don't bother to take the responsibilities of citizenship seriously? Look at the energy it's consuming, for Chrissakes.  (Yeah, I know. Mea culpa. Now piss off.)

Woodward and Bernstein are dead

(With a tip of the porkpie to Tom Stoppard. Jesus, can't a guy even use a metaphor any more?)

A triple-barrelled meme generator, starting with this piece yesterday by Lawrence Martin. It was picked up by Owen Gray over at Northern Reflections, and amplified by CK at Sister Sage.

From MediaCulpa, George Monbiot vs. Margaret Wente

Still working on the dual-blogging multiple-redundancy thing. Bear with me.

Link here, via here.

Keith Olbermann out at MSNBC

And here I was thinking that broadcasting in the United States couldn't get any dumber.

As long as we're asking quis custodiet ipsos custodes ...

I know, I know, it's Sunday night and people just want to wind down the weekend and fall asleep in front of the Golden Globes and for chrissakes, can't you just give it a rest already?

Yeah, well. Michael Geist flagged this last week, and pogge and Jymn have picked up on it, but it bears more than a little emphasis. The Star and the Globe seem to think it's important too.

Broadcasting, media and internet policy: the confluence of the absurd

This is where we juxtapose:

The new (lobotomized) national newspaper

Oy.

The redesigned Globe's Focus section - the intellectual heart of the paper, where Big Ideas are supposed to find room to stretch - leads with Margaret Wente arguing that we should take Sarah Palin seriously.

I'm just going to find a brick wall to bang my head against now.

Manji for Salutin? Are you serious?

I don't think I can improve on Eugene Forsey's characterization: this is worse than Courtnall for Kordic. (h/t Jymn at Let Freedom Rain).

At a time when the reinvigoration of civil discourse is more important than ever, why in god's name is the Globe jettisoning its most thoughtful, original and engaging columnist? Are focus groups and demographic targeting and tokenism more important to Canada's self-appointed National Newspaper than raising the tone of the national conversation? Sadly, the answer seems to be yes.

In losing Rick Salutin's voice, the Globe isn't just getting rid of a genuinely original and progressive thinker. It's abandoning the whole notion of intellectual curiosity, leaving us with hacks like Blatchford and Wente.

Quality journalism is more important than ever, regardless of how unsustainable the traditional business model may have become. What the Globe's just done is give its readers one less reason to look for it there.

Update: Welcome eyecrazy readers, and thanks for the traffic! Just take your shoes off at the door, if you please ...

Hey! Kory! Come back here!

You can't go yet. We're not done with you.

But seriously, though ... several bloggers have joined in the karmic pile-on already, so I'll forbear for now. But I can't help noting how consistently some of the biggest names at Sun Media have been stepping in pile after pile of their own shit recently.

There's Kory and his Snuffelupagus-impersonating "source." And there's David Akin and his spotty grasp of history. In fairness, David deserves credit for having owned up and fixed his "embarrassing mistake," but it does say something about Sun Media that it stayed online for a week without anyone else noticing or doing anything about it. Even with some mean-spirited bastard pointing it out repeatedly. (Really, David? "Twit?" That hurts.)

However, David's mea culpa slags BigCityLib, who flagged the error before I did, for indulging in a "cheap gotcha." Dear me, I'm clutching my pearls and looking around for the fainting couch. Heaven forfend that Sun Media would ever stoop to "cheap gotchas."

Yes, that's another cheap shot, but if Sun Media's going to cut across the blue line with its head down, it's going to have to expect to get lined up.



But while we're on the subject of Sun Media, let's revisit the Ian Davey controversy for a minute. We've all read about it, so no need to rehash, but as Dr. Dawg has argued, Davey really wasn't so far off the mark if he was suggesting that Sun Media puts out papers for morons. As the good Doctor writes:

The Sun specializes in vulgar, uninformed comment intended to inflame prejudice and damp down reflection. And there's a constituency for that. Davey didn't express himself well, but that's precisely what he was getting at, and--let me go out on a limb here--it's what a lot of us believe, even if we sometimes forbear to say it out loud.

Dawg's already made the argument better than I can, and I'd urge you to go read it in full, but it ties into what I've been saying about the deliberate cultivation of ignorance and stupidity. And I guess the deeper I get into this argument, the harder I'm finding it to disagree with thwap about the utility of calling people on their stupidity.

Citizenship and civic engagement go hand in hand. You're not fulfilling your obligations as a citizen if you can't be bothered to think critically. That means looking at things through something more thoughtful and challenging than a smudgy lens of right-wing clichés (h/t Dawg again). And if you're too lazy and / or stupid to try, well, you might get some momentary satisfaction out of being pandered to by the Suns and Rob Fords of the world. But you've forfeited any right to be taken seriously or treated with respect.

So I'm a snooty condescending elitist? Sue me.

Dear, oh dear, oh dear

Screen cap from Saturday September 11, 5:16 p.m. ET.

Well, now.

That would be at least four days that no one's bothered to correct David Akin's paragraph confusing Joe Clark with Robert Stanfield. As even a cursory internet search reveals, it was Mr. Stanfield whose Progressive Conservatives lost the 1974 federal election to Pierre Trudeau's Liberals. Joe Clark's first federal campaign as Tory Leader was in 1979.

Yes, that would be the National Bureau Chief for Sun Media.  The point man, one would think, in ensuring the credibility of Fox Noise North's political coverage.

Yeah, well.  Who cares about facts, accuracy and history anyway?

(H/t BigCityLib.)

Update: Link here. Five days.

Update: Six days. Anyone up for a pool?

And did you *check* that source, Kory?

I'm guessing not. But didn't stop him from writing a whole column based on it, now, did it.

(Update: Kady's on the trail now. Probably not the only one, either. More here, here, here, and here. Be interesting to see what comes of this ... )

Kory saves us some time

Oh goody.

Perhaps Kory knows something the court doesn't?

Not content with using Palinisms, the new boss of Quebecor's "news" operation and putative Fox News North supremo seems to have convicted Omar Khadr already. Hell, why bother with a trial? Due process is for wimps, I guess.

Couple of generations ago, guys who think like this were leading lynch mobs. Nowadays, this is more their style.