Shooting the Messenger

Before the rise of the internet which has spawned a new alternative medium no politician would intentionally start a war with the press. But in Canada and the US both leaders are throwing mud at the press and trying to score political points.

In the US, Bush/FOX News have specifically attacked the New York Times for reporting that the goverment is seizing terrorist attacks. Keith Oberman points out the hypocrisy by showing earlier statements by Bush where he states the government is seizing terrorist financial assets and this "secret" government agency published a newsletter.

In Canada, Harper is filtering the national media's questions. Then when the national media tried to fight back, he went around them and is now fielding most of his questions from local media outlets whose reporters are star struck by being allowed to talk to the pm. He hopes the public doesn't care and sees it as a squabble between two professions that people don't trust. Sort of like an ambulance chaser lawyer fighting with a mechanic.

But this anti-media debate has created major problems for a society. The mainstream media isn't perfect and it makes mistakes. But at least it tries to be balanced. The internet has allowed more people to access more information but alot of the information is inaccurate and biased. In the US the public is split between two media sources. The progressive media led by Michael Moore and the conservative media led by FOX News.

I hope Canada's media isn't split by ideological lines. Canada's media isn't in dire straits- yet. It hasn't reached a point where you know one media source is so overtly biased that it will ignore damaging stories to its favoured party and attempt to fabricate or report fabricated stories.