"Avaaz Me Hearties"!

Well it has been a bit of a whirl-wind, and a rather eye-opening one to boot.

It started two evenings ago when I received an on line petition about a very Canadian issue that I was completely unaware of. The petition was from Avaaz.org, an international on line organization that promotes various charitable and social conscious endeavors worldwide including promotion of democracy, especially in developing nations.

Now I had become an Avaaz member a little over two years ago at the encouragement of a social conscious friend of mine. The particular issue that caused me to join escapes me now (I think it was another on-line petition) but I haven’t read a single Avaaz news letter since. Until Tuesday evening.

The issue as I understand it, is regarding our Prime Minister, Mr. Stephan Harper, attempting to lobby for a mainstream News station, similar to Fox News in the U.S., in order to spread the good news from the land to the right of centre.

The facts according to Avaaz are: Mr. Harper met not long ago with the top dogs at Fox news. Mr. H brought along an underling, Kory Teneycke to that unannounced confab. Now it appears that Mr. Teneycke has left Mr. Harper’s employ and is now heading up political coverage at Sun Media, which is owned by Quebecor who are the operators vying for the new right of centre news station here in Canada. Mr. Harper (presumably through his old employee) appears to be lobbying for this new station to be granted main stream status, much like CBC News World or CTV News Net. In the process, Harper is advocating for this station to be funded by regular cable user fees. The head of the Canadian Radio Television Commission,(CRTC, Canada’s independent regulator of the air waves) Konrad von Finckenstein has denied this license based on the application contravening CRTC policy. Now it appears that Mr. Harper wants Mr. Finckenstein pink-slipped, like every other civil servant who has gotten in the way of his agenda.

What this all means is that Mr. Harper, the self imposed gate keeper of the right, not only wants to control his message, he also wants to control his media. Since he was first elected Prime Minister, Harper has accused the Canadian media of being biased and has since shut them out. He does not allow media into large Conservative party conventions and planning sessions, unlike Michael Ignatieff who not only invited media types to the just recently wrapped up Liberal Convention in Nova Scotia, but fed them Lobster as well.

So Harper now will only allow a hand full of his selected minions to speak to the media and when he has a news release, he tends to invite only those journalists who he feels are somewhat sympathetic to his agenda.

But if there was a main stream news station out there, run by his old Communications advisor, Harper would have unfettered access to the airwaves to frame or reframe his messages however he wants and with just the right amount of “English” on them.

What, you ask, is the problem with this? Why, in a free and democratic country such as Canada would we ever think to have issue with a right wing style news channel? Wouldn’t that be freedom of speech? Well for one thing, it presumes that all the other news outlets in the country are left leaning and are thus “biased” in their reporting. But what is more cause for concern, at least according to Avaaz anyway, is the style of news broad cast. The petitioners point to some of the more bizarre extreme right-wing fear mongering that frequently emanates from Fox News. One Fox broad caster has apparently stated that “Canada is lucky that the U.S. allows it to exist on the same continent”. You get the picture.

Former CBC Ottawa Bureau Chief, Don Newman claimed that “In the U.S., Fox News has been hugely polarizing. It specializes in drive-by attacks and misrepresentations, and is positively Orwellian at times, claiming to be "fair and balanced" while implying that its competitors aren't”.

Well there is nothing of course that says that Fox North will be at all like what Avaaz is insinuating. But given the optics of the whole affair, and the fact that “Mr. Autocrat” himself is behind this scheme, it really isn’t that much of a stretch to assume that there will be some real divisive destructive and decidedly “Un-Canadian” concepts tossed out to us, the TV viewing citizens. One only has to look to some of the smear campaigns Mr. Harper has been able to perpetrate on main stream TV to get the impression that, given unfettered access to his own news station, the subsequent messages would be absolutely dreadful. As Mr. Newman so eloquently put it, “positively Orwellian”.

Well as soon as I saw this particular news letter/petition from Avaaz, I signed it without question. I am, if nothing else, a democratic kind of guy despite my obvious tilt to the left. I then forwarded it to everyone I knew and then posted it, all nice and compacted, as a “tweet” on twitter. A few minutes later, I saw that noted Canadian author, Margaret Atwood also signed the petition, which of course, allowed me to feel that I had done the right thing.

Well then the “Brew-ha-ha” erupted within the “twitterverse”

Ms. Atwood was being attacked as being against free speech and noted journalists from Sun Media were crying foul, objecting to the notion that they would spread messages of hate. Journalists from both sides of centre entered into the fray. All of a sudden, it appeared that Ms. Atwood was left to fend for herself and her own honour…..there’s that word again, you know, that one that seems to be missing from Canadian Politics of late?

As if that wasn’t enough (though dare I say, it was all quite entertaining), the next day, Ms. Atwood was appearing in the media and being represented as though she was in cahoots with Avaaz to spread the word against Fox North. All the poor woman did was sign a petition. Then out came the scribes from Sun Media who proceeded to demonize Ms Atwood and her obvious affiliation with Avaaz. They took a vicious two handed swing at Avaaz itself claiming it to be an extreme left wing organization funded by American Billionaire George Soros. Their contention being that this was a matter of American interests medaling in decidedly Canadian affairs. “Obviously, Avaaz and Mr. Soros are anti free speech”.

Now I can’t say I blame the scribes at Sun Media for taking offence to the contention that they will become nothing but a bunch of hate mongers. Admittedly, there are some very fine individuals employed by that media outlet, and they hadn’t written a single hateful word themselves.  But let us not forget who currently controls the message emanating from Sun Media, remember little Kory Teneycke, Harper’s former right….no wait a minute, Mr. H has no right hand man… left hand media man?  

As to be expected, The Sun came out all claws and fangs, taking vicious swipe after vicious swipe at Avaaz and anyone who backed them at all, especially The Globe and Mail’s Lawrence Martin. His journalistic integrity wasn’t attacked, it was murdered in this piece by the Sun….which for some reason, leads me to believe that Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Newman may not be too far off the mark when they speak of hate mongering coming from an all news Sun media channel.

So as if all this snarling and fuming wasn’t enough, apparently, a number of well respected political journalists began receiving emails from Avaaz, thanking them for signing the petition…..when in fact, none of them actually had. There appeared to be no way to prove whether or not those signatures were on the actual petition, but the journalists in question, were obviously and quite deservedly, becoming irate at the prospect of their names being taken in vain.

It appears now that these media folk were being “spammed”, possibly someone’s email list had been absconded with. And it just doesn’t do well to tick off journalists. Was this simply a case of Avaaz electronically mass mailing people? They certainly have the technology and know how to use it. Was it deliberate??? And if it was, were the offending emails generated by Avaaz? Or could they have originated from someone from the right side of the fence, seeking to discredit the Avaaz initiative?

I would like to think that no one from either side of the political spectrum would stoop to trying to deliberately manipulate the press. But given what I’ve seen from Canadian politics recently, either scenario is likely. Do you remember all those young and eager techie guys who so successfully launched internet smear campaigns in the last election? Like the seagull pooping on Mr. Dion’s head? They all got fired didn’t they? 

And that’s the problem now. We can no longer look to the south and say our way of politics is civil and ethical compared to theirs. It isn’t anymore. Anything seems to be possible now, including manipulation of the media. And many of these tactics are not only, dare I say, undemocratic, but I suspect, highly illegal.

So when I hear men like former Deputy Prime Minister John Manley call for a new approach to politics, I sit up and take notice. I thank god that someone of some repute has decided to shoulder the burden of initiating political reform in our country. Perhaps there is yet hope, that there can be a return to politics that can be trusted and politicians that possess honour and ideals instead of greed and self preservation.

But hey, this is just a citizen’s eye view of things political. My own opinions only. I just hope that our representatives are fully aware of the kind of impression many of them are making on the citizens of this country.

Until next time,

RKD