One Small Thing The Whirlitzer Is Getting Wrong

SpirallingOutOfControl
UnintendedConsequencesVille

So, when I wrote the post in which I gave Kim Bolan the benefit of the doubt regarding the fact that it was she who initiated the discussions that led resulted in her finding out that Liberal MP Navdeep Bains is the son-in-law of Dashan Singh Bains who is a potential witness and/or on a list of potential witness for the investigative hearings into the Air India Bombing I knew that this would be embraced by the right side of the bloggodome.

But I put it up anyway.

Which led to some interesting comments, and posts, and a whole lot of goodwill, much of it genuine I think.

Stuff like this.

But something interesting has happened in the couple of days since.

And that is the fact that it has become conventional wisdom on the internets that this story came from a 'Liberal' blog.

I'm not sure how this happened, exactly, but I have a sneaking suspicion it started in earnest after David Akin of CTV posted the story up on his blog.

I want to make it very clear, however, that Mr. Akin did not paste the capital 'L' label on me. Quite the contrary; he was very circumspect and very fair.

But I do think that Mr. Akin's post that gave my narrow and carefully worded conclusion considerable legitimacy in the eyes of many. In addition there were parallel (but not nearly as circumspect) posts up at Big City Liberal and liberal catnip at about the same time.

So, suddenly, ipso facto, I became a 'Liberal'.

Which of course, serves the right-side, particularly those that have aligned themselves closely with the CPC, very well in the rapidly intensifying "Battle of the Bloggodome".

For me, this all came to a head with Deborah Jones post at the Canadian Journalist.

As a result, I felt compelled to respond:

".....it's interesting to me that my place is now being described/labelled as a capital 'L' Liberal blog.

Because, while I clearly identify myself as being on the left side of the bloggodome, I don't think I have ever indicated that I am a federal Liberal.

In fact, during the the last election campaign I wrote a whole series of strategic voting posts from the point of view of someone who is a non-denominational Con-Stopper."


To her great credit, Ms. Jones has since changed the post and removed that capital from the front end of the label with a clarification as well.

But the point is, if the work is solid, and, particularly if it deals in a straightforward and verifiable manner with a demonstrable falsehood, why do such labels matter?

In fact, I would even go so far as to suggest that in cases like this labels can be counter-productive as they inject a bias into the reader's mind that wouldn't otherwise be there.

OK?

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By the way: If you click through the 'Con Stopper' link above you will see it was a discussion of strategic voting in Lotusland from last January, which is clearly going to be a very, very important issue in the next election (including all you Green Party supporters who may be compelled, once again because of our FPTP system, to make a hard choice when push comes to shove).
Finally, if you want to read a couple ofvery thorough, thoughtful and, yes, skeptical, posts on the entire Bolan/Saini/Bains/Martin affair so far, you won't do better than than this one and this one from Red Tory who, of course, has given himself a label that helps keep him from being, well, labelled.

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