Propagation For The Nation

TheRumourMill
NoEvidenceVille

Many on the left side of Canada's Bloggodome are aghast* at the lede to a post written yesterday by federal Liberal party operative and Dion backer Mr. Jason Cherniak:

"Let's face it. People cheat in politics. It's not a good thing. It shouldn't happen. But it does. The rumour around TO (Let me be very clear; I am not suggesting that the rumour is true. I am only stating that it is out there.) is that Olivia Chow won because NDP supporters from across the city voted early and often at different polling stations in Trinity-Spadina. I don't know if it's true, but just the rumour led the federal Liberals to fight for a new rule that voters must show ID before receiving their ballot.

And I'm sure many on the right side of the Dome are, or soon will be, rubbing their hands with glee.

But, regardless your political point-of-view, if you are a reasonable person I think you would agree that propagating vicious rumours in the absence of supporting evidence is never a good thing.

Which is why I asked Mr. Cherniak the following:

(B)ased on the first paragraph of the post under consideration - if someone were to start a rumour that a certain Canadian politician had won, oh say, a leadership vote based on the fact that he or she had non-conjugal, but very friendly, relations with barnyard cows, would the political party involved then subsequently call for the identification of every single one the livestock involved?


Now, Mr. Cherniak did not provide a direct answer to either this or other questions from his readers regarding his deliberate propagation of the voter fraud rumour.

He did, however, 'allegedly' write this further on down the comment thread attached to his original post:

"This is amazing. Do any of you deny that the rumour is out there? Of course not - so why are you acting so shocked and appauled (sic) that I am mentioning it?

Based on this response it would be very difficult for a reasonable person not to conclude that Mr. Cherniak feels it is the right of any and all to spread unsubstantiated rumours whenever they feel the need to do so, regardless the absence of evidence.

As a result, I felt compelled to ask Mr. Cherniak one final question:

When, exactly, did the alleged political leader alluded to above stop having non-conjugal relations with cows?

Of course, it is, and always will be, a ridiculous question.

But the point of writing it is the following - which I also put to Mr. Cherniak:

"(A)fter reading that, do you see why so many seemingly reasonable people are, indeed, shocked and appalled by what you wrote in the lead to this post?"

And, again, I'm talking about all reasonable people here, regardless their political POV.

Because no one who is reasonable wants to see any major political political party in Canada stoop to the level of smear and innuendo to win friends and/or influence their uncles.

Or elections.

OK?

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*Update: Apparently, not all left-siders, one of whom is StageLeft, are actually aghast. Please see his statement of unaghastness in the comments.


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