Friday, December 14, 2012

Can Anybody Write Anything They Want...


.
...In The Vancouver Sun?

_____

Update: At bottom of post....
_____

And you thought I was going to say '...On The Internet'.

Well.

In case you haven't guessed already, I'm talking about this Andrew Weaver 'Tempest In A Transit Rd. Teacup'  business.

First off, in 24 hours there are already ten times the number of reports in the proMedia on this thing than there have been on something that actually matters to British Columbians -  the false Railgate affidavit that was filed in BC Supreme Court early last week.

Second, in a report last night, with actual video footage of the actual Mr. Weaver talking, from CHEK TV, Mr. Weaver himself makes it clear that federal Dipper Michael Byers, the alleged perpetrator of the Tempest, never offered him a Deputy Minister slot in a provincial NDP government if he, Mr. Weaver, were to back away from running for the Green party in Oak Bay (ie. to prevent a vote split there).

And yet, Craig McInnes wrote the following late yesterday in the VSun:

....On the Bill Good show Thursday morning, Weaver backed away from the most serious part of his original allegation — that he was offered an incentive to give up the nomination — but added the extraordinary claim that he was being bullied on Twitter as part of an orchestrated attack.

That bullying, he said, prompted him to blurt out, in 140 character spurts, his recollection of a conversation held three months earlier, which now seemed to him to be part of a darker side to the NDP’s election strategy that was lurking behind NDP leader Adrian Dix’s pledge to run a positive campaign.

(Provincial Dipper John) Horgan denies any such plot.

Horgan is as much of a professional in party politics as Weaver is an amateur. He was a senior aide in the NDP government in the 1990s and now serves as the NDP’s house leader after losing the leadership to Dix.

But I’m not so sure about his assessment on the potential impact of Weaver’s eruption in the Twitterverse.

It may be a soon-to-be-forgotten “tempest in an Oak Bay tea cup,”
but there are a few aspects that suggest some larger themes are at play...


Will Mr. McInnes actually offer us some real, you know actual 'facts' to support his theory that 'larger themes' are at play?

Personally, I'm not holding my breath.

Ba(i)ted or otherwise.

Why?

Because, later in the piece, Mr. McInness goes on to say that he has no reason to think that Mr. Byers was NOT acting alone.

So...

If that's the case, just where the heckfire are these 'larger themes'?

I mean, is there (or is there not) any actual evidence that the provincial NDP is actively trying to get Mr. Weaver to drop out of the race?

Has Mr. Weaver got any such evidence (I think not, see CHEK video linked to above)?

Has Mr. McInnes?

Sheesh.


_______
You want conspiracies, with or without theories?....Well, I've gotta wonder....Last weekend, on the Twittmobile, on a very separate (and actually kinda/sort important) matter, Mr. Horgan noted the fact that David Akin made it clear  that the local ProMedia made for a pretty sheepish herd when it willingly wurlitzered CClark's bullshit about being #1 in job creation....Ink?...Barrels?....Anyone?
Oh, and just in case anybody missed the actual 'timing' of the Tempest....Mr. Byers apparently called Mr. Weaver three months ago...Which was way BEFORE the Federal Bye-Bye where the pro-poo Greeniac came from nowhere to take votes from the Dipper...'Larger themes' my gluteus medius....
Update: Mr. Akin himself has a whole lot more...Much more...Clearly he he has an eye on Lotusland...And, so far at least, he is showing now evidence of belonging to the 'club'....

.

9 comments:

Ian said...

And in the same paper there is an op-ed planting the seed of the green party splitting the vote on the left written by an obscure prof from a right wing college in the Fraser Valley.

I think this is generally what you can expect from the Sun from now until the election: akin to Fox news and the Republican Party, the Sun will be the official organ of the BC Liberals particularly as an attack and defend organ.

Anonymous said...

Andrew Weaver is running because "a group of disaffected liberals" asked him to. This was his answer to the question on why he was running given at a luncheon at UVIC just after he announced his candidacy.

RossK said...

Anon-Above--

Seriously?

That is most interesting.

Personally, I have a 'zebras' vs. 'horses' theory about Mr. Byers call that hasn't been considered by anyone yet...

.

Anonymous said...

Seriously. My significant other was at the luncheon.

kootcoot said...


"Personally, I have a 'zebras' vs. 'horses' theory about Mr. Byers call that hasn't been considered by anyone yet..."

Hopefully you will share it while I'm still alive! I'm in suspenders......

RossK said...

Thanks Anon!

_______

Koot--

Well let's say you had an old friend whom you respected and whom you thought could be of real help working with your team...Might not you call up said friend and say 'you're making a big mistake joining the team that will likely be out of the game before it even starts'?

That would be my horse to everybody else's zebra.

(especially given that this happened three months ago which was way before what happened in the Federal Bye-Bye down the street was even a nanoscopic figment of Lizzie May's wildest dreams)

.

Eleanor Gregory said...

Ross K, I concur in your analysis.

Anonymous said...

The media is in love, love, loving the Greens. They can split the vote a keep the Liberal spenders in for more raiding of the taxpayer loot.

By the by, Weaver is a self proclaimed right winger. He has very bad political instincts and will surely shoot himself in the foot before you can say robo-call anyone? Another one of Lizzie's special friends no doubt.

Tony Martinson said...

Time for an update. Have you seen this?

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/candidate-choice-splits-b-c-greens-in-saanich-south-1.32608

So the Greens want to claim to be the enviro choice, that no one else is the enviro choice unless they're a Green, but if they've got enviro cred, they can run, but only as an independent. (See the third-last Graf, which is the epitome of burying the lede, no?)

So far, the only person I've seen trying to prevent Green candidates from running is Jane Sterk. But it apparently is bigger news if a Dipper supposedly makes the phone call, I guess.