On Conflictiness...The Vancouver Sun's Editor Doubles Down.

AllTheEditsThatDidFit
Pre-ElectionVille


In case you missed it, the Vancouver Sun's editorial page has a wee bit of a problem as detailed recently by the Vancouver Courier's Allen Garr:

...On Nov. 12, three days before the municipal election, the Vancouver Sun ran an editorial attacking the Vision-dominated school board and chair Patti Bacchus for their refusal to accept money from the “Chevron Fuel Your School program.”

The funding had been turned down and was reported on months earlier. But it was resurrected as an issue by NPA mayoral candidate Kirk

LaPointe and picked up again by the Sun’s editors. The editorial sub heading read: “Ideologically-driven decision deprived students of learning resources.”...

{snippety doo-dah}

...This is a small town when it comes to politics and media. Even though editorials are anonymous and considered the “paper’s view,” when this broadside was delivered on the eve of a tightly fought election, one of the first questions raised was: Who penned that particular editorial?

Munro confirmed it was Sun editorial pages editor Harvey Enchin. And, as most people in the media business know, Enchin’s partner is Ann Gibbon. Gibbon was working during the election as communications director for Kirk LaPointe and the NPA...


All of which, just on its face, re: the connection, is pretty bad.

And, in my opinion, there is all kinds of stuff in the editorial itself that is even worse.

But the following just might be worst, especially given the fact that the actual decision not to take Chevron's prop-washed dollars was NOT, apparently, actually made by the, you know, Patti Bacchus-chaired school board at the time:

So.

Who is the good Mr. Munro, exactly?

Why he is none other than the actual....

Wait for it...

Editor-in-chief, and former Alaska cruise participant, of the Vancouver Sun.



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You want all seven things that it can be strongly argued were really, really, really wrong with the VSun edit under consideration?...The Exile has them...In spades.


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This Day In Clarkland...Of Sparkle Ponies And Deflector Spin.

LiftingTheVeil
PartingTheCurtainsVille



Speaking truth to strategy.

Otherwise known as talking to the electorate like they're grown-ups.

Horgan to The Province's Mike Smyth yesterday:

...“I don’t think it’s possible for Petronas to have made the announcement they did without the government knowing about it beforehand. So what do you do? You do year-end interviews and you say, ‘I think people should be better parents and John Horgan’s sexist.’

“That’s a pretty good deflection.”

For the record, Horgan said he disagrees with Clark on both of her “distracting” diatribes.

He said he doesn’t bear any gender bias toward Clark or anyone else, pointing out the number of women in key critic portfolios in the NDP caucus.

“To be called out like that without any evidence was really disappointing,” he said.

“I have tremendous respect for the premier’s abilities as a fiercely partisan politician. I’m dismissive of her values and her ideology and her approach to government — not her abilities.”

On the issue of the child pipeline protesters on Burnaby Mountain, Horgan said he initially agreed with Clark that it was inappropriate for parents to let their kids cross police lines.

But he said he was won over by the parents, who explained their 11-year-old daughters made their own decisions to cross the line in a conscientious act of civil disobedience.

“I’ve raised my own children to have a point of view, to be proud of their own ideas, to explore what they believe in — that appears to be what those parents were doing also,” Horgan said...

Now.

We all now understand, allegedly, that bloggers are just idiots without any credibility and all that.

But...

You know.

And such as.

****

And in other (but probably not unrelated) news....

It looks like the Dipper braintrust has decided that, if the Snooklandians won't have legislative sessions wherein the puffed-up punditry hanging out in the press gallery and/or the local watering holes can get their stories handed to them on a silver platter, they will instead send Horgan out to the regions to make their own.

Make their own news I mean.

This is a strategy that has worked for the Snooklandians before and, apparently, Mike Harcourt as well. 

Personally, I actually think it is a good, and important one, again, especially if the legislature is never in session.


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All Their Pipelines 'R Us.

WhoseNooseIsOnThe
LooseVille


Our good friend Danneau has something important to say about the flack-hackery campaigns of super-fine, super-flush Pipeline Co's over at his place, 'Out Of The Fog':

...It’s also galling that these campaigns, with all their half-truths, deceptions, misdirections and faux sincerity end up being paid with our money, as they write it all off their revenue stream as a cost of doing business, further enriching the media Mob who happily broadcast this shite and pocket the proceeds. Look-here, you get to tie your own noose!...

Danneau also compares and contrasts the lives and times of two Ian Andersons.

Only one of which plays the flute.


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The Advent Jukebox..Day 6...Starry Starry Night.

I realize it's not really a Christmas song.

But, still...

Stars and nights, and longing and beauty, and art and doing, and the spring that follows every winter and all that.

OK?

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Image above is from one of the rare starry nights over Point Arena California which is a little chunk of the Mendocino coast that time and gentrification have kind of forgotten about...We love it there, rain (or fog) or shine.
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Hey, Mr. Solomon!...I'll Tell You Where The Real Spin (Really) Lives.

InformationYouDon'tEvenNeedToBotherTo
AccessVille


I managed to get through almost six minutes of Evan Solomon's little MoCo radio show this morning before I just had to turned the darned thing off.

It started with Mr. Solomon telling us that a big chunk of the show was going to be about how difficult it is for the public to understand what's really what in national politics what with all the spinning and obfuscating and hiding of information and so on that's going on.

Or some such thing.

Then Mr. Solomon's producers played a clip from James Moore talking about how Burger King's agreement to keep a head office in Canada after 'the takeover' is really a big win for Canadians because the Harper government pushed for it because Canadians want it.

Or some such thingyier thing or other.

But....

Mr. Solomon, and Mr. Moore, and the producers at 'The House' (and the newsroom at the MoCo which had just run with the same story, as they have all week, on the 9:00am newscast), do know that this 'merger' the Donut Hole Co. is really just a tax dodge because we, Canada, are now the new Caymans for big US MultiNats, right?

And then....

On came Jim Prentice who told Mr. Solomon that all the pollution produced by the Tar Sands is actually just composed of 'so-called upstream emissions' and thus everything's just fine with pipelines if they were to just keep pumping and pumping the crap that takes huge amounts of 'so-called', but real, pollution to produce.

And Mr. Solomon just let it lie there.

And moved on.

Spin, and corrosive dilbit-driven codswallop on the public airwaves, indeed.


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But I will not let this destroy my Saturday...Rain or shine the Whackadoodle and I will go to the beach...Then I will head to the lab because an editor has given us marching orders on the 'revisions' we have to do for a paper, based on the peer reviews, and I get to do the experiment!....I'm telling you, it's like a late fall Saturday of my boyhood-road-hockey-under-red-brick-Monterey-schoolyard-pink-light-sky dreams...Only difference?...There will be no RC Cola after I'm done...
Ohhhh!....And even better, tonight the Geezers will be running down the Setlist for next weekend's big show...And the best part?....Well, we've got a new featured vocalist (the second one, not the first)!

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Here's To The State Of The Golden Era's.....Buses.

AllTheHydrogenThatFits
Where'sArnieNowVille


Remember Arnie and Gordon's excellent adventure.

Well.

Road trip kool-aidish photo-op test without the acid (allegedly) actually.

Anyway...

It turns out that the wheels, and the millions upon millions spent, have come off the bus.

Norm Farrell, with an assist by the NaPo's Brian Hutchinson, has the story:

...BC is soon to finalize another 9-figure financial disaster involving a transportation fleet and it also was a pet project of an overenthusiastic Premier....

{snippety doo-dah}

...Today, the 20 hydrogen fuelled buses are in storage while BC Transit searches for buyers. These units reportedly cost four times as much as diesel buses but capital costs accounted for less than half the program budget. Operating expenses were unusually high, partly because hydrogen had to be trucked in from Quebec. 

Repair costs were substantial compared to standard buses because vehicles were not suited to the conditions. Hutchinson quoted Ben Williams, president of Unifor Local 333. 

“The hydrogen buses don’t run properly in the cold Whistler environment,” he said Tuesday. “You’d think someone would have considered that, before any cash was spent.”...

Hmmmm....

Maybe they could have salvaged this thing if Neal Cassady had been doing the driving.

In the meantime, NINE figures.

Think about that when you pay for your next ferry trip on a German built behemoth.

And here you thought the Golden Era was over...

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The Keef Report....All Your Followers 'R Us.

Gosh.

Apparently...

If you aren't on the TeeVee so that you can attract all kinds of really super-dedicated, super-informed, super-engaged and, of course, super-real followers you should just stay the heckfire off the Twittmachine and leave the social medias to the super-fine super-credible superfine finest of the fine reporter folks like the Keef.

Yup.

That's the way things should work for sure.


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This Day In Snookland...The Thrifitness Of The Griftiness.

AllInTheFamily
NoBidsAreWildVille


How is the following, as reported by Andrew MacLeod in The Tyee not as bad, or worse, than the machinations of the good Snooklandian minister, Mr. Amrik Virk:

...According to the (public MLA) disclosure (form) filed by Justice Minister and Attorney General Suzanne Anton, her spouse, Olin Anton, receives income from work for Deloitte Management Services and partnership income from parent company Deloitte LLP.

In 2012, the website for the Chartered Accountants of B.C. said Olin Anton was made a managing partner of Deloitte Vancouver.

Via various subsidiaries, the accounting and consulting firm had significant business with the provincial government. Some assignments were high profile, such as the direct award contract for $684,000 to review data breaches from the Health Ministry that was given to the firm without taking competing bids or the audit of the Portland Hotel Society's finances before the province stepped in to replace the public housing agency's leadership...


After all, while Mr. Virk got some fine folks more dough from the public purse than they were supposed to get, at least in those cases the fine folks concerned were picked for the job after an actual search process (read 'bid' in academese).

I mean honestly....

Will this stuff never cease with these people?

(and if you think it will you should click through on Mr. Macleod's story and read the entire thing)


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This Day In Snookland...Government By Talk Show.

AlwaysShootingFromThe
LipVille


You may have heard that our fine Premier, and noted late night red light runner, Ms. Christy Clark, saw a PR opening a few days ago when she said the following to Mike Smyth of The Province:

...“Teaching your kids that it’s OK for them to break the law when they’re 11 years old isn’t OK,” Clark said. “I don’t think it’s OK for parents to support that for their own children.”...But here's the thing.

The Dad of one of the kids has fired back and has demonstrated that his kid did this out of principle and only after she had been involved, for weeks, in her own demonstrations in front of her own house.

...“My first reaction was ‘no,’” he (the Dad) said.

But the feisty Grade 6 pupil, who’d been protesting Kinder Morgan’s planned oil-pipeline expansion near her house for weeks, wouldn’t let it go. The kid is whip-smart and challenged her parents about the urgent threat posed by climate change to her personal future.

“Kate made her case over and over,” (t)he dad said.

“We finally relented because we believed — and still do — that her outrage was justified and not letting her cross would be sending the wrong message.”...



All of which brings into sharp relief the difference between parents who do things together with their kids (the child crossed the line on Burnaby Mountain together with her Mom) because they have looked hard at a situation and have decided to take a big step to do something that they think is truly right and just doing something on a lark with your kid (and a reporter who is now working for the flack-hackery) in the middle of the night that could get somebody killed.

Which one is something you would want a Premier to do?


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Bizarrely enough, Ms. Clark's office told Mr. Smyth that her statements had received 'wide public support'...Gosh...Does that include Twittmachine Trolls, PAB-Bots and those finest of the fine folks with 'media contracts'?
And just in case you missed it,  Laila had a definitive post up on the hypocrisy of our most excellent Premier a couple of days ago....Here.

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Advent Jukebox...Day 4...(Short-Lived) Winter Wonderland.

ToquesAreWild
UnderTheHelmetVille


The image above is what it looked like this morning as I rode in to work out on the farthest western edge of Lotusland.

By the time I left for home it was all gone.

The Winter I mean.

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Was the final exam of my big large enrolment pre-meditative type class today...You always learn something new even when you are the one supposedly asking the questions...Anyway...There's this cell type deep in the lungs that makes the slippery stuff that helps keep the airways open...They're called 'Clara' cells...Or at least they used to be...One of my students said I should have a look at...This...As a result, next year I'll be calling them 'Club' cells instead.


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Advent Jukebox Day 2.....Star Star.

StarryStarryLights
OurHouseVille


'Star Star' is still one of may favourites of all the Hansard tunes.

And it's not even a wedge song.

I think what really slays me is that, in true 'singer-songwriter.....we don't always do Lizzy' fashion*, it was written about something very specific but could actually be about anything.

So.

As is noted...

It's not really a Christmas song.

But it could be.

_______



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*Wanna know about 'singer-songwriter stuff' vs. 'Thin Lizzy' and how that can all work out just as it should....Well...You'll just have to watch the movie (which is great at Christmastime by the way).

This (Groundhog) Day In Snookland...The Booze Offensive.

IfAtFirstYouDoSpinSucceed
TryTryTryTryTryTryTryOverAndOverAgainVille


How's this for a lede to make you weep (and/or cry in your beer).

From Bob Mackin in The Tyee:

Even though greater challenges face the province, the price of beer, wine and spirits in British Columbia, and limits on their sale and marketing, have been contentious points for generations.

So it's hardly a coincidence that whenever the political kitchen has become too hot for the BC Liberals under Premier Christy Clark, they've reached into the communications cooler for a cold one with which to distract the public and divert attention from the controversy du jour....


Uncle Bob then makes good in his cause and spin effect claim later in his piece.

Go read it.

Now.

And then ask yourself...

How much are all the Snooklandian communications wizards who work this stuff, hard, costing us?

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This Day In Clarkland...Government By Photo-Op

There'sNoBusinessLike
GovernmentShowBusinessVille


In case you missed it, the Snooklandians held a 'jobs skills summit' thingy for a select group of public school students last week during Grey Cup week in conjunction with the BC Lions, Pepsi and the Donut Hole Co.

Because, I guess, every parent's dream is to have their kid go on to fame or fortune slinging soft drinks and junkfood for PavCo.

Speaking of which...

The school kids stuck at Minister Fassbender's table sure looked happy, eh?


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Interestingly, Kelowna Now, who did a little stenoing of the story, served up three photos of fine Snooklandian role models for kids...Ministers Fassbender, Virk and the quick winner himself, John Yap...And where did the images come from...Why, straight from the Snooklandian government's Flickr page, of course...
No word if this very fine event was funded by the reported $3 million subsidy that you and I apparently paid to make the week long Grey Cup party happen...Gosh, is the CFL a government enterprise?...Or is it just socialist?...But, hey, seriously, compared to eight figures of public money for a bogus Bollywood awards show, what's $3 million anyway...After all, it's not like we couldn't use a few more librarians, or park rangers, or ferry runs 'round here, right?
Thanks to reader Guy in Victoria for the heads-up on this one.

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The Advent Jukebox...Day 1...They've Got Cars Big As Bars.

AllTheLolligaggingThatFits
TheWhackadoodleAndKKFatVille


If you can't beat 'em with the Vince Guaraldi, ripping off the Pogues will have to do.

I guess...

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This Day In Clarkland...The Playbook.

IfAtFirstItDoesSucceed
TryTryItAgainVille


Remember back in ancient times (i.e. before the last election) when Ms. Clark was running around telling limp dick jokes at campaign events for laughs and kibbitzing with schlock jocks about Mr. Skin, wardrobes, and strip poker in the legislature and such.

And on that latter point, no, I'm not talking about the so-called milferious ambush by a then unknown schlocker from Courtenay who has since kinda/sorta taken over Dan Russell's slot on Corus' (no longer) flagship, barely even terrestrial anymore (in terms of ratings at least), radio station.

Instead, I'm talking about stuff like this with morning zoo folks at CFOX:

Jeff O'Neil: Is it nicer to be in this studio than (that of CKNW's) Bill Good's?

Christy Clark: (Pauses)....You're better looking.

****

JO: Is security outside, by the way?

CC: I'm not telling. You could have a gun aimed at your head...Even as we speak.

****

(After a whole lot of discussion about Ms. Clark's appearance and wardrobe choice for that day which she, in her own words, describes as 'kind of a Dianne Watts look'...)

'Scotty': What did you do last night for fun?

CC: (Preamble about having to get to bed early so she could get up to take her son to hockey practice in the morning)....I watched half of the first show of 'Game of Thrones'.

JO: You're just starting it now?

CC: Well, ya. I read all the books! Somebody gave me one of the books, like, three years ago. And I started reading it last year. And then I couldn't stop. I had to get to the...

JO: It's a good show.

CC: Ya!

Scotty: There's a lot of nudity in it.

CC: Holy....Smokes.

'Karen': That's why people love it so much.

CC: 'Mr. Skin' is gonna be busy, huh?

(Much shock jock laughter)...



And then, of course, while this kind of stuff was going on, there was also a Clarklandian operative working the refs online and garnering big proMedia attention about how put upon Ms. Clark was, not because of her performance or the things she says and does, but rather because of her gender.

Laila Yuile dealt with that operative here.

Anyway, coming back to not so ancient times....

In lieu of actually spending any real time in the legislature the past few weeks Ms. Clark instead went to the VSun and told the fine folks there the following, at least according to Rob Shaw:

Premier Christy Clark says her gender might have something to do with the dismissive tone she heard from Opposition leader John Horgan and other New Democrats in the fall session of the B.C. legislature.

Clark raised the issue in a year-end interview with The Vancouver Sun when asked if Horgan and the NDP underestimated her abilities as leader.

“I think that the NDP, some of the members of the NDP, do have a tendency to see women differently from men,” she said.

“It’s something women experience all over the place. Any woman watching this will be going, ‘Uh huh, I’ve felt that.’ So I think I experience a little bit of that from John Horgan, and Adrian Dix, as well.”

The premier did not cite any specific examples...


And Mr. Shaw's follow-up to this non-supported claim by the premier of British Columbia that he wrote about and that his newspaper ran under the heading "Christy Clark suggests Opposition dismissive tone is because she is a woman"?

Well, here it is:

...There did not appear to be any overt sexist comments made by Horgan or NDP MLAs during the legislative session, which concluded Thursday.

The New Democrats — including female MLAs — frequently characterized Clark as more interested in photo ops than governing, of only acting when the television cameras were present, and of saying one thing publicly and then doing another.

Other NDP MLAs, including women, variously described the Clark government’s “cheerleading” of LNG, a throne speech that was “a bunch of fluff,” and LNG promises being similar to “unicorns and butterflies and flowers and fairies.”...


Hmmmm....

Calling out Ms. Clark for her reliance and penchant, in the extreme, on the use of photo-ops, cheerleading and fluff as substitutes for actual governance.

If that stuff is gender-specific perhaps someone should tell George Bush the younger.

So.

Given Ms. Clark's lack of specific examples to back her claim, one can only wonder why Mr. Shaw, instead of teasing them with gender-neutral examples, didn't just ask his readers to try and figure out when, exactly, the members of the Opposition stopped kicking their dogs?

Or worse.

Sheesh.


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