So I’m watching the news, the CBC even, and Peter Mansbridge is talking to Michael Ignatieff. And I’m actually impressed that Peter Mansbridge is not giving him an easy time.
Mansbridge: So you said you haven’t met with the Prime Minister for five or six months. Have you asked for a meeting?
Ignatieff: The issue here is Stephen Harper’s leadership style…bla bla bla.
Mansbridge: So I’ll take that as a no, that you haven’t asked for a meeting. (Ignatieff never answered the question.)
Perhaps I’m more acutely aware of media bias having just returned from seeing Media Malpractice. Great movie. I thought I was pretty aware of the depths of media bias against Sarah Palin. I wasn’t. Given the full context for many of the quotes she was cited as being stupid for, I actually think the bias was worse than I thought. Some of Biden’s quotes–ones I’d never heard–were not only factually wrong, but offensive. (One involved saying Obama is the first well-spoken black man to ever rise to the top–something to that effect.)
Back to Palin, though. In one case, one of her supposedly dumb answers was in response to a question posed by a kid in grade three. Another of her dumb answers was in response to being asked a question for the third time–the first two times she sounded reasonable but by the third time, she didn’t (sound reasonable). That was the section that was played on repeat. As it turns out, Saturday Night Live also made fun of Joe Biden, but that character never gained traction. Then there’s the Obama “57 states” gaffe, and others–that never received any attention. Of note to this Canadian was fleeting media concern prior to Obama’s election over whether he is socialist or not, based on comments he made about redistributing wealth. The media didn’t really ask the tough questions–but I note that apparently some Americans may still think socialism is bad.
The filmmaker is a libertarian who has only ever donated money to the Democrats.
BTW, Ignatieff apparently “needs to get some pretty specific commitments on employment insurance” before he decides whether he’ll support the government and prevent an election. An election over employment insurance? You lost me at “specific.”
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