It was late in the afternoon yesterday that CTV announced that the two-person team responsible for the manufactured quote of Pierre Poilievre “are no longer with CTV News.” The breach of journalistic ethics in manufacturing a quote because you needed it to fit your narrative, despite the fact that the quote you had available wasn’t really useable, makes this understandable, and these are consequences that can happen. I’m less concerned about that as much as I am about the other signals that have been sent, particularly by the Conservatives.
https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1839452343596720522
The Ferreri quotes are absolutely alarming. https://t.co/oUTjgRBgTI
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) September 27, 2024
The fact that Conservative MP Michelle Ferreri, a former journalist herself, is promising that Poilievre is going to “restore journalistic ethics and integrity” should be lighting up every single alarm around the country because that is a promise to politically interfere in the media and its independence. It’s not enough that they have successfully bullied and intimidated one of the largest media outlets in the country, but they are promising more of this, but they plan to ensure that media falls in line. And then there’s the hypocrisy—that they align themselves with PostMillennial, True North, and The Rebel, all of whom have demonstrated a lack of ethics, or commitment to things like facts. The fact that this is a party that has made outright lying their chief strategy shows exactly why this kind of war with legitimate media outlets is so dangerous for our democracy.
The first step toward restoring ethics and integrity would be to cut ties with Jeff Ballingall and stop the habitual lying about, well, just about everything.
— Alheli Picazo (@a_picazo) September 27, 2024
On another note, there were a number of stories yesterday about NDP MP Leah Gazan tabling a bill to make residential school denialism illegal, and that this was done in advance of National Truth and Reconciliation Day. The problem? Not one of the stories from any of the outlets (National Post, CBC or The Canadian Press) bothered to mention that Gazan has already used her private members’ business slot in this parliament for her cockamamie “basic income framework” bill, and it went to down to defeat earlier this week. That means that this bill is going to languish on the Order Paper and never see the light of day. The CP copy did note that “The chances the bill actually will be debated and pass into law are slim without it being adopted as a government bill by the Liberals,” but that obscures the fact that she used her spot, so the whole point of her tabling this legislation is performative.
Parliamentary procedure and rules matter, and if you ignore it, you wind up looking like a fool for spending your dwindling resources covering legislation that will never, ever see the light of day.
Ukraine Dispatch
The Russians launched a five-hour aerial attack on Kyiv overnight, again targeting the power grid. There was also shelling of Kherson in the south that killed one, rockets launched against Kharkiv, and more shelling in the Donetsk region that killed three.
⚡️Ukraine considers 55,000 citizens as missing persons.
The register includes people who have disappeared due to war, occupation, or natural and man-made disasters.https://t.co/VrEJS93USg
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) September 26, 2024
"To play without passion is inexcusable!"
Ludwig van BeethovenThe combat losses of the enemy from February 24, 2022 to September 26, 2024. pic.twitter.com/B5KLu7LhWg
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 26, 2024