The Media Scourge
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has taken a lot of flak over his aversion to making himself available at every turn, to the media. He isn't known to take media requests lightly, and doesn't agree with media scrums. He is, in short, more than a little media averse. News reporters, for their part, don't very much appreciate the unavailability of interviews, much less casual questions and answers from a prime minister who shuts himself deliberately away from their prying queries and plaints.
As a result he appears to have done himself no favours. There are scant few media personalities who appear to look kindly upon this prime minister. They haven't pulled any punches, and aren't likely to give him the benefit of the doubt, any time soon. Unlike many other politicians of whom the media appear, in general, to approve, he had no 'honeymoon' period, going directly into the black books of the grumbling Parliament Hill press club. There would be no scoops coming directly from that horse's mouth.
Now here's a contradiction in political availability, south of the Canadian border. Where U.S. President Barack Obama not only has the Canadian press in the palm of his hand, but the U.S. press, for the most part, very much appreciate his weekly addresses to the nation, his almost daily and seemingly effortless commentaries on just about everything, delivered in his impeccably-unflappable (lecturing) manner. On the other hand, on the issue of press freedom, most U.S. presidents have not been shy of television cameras and print media.
But then, all is not as it seems, even when it comes to the world's currently most-charismatic political leader. Who appears, after all, to have as thin a hide as our own prime minister. So, they do share something in common, after all. Neither much appreciates criticism of their actions and the direction in which they ideally claim to be leading their respective countries. But whereas Prime Minister Harper has an undeclared yet openly-obvious bias against all media, understandably, President Barack Obama's is directed solely toward right-leaning media.
His office, in fact, claims the Fox News Network is simply another arm of the Republican Party. It's a popular network, and doubtless it reaches interested viewers across all party lines. "The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party." As a result, warned the White House communications director, they could anticipate the White House "to treat them the way we would treat an opponent."
Detractors need not apply for interviews; only those friendly to the aspirations of the Democratic Party and their elected chief may look forward to interviews with the president of the United States. Obviously President Obama and his team have no intention of differentiating between the news, objectively reported, and the scores of talk-show hosts whose personal slant and unwholesome rants runs contrary to his political vision for the country.
This has a tired old ring of familiarity. Still, surprising in a sense that a president who has the acclaim of the world at large, has been honoured with the 2009 Nobel price for peace, revels in rock-star status, is yet so thin-skinned that he will brook no criticism of his personal vanity, his propensity to posturing and high-flown rhetoric; above all the abysmal level of success his various strenuous overtures and determinedly placatory measures both at home and abroad have so far met.
Head in the clouds, feet mired in muck. A truly thoughtful, insightful individual (like the Buddha who sits above the muck on a fresh lotus flower, like the Dalai Llama, the quintessential symbol of world peace, and well-earned peace laureate himself, whom the president so unfortunately had no time to meet in his busy schedule, flitting off instead to Copenhagen to make the case for a Chicago Olympics choice) might evince a modicum of humility and grace.
Thank you for this honour. I would prefer to set it aside for the time being. And would be honoured were it to be re-visited, once and only once my initiatives to succeed in bringing the world a little closer to peace, realize their potential.
As a result he appears to have done himself no favours. There are scant few media personalities who appear to look kindly upon this prime minister. They haven't pulled any punches, and aren't likely to give him the benefit of the doubt, any time soon. Unlike many other politicians of whom the media appear, in general, to approve, he had no 'honeymoon' period, going directly into the black books of the grumbling Parliament Hill press club. There would be no scoops coming directly from that horse's mouth.
Now here's a contradiction in political availability, south of the Canadian border. Where U.S. President Barack Obama not only has the Canadian press in the palm of his hand, but the U.S. press, for the most part, very much appreciate his weekly addresses to the nation, his almost daily and seemingly effortless commentaries on just about everything, delivered in his impeccably-unflappable (lecturing) manner. On the other hand, on the issue of press freedom, most U.S. presidents have not been shy of television cameras and print media.
But then, all is not as it seems, even when it comes to the world's currently most-charismatic political leader. Who appears, after all, to have as thin a hide as our own prime minister. So, they do share something in common, after all. Neither much appreciates criticism of their actions and the direction in which they ideally claim to be leading their respective countries. But whereas Prime Minister Harper has an undeclared yet openly-obvious bias against all media, understandably, President Barack Obama's is directed solely toward right-leaning media.
His office, in fact, claims the Fox News Network is simply another arm of the Republican Party. It's a popular network, and doubtless it reaches interested viewers across all party lines. "The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party." As a result, warned the White House communications director, they could anticipate the White House "to treat them the way we would treat an opponent."
Detractors need not apply for interviews; only those friendly to the aspirations of the Democratic Party and their elected chief may look forward to interviews with the president of the United States. Obviously President Obama and his team have no intention of differentiating between the news, objectively reported, and the scores of talk-show hosts whose personal slant and unwholesome rants runs contrary to his political vision for the country.
This has a tired old ring of familiarity. Still, surprising in a sense that a president who has the acclaim of the world at large, has been honoured with the 2009 Nobel price for peace, revels in rock-star status, is yet so thin-skinned that he will brook no criticism of his personal vanity, his propensity to posturing and high-flown rhetoric; above all the abysmal level of success his various strenuous overtures and determinedly placatory measures both at home and abroad have so far met.
Head in the clouds, feet mired in muck. A truly thoughtful, insightful individual (like the Buddha who sits above the muck on a fresh lotus flower, like the Dalai Llama, the quintessential symbol of world peace, and well-earned peace laureate himself, whom the president so unfortunately had no time to meet in his busy schedule, flitting off instead to Copenhagen to make the case for a Chicago Olympics choice) might evince a modicum of humility and grace.
Thank you for this honour. I would prefer to set it aside for the time being. And would be honoured were it to be re-visited, once and only once my initiatives to succeed in bringing the world a little closer to peace, realize their potential.
Labels: Canada, United States, Whoops
posted by Pieface @ 1:37 PM
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