Postmedia Attempts to Spin Asbestos Controversy
Here’s a strategy question for would-be journalists: given that the Mulroney government was pro-asbestos, should you attempt to cover the current asbestos controversy by pointing out that Conservatives have a history of supporting this cancer-causing industry, or by pointing out that one of the Mulroney ministers responsible was Jack Layton’s father, Robert?
If you’re Postmedia, you choose Option B, as can be seen in this rather silly attempt at a hatchet job. They even claim they summoned Layton for an interview to answer for “his father’s role a quarter-century ago as a Conservative minister promoting asbestos” and — horror! — he refused to speak to them about it.
Incidentally, Option A is also wrong. The correct answer is Option C: neither Harper nor Layton, nor Rae for that matter, should be held responsible for what Mulroney did or didn’t do in the 1980s. That’s because Layton is not his father, and Harper is not a Progressive Conservative.
While we’re on the subject, the Postmedia author of this waste of bandwidth is Randy Boswell. You’ll never guess what his father supported. (I don’t know either, by the way, nor do I care.)
Tweet
Pundits' Guide
The suggestion for the story was subtly but cleverly planted a day earlier by Chuck Strahl when in his Op Ed he wrote something along the lines of “back when Jack Layton’s dad Robert was the minister of mines, I worked in a sawmill …”.
It didn’t take long for someone to fish out the clipping about Layton senior’s support for asbestos mining – whether Randy Boswell himself, or someone else having access to the Library of Parliament clipping files. I’m old enough to remember the original story, and certainly wondered how long it would take to surface in the current context, and in whose interest it would be to leak it.
For another example of this kind of tactic, see the episode of the West Wing where C.J. plants a clue about a potential story in her answer to a briefing question, in order to direct political commentary in a different direction to the one it was taking at the time.
Sixth Estate
Good catch.
Both of which are still irrelevant, of course, since Chuck Strahl did not have this problem with asbestos when he was in government and Jack Layton is not his father. But I missed that connection. I’d like to think the media is somewhat less susceptible to being played, but you’ve convinced me.
mudassar-ul-islam
Fast Directory List 4 You You Can Post You Link It It
buysellinuk free directory is most common use in SEO.
this is a free posting site ,no registration,no login,
just open and post.anyone can promote his site to post here
his ad.here any type of category you want to post and also
sub category available here.many people visit this site and must see your
ad and your traffic must increase.you can easily get your rank increase
and your PR must be increase becouse this is a best SEO directory.
you can also find many other things here.here you can find categories like
Arts,Business,Computers and Internet,Games,Health,Home,Kids andTeen,News,Real Estate,
Fast Directory List
Wayne,Southall
Aw, this was a really good post. Taking the time and actual effort to create a great article… but what can I say… I hesitate a whole lot and don’t seem to get anything done.