Well the skies are darkening in Canada now, as the CBC reports:
“Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff was accused Friday of twisting media reviews to promote paperback sales of his latest book, True Patriot Love.
The book traces the influence of several generations of Ignatieff’s mother’s family, the Grants.
The jacket of the book includes a number of excerpts from newspaper critiques that leave the impression it won rave reviews when first published last spring.”
Exaggerated Claims! In a book jacket no less! Oh vapours take me now! How dastardly is this evil that does not sleep?
“take this snippet from the National Post: “Plenty of scope for a rich story … Some wonderful anecdotes, particularly about George P. Grant … Well written.”
In fact, the Post review in its entirety was far from laudatory.
“True Patriot Love offers little that is new on the Grants save some wonderful anecdotes, particularly about George P. Grant,” wrote reviewer Robert L. Fraser.”
Checkmate Ignatieff! You rotten scum.
“But on Friday, Conservative MPs called the book blurbs “dishonest” and said that in Ignatieff’s case, they were evidence of his unfitness for political office.
“This is the type of dishonesty that not even a first-year university student could get away with,” Alberta Tory MP Chris Warkentin told the House of Commons.
“I am wondering if the leader of the Opposition really believes that this is honesty or if this is maybe a case of deceitfulness.”
What an opportunity to divert the Public's attention away from Rahim Drunk Driving and Illegal Lobbying!
I would think that the Tories would better spend their time doing damage control over the Rahim Jaffer saga – a saga whose political toxicity has not even been fully realized yet.
Hmmm….can we juxtapose for a bit?
Jaffer :
The second email was written several hours after Jaffer was pulled over for speeding and charged with drunk driving and possession of cocaine. Several months later, Jaffer pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of careless driving and was fined $500.
“A company co-founded by former MP Rahim Jaffer pitched three projects to the federal government — including one involving a division of a waste management firm touted by his wife, ex-cabinet minister Helena Guergis, according to newly released documents.
Under the proposal, the total share of federal funding was to be about $100 million.”
“During their testimony Wednesday before the Commons government operations committee, Jaffer and Glémaud insisted they have never been paid for any lobbying activities and have never received a penny of funding from the government. […]
Meanwhile, two businessmen who heard Jaffer speak in August 2009 at a Toronto-area restaurant told CBC News they believed the former Conservative MP would be their connection to millions of dollars in government grants.
The men, who spoke to the CBC on condition of anonymity, said they were lured to the Aug. 25 meeting by an email that boasted: “Rahim Jaffer, who is the Canadian government money access point for us, will be in attendance.”
“We left with the impression Jaffer was the source of funding,” said the president of one company who pitched to Jaffer and business colleague Nazim Gillani, the author of the email and the organizer of the meeting.”
Yes Conservatives, lambaste Ignateiff about dishonesty and proper conduct, your credibility is certainly not an issue here. Show us the righteous Law and Order style of political leadership so many Canadians voted for!
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
6 comments
April 28, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Moe
Conservatives – anti-intellectual as they are – are unlikely to know that authors have little or no no say over how the publisher treats blurbs on the book jacket.
But these days almost anything is fuel for the outrage machine.
He didn’t send his wife a birthday card!
(he sent her flowers, but we won’t mention that)
She didn’t tip her hairdresser!
(who owns the shop but we won’t mention that)
We all know the drill . . .
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April 28, 2010 at 8:30 pm
The Arbourist
I’m glad it is not just me that finds this sorta thing inane to the extreme. It is disappointing when our politics come to such pointless things.
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April 29, 2010 at 9:05 am
Moe
The worst of it Arb, is that the minute a pol intentionally says something that’s just nonsense to hijack the dialogue, the press jumps in and repeats it over and over, rubbing their thighs together the whole time.
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May 2, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Bleatmop
I still want to know when it became commonplace for the media to reprint press releases like they were actual news. I always thought they were the beginning point of a story, not the end point. I haven’t watched the news or bought a newspaper in ages because of stuff like the above. Don’t they teach critical thinking in journalism schools, or is it just that they big media conglomerates don’t hire anyone with said skills?
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May 2, 2010 at 11:21 pm
The Arbourist
I imagine that people are focusing more on ‘content’ than journalism. The daily news has always been a big money loser on TV so you do what you can to spice it up and make it more palatable(?) to the lowest common denominator.
The amount of fact checking necessary is close to zero. My google-fu was more than up to the task of showing the possible underlying reasons why this particular story was getting so much attention.
I hope that investigative journalism makes a come back soon, as the media we have is not really doing a satisfactory job at the moment.
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May 3, 2010 at 7:03 am
Moe
TV ‘journallism’ is nearly non existent. Before cable arrived in the 8o’s, TV news in the US was the three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. They aired a single half hour national news show per day. These news operations lost money but were considered a combo of ‘loss leader’ and public service. The networks also poured huge sums into their news divisions because they were culturally prestigious.
But in the 80’s during the ‘mergers and acquisitions’ mania, all the networks were bought out by enormous multinationals who demanded that even the news division make a profit. And it all changed.
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