Facing a Media Bias,

Harper cuts and runs from the media

For the past 12 years, we have heard a lot about Canadas place in the world. Achieving this place mainly consisted of the use of soft power and Canadas foreign policy under the Chrétien/Martin Liberals, which was essentially dictated by the United Nations. It was a lot of talk and very little action.

Many Canadians were happy when Stephen Harper made his first foreign trip as prime minister to Afghanistan where he spent two days meeting with the troops and Afghan president Hamid Karzai. We felt proud when Harper announced that Canada would not "cut and run" from our commitment in that war torn country.

But cutting and running is exactly what Stephen Harper is doing with the Canadian media. He has muzzled his ministers, prohibited them from speaking to the media about anything other than the Conservative governments five priorities: reducing health care wait times, reducing the GST, daycare, tougher criminal sentences and government accountability. The Prime Ministers Office has to vet all contact with the media, including reviewing letters to the editor. Talk about keeping a grip on things.

There is now talk that Harper may hold cabinet meetings at Dick Cheneys home away from home--an "undisclosed location" and at a time that will not be publicly revealed. Arrangements have already been made to move the media scrums after cabinet meetings to a different location in the Parliament Buildings so ministers who do not want to speak to the press can escape the media hordes.

Harper, to use his terminology is cutting and running. This is not to say that there is any similarity between al Qaeda terrorists, the Taliban fighters and members of Canadas fourth estate. We know this for a fact because if the media was as bad as the terrorists, there would be 50 Christian Peacemakers forming a human chain around Mike Duffy. Harper seemingly finds it easier to put the men and women of Canadas Armed Forces in harms way than he does putting his ministers in front of cameras. His avoidance of the media, and by extension, Canadians, is troubling. So much for the notion of accountability that ministers can freely talk about but not practice.

Its no secret that Stephen Harper doesnt like the media. Hes paranoid about them but just because you are paranoid doesnt mean that people arent after you. And there is no doubt that the media elites are after the PM. Harper has been around a long time and has seen what the media did to the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties, especially under Stockwell Days leadership. It is a fact of life that the mainstream media in Canada, like their American counterparts, tilts largely to the left. The media espouses Canadian values that they define, as did Paul Martin, as Liberal and liberal values. Many in the media would be quite pleased to see Harper and the Conservatives banished to a permanent life on the opposition benches--for the good of the country, of course.

Instead of recoiling from the media and enveloping his government in a veil of secrecy, Harper should just learn to live with the bias of the media and get on with it. By attempting to avoid the media, not only is Harper making a joke out of government accountability, but he is showing that he is simply too afraid to allow his trusted ministers to confront them.

At the risk of inflaming the anti-American crowd, Harper should take a lesson from how some American politicians are handling the press. Last week, 85-year-old Helen Thomas of Hearst Newspapers asked George W. Bush why he liked war so much, given that he had killed so many innocent people. The question gave the president an opportunity to do something that he has trouble doing--making a strong and passionate defense of his administrations Iraq policy. The negative of having to answer questions from a Bush-hater like Thomas was turned into a positive.

Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, was even better. When he was questioned by CNNs Jamie McIntyre, McIntyre repeated negative things that were said about the Secretary by a retired general and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, seemingly just to be able to repeat them. Rumsfeld caught on and turned the tables on McIntyre, chuckling while accusing the reporter of repeating those things just so that he (McIntyre) could make the evening news. Rumsfeld turned towards the camera operator to make sure that he was filming the CNN reporter. Rumsfeld later added that anyone who believes everything that Maureen Dowd writes had better get a life.

The media, no matter how unfair or partisan they are can be dealt with in much the same way that Bush and Rumsfeld handled them. Shrouding the government in secrecy is not the answer.

Stephen--much like Afghanistan--you cant just cut and run.

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Toronto Free Press. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Arthur can be reached at: Columns 2006 '05 '04 '03 '02 '01 '00 1999 Media 2006 '05 '04 '03 '02 Toronto 2006 '05 '04