This is Fearmongering?

Canwest, a big financial backer of the Harper leadership campaign and now officially endorsing the Conservatives have now begun blatant editorializing in their election news articles. Liberal and NDP campaigns are being identified as 'fearmongering'.

In an article circulated by Canwest News, Splitting up the vote, they quote this as an example of fearmongering by Jack Layton. It is anything but.......

Layton, too, delved into fearmongering politics, suggesting Harper has a hidden agenda to dismantle Canada's social fabric.

He told more than 1,000 trade unionists in Liberal-dominated Toronto that Martin is headed for defeat and fleeing Liberal voters must back the NDP so there is a strong force in Parliament to fight a Tory government's tax-cutting and program-slashing agenda.

As well, he said the Conservative party's U.S. Republican-style views on issues from the Iraq war and child care to gay marriage increase the threat that Canada could break apart after the next Quebec referendum.

He made the comments during an interview with CanWest News Service after the largest rally of his campaign. He said the best result for Canada would be a Parliament with enough New Democrats in opposition to make sure Quebecers don't suffer from program cuts.

"It would seem to me that many Quebecers would take a look at a Conservative government, with those very conservative values of more of an American-style perspective on issues, or Republican point of view, and they wouldn't see the resonance" with their own views, he said. "I don't know how that could strengthen the chance for national unity."

Through most of the campaign Layton has refused to follow the Liberal lead in trying to scare Canadians about the surging Conservatives, fearing that could play into Martin's hands. Several times this week, including Saturday, he mocked Martin for attempting to scare Canadians about the repercussions of a Liberal loss.

Prefacing these comments Canwest writers editorialized by adding the introductory sentence which contradicts they last paragraph above.

So which is it? Layton has not fearmongered through out the campaign or he is fearmongering now, or Canwest is in the pocket of the Conservatives in the final days of this election. I will opt for the later. Canwest has a history of this kind of editorializing, specifically they have been caught doing it around coverage in their papers on the Iraeli Palestinian conflict, firing reporters and columnists that disagree with the Aspers and providing their own publisher produced editorials for publication in their papers.

As William Burroghs said in the Ticket That Exploded, and I quote in my header, Canwest Reporters DO NOT REPORT THE NEWS THEY WRITE THE NEWS. And he who pays the piper calls the tune, in this case David Asper, Stephen Harpers new found friend.




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