And it's spelled Janke not Jank. And he too has been a pit bull for the Conservatives in Ottawa.
And last week they were outed as being in Harpers back pocket during the election.
Except the payola to Blogging Tories did not after the election was over, it continued this year.In his new book, Harper's Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power, party strategist Tom Flanagan notes the Tories' innovative use of blogs in the 2006 election campaign.
He cites in particular two members of the Blogging Tories, Steve Jank and Stephen Taylor, who write highly partisan blogs on federal politics.
Mr. Flanagan writes that campaign manager Doug Finley "appointed people to monitor the blogosphere and to get out stories that were not quite ready for the mainstream media."
These bloggers "amplify and diversify our message," he wrote.
The Harper government gave a contract for communications consulting on Parliament Hill, worth up to $20,000, to an outspoken Conservative Internet blogger.
Privy Council Office records show Joan Tintor, author of a popular weblog or "blog," in June received the one-year contract for "communications professional services not elsewhere specified."
The government says Ms. Tintor was not paid to write a blog and has so far received only $350 for work performed under the contract.
She was contracted to provide writing and other communications work on an as-needed basis to the office of government House leader Peter Van Loan.
Ms. Tintor did not return an e-mail requesting comment and, when reached by telephone, she said she would have to call back. She did not.
Her strongly opinionated blog focuses on provincial and federal politics and is listed on the web page of the "Blogging Tories," a collection of conservative Internet commentators. Her blog, joantintor.blogspot.com
Joan has been silent on this particular matter. In fact she has not blogged since Saturday.
So add Joan to the list of Blogging Tories accepting payola from the Conservatives.
And like Tory race car driver and news aggregator Pierre Bourque these Tory Bloggers relish the idea of being close to power.
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Apology accepted. In good faith I gave direct quotes from Taylor and CPoC MPs that the scam was happening. I also pointed out other scams: cheque swapping (latest being 76 candidates - including Harper), convention gate (in oh so many ways), pre-writ spending being used during the campaign and then not being declared, which the internet scam is a part of... bogus accounting (the several version given to Elections Canada). etc.
ReplyDeleteI'm standing up for the integrity of our democracy.
Eugene Parks
It bugs me the Citizen couldn't even bother to look up Janke's name. That concerns me, since it taints the whole story, even if it's accurate.
ReplyDeleteThe MSM is just starting to get how serious a story this is - bogus "news" during elections will erk people. What will bring out even more is the lawsuit by 67 CPoC candidates re paying back the $50,000 per riding. During discovery those candidates (including Stephen Harper) will have to open their books - everthing. And the sources of money are subject to investigation - potentially back to who paid for Stephen Harper's leadership bid pre current election rules... and using the money at that now famous convention. The democratic story is that the CPoC has hidden the sources of many bogus "news" stories - a morally bankrupt way to get propaganda out... equally interestingly will be the accounting story ofb the money trail, which leads all over the place, including the internet scam... if the media stays on this... there is money to follow.
ReplyDelete