Saturday, October 17, 2015

Is the National Post Trying to Muzzle Andrew Coyne?



I rarely agree with anything Andrew Coyne says or writes. I don't share his missionary faith in an economic system that I believe has been corrupted to its core by the rich and the powerful.

There couldn't be a better example of that corruption, than the way the big MSM organizations like Postmedia are commanding its editorial employees to endorse the Harper Cons.

And ironically enough, in this campaign, Coyne may be its first casualty. 

Postmedia newspapers have been running variations of the same Harper endorsement all day. 

But Postmedia's flagship paper has yet to pick their winner. The decision of its editorial board is expected imminently. The head of that board is Andrew Coyne.


CANADALAND has learned that though Coyne the editor has signed off on an official National Post Harper endorsement, Coyne the columnist planned to endorse a different candidate under his own byline in the paper tomorrow. 


But the National Post won't run it.



Will Andrew Coyne stay on at the Post if he's muzzled from telling us all what he thinks?

I have no idea whether this story is true, but I note that Coyne's usually chirpy Twitter feed has gone silent. 

But if it is true, he is to be commended, because what Postmedia is doing is outrageous. As outrageous as what the Globe and Mail editorial board did yesterday, with its absurd yes to the Cons, no to Harper endorsement.

For not only are those media barons failing to reflect the views of an overwhelming majority of Canadians who want change, and strongly believe that Harper and his foul regime are more than good to go.

They are also shrugging off and condoning Harper's brutish assault on our democracy, our courts, and our values. Putting their grubby profits, or their juicy tax breaks before our country.

As only Con hogs can...



And by ordering their editorial writers to dance to their porky tune, and propagandize for the Cons, they are distorting reality. And in these last critical days, they are helping Stephen Harper and his gang steal the next election.

Which couldn't be more shameful. Or more dangerous.

And the good news?

We have our own media as humble as it might be. Blogs like this one, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter...



And we are more and better than them.

So we can counter their foul lying propaganda, and send our messages out to those who need to hear them. Like vote, vote prepared, vote strategically. 

And of course also send a message to those swaggering media barons:

You will not muzzle us like you muzzle your employees.

We hold you in contempt. And whether you like it or not.

We will bring down the tyrant...



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16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Canadian democracy has hit a low when the owners are brazen enough to step out of the shadows and openly muzzle their journalists. Under consumer protection laws they should advertise as a entertainment rather than news.
RT

thwap said...

So when harper says "It's not about me" ... it meshes perfectly with the G & M's idiotic, asinine request that you vote for your local harpercon, but then expect that if they return with a minority or majority, that their dictator harper will magically disappear.

Anonymous said...

While the NP and its Wall Street hedge fund owners may muzzle Coyne, they apparently are fine with National Post co-founder Conrad Black: "We really cannot have another four years of government by a sadistic Victorian schoolmaster."

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/conrad-black-stephen-harper-did-many-great-things-for-this-country-but-he-hung-on-to-power-a-little-too-long

mizdarlin said...

*Sigh* I'm old enough to remember when the Globe and Mail was a decent newspaper..the only one at the time in Canada..but they sold out to rightwing media barons awhile ago, and no one should be surprised by any endorsement coming from them, or the National Post...time was when a media conglomerate endorsed a candidate long before an election, it deeply influenced it's readers...now? Well, guess it's still true of NP readers, whoever they might be....

Jim Parrett said...

Yes.

It's ironic the 'liberal media' now blankets the entire country coast to coast in the form of Postmedia (now incl. Sun). Yet a civic newspaper (The Star) with progressive leanings has the biggest circulation of all. Should be a lesson there for the Postmedia staff but learning from their erroneous ways never gets in the way of promoting right-wing ideology, specially that of the Cons..

Anonymous said...

"But Postmedia's flagship paper has yet to pick their winner. The decision of its editorial board is expected imminently. The head of that board is Andrew Coyne."

This paragraph is identical to one on Canadaland. Is Jesse Brown stealing from you or vice versa?

David said...

National Post View: Our choice for government
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/national-post-view-our-choice-for-government

Simon said...

hi RT...well they certainly are brazen, and shameless. They have turned themselves into Con propaganda organs. And anyone who could endorse a government as rotten as the Harper regime, is as bad as they are and beneath contempt...

Simon said...

hi thwap....have you ever heard anything more ridiculous, or more fraudulent? Stephen Harper agreeing to step down from a position he has clung to like a bat clings to a cave roof, or a remora sticks to a shark's stomach. It's beyond belief, and it has made the editorialist look like fools or stooges. I only hope those MSM propaganda tools are made to pay for their treachery....

Simon said...

hi anon....they probably think that Connie can say anything he likes because nobody takes that old windbag seriously. And the owners know he's a member of the club. Still I do like that line... ;)

Simon said...

hi mizdarlin...well let's hope their blatant propaganda doesn't influence too many minds. I don't think it will. People who read newspapers have probably made up their minds already. And the ignorant rabble will get their news from what they see on TV. Interestingly enough, Paul Wells shared an e-mail article by William Thorsell, the Globe's former Editor in Chief which was called something like "The editorial I would have written if I was still writing them." And he gently filleted the Cons as any real journalist would. I can only imagine what all those other writers and reporters must feel, to see their publications degraded so frightfully...

Simon said...

hi Jim...that's a good point. The Post was created in the hope that it might help build a new and more conservative Canada. When Black was running it, those who worked there were motivated by an almost religious zeal. But it turned out Canada wasn't as conservative as they had imagined, and from what I hear Postmedia is still teetering on the edge of the abyss....

Simon said...

hi anon...what are you talking about? That line is italicized and a direct quote from Canadaland....

Simon said...

hi David...I saw the headline, but didn't bother to read it. As I said above, anyone who could endorse those scummy Cons has no moral compass, and not worth reading...

Anonymous said...

While it may be wrong for newspapers to "muzzle" their columnists (no media outlet is unbiased and columnists know what the bias is when they sign on), it is also wrong for columnists - journalists - to provide political endorsements.

Right now, on At Issue, pretty much every panelist and perhaps the host himself is pulling for the Liberals. The only exception I've seen of late are, of course, Paul Wells and Jennifer Ditchburn.

Many Liberals seem to think it's OK that media bodies such as The Huffington Post and The Toronto Star slant their coverage and don't cover certain stories, so long as the trend is Liberal-leaning.

Calling out all the hypocrites.

Anonymous said...

SMH...sorry about that, maybe my browser screwed up the formatting.