As I said in my last post, I wasn't impressed with the way Peter Mansbridge handled his year end interview with Stephen Harper.
I thought he stroked Great Crazy Leader with a feather, and failed to challenge his many lies, or ask the follow up questions that needed to be asked.
So the whole thing looked more like a cozy chat than an interview.
But I see that Michael Harris was even less impressed.
Last night, Canada’s most overrated journalist and underrated politician, Peter Mansbridge, performed his Yuletide foot massage on Prime Minister Stephen Harper. You came away knowing not much more than the fact that both men love their jobs. Good for them.
And that he REALLY doesn't like Peter Mansbridge.
In reality, Mansbridge reads teleprompters and provides colour commentary on a lot of parades and ceremonies. He licks a lot in his one-on-one interviews. He is a Canadian news bureaucrat beyond compare. And he gives speeches — lots of speeches.
But then who can blame him eh?
When Mansbridge allowed Harper to get away with murder on the issue of climate change.
CC did touch on climate change and the environment. He reminded the PM that he once said climate change was the biggest challenge facing the planet. CC even asked about Harper’s serial broken promises on regulating the oil and gas sector. Sadly, CC allowed himself and his viewers to be completely snowed by the answers.
The PM replied that Canada’s emissions were going down and reiterated that protecting the oil and gas industry from regulation was more important than anything else. He boasted about coal. CC said nothing. Fact? The regulations are in place for coal — but they don’t come into effect until 2015. All that boasting is, therefore, BS.
Instead of forcing him to deal with reality:
“Prime minister, such welcome and unwelcome things at once, ’tis hard to reconcile! You say our emissions are coming down, but every other expert says expansion of the tarsands is driving them up.
By asking the really HARD questions:
“Is Canada, as former Canadian diplomat Daryl Copeland put it, the ‘idiot boy’ of the climate change crisis? Have you made us into the North Korea of the environment, as Elizabeth May contends?”
And then of course there was the moment when Harper unveiled his new version of what happened when a gunman stormed Parliament Hill, and he hid in a closet.
Which as I pointed out yesterday is totally absurd...
A normal interviewer would have come to the point: “Prime Minister why did you hide in the closet after the shooting began in Parliament? Why didn’t you join your colleagues in barricading the doors and fashioning home-made weapons of self-defence? After all, you are their leader.”
Instead, Mansbridge’s performance was all reverse-gear deference. I thought for a moment the PM was resorting to humour when he suggested that he ended up in that closet because of his RCMP training. And, oh yes, because of his special knowledge of threats against himself and Canada.
Where Mansbridge once again let him off the hook, just like he let him off the hook on the question of the way Harper has been destroying our democracy:
Finally, CC, how could you not ask a single question about the granddaddy of all political developments in Canada — the destruction of the parliamentary system by which we have been governed for our entire history?
And of course I was disappointed that the Great Mansbridge never asked him what he plans to cut to balance the budget, now that he's blown the surplus.
And if they include killing the CBC?
But then I think I understand the situation...
And the conclusion seems obvious.
Peter Mansbridge really should retire,
And for what he's done to the CBC and the country.
Stephen Harper should be fired...
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12 comments:
I AM EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED WITH THE WAY PETER MANSBRIDGE (PM) handled the interview with the other PM!
Perhaps Mansbridge is awaiting his cushy senate appointment? He wants to come out of this being the only thing that great leader likes about the CBC. This is the type of stuff that keeps harper's support so high as he comes off completely innocent on all issues and drives the narrative that he is the master of Canada's destiny. All the while he's slowly pillaging anything that would pave the way to a bright and prosperous future for the next generation. I would hate to be in my teens these days.
Mansbridge doesn't need to retire. He simply was going through the motions and it was plain for all to see. If he hadn't, CBC would have been under further attack by the Cons. No reporter, in the MSM is going to "have a go" at Harper, until the election. Until then it will all be the same mind pap, but Mansbridge, retire, not so much. He is a good interviewer, he just isn't able to "interview" harper. the pmo would simply have ordered the CBC to cut those segments out. Why go to war over a small thing, when you can pick better fights later.
Its why CBC was the one who did the interview and not CTV. So you pick the time and place for your fights. You don't start a war you can't win. CBC staff is much better off to wait until the election.
Mansbridge is not an objective journalist. He's a political hack. That's the "underrated politician" part. His job is to help his party by helping the leader look good. (Which, to Mansbridge's credit, is a difficult thing to do.)
@bcwaterboy
My thought exactly. A good replacement for the missing-in-action Duffy.
Mansbridge and Harper are both Bilderberg members, and Peter has always gone super easy on Harper in these "interviews", acting not as a true journalist but as a scripted actor in a tv commercial asking questions that allow the product spokesperson to sell a product.
Absolutely Manbridge is waiting for his Senate appointment, he'll retire to the red chamber, collect a boatload of public money and live in the luxurious lap provided by his buddy Steve. It's quite disgraceful, especially for a man so well-regarded as Mansbridge.
hi Kathleen...yes it is disappointing, especially since the media get so few chances to ask Harper more than two questions in a row. But as I said, hardly surprising...
hi bcwaterboy...It should not be forgotten that Mansbridge and Duffy were once the best of friends, and that Ol' Pete must have been terribly envious to see Duffy end up in the Senate. But yes, the failure to expose Harper as the dangerous fraud he is, has condemned this country to misery. The fact that Mansbridge allowed him to get away with telling so many lies, tells us how low we have fallen. And yes, the new generation is going to have to clean up a horrible mess...
hi e.a.f...I'm afraid I share Michael Harris' view of Harper. This isn't the first time he has let Great Leader off the hook, or given him a full body massage. He may be good for stuff like Remembrance Day ceremonies, but as Harris says he's just a news bureaucrat. Finally, nothing the CBC does will stop Harper from trying to kill it. It's in his genes, he can't help himself...
hi thwap...Mansbridge has ben reading the words of others for too long. It's been close to forty years since he was a "real" reporter. And it's obvious that if he had any reporting skills he has long forgotten them. He is one of the CBC Gods who like Ghomeshi nobody dares criticize....
hi Noah...yes that's right I do remember Mansbridge attending one of those shadowy meetings. And of course he's a millionaire, so we can hardly expect him to shake-up the existing order. Under Mansbridge the CBC National has become both lighter and trashier. He really should retire, hopefully along with Rex Murphy, and let somebody younger take over...
Ya think the boys in the short pants @ the PMO did not write the script for the interview? And threatened Mansbridge with a firing if he deviated from it? Highly likely.
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