TORONTO, Tuesday, June 07, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an interesting and unexpected twist, an unsigned editorial printed in today’s Toronto Sun, one of Canada’s most highly circulated newspapers, defends the same opinion that Canada’s alternative conservative media has been repeating ad nauseam for years—that the mainstream media in Canada is thoroughly biased in favour of the Liberal government and its leftist agenda.
In order to prove this assertion the editorial compared mainstream media coverage of Liberal MP Pat O’Brien’s defection from his party on account of its support for Bill C-38, the same-sex marriage bill, and former Conservative MP Belinda Stronach’s highly controversial crossing to the Liberals several weeks ago.
According to the editorial, political amateur Belinda Stronach, up to the moment she crossed the floor to the Liberal party—in exchange for a comfortable cabinet position—had never been considered as more than a ineffectual, albeit beautiful, curiosity by Canada’s media. No-one believed she was in the business for any serious ethical beliefs. She was “a glamorous but lightweight political novelty act.”
Strangely enough, Stronach’s sudden defection was made out by almost every major news source to be clear evidence of Conservative party leader Stephen Harper’s inability to “appeal to socially moderate voters.” The media managed to ignore Stronach’s obvious motivation (the Cabinet position) and accused Harper of being inept and unable to compromise his staunch conservative beliefs for the unity of the party. The Sun’s editorial quips that the media “laughably made Stronach out to be the intellectual voice of moderate conservatism in Canada. Right.”
Conversely, Pat O’Brien’s defection from the Liberals, which defection can only have been on account of a deep-seated values conflict, since the move is a political dead end, is not being reported as a Paul Martin failure. This in spite of the fact that Martin’s government is dangling by little more than a thread. According to the editorial, “Martin has demonstrated a clear inability to retain the loyalty of socially conservative Liberals, whose support he needs if his minority government is to survive for any length of time.”
The column asks why these two situations were treated so disparately, answering “Because in the overwhelming view of the Liberal punditocracy, Stronach holds the ‘correct’ view in favour of same-sex marriage, while O’Brien, who is opposed, can be dismissed as a “dinosaur” whose loss to the Grits [Liberals] is no big deal.”
The writer continues,“This, by the way, even though opposition to same-sex marriage is a view supported by about a quarter of the Liberal caucus and half the country. Nevertheless, in the pro-Liberal punditocracy, opposition to gay marriage is routinely portrayed as ‘extreme’ and ‘bigoted’.”
JJ