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Bill O'Reilly takes on a Canadian pollster

by arthur Weinreb

august 16, 2004

My article of June 30 entitled, "Poll: Over 40 percent of Canadian teens think america is ‘evil’" appeared in Canada Free Press. The poll was commissioned by Can West News Services and sought the opinions of 500 Canadian teens. Forty per cent of them responded that the United States is evil and that number rose to 64 per cent in the Province of Quebec.

I wrote the article right after the June 28 federal election and used the poll as a lead in my comments about how Prime Minister Paul Martin used anti-american sentiment in the election campaign. Martin kept accusing Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper of wanting to bring in "american style health care" and "american-style tax cuts", and therefore of being "un-Canadian".

But after my article was published, the result of the poll took on a life of its own. a few days after it appeared, the article was posted on the Drudge Report. Once on Drudge, other U.S. media picked it up. While the story received virtually no attention in this country, it received a lot of coverage south of the border, particularly from Bill O’Reilly of the Fox News Channel, the network that we Canadians are not allowed to legally watch (except for those on Parliament Hill, of course).

The polling was conducted on behalf of Can West by the Dominion Institute. Founded in 1997, the Dominion Institute is described by its director, Rudyard Griffiths, as "a national charity that promotes Canadian history and citizenship". In a 2002 interview with the University of British Columbia, Griffiths said that the Dominion Institute has an annual budget of $1.5 million, two thirds of it coming from governments--the majority from the federal government.

after my article was featured on the Drudge Report, Rudyard Griffiths obtained his 15 minutes of fame. He appeared on O’Reilly’s Fox News program and penned two articles about the poll, one in the Globe and Mail and one in the National Post.

In an interview on Fox News, Griffith not only explained the poll but he defended those who think that our neighbour to the south is indeed "evil". He justified the opinions of the teens by pointing out the negative images that we see on television coming from Iraq. When O’Reilly countered that the teens see the images that the CBC wants them to see, Griffith was reduced to inviting him to Toronto to drink "Canadian beer". O’Reilly said that he would like to come "to straighten you guys out".

The sub-heading of Griffith’s article in the Globe and Mail read, "Defending Canada against the broadsides of the U.S. right is learning experience". While Griffiths may not have written the headline and the sub-heading, it was consistent with his article--that O’Reilly and CNN’s Tucker Carlson, who also commented on the polls, can be dismissed as being right wing because they defend their country from accusations that it is evil.

Griffiths wrote that "Three days after our poll appeared in the Drudge Report, I got the opportunity to go on Fox News to try and do some damage control [emphasis mine].

Defending Canada? Do some damage control? You have to remember that this guy is a pollster. Pollsters are usually interviewed in the media to explain their polls, not defend them. They have a right to defend themselves if their poll is attacked but that was not the case here. Neither O’Reilly nor others in the U.S. media that covered the story ever questioned how Griffiths conducted his polling. The poll became newsworthy because the media accepted its results--that a significant percentage of Canadian teens think that the United States is evil. So why does Griffiths feel the need to defend not his polling but what the respondents said?

The answer is obvious. The Canadian citizenship that his institute claims to promote seems to include the notion that Canadians need to put the United States down in order to feel like good Canadians. Griffith’s charity that he also refers to as an NGO is funded in the main by the Liberal Canadian government, and he apparently feels the need to tow the party line. Had he appeared on O’Reilly’s show as a completely objective pollster he would have had no need to switch the topic to beer drinking when confronted by the host about the CBC.

Bill--if you do make it up to Toronto, give me a call. Like most major cities in your country, Toronto has its share of big city problems, but the city has a lot to offer. Contrary to what you might have been told, there is a lot more to do here than sit around and drink a Molson’s Canadian.

and if you come here, I’ll introduce you to some real Canadians--ordinary non elites who appreciate the sacrifices that your country has made in the past and is making now in the fight against terrorism. Don’t stay too long though; remember, you can’t watch Fox.

How does that sound, eh?


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