Media / Media Bias

What's good for the goose, not necessarily good for the conservative gander

By arthur Weinreb

Tuesday, May 10, 2005
There is no surer sign of political parties being in election mode than the trading of trivial and ridiculous accusations of racism. and last week’s verbal barbs are proof positive that the country is geared up to go to the polls despite the fact that the majority of Canadians say that they do not want an election at this time.

The first incident occurred when a couple of Conservative MP’s posed beside the cover of the Western Standard magazine. The cover showed a group of sinister looking Liberals, including Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Scott Brison, accompanied by the caption, "The Librano$", an obvious spoof of the television series, The Sopranos. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Joe Volpe was outraged and compared the Conservative Party of Canada to the Klu Klux Klan.

a couple of days later, Conservative MP Inky Mark said that he had been contacted by a Liberal Cabinet Minister who he refused to name and was offered an ambassadorship. The implication of this was that the Liberals were trying to bribe the MP into resigning his seat; one less Conservative vote in a minority Parliament where every vote counts. Treasury Board President Reg alcock denied that anyone in his party had made an offer to Mark and said that if they were going to engage in such activities, they would have chosen someone "a little higher up in the gene pool".

Mark, a Chinese Canadian at sloughed off alcock’s comment but then some Tories held a confab and Mark denounced the Treasury Board president for making racist comments against all Canadians of Chinese descent.

The Toronto Star used Canadian Press articles to report both of these incidents. In an article entitled, "Tories are racists, minister charges", Volpe’s allegations were reported as a straight news story. Most of the article contained quotes of statements made by the Immigration Minister as well as quotes from Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer who strongly criticized Volpe for comparing MPs laughing at a parody to the KKK. The article was fair and balanced and accurately reflected the feelings on both sides.

Two days later, CP reported the Inky Mark/Reg alcock story. But since accusations were now being made by a Conservative, the writer injected opinion into the piece. Now all of a sudden these types of accusations were trivial and silly. Under the heading, "Tit-for-tat cries of bias", the writer decided to minimize alcock’s remarks as, "flippant" clearly trying to defend the Minister. No similar defense was made of the two Tories who were photographed with the Western Standard cover.

CP now characterized the accusations of racism as "a perceived breach of Ottawa’s politically correct code". No mention was made of political correctness when Volpe said that two members of the Conservatives who laughed at a parody of a television show was tantamount to a lynching.

When the Liberals were the "victims", it was a straight news story about the evils of racism. When similar accusations were made by a Conservative, it was simply political correctness run amok.

Canadian Press simply couldn’t refrain from adding their opinion to the facts when a Conservative was at the receiving end of a "racist" comment.