February 3, 2003
In her January 19 column in The Toronto Star, Mrs. Stephen Lewis, aka Michele Landsberg, engages in what she does best--men bashing. In a column entitled "Scenes from a parade of blithering men of power," she takes swipes at George Bush (how original) and David Frum, childishly referring to the latter as "little David Frum". She then goes on to talk about Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino’s now infamous town hall meeting where the chief refused to answer a 15-year-old girl’s question about how can he expect black youths to respect the police when the police don’t respect them. Of Fantino, Landsberg, wrote"
"…Fantino lashed out with a quick, defensive insult in barely comprehensible English when he brushed her question aside as …"
Barely comprehensible English? It is true that Chief Fantino does not e-nun-ci-ate e-v-er-y word sl-ow-ly and pre-cis-ely like Landesberg’s husband and AIDS poobah, Stephen Lewis does, but there is nothing that Fantino has ever publicly said, including his response to the 15-year-old that was in any way incomprehensible. Given the criticism of Fantino by the audience and the media, it appears that Landsberg was the only one who had some difficulty in understanding the chief’s words.
Could it be that the Star’s most prominent male basher was making some illusion to the fact that Fantino was born in Italy and came to Canada as an immigrant? Or does the matron of the left think that Fantino perhaps does not have a high enough social standing to be in the position he’s in. Her characterizations of both Frum and Fantino, say more about Landsberg than they do about them.
The CBC’s idea of balance
On January 26. CBC News: Sunday did a segment on the impending war between the United States and Iraq. Co-hosts Evan Solomon and Carole MacNeil purported to give a balanced report about the approaching hostilities by going first to Iraq and then to the United States. Two differing sources made it appear to be balanced. But the reality was that it was just another opportunity for the network to parade its blatant anti-Americanism.
For the Iraqi point of view, the hosts went to CBC report Don Murray who is stationed in Baghdad. Murray, in an objective manner, spoke about what senior Iraqi officials and ordinary people thought about what was likely to happen and told of their preparations and feelings about the future. Murray was candid enough to tell about senior officials asking him whether or not his reporting reaches the United States and being pleased when he told them that it did--a refreshing admission that he, like other Western journalists, would be used as propaganda tools by the Iraqi government. Murray’s report was straightforward and objective, like a journalist’s report should be.
To get the American point of view, the hosts went to columnist Helen Thomas. The program failed to mention that the 82-year-old former UPI’s White House correspondent has been one of George W. Bush’s harshest media critics. She refers to the United States as the aggressor and says that the upcoming war with Iraq will be an immoral war. Thomas’s exchanges with Presidential press secretary Ari Fleisher have become legendary in the United States. Her exchange with Fleisher when she asked him why George Bush wants to bomb innocent Iraqis have been posted on several anti-war websites.
When co-host Carole MacNeil described Thomas as being able to provide behind-the-scenes news, Thomas retorted that just because she sits in the front row during press conferences doesn’t mean that she knows what goes on behind the scenes wherein MacNeil stated: "I’ve seen you operate with Ari Fleisher--I’d say you have a better idea than most." The co-host obviously agrees with Thomas’ view of the world. MacNeil then goes on to ask Thomas leading anti-war questions and obtained the answers that she was looking for.
It was hardly a balanced interview, but the CBC can proudly state that they covered both sides.