by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
May 6, 2004
On last week’s edition of CBC News: Sunday, co-host Carole MacNeil was introducing a story about Prime Minister Paul Martin’s trip to Washington and his meeting with President George W. Bush. In the intro to this item, at the beginning of the show, MacNeil said that Martin was in Washington to court "King George".
King George? actually he’s not a king--he’s the president of the United States, but we all know that MacNeil knows this. This was nothing more than a flippant anti-american dig; not much better than Liberal backbencher Carolyn Parrish’s "Damn americans — I hate those bastards".
There are differences however between the remarks made by Parrish and those of MacNeil. To begin with, Parrish was unaware that her comments were being picked up by a boom microphone. Secondly, Parrish is a Liberal MP--she doesn’t work for an organization that claims to be fair and balanced, not to mention run by grownups.
Whether MacNeil and her gang at the CBC like it or not (and we all know that they don’t like it) George W. Bush is the president of the United States and is it asking too much for Canada’s national broadcaster to show respect for at least the office if not the man himself? It actually is asking too much--the american-hating CBC just can’t resist any form of childish remarks at the expense of our neighbours to the south.
and when the piece was introduced later in the show, prior to the segment being shown, MacNeil described it as "Paul goes to Washington". Paul? This isn’t a column; this is allegedly a serious news story about the prime minister meeting with the leader of the free world. at a minimum, she should have at least referred to him as Paul Martin. Even Martin’s close buds at Earnscliffe don’t call him Paul in public any more. This was nothing more than taxpayer funded tackiness.
The sad part is that the CBC wants to get rid of Don Cherry.