Dictatorial Libs Seek Control of BC Media

[LeashCops]

The Campbell government is taking advantage of the decline of print journalism, to employ recent journalism graduates as propaganda tools. Ironically, I was at the Robson Square courthouse today, and witnessed Stonewally Oppal use the party-prop apparatus to conduct brazen pre-election politicking, at public expense. Oppal said he will use tax payer money to expand Vancouver's Main Street lockup (run by Vancouver Police) to lock up more non-violent criminals. (Thirty percent of arrested persons are never charged with an offence) Oppal - who has shifted ridings - hopes to pander to engineered public safety fears, so as to paint his government as essential in promoting security.

The Campbell-Oppal clique hardly need a public subsidy of their party, given the dubious work of FOX-Canada (AKA: Global News) and the Vancouver Province, whose "journalists" act out cop scripts. Castanet members needs to fight the trend to dictatorship in this province.
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WITH THE FOURTH ESTATE UNDER SIEGE, GOVERNMENTS SEEK TO MANAGE THE NEWS
By Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun, April 6, 2009

Everywhere I go, I'm asked whether or not I'll have a job much longer. I often detect a smidgen of schadenfreude in the inquiry -- the guy who so often writes bad news might be getting some of his own.

For a brief moment after Watergate, when Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman played reporters in All The President's Men, we journos were cast as glamorous urban heroes. But it's been downhill ever since.

For all our supposed commitment to truth, justice and the Canadian way, we consistently rank with used car salesmen in popularity polls. Nobody much cries over the closure of newspapers or TV newsrooms or laid-off journalists.

But as the provincial election campaign begins, you might want to show the Fourth Estate a little love -- or maybe just a little more respect.

We're under siege -- and not just because of our shrinking TV and newspaper budgets. We're being outgunned by the governments you elect, who over the last decade have quietly created immense news management systems to keep us all "on message."

I first noticed this by luck. A few years ago, I was asked by an editor to find the song Carole Taylor "loves to hate."

Dutifully, I e-mailed the then finance minister with my BlackBerry. Taylor got back to me and said she'd mull it over it. It was a piece of trivia she hadn't thought about, either.

But inside government, my question took on a life of its own. It wasn't Taylor's doing, but my little e-mail was automatically entered into the government's communications matrix. Days later, I got another e-mail back from Taylor's assistant, who asked my reasons for asking.

"I just need to know the song she loves to hate," I responded, feeling slightly ridiculous, wondering what the fuss could possibly be. (Taylor's answer, if you need to know, was Feelings.)

Then I noticed something curious underneath that official's e-mail back to me. He'd forgotten to delete the "tracking history" of where my original question had been dispatched. It showed I'd been vetted by the premier's office, one of his senior aides, a deputy minister and then handed back to the mighty Public Affairs Bureau.

What's the Public Affairs Bureau? Well, PAB is essentially an in-house information spin machine, housed in the legislature's basement.

It has a $28-million budget. It has 223 full-time news spinners. And it has high-tech systems that allow them to monitor all media in the province and transcribe it in almost real time. If a political thought is broadcast or printed in this province, chances are PAB has found it and combed it for any political import.

Here's some perspective. There isn't a newsroom in Canada with 223 full-time reporters covering a province. And no newsroom anywhere covers a legislature with the same intensity as PAB.

It's a rare event to find cabinet ministers without a PAB employee trailing them, tape recorder in hand. Even the ministers get irritated by the PABsters' ubiquity.

Some will blame the Liberals for this. But it's not a partisan thing. The genesis of PAB -- essentially a centralization of information gathering and distribution -- actually took root under the New Democratic Party, when it was in power.

It's not surprising, really. It's the information age. Data is power. Governments, like everyone else, want to control it. But let Thomas Jefferson have the final word on who ought to control information dissemination: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

Where did I get that perfect quote? From the front page of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. It died March 17, 2009.

[email protected]

[Nebula]

I couldn't help but notice, Leashcops, that you slammed Global and then quoted the Vancouver Sun (Global owned) to support your rant.

In any event, I am a journalist and have had more than one experience with the PAB folks. They could spin a fart into the wafting scent of a spring rose in three seconds flat. Some are very helpful but most of them just get in the way.

[LeashCops]

Global TV emulates FOX-TV in the US. Canwest's print media is somewhat independent.

Global is praised on all the cop forums. They are bragging about getting an exclusive on Bacon family arrest videos. Yah, they get exclusives because they serve the cop agenda.

Re the so-called "Surrey Six" arrests: conviction is far from certain. Cops leveraged someone to inform on former colleagues. I suspect that the informant sought police protection, after thinking he would be caught up in the wave of inter gang warfare. His testimony will not be credible, even with his self-serving confession.

Over $80,000,000 has been spent on the BC Integrated Gang Task Force, since 2004. More has been burned on the Violence Suppression Team, since 2007. Be aware that those losers have been non productive. They haven't prevented a single gang hit. And their law enforcement has been worse. Why pay for garbage? Legalize recreational drugs, now.

As I write, there has been yet another gang hit in Vancouver. This one was at a filling station on Marine Drive. When you have a bloated 9-5 cop bureaucracy whose members are only interested in getting their 45 for 25 year pension deal, you get nothing for your money. BC policing needs to be completely revamped, and all executive positions eliminated. A "chief" of police would have taken the same 65 days of Justice Institute training as the goofs he lords over. Cops are dolts, who need to be put on a leash. And we need to decertify all cop unions, and make cops work until they are 65.

[Nebula]

We're all aware of your anti-cop agenda, but what does that have to do with the BC Liberals and the media?

[Fancy]

And we need to decertify all cop unions, and make cops work until they are 65.

RCMP are getting the go ahead for unionization and I don't think there are enough desk jobs for the 55 and over.

[logicalview]

BC policing needs to be completely revamped, and all executive positions eliminated.

Eliminating all managerial authority within an organization.

Very interesting, but stupid.

[LeashCops]

Cops over 45, can do meter maid work.

Some dummies still think cops are productive. What exactly have you received for the $80,000,000 you helped shell out for the BC Integrated Gang Task Force? The BCIGTF was founded in 2004, and supplemented with the Violence Suppression Teams in 2007, and were supposed to prevent both the current gang war and the free range recreational drug industry. Judged by ANY criteria, our 9-5 sand-boxers haven't delivered anything but do-nut farts.

Our cops are uneducated dorks. Yet our spineless politicians treat those scabs as a branch of government. They are adult children who play pyromania with our tax dollars. If you don't want to work for a living, become a cop. You get paid for nothing, and then call the critics of your sloth, "scumbags." Maybe we should pay village shamans and rain-makers; at least they wouldn't deliver negative productivity.

[Captain Awesome]

were supposed to prevent both the current gang war and the free range recreational drug industry. Judged by ANY criteria, our 9-5 sand-boxers haven't delivered anything but do-nut farts.

Oh my god, you mean they haven't completely cleaned up the city of crime and drugs just like any other city in Canada and US that now are completely free of drugs and crime? Oh my, they deserve a nudge!

[LeashCops]

*please repost without the personal attacks/Jo*

[RR24K]

"LeashCops" Please do everyone a big flavour and get some therapy or go back on your meds.

[logicalview]

Clearly, you (CaptainAwesome) have an active fantasy life, which probably includes major use of porn.

And there you have it folks, the WMD of posts to assert self assessed supremacy in this thread.

[Captain Awesome]

Your attitudes to the blue slugs are based on a conditioned belief that TV policing, parallels reality. Clearly, you have an active fantasy life, which probably includes major use of porn. It appears that you don't want to work for a living; you can do that by becoming a cop.

*Yawn*

You should get a job or something. If you were putting all the energy you're putting into bashing cops into work, you'd become a CEO by now. Of course, that would require you to stop doing drugs but we all make sacrifices.

[Fancy]

Let this impact on your brain:

Our cops are uneducated dorks. Yet our spineless politicians treat those scabs as a branch of government. They are adult children who play pyromania with our tax dollars. If you don't want to work for a living, become a cop. You get paid for nothing, and then call the critics of your sloth, "scumbags." Maybe we should pay village shamans and rain-makers; at least they wouldn't deliver negative productivity.

You obviously would be very surprised as to how much education some of the policemen have. I wonder why you don't use some common sense before spouting rhetoric or at least do your homework. I'm puzzled as to why you use the term "scab" as it seems in this context incorrect. You repeatedly say the same thing as if you are trying to brainwash the few posters here but it's obvious there are differences of opinions. Society wants and needs police and I don't believe they control the media.

[steven lloyd]

Let this impact on your brain: on average, Canadian cops make 1 arrest every 14 days. Half of same results in a conviction. Cops deliver 1 conviction every month, and 1 incarcerated person per year.

Where do you get this stuff ???
What’s impacted your brain ? Did you run head first into a cement wall or something ?

[ventured]

Cops over 45, can do meter maid work.

Cops don't perform By-law enforcement.