The local CBC is to the local Tory crowd as the Globe is to the local, umm, well the Tory/nationalist tribe.
It is the only news medium they pay attention to.
Just look at the number of times they reference the Globe about something related to this province either because it is or is not in Toronto’s national newspaper. If it isn’t in the Globe it never happened.
Ditto CBC.
Item: Fred Hutton and NTV broke the story about Danny’s sooper sekrit trip to Florida to fix his heart problem.
The Chris Crocker Brigade attacked the CBC.
Listening to Cross Talk that day was like listening to a pack of enraged hyenas tearing kittens to pieces.
Just insane.
Item: Danny files a complaint with the CBC ombudsman about a comment made by a local CBC producer in a story in the National Post.
Item: the editorial in the Western Star suggesting the Old man might consider packing it in if he is getting too tired and cranky.
Never got much attention until CBC posted it online.
And then all hell broke loose.
But don’t just look at the fact the Fan Club reacted to the location of the story. Look as well at the content. labradore picked it up.
It’s all fairly typical stuff for the Fan Club what with the sneering personal attacks in lieu of anything else or the fact that the editorial opinion of the newspaper was not signed. Again, a hunt apparently for the individual to be sliced and diced.
Rather than look just at that, though, look at the fact they reacted to what – according to them and the Old Man - is supposedly a non-story.
If it wasn’t something playing on the minds, if the fear of his departure did not cause their stomach to shrink, then they wouldn’t have to work so viciously to deny it or spew so savagely at their mortal enemies, well enemies other than Reason and Civility.
Call it a tell or, as those of us not inclined to gamble might say, a dead give-away. There have been other little dead give-aways, like Ed Buckingham’s test drive last February of a eulogy line for the Old Man’s political career.
Or his shoulder twitches. Check the House of Assembly video for Question Period on that one.
Or Tony the Tory’s letter to every paper in the province to reassure himself it seemed that last falls’ political disaster in the Straits didn’t mean the Tories were dead as a political force.
But when it comes to tells, nothing is so telling as the fact the government crowd are predictable.
From the Lower Churchill illusion to Jerome!’s use of salaries and a personal attack on the exec director of the medical association to the old chestnut that Charlene flicked out about working for Quebec and not the province in the Abitibi thing, these guys have nothing new.
We can’t do a deal because this guy is blocking? Like you never tried that line before and still got a deal at the end once the bullshit stopped?
Or like this government itself doesn’t try to and sometimes do business with the Great Satan to the West:
- Danny, Kathy and the five years of secret talks to get Hydro Quebec to take an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill, no redress?
- And environmentalist Charlene’s deal to burn used tires from here at a Quebec site? No pollution there, buddy.
There are plenty of signs if you open your mind to the possibility they exist. The truth is there waiting to be seen.
And it all makes you wonder what would happen if not a single leader but a handful of credible potential cabinet ministers popped up on one or another of the other political sides. People the rest of the province outside the Fan Club could see as the nucleus of a credible alternative administration.
The Tories would never notice, of course, until it appeared in the Globe or on the Ceeb.
-srbp-
“Tell Danny I love him thiiiiiiiiis much” Update: The legendary Tony the Tory displays his ignorance of how newspapers write editorials.
Yes Tony. He is popular because he is right and right because he is popular.