With a tip of the hat to Gerry Rogers and Andrew Parsons, here are some posts from the SRBP archive that all bear on the current political mess in which the provincial Conservatives find themselves.
“Playing the Numbers” (August 2006) One element of the program involves aggressively pushing out their own message, especially when their pollster is in the field. The first of the original three-part series that described the Conservative media strategy. There’s a lot more to it than just online polls. Follow the links for the other two.
Freedom from Information (Various) Bill 29 was just the latest in a long string of efforts by the Conservatives to restrict what the public knows. Controlling information is another key element of the government program.
“Mark Griffin: traitor” (February 2009) A third element of the program involved efforts to suppress dissent. Mark Griffin was an especially glaring example. There have been lots of others, reported and presumably unreported. Write a letter? Get a call.
“Everything else is advertising” (December 2009) News is everything they want to keep you from seeing. There’s no story here.
“Deep Throat” (February 2010) Someone inside the provincial Conservative crew leaked the messages about poll goosing. Earlier, someone (else?) dropped a quarter and ratted Danny’s secret heart surgery out to NTV.
“The Screaming of the Banshees” (February 2010) NTV broke the story. The Conservatives mount an organized attack on CBC. Some people still think that the who horde of people saying exactly the same thing arose spontaneously. Sure it did.
“Planted Calls and Personal Threats Against Talk Show Host Revealed” (August 2010) Randy Simms, interviewed by Geoff Meeker, included a text-book definition of a planted caller.
“Enough of the Political Day-Care” (March 2012) As soon as you read it, you will remember the episode. What might leap out more for someone of you now than before is the idea that calling Open Line was a threat that struck fear into Tory hearts.
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