It all started with covering Burnaby City Council meetings for The Vancouver Sun … clearly a gateway event …that eventually led me to cover Vancouver City Hall, the GVRD, the Legislature in Victoria, Parliament in Ottawa (see the progression?)  … and now lately, I’m even hooked on watching U.S. Presidential politics.

And trust me … stay away, unless you are prepared to be let down.  U.S. Presidential Primary Debates may attract viewers looking for an ultimate high … but what you get is an initial rush, followed by a high or two as lines are delivered,  but ultimately ending with a crash at the end of it all, leaving you empty, unfulfilled and exhausted … time after time.

Why?

Because the “reporters” asking the questions, probing the candidates have forgotten to be real journalists.

They all seem to be sticking to pre-scripted questions on pre-determined topics in pre-allocated segments ..all in an orchestrated, precisely timed order … which forces the whole debate into a pre-measured straight jacket formula that almost totally removes the essential questioning tool of cross-examination.

So we get assigned discussion segments on The Economy, Social Issues and Foreign Relations.

And admittedly, I do get my expected high from some of the questions and the responses from the candidates, or lack of responses, and parrying that follows between the aspiring Presidential candidates, and sometimes, the reporters on the panel.

But then comes the crash.

Why?

Because the journalists are so tied to their scripts, they don’t  think about previous answers tossed out by the contenders as they totally contradict themsleves 20 minutes later in another segment.

For example, in Monday’s debate on Fox News the candidates, in the section on The Economy,  were asked what level of personal income taxes they thought should be applied, even for the highest earners … and, of course, they responded calling for lower personal taxes …right down to zero in the case of Ron Paul. An easy lob to experienced journalists:  what would lowering taxes on EVERYONE do to the US deficit, debt, economy???? And down to zero??  Where would Paul make up for the HUGE loss of revenues?  Nothing.  Nada. Rien.

And of course, they all called for lower corporate taxes as well.   But even that didn’t lead to a single question about the impact this shallow rhetoric would have on the US government operations, its deficit and debt.  The journalism was as shallow as the responses.

And it got even worse.

In a later segment on Foreign Affairs, all of the candidates, except Paul, called for a STRONG US defence policy and did quite a lot of saber-rattling in the direction of Iran.  And even seemingly-isolationist Paul called for a strong US miliitary to DEFEND the country.

The OBVIOUS question ..how would they pay for all that …in light of their earlier pledge to lower or compeltely eliminate personal taxes, lowewr corproate taxes etc etc.?????

But apparently, when these illustrous journalists move on to a new segment …they MUST STICK to their pre-determined questions.

And they totally forget everything said by the candidates only minutes earlier … so there are no “wait a minute” moments, no questioning of how they intend to pay for a stronger military, a new war on Iran … while lowering taxes even more.

What would they cut … even eliminating two or three departments (likely impossible-to-keep rhetoric) and cutting foreign aid wouldn’t be enough to do all they kept promising to keep America “strong” without MAJOR service eliminations in huge already-committed social programs.  Which would they cut or eliminate? And what would happen to those people who can’t find jobs and depend on those programs.  Nothing. Nada Rien.

It’s actually quite a surprise to see such seasoned senior reporters failing to connect the dots between what a politician says now and what he said 20 minutes earlier.  And it was not just done in the latest debate on Fox.

Quite shameful.

But now that you’re on to it, if you too are a political junky like me, I urge you NOT to watch for it next time. Take it from me: that will just make your crash when it’s over even worse. And vow never to do it again.

Until the next one.

Harv Oberfeld

The economic system is broken …and only massive continual public pressure and protests will finally force governments to respond and start primarily representing those who elect them and not those will finance their campaigns.

And what I find most interesting is how the mainstream media in Canada have all fallen in line with their US counterparts, reporting the rebellion as starting in New York, on Wall Street …and then spreading to other cities, including Vancouver.

Not!

The middle class rebellion BEGAN IN BC.

We called in the fight against the HST …but as it progressed and the facts became clear, the HST battle was no doubt the loudest shot ever fired in the middle class’s war against over-taxation, oppression and exploitation.

Think about it.  At first, the main motivating factor may have been the way the tax was brought in; and the media reported it as such …just as the government and corporate community wanted.

And then came the propaganda … loads of it, suggesting the hated tax was revenue neutral and actually good for everyone in BC.

BUT as more and more information became available, it became clear the tax was NOT revenue neutral at all … but a  hit, mostly on the middle class, and that’s when the uprising really gained strength.

It was battle royale …the middle class against the government, big business and their media mouthpieces, punditsand propagandists who almost daily campaigned for the HST.

What I found most amusing…and appalling…is how so many in the media claimed during the campiagn the cost to the average taxpayer was actually relatively small…but after the tax was defeated, the same voices began to make it sound like every government program, plan and service would now face a truly dreadful time because of all the huge lost extra revenues.

How can these “journalists” and pundits look at themselves in the mirror and not be ashamed?

But when the history of the Rebellion of 2011 is written, the vote against the HST will finally gets due … recognized as the FIRST major UPRISING by the middle class against our ever-increasing tax burdens.

Make no mistake about it …the Occupy protests are just part of a continuing rebellion: a peaceful one, but an uprising nonetheless by thousands … including many who have never demonstrated or protested before.

The “people” want not only fair taxes, but fair jobs as well: fulltime jobs, complete with benefits …ending big businesses penchant for hiring only “part-time” workers…even hundreds or thousands of them …to get around paying benefits.

And government has to stop encouraging them to avoid hiring full-time employees: the federal and provincial governments should increase the tax brackets of firms that exceed 10 per cent part-time employees … to reflect the added burden they place on government and  the taxpayers for unfunded social services/pensions required by those companies …some of which measure their profits in the millions.

As someone who spent so much of my life in the media, I can understand why not too many of my colleagues can see the link right now between the HST fight and the Occupy protests.

There is a big difference between “News” and “History” and the stories they tell can be quite different: the first recounts the happenings of the day, week or sometimes even month; the latter is perspective hindsight … a year or more later … when not only events, but also their ultimate influence can be measured.

And when the history of this year’s middle class rebellion across North America is written, perceptive analysts should pay special attention to what happened in BC in 2011.

And the war must not stop with the Occupy protests: middle class families, organizations and young people MUST keep up the pressure on governments to make sure they understand: the squeeze on the center must be stopped; corporations and the wealthiest must pay their fair share of taxes …and the free ride some of the biggest profit-makers must come to an end.

No matter what the government and their media mouthpieces say.

Harv Oberfeld

More than 2,400 Syrians have been killed at the hands of their own government.

In Libya, Muhammar Gaddafi and his corrupt regime hangs on to power at the cost  of thousands of lives and a clear desire from the majority of the country’s population for regime change and democracy.

Not to mention the struggles taking place against other corrupt, dictatorial regimes in the Arab world like Bahrain and Yemen.

But apart from small contributions to NATO efforts in Libya by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates .. the might leaders and nations of the Arab world have done almost nothing to stop the slaughter of their Muslim brothers and sisters by some of the worst and cruelest regimes in the world.

Oh sure, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain have withdrawn their amabassadors from Damascus.  Is that enough?  By some of the richest regimes on earth?

Where are all the members of the almost useless Arab League?  Once more, a statement or two of concern… blah, blah, blah …but as the slaughter rises by the hundreds each week, the Arab world’s “leaders” sit on their golden asses and do precious little.

They ALL have their own armies… some armed to the teeth with state of the art American and Russian military gear.  But the only use the most infuential of them all, the Saudis, made of their own forces was to rush to help crush … not the dictator … but the demonstrators in Bahrain.

The Arab League should give Assad and Gaddhafi an ultimatum: stop the killings of their own people, step down and retire” to life in Saudi Arabia (which already has a history of welcoming and shielding international tyrants and killers)  or be “taken out” by forces of the Arab League, to ensure the slaughter of the innocents stops.

And stop leaving the people of Syria alone and abandoned and the defence of the Libyan population to others.

Once more, of course, Canada is there … risking our own soldiers’ lives to try to curb, if not completely stop, the total slaughter of the Libyan people by Gaddafi.  Along with the European NATO nations, once more contributing their people and their resources to help others a thousand miles away struggling against tyranny.

And also there, the Americans …who so much of the Muslim world love to hate … but without whom the civilian death toll in Libya would total several more thousands by now, and dreams of democracy or any kind of basic human rights would likely already have been brutally smashed in the blood red sand.

And the Western nations are doing this at the same time as all are struggling with growing debts and deficits and underfunded programs at home.

But where are the Arab leaders?  The Arab nations?  Those rolling in billions of dollars of resources ?

That’s a question our leaders should be asking.  

Out loud.

Harv Oberfeld

As might have been expected, Britain’s Conservative government has come up with solutions to deal with any further lawlessness and disorder: faster police response; harsher police response; blocking social media; stiff jail sentences; and, new police powers to deal with “emergency” situations. Scary!

And, according to Prime Minister David Cameron, the blame lies with criminal elements, hoodlums, bad parents, a culture that glorifies violence and a disrespect for authority.

Of course, there are certain elements of truth in the spin the Tories are placing on Britain’s recent rampage of violence and thievery. And I’m no bleeding heart: I want to see those who killed those three men guarding their business brought to justice; I want to see the looters and burglars punished; and those who destroyed other people’s property prosecuted and forced to pay  for the damage they caused.

But Cameron and his Conservative government have not only failed to address the increasing societal malady of poverty that fueled the uprisings … they deny poverty had anything to do with it!

Incredible heads-in-the-sand partisan political reasoning … in the face of SEVERAL studies well before the uprisings that sounded alarms.

This, from Britain’s own High Pay Commission, a statistical study group, a couple of years ago:  “the incomes of the leading 0.1% of earners in the U.K., around 47,000 people, rose by an average of 64% between 1996 and 2008 to 538,600 Pounds per annum.

“In contrast, the bottom HALF (my capitals)  of the population saw just a 7% increase in the same period,” the stuidy found.

And the report said that, as things now stand, “the top 0.1% could receive 10% of Britain’s revenue by 2025. The figure currently stands at 4.5%.”

Talk about the rich getting richer!

Do those on the TOP receiving end of this largesse really think those  at the poorest BOTTOM will just there, complacently, and see themselves getting poorer and poorer, living in shambles, with fewer job-training programs, reduced social services, with no work or only poverty-pay work … and not rise up, even more frequently,.

And let’s keep it real: few of them will respond by writing plays or books or becoming musicians and artists: most will express themselves  the only way many of them know …with violence and looting.

The warning signs are clearly all there.

Britain’s  Guardian newspaper just last year reported on a “detailed and startling analysis”  that showed the country was becoming “an increasingly divided nation where the richest 10 per cent of the population are more than 100 times as wealthy as the poorest 10% of the population”.

The report, An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK” concluded the trend of increasing inequality had been developing for 30 years.

“When the highest paid workers, such as bankers and chief executives, are put into the equation, the division in wealth is even more stark, with individuals in the top 1%  of the population each possessing total householdc wealth of 2.6 Million Pounds or more,” the study found.

While the bottom 10% of Britain’s population averaged a total wealth of 8,800 Pounds or less.

Study after study have  shown that in Britain … like Canada and the US … the gap is growing.

And it is naieve in the extreme to think that, unless this disparity is addressed and reduced, the growing numbers of poor will just go quietly into the night.

And that’s what the “official”  investigations always conclude afterwards …but they’re wrong.

There are several common threads that link the disturbances throughout the UK right now, France last year, Vancouver in June: ALL are being carried out MOSTLY by disaffected youth, unemployed, underemployed for an entire generation now … with not only no real hope of getting out of their predicament, but actually watching it get worse every year.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer … study after study have shown for a decade now  that those at the top are enjoying much more of the economic feast …while the middle class has been saddled with more and more of the cost of paying for it all …and those below that who are employed are being squeezed with such low pay (and NO benefits)  to the point that they need two jobs and still can barely afford to cover their ever-increasing rising costs for rent, food, clothing, transportation and services.  

Worse:  in some communities, an entire generation of young people in this, the richest civilization humanity has ever known, have grown up without jobs,  and without prospects for EVER obtaining anything meaningful, whether they are in  in Britain, Europe and North America.

And all the while they SEE those who ARE prospering at the top … earning salaries in the millions or hundreds of thousands, others set to receive pensions in the hundreds of thousands, living in huge homes (many with chalets or yachts as well),  driving luxury cars, dining at all those posh places, shopping the High Street shops loaded with fashions and electronics and furnishings and even foods they … with no jobs or only minimum wage poverty pay …  can never buy or realistically hope to acquire some day.

And what do they hear from their leaders and from their corporate media messengers?  That THEY …not the really rich …have to do more with less, pay higher taxes and fees, make  do with less benefits … and tighten their belts, while the fat cats expand theirs.

This is not rhetoric.  This is the truth, supported by several economic studies throughout the Western world, the gaps between the very rich and the middle class and those at the bottom have been expanding, not contracting. 

The result: those at the bottom are now increasingly ticking bombs, just waiting for a spark to set them off.

It gives some of them the excuse to lash out, to express their rage,  to manifest their frustrations … and to scoop up some of those goods in the stores they cannot … and will never be able to afford.

The solution, of course, is for the rich corporate owners and top executives … who often measure profits in BILLIONS,  to realize they have a duty to share more of that wealth with those who work for them, at all levels, to restore the middle class.   And to pay fair taxes so that governments can provide services and projects to assist those at the bottom, including work projects (another New Deal!) to actively employ and train young people for decent work.

There actually was a time when almost all companies did hire workers full-time, paid benefits, created pensions …and fulfilled their social responsibilities as part of society.  Now, even many, many firms that measure PROFITS in hundreds of millions of dollars …have abandoned their responsiblities and downloaded all formerly corporate costs on government. 

And is it a coincidence that the UK, France , Canada and BC  have all had right wing governments in power that have cut programs and spending on youth and the underprivileged?  While easing the taxes  on corporations? 

We need governments that will insist on this changing…instead of pandering to the million-dollar lobbysts working for billion-dollar corporate interests. 

And we need media who will champion the interests of the middle class and the young people who want to work and deserve the right to do so .. for fair and decent wages, so they don’t have to live five to an apartment just to survive.

Of course, I am dreaming.

The police will enforce order; officials will blame a small group of thugs, the government will vow to crack down in the future, and the media will call for stiff sentences to those apprehended. 

But the real guilty will go free …  and think they are now safe.

Until the next uprising.

Harv Oberfeld

I actually spent time with Will and Kate and the rest of “our” Royal family in London.  Yes I did …very briefly mind you … as they all passed by on the Mall heading to the annual  Trooping the Colour Ceremony. Kate was in an open landau carriage with Harry, Camilla, and Andrew. Will, along with Charles and Anne, rode on horseback  in full military regalia on behind them.

And, of course there were Her Majesty and Philip in their own open carriage too.

I don’t know if any of them saw me, and remembered the times I covered them on visits to Ottawa, Vancouver and Victoria, but if they did, they were very discreet and didn’t betray my new cover … as a retired tourist, among thousands of others, pointing our little cameras and snapping madly as they cruised by. 

But, of course, I’m, still a reporter at heart … so I couldn’t help notice something about Trooping the Colour I have NEVER seen reported anywhere else before! A worldwide scoop!  For Keeping it Real blog readers’ eyes only!

You have to remember the UK is not only the home to the Royal family: it has also given the world some of the best humour, in the form of  the likes of Peter Sellers, John Cleese, Benny Hinn etc. etc. … and the Trooping the Colour procession.

It is clearly a MAJOR event.

Days before the procession from Buckingham Palace to the Horse Guard parade grounds, a thousand metal crowd control barriers are placed along both sides of the six-lane-wide Mall  route to keep the public back. Early on the day of the event, all traffic through the area is re-routed, so crews can remove …yes remove …all traffic light standards located down the middle of the road, ostensibly to give the Royals in their coaches an unimpeded ride right down the center of the avenue.

At military barracks around London more than a thousand soldiers from six Foot Guard companies, several massed military bands and the King’s Troop are up early preparing for the big day. At the Horse Guards headquarters and the Household Cavalry and Royal Horse Artillery, hundreds of horseman polish their boots and buttons, and feed their charges well for the long morning ahead.

With an hour to go,  city crews travel up and down the Mall, removing EVERY twig or scrap of  paper that litters the Royal route … followed by a  a mechanical street sweeper who meticulously cleans and polishes every inch of the the pavement about to be front and center in the annual pageant.

This clearly is a BIG deal …and the tourists no doubt presume all this spotless preparation is for the Queen, the Prince and all the little princes and princesses about to parade.

It is not!

The real heroes of the event are the soldiers, the guards, the bands …who, in terrific military precision strut their stuff in solid ranks of red tunics and bearskin headress right down the Mall.  More than a thousand … marching and interspersed with miltary bands bursting forth their pride and pomp … carrying high their tried and true regimental colours … to the adoring cheers of thousands of spectators.

But remember that British sense of humour!

Because just before the Royals, the Horse Guards … hundreds of them… parade down the centre of the mall …their well-fed horses leaving a carpet of manure all the way down the center of the Mall.  Fresh, smelly and  and steamy.

Cue the Royals!

And there they come … in open carriages no less to “take it all in” … right down the center of the road, rolling along a carpet, not of Royal red colour, but of  deep hay and oat brown.

No wonder Her Majesty is not smiling… clutching a blanket on her lap as if she would really like to pull it over her head …or at least her nose. Maybe she realizes the joke being played … but she, with true regal grace, does not show it.

But I’m sure she (like and I and now you)  recognizes the dilemma of her “place” in the proceedings. She’d no doubt prefer to be at the head of the parade … not the “tail” end.  But Royalty, like Santa Claus, pulls up the rear …whatever the sacrifice.

Welcome to Canada Will and Kate.

And apologies if the carpet laid before you isn’t always red.  We just want you to feel at home.

Happy Canada Day.

Harv Oberfeld

Like free and honest elections.

Who among us would be brave enough to stand up to the intimidation, guns, torture and murder of not just us ourselves, but our entire families for just speaking out and expressing our yearning for just basic freedoms.  And just think what awaits them if they fail!

I just can’t help but publicly express my respect and admiration for those who care enough to dare to stand up for freedom.

In Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and even Syria tens of thousands have  taken up protest signs, marched and refused to back down …even in the face of police violence, slaughter, shooting, shelling and bombing.  Bombing! What kind of leaders bomb their own citizens …who only ask for free elections and an end to corruption?  Disgusting dictators.

But what really makes it all the worse is the overwhelming silence and inaction of the other, richest Arab leaders/governments.

While Canadians, Americans, and Europeans are over there (once again) saving Arab citizens from being slaughtered by their maniacal psycopathic leaders,  most Arab states capable of doing something to stop it, have done nothing substantial … or even mediocre … to contribute to restoring peace and protecting the lives and security of their own ethnic brothers and sisters who only want the freedom to speak up without facing torture or death.

Sure, the Arab League (probably after MUCH Western arm-twisting)  passed a resolution supporting a “no fly zone”  over Libya …. and only AFTER Gadhafi had already bombed and strafed his own citizens for many, many days; but the same Arab “leaders”  then failed to provide jet fighters or any other  forces to actually do anything, and they even had the “chutzpah” to express concerns after Western nations did the heavy hauling for them, as usual (remember Iraq’s invasion,slaughter in Kuwait and the military attack on Saudi Arabia?) , and went into action, striking at Gadhafi’s advancing murderous forces.

What disgusting nothings these Arab leaders are!  Shame on them. And more people and world leaders should call them out on it.

Finally, tiny Qatar contributed two aircraft and the United Arab Emirates added six to enforce the non-fly zone… but none of them have so far fired a single bullet!  Not much help to the civilians still be shelled by Gadhafi tank units, mortars and being strafed by machine gun fire.

And where is Saudi Arabia?  Even Egypt?  Jordan? Turkey?  … all of them armed to the teeth with highly sophisticated aircraft that could help save Arab lives???  And just think what their oil billions upon billions could do to raise the standard of living for other Arab citizens (and foreign workers in their lands)  … instead of  just surrounding their own wealthy with disgraceful and gross over-indulgences.

The truth is most Arab leaders and governments couldn’t care less about their fellow Arab neighbours and citizens.  Almost all are dictators themselves,  ruling feudal societies without providing or allowing even basic human or political rights for their citizens. 

Surely this is not the way Mohammad, peace be upon him, would like things to be?

Now, on to our own free, democratic election … something  we love so much, it’s our fourth in seven years.

Harv Oberfeld

We did it!

As many readers of this blog already know from last year  (Merry Christmas and Help Save the Whales!) I am a supporter …financial and otherwise …of the Sea Shepherd Society and its activities to stop the Japanese and Norwegian killing of  endangered whale species.

The Japanese have been particularly nasty … pretending their slaughter of whales in the Antarctic has been done for “Research” purposes.  Liars!  Criminals!

The Japanese signed accords agreeing to abide by decisions and rulings of the International Whaling Commission: then they used a loophole allowing for scientific “research”  to continue harvesting thousands of the animals …. “research” that ended up for years  in the supermarkets and on the tables of Japanese diners.

The Japanese fishermen and government mocked the world.  And most  governments, including other signatories of anti whaling agreements, did nothing to stop them, because they did not want to compromise their other economic, political or even military relationships with the country.

So they all blamed the Sea Shepherd Society for “harrassing” the Japanese whalers.

Make no mistake about it: the Japanese were the ones breaking the law, violating international accords and wilfully and wantonly murdering these majestic defenseless and ecologically threatened mammals just for profit.  Sea Shepherd was only doing what the worlkd powers would not: enforcing the laws and protecting the whales from ultimate decimation.

And the people were on their side.

With  letter writing, with protests, with boycotts,  and, yes, with Blogs, we kept the pressure up.  And Captain Paul Watson (from Vancouver) and his Sea Shepherd crew …with all our donations, small and large ….were able to mount a defense of the whales by intercepting the Japanese marauders and limiting their ability to harvest the endangered whales.

And thanks to a lot of it being captured on camera and shown on TV’s Animal Planet Channel  … including the Japanese fleet’s brutal violent retaliations against Sea Shepherd crews …the world witnessed the truth of what was going on in the Antarctic.

The Japanese could not hide their barbaric hunt or defend it in press releases about culture or science. The world could see how massive their killing machine was ..with huge industrial factory ships.

Finally, they have announced they are halting their whale killing in the Antarctic …at least for now. Their kill already this year: 170 whales … well short of their target of 850.  Some research!!  Wonder when we’ll see the results of all that “work”.

Of course, they have proven themselves to be liars … so I don’t trust them not to be back, later this season or nexst for sure. So the pressure must be maintained. If you want support the fight…contact The Sea Shepherd Society. …http://www.seashepherd.org/

But for now, Victory for the whales!

And the power of the people.

Harv Oberfeld

We have been a democracy so much longer than they have even dreamed of: yet, they have lived an experience in the past month that we here in Canada …especially the media establishment …should pay great attention to in our own future.

What happened in Egypt was a triumph of the will of the people; yes, it marked the beginning of a new era of modern democracy (hopefully!) for that ancient land; and, yes, it unleashed the power of youth in a country where 60 per cent of the population is under 30 years old.

But the real message Canadians should take note of is how the Internet has surpassed, replaced and left in the dust of the desert the  traditional media sources as the voice of the people, as the medium for mass expression and the way to really involve and motivate to action our citizenry.

The mainstream media in Egypt were disbelieved, misdirected, co-opted by government and the establishment, so it was discarded by the population.

Egyptians turned to the Internet, Twitter, Face Book, YouTube and Bloggers to express themselves, to reveal what was really going on and move their nation to action.

They knew the media …whether government owned or privately owned by millionaires sympathetic to the regime … whether on radio, on television, or in the newspapers … backed the establishment,  the existing power structure and, frankly, were no longer a viable means of expression for the discontented or disenfranchised.

How true that has also become in Canada.

Our private radio stations are all owned by millionaires or multi-million dollar corporations: can anyone point me to a single talk radio show where the host comes at topics from a left wing perspective? Please!! From what I have heard, the best ones may have occasional  left wing or union guests (they especially love them on Labout Day!    ) but day in,day out, the hosts spew the establishment and corporate point of view, some mildly, others almost pathetically. 

 And when it comes to election time, surprise, surprise, they all back the establishment party over those nasty socialists.

TV stations are in the same corner: none seem to have talk shows like Webster anymore, but they are clearly on the take from government ..not just from party advertising, like they’ve always taken at election time; but these days also from huge amounts of departmental advertising and even disgraceful but highly lucrative cross promotions. And don’t forget the free time they provide to politicians in power, even on the news shows  …much greater than they allow the Opposition or smaller voices of dissent.

And newspapers! Where do we start???  The National Post, which has given a MEGA VOICE to convicted corporate criminal Conrad Black, even while he was in prison,  is so right wing that I believe it should register as a Tory lobby agency.  The Toronto Star is widely portrayed (I seldom read it) as a Liberal mouthpiece. And In Quebec, the Francophone media (radio, tv and newspapers)  also are mostly viewed as highly partisan, provincially nationalistic. The Anglophone Gazette, conversely, is Liberal.

The days of back and forth, basic fair reporting seem to be gone.

In BC, the Vancouver Sun and Province, it appeared to me, were always fast off the mark to criticize NDP governments for their fisacos .. and so they should be!  And they kept reminding us of those NDP mistakes over and over.  But they seemed very slow off the mark to me going after the Liberals on their disasters. And how soon they set those aside ..and move on.

But the people here, like those in Egypt, are catching on.

The Internet, Twitter, Facebook, and the Blogosphere are growing exponentially, while newspapers are having tough times, TV news ratings are stagnant or slipping, despite population growth,  and radio talk shows have diminished on the dial … replaced by sports and pre-canned music packages.

None of this do I celebrate!   But I do understand why.

Too much of our media now preaches to us rather than represents us. 

 Think of that: they try to propagandize us, keep us in check (remember how they so often belittled the anti-HST movement,it’s leaders, and more often than not defended the tax …  instead of taking up the public’s cause and anger?). Well, the people surprised them.

And I hope Canada’s media will learn from the Egyptian revolution: you CAN be replaced; the people now have the tools; and if you just try to preach to us, to keep us in our place, and just back the establishment … you will make yourselves irrelevant.

Harv Oberfeld

Being in the midst of what is going on, the American people have slowly become anesthetized to the hatred being encouraged in their media every day, 24 hours, 365 days a year. But anyone visiting from Canada, from Europe, Asia or Africa easily discerns it when they just turn on their rental  car radios to listen to the “voices” of America.

Dime-a-dozen radio talk show hosts direct shrill attacks every day against the government, against their President, against their elected representatives and against not only everything Democratic, but, if you listen carefully, against almost anything democratic at all.

And Fox News, in my view a total disgrace as a “news”  network, uses the tv airwaves unrelentlessly in my opinion to spread open propaganda directed against those same entities enumerated above …day in, day, out, week in, week out ….all year round.

So, American tv and radio, with the likes of Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh and their coteries of pathetcally biased “analysts” railing against almost everything left of Genghis Khan for years now, reaching millions,  we cannot be surprised when a mentally-disturbed individual is moved to “take up arms” against the enemy: America’s own elected officials.

What I find especially interesting is that their one-sided media tactics are not new: the Soviet news media, Hitler’s propaganda machine, China, Cuba or North Korea’s tightly controlled message control spread one-sided brainwashing much the same way that Fox News and US talk radio shows do. The messages and biases have differed, but the tactics have worked.

Of course, there are other voices in other media in the US: but their reach is in no way comparable to the overwhelimgly right-wing extremism flooding US airwaves …especially on radio stations across the land.

 The millionaires and the Republican-supporting owners of these stations have the ”ear” of the nation, literally …and, ever since the Obama victory, have been using their power unrelentingly to make sure that never happens again.

But they may have gone too far: the tea partyers are not what they were hoping for; the growth of armed militants ready to “take aim” at Democrats ….as Sarah Palin’s own campaign ads urged them too… have taken the message too literally; and we now have millions of Americans who “hate” their own government, their own leaders as much as America’s enemies do.

We don’t yet know if their latest assassin was an avid listener or viewer … but I’d bet he was affected, directly or indirectly, by the escalating temperature of the one-sided right wing rhetoric .  And I have no doubt there are others like him still out there …  wound up, and ready to strike. Again.

It’s time the American people took a hard look at their right wing media “heroes” , who use the country’s airwaves … not to inform, or discuss, or weigh alternatives  … but to brainwash:   one way, every day, in every way.

I believe they are destroying their country, their institutions, mature debate, journalism and American democracy itself … from within.

And, of course, in the true American way, becoming multi-millionaires in the process.

Harv Oberfeld