John Stall

After 30 yrs. or so in this business, I am still surprised at what people think they hear on the radio or read into what they hear.

I received an e-mail this past week from a listener who wondered why we,  (not necessarily me) did not point out in the early and first reports about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s ” hooker hell” that he was a DEMOCRATIC governor? He answered his own question by concluding  ( in his mind) that all media – political reporters, commentators, analysts — were left-wingers and he was sure that had Spitzer been a Republican, his political affiliation would have accompanied every mention of his name as the story was being reported.  And this is a Canadian listener referring to Canadian coverage of the story.

I sent him a note back pointing out that those reporting the early and first hours of Spitzer’s problems here in Canada would probably not be aware of his poliltical affiliation much less leave it out because they might be like-minded. They probably hadn’t even heard of him until the American media pack propelled it to “world worthiness”

The listener’s conclusion of course is that most media is left-wing, Liberal or Democrat and will slant the story they are reporting because of their own personal politics. As a political analyst and reporter I can assure anyone who thinks the same way that nothing could be further from the truth.  I have to deal with these accusations all the time and the only conclusion I can come to is that people will hear what they want to hear and those who are among the most vicioulsy partisan in their own lives are the ones who will “think” all of the people reporting are like them and would do what they do every waking hour of their lives.

Not true!

I’m back down to Florida for some sunshine - Happy Easter.

Not only is a week a long time in politics, but it sure has been a long week for the Prime Minister hasn’t it? He goes from celebrating and being “somewhat celebrated” for a fiscally prudent budget containing a creative surprise tax shelter for average Canadians, to the Cadman affair, to Nafta-Gate, all in just over a week and the Dion Liberals are loving it hoping that the next round of national polling resurrects their election prospects as a result. 

In the last week alone, the Prime Minister he has had to defend against allegations his party attempted to bribe a dying M.P. to bring down the Liberal government of Paul Martin as claimed by Chuck Cadman’s widow and daughter. He’s had to explain his own admission in a tape recorded conversation that party officials did indeed pay a visit to Cadman just before the Liberal budget vote and that financial considerations were to be discussed.  And now his own chief of staff is being fingered as the source of information that is rocking the U.S. Democratic Presidential Primaries.

Untill now, Mr. Harper has been able to keep a lid on his simmering minority government’s agenda partly by stigmatizing Stephen Dion and partly by keeping his own people quiet, but the heat has been cranked from simmer to boil and Stephen Harper is about to learn what P.M’s before him have all endured:  The Loneliness of Leadership.