The dumbest opinion piece by a journalist I’ve read in a long time

Alec Bruce, Moncton-based journalist and columnist of The Bruce Report   tells us all - journalists and other Canadians, that we should get on the same page.

That page, it's pretty obvious, comes right out of CON speaking notes.

This opinion piece is so ridiculous and self-contradictory that it’s difficult to know where to start.

To read sundry editorials in recent days is to be treated to a cacophony of chicken-little squawking, as marvellously exemplified by a front-page screed in the Globe and Mail last Thursday.

He is referring to the media coverage of Harper’s latest adventures in dodging accountability and snubbing his nose at democracy by proroguing Parliament.

...But ask "average" Canucks -- those who are more concerned about their jobs or, for that matter, the winter Olympics, than the prime minister's machinations -- and the response is wholly different. You're more likely to hear "don't care," "business as usual" and "what does prorogation mean?"

Is Bruce suggesting journalists should ignore their knowledge of Parliamentary procedures, their insights into democratic systems, their trained ability to connect events and project possible consequences?  Is he saying they should just forget all that and write whatever “average” Canadians - whatever the hell he means by that - are saying?  And are average Canadians really more concerned about the Olympics - which few can even afford to attend - than, say, making sure they will actually have jobs in March?

Why bother with journalists at all, if that is the case?  Just let “average” Canadians write to each other.

It is, by now, abundantly clear that many, if not all, major news organizations in the country simply don't like Harper and his confederates, who they depict as cold, uncommunicative, dismissive, and occasionally nasty.

Gee, Bruce, could it be at all possible - now dig down deep for any dregs of journalistic impartiality for a moment - is it at all possible that Harper may actually be cold, uncommunicative, dismissive, occasionally nasty?  Is it possible that stating there are opportunities to be had by some as the economy crashes for the majority could be perceived as a rather cold comment?  Can you consider that maybe, just maybe Harper’s avoidance of the press could be construed as non-communicative on his part?  How about ignoring Supreme Court rulings?  Is that, perhaps, dismissive?  And nasty - might it not be a little nasty of him to bash artists, label them as elitists?  Or how about the endless personal attacks on Dion?

No, I guess many news organizations just decided one morning to dislike Harper.  He’s probably a real peach of a guy.  Just all warmth, openness, and willing to talk to Canadians without having to control minute aspects of every media appearance.

It is equally obvious that the rest of Canadians, by and large, are either dismissive of or indifferent to the federal political system. After all, if the Afghan detainee debacle has failed to light a fire under their rumps, what's the likelihood that a point of parliamentary protocol will now provoke popular outrage?

So what are you saying, Bruce?  If the public doesn’t seem to be interested, journalists should not bother informing it?  Is that what journalism is all about?  I thought that was prime time TV - like reality tv shows, crappy marketing, you know, entertainment as opposed to informed journalism.

Part of the problem, in this recent circumstance, is that the loudest media voices fallaciously equate "prorogation" with "undemocratic."

No they don’t.  They largely acknowledge that Harper is allowed to prorogue, but that doing so for poor reasons, over and over to dodge accountability is in spirit undemocratic and threatens our democracy.

The procedure may not be open, transparent and accountable -- especially as how Harper has deployed it over the past year -- but neither is it, strictly speaking, an autocratic device.

Really?  He decides, all on his own, despite the majority of elected members of Parliament being opposed, and not even being asked for their input, even though they are there to represent those who elected them.

It is just another widget in the constitutional toolbox. And to suggest that even its imprudent or cynical use undermines the very foundation of our commonwealth is to confess that, at some level, we can never fully trust our system of government.

Well yes.  Exactly.  That’s what many of us are saying.  This present system allows cynical abuse of prorogation, showing we can’t trust our system of government - in the hands of a self-serving, cynical, dismissive autocrat.  We need to make changes, but that isn't likely under Harper since prorogation is one of his favourite democracy dismantling widgets.

Now, Bruce’s first contradiction:

Lamentably, many Canadians already believe this (reference to previous paragraph), which explains their reaction to Harper's latest fandango. And, herein, lays the real peril.

I thought you said Canadians don’t really care, Bruce.  Thought you were whining on about how media is not on the same page as Canadians.  But let’s look at this peril you speak of:

There comes a point in every tired democracy when its defenders lose the ear of the people, when no amount of virtuous rabble-rousing, no degree of righteous eloquence, compel the majority to stand up and take back their plurality from those who have squandered their responsibilities. Canada is steadily heading towards this point, to a place where it will find itself impaled on the horns of its own ambivalence.

To reverse this course, the mainstream media (as long as one exists) must do a far better job than it has of educating citizens about the real, quotidian offenses to democracy in Canada -- the ones that go unreported and, therefore, unrecognized simply because they don't inspire front-page treatment.
       
Hmmm.  I thought that is what they have been doing in this case- interviewing specialist on democracy, stating the process in layman’s terms, getting informed opinions on if and how Harper’s moves violate or endanger democracy.  What say you, Bruce?

The daily function of an unelected, and easily manipulated, Senate is an abomination. Parliamentary committees stacked with partisans and power-mongers insult common sense and injure egalitarian principles.

An abomination.  Oh, yes.  Certainly that.  Which is why Harper (who is not cold, dismissive, un-communicative, nasty) (nor a blatant liar who violates his own promises) is stacking the Senate with unelected Conservative partisan hacks. 

And committees.  Right.  Huge problem with committees.  Those damn opposition members and their dirty tricks handbook, their refusal to show up at committees, their reluctance to produce documentation or allow witnesses to speak.  Oh, wait, it’s the CPC committee members who do that.   

But I get your point.  That’s some real serious shit, not trivia like blocking climate change talks at international summits, the economy tanking as the CONs deny there is even a problem, gagging public servants, firing them for doing their jobs too well, burying reports, and proroguing Parliament to avoid accountability.

Let's read more about these systemic threats to liberty and political participation from the country's ink-stained wretches, and less about perfectly democratic, if indisputably disingenuous, tactics executed by not just this government, but every government that waddles into Ottawa armed with an agenda.

Yes, lets’s, Bruce, you ink-stained wretch with your political participation.  You, and dishonest journalists like you who show the same contempt for your readers as does the Harper government are a systemic threat to our freedoms.  You go for the lowest denominator - not even the lowest common one - and pompously, self-righteously demand that responsible journalists dive into that mire, embrace it, and spew out the crap they ingest.  And then call it journalism.

Your pathetic little whines of it’s not fair!  Why are you always picking on him!  Canadians don’t know a damn thing, but hey, look, let’s report just as they would! fortunately don’t resound with readers who actually read past the headline.  As for the rest, well, you had them at I’m a CPC partisan hack.

Canadians and their mainstream media should, in the end, be on the same page.

Isn’t that called indoctrination, if the media is asked to tow Harper’s line, as you are demanding they do?