The "Trust Gap", "social licence" and the rule of law

Giant PR firm, Edelman, does a global annual survey to gauge of the "trust" the public has in its institutions: 1) Government 2) Business 3) Media, and 4) NGOs.

The people surveyed are categorized into three groups:
1) Informed Public 2) General On-line Population, and 3) Mass Population (all population excluding Informed Public)

The results are published in the "Edelman Trust Baraometer".

2016 Edelman Trust Barometer  Widening Trust Gap
2017 Edelman Trust Barometer   An Implosion in Trust! (Brexit, Trump, immigration/refugee crisis?)

Interesting, considering recent events but one does wonder about the validity of the results as a measure of "trust". If it isn't trust that's actually being measured, what is it? It's worth reading this bit of skepticism: "Can You Trust The Data On Trust?"

The surveys show that the "Informed Public", which includes the elites that control the four institutions, have much higher "trust" in those institution than the general public (ie the definition of the "trust gap"). Hardly a surprising result.

With the advent of Internet, the general public is in a position to be better informed and less subject to control of the message by the elites (especially the legacy MSM).  A widening "trust gap" might be a natural consequence of this.  However, a potentially serious downside is a diminishing respect for the rule of law and the constitution.  For example, certain of the elites (Justin Trudeau for one) have been pushing the fuzzy notion of "social license" ("governments issue permits, communities grant permission").  In the case of pipeline approvals this suggests that decisions by lawfully appointed and mandated regulatory bodies (like the NEB) are subject to being overruled by vocal interest groups ("communities") who have no legal status. Mob rule is "permitted" to supplant the rule of law.  Not good!

Media hype about "fake news" is fake news being used to promote government subsidies for corporate media

Graeme Gordon recently penned two very compelling articles that shed light on "fake news" and how it's being misrepresented and incestuously abused by the Liberals and the MSM:

1) “Hype over rise in fake news is fake news“ [behind Loonie Politics paywall], and

2)  "‘Shattered Mirror’ report’s suggestions to fix Canadian media ..."

On Thursday the Public Policy Forum (PPF) released its government-commissioned report, “The Shattered Mirror”,  which depicted today’s world as a “post-truth” dystopian nightmare.

... the report–GASP!–asks the reader to “imagine a world without news: how atomized and dysfunctional it would be.”  Of course the premise is absurd in the information age, where information is more accessible than ever before ...

... The report uses this fake premise of fake news influencing large majorities of the populace as a major reason why the government should step in to fund the legacy media. 

How politicians corrupt the media

Notley's recent attempt to directly censor journalists she doesn't like is one thing.  A more insidious form of corruption has been politicians' blatant [legal?] bribing of journalists and media outlets they do like. 

Ezra Levant discusses this in today's Financial Post:

... The CBC is the obvious example. In the recent federal election, the NDP and Liberals battled for the hearts and minds of the CBC’s journalists. Thomas Mulcair started the bidding with a promise of a $115 million annual CBC bonus if he were elected. Not to be outdone, Trudeau upped the ante to a whopping $150 million. The politicians were brazen: they were offering the journalists who cover them a success fee [using taxpayers' money] if they were elected.

... The Canadian Media Guild, the journalists’ union that dominates the CBC as well as The Canadian Press newswire, formally registered as a “third-party” campaign group with Elections Canada, ... Every unionized journalist covering the election was contributing part of their own salary to an anti-Harper election effort.

... It’s not just CBC journalists who are corrupted by being politicians’ pets. Journalists at private media are, too. As they nervously polish up their LinkedIn resumes, they can’t help but notice that the only major, national news organization still hiring is the CBC ... How many private sector journalists are tailoring their own work now to mirror the editorial line of the CBC where they hope to be in six months?

Notley blacklists Rebel Media journalists, saying "[they] are not journalists"

... therefore, says her Solicitor General lawyer,  get out and stay out of Alberta government press events:

... [Rebel Media people] are not journalists and are not entitled to access media lock-ups or other such events.

So, then, it's off to court for a lawsuit.  It would be interesting to know how Notley and her taxpayer funded thugs define "journalist".

Faith Goldy outs herself:  "I identify as a journalist  ... maybe it's not a choice, it's 2016 and ..."

Update: Notley backpedals.

"We’ve heard a lot of feedback from Albertans and media over the course of the last two days and it’s clear we made a mistake. The government has appointed former Western Canadian Bureau Chief for Canadian Press, Heather Boyd to consult and give us recommendations on what the government’s media policies should be. In the meantime, no one will be excluded from government media events."

Bell Media censors the news

Ezra Levant:

After the CRTC's recent "pick and pay" decision, Bell Media CEO Kevin Crull reportedly tried to ban CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais from appearing on CTV News to talk about it.

TheRebel - a web resurrection for Canadian conservative media

Ezra Levant and Brian Lilley are setting up a new website they're calling TheRebel.
Ezra explains:

Charlie Hebdo: the truths that ought to be self-evident but still aren’t

Nick Cohen in The Spectator:

... I am just back from a ‘Je suis Charlie’ vigil in Trafalgar Square, and the solidarity was good to see. I fear it won’t last. I may be wrong. Perhaps tomorrow’s papers and news programmes will prove their commitment to freedom by republishing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. ...

... I offer you 10 truths that ought to be self-evident. ...

• ...

• It is not ‘Islamophobic’ to satirise radical Islamists and their beliefs – the main targets of radical Islamists include other Muslims as well as Christians, Jews, Yazidis and secularists.

• Even if in your confused liberal mind you think that it is, no one has the right to stop satire or criticism because they are offended.

• ...

Magnotta found guilty

Phew, that's a relief!  Just this morning there was considerable front-page hand-wringing about why the jury was taking so long:

... Jurors may have split into bitter, screaming factions. They may have been trapped for days by a single, stubborn holdout. In the close quarters and high stress of sequestration, they may even have been tormented by simmering sexual tensions. ...

Confusing and contradictory results from Health Canada wind turbine noise study

Health Canada recently released a summary of results from its study of Wind Turbine Noise and Health.  Findings were confusing and apparently contradictory.  From the Health Canada report:

The following were not found to be associated with WTN exposure:

• self-reported sleep (e.g., general disturbance, use of sleep medication, diagnosed sleep disorders);
• self-reported illnesses (e.g., dizziness, tinnitus, prevalence of frequent migraines and headaches) and chronic health conditions (e.g., heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes); and
• self-reported perceived stress and quality of life.

The following was found to be statistically associated with increasing levels of WTN:

• annoyance towards several wind turbine features (i.e. noise, shadow flicker, blinking lights, vibrations, and visual impacts).

Further down in the report:

5.3 Annoyance and Health

• WTN annoyance was found to be statistically related to several self-reported health effects including, but not limited to, blood pressure, migraines, tinnitus, dizziness, scores on the PSQI, and perceived stress.
• WTN annoyance was found to be statistically related to measured hair cortisol, systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

Huh? WTN exposure IS NOT associated with a bunch of bad health effects but WTN annoyance (caused by WTN exposure) IS associated with the same bunch of bad health effects and then some.

Any guesses how this will be received by the wind industry and its media supporters and by the people who have to live near wind turbines?

Here's the angry reaction from North American Platform Against Wind Power (NA-PAW).

Let us pray for Sun News Network

On the news that Post Media has gobbled up Quebecor's English language Sun newspapers, Chris Selley wrote one of his typically snotty, derisive pieces on Ezra Levant and Sun News Network.

Chris Selley suffers from Levant Derangement Syndrome (LDS).  He writes as if all he has watched of Ezra’s prime-time show is his most recent hilarious "outrage" (eg. bringing up the foppish Liberal leader’s parentage).  It’s not that exposing Trudeau’s supreme unfitness for Canada’s top job isn’t important work but Selley has, apparently, missed the other 99.9% of Ezra’s excellent work including but not limited to:

Freedom (free speech, free enterprise, democracy and the rule of law)
Lib/left media (the Media Party) group think
environmentalism
the global warming debate
anti-oil fanaticism
fracking
foreign funding of Canadian radicals
“Occupy”, “Idle No More”,  and other radical leftist “movements”
Islamicism and the war on terror
anti-Christian bigotry on the lib/left
China, Russia, 
Putin, Ukraine ...
...

For a full hour show, five days a week, he covers this wide range of topics (often personally, on the street and in the field) with great wit and intelligence, interviewing knowledgeable, expert guests with skill, aplomb and respect.  Selley and his LDS aside, let  us hope and pray that Sun News with Levant, Lilley, Coren and many others continues and never, ever, falls under the management of a Media Party conglomerate.

Who's the biggest name in Canadian broadcasting?

What we all know and have no difficulty admitting.   Go Ezra! :)

Khadr's lawyer Dennis Edney - Scotland exporting its nitwits

"Omar Khadr's bigoted lawyer defends the terrorist while putting down Sun News Reporter Ada Slivinski"

David Suzuki, a national embarrassment

Ezra Levant continues his outstanding exposé of David Suzuki and expresses gratitude to the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) for doing what the Canadian media has failed to do for over 40 years - a professional job of interviewing their celebrity guest, exposing him to real questioning by experts in their field.  Suzuki is revealed as an out of date, out of touch huckster and mystic with some truly kooky ideas:





Bravo to Ezra for a fantastic job!

FYI, here's the entire ABC program complete with viewer comments. It seems Suzuki has many uncritical Aussie fans.

Maybe right 90% of the time but scumbags 100% of the time

George Jonas on the ethics of his fellow journalists:

...“‘Think dirty, and 90% of the time you’ll be right.’” ...

Reading what some of my colleagues have been saying about public-figures-turned-media-targets ... makes me wonder ... Perhaps they’ll score in the end, for thinking dirty may well make one right 90% of the time, but the parallel fact is that thinking dirty is disgusting 100% of the time. [And at least 10% of the time they're guilty of defamation].

... publishing before the evidence is in, commenting on the basis of allegations as if they were proven facts, smearing people on the basis of rumours and innuendos, piling on, attacking like a pack of jackals an unfashionable target, going after someone who seems wounded and unable to defend himself — that’s disgusting, and not made less disgusting by a subsequent consensus or endorsement by public opinion. It’s especially ugly to calumniate people, then hide behind a climate of slander that the original calumny helped create. ...

Bravo! Well said, George!

Blazing Cat Fur outs Islamic anti-semitism in Toronto high school

For nearly a week now, Blazing Cat Fur has been busy working a story about anti-semitic material being taught in an Islamic Madrassah operating from a Toronto high school:

Note the TDSB connection - the anti-semitic East End Madrassah is run from David & Mary Thompson Collegiate.

The East End Madrasah and the Centre Madrasah are affiliated with the David Duke loving Islamonazis of CASMO the favoured Muslims of Ontario Human Rights Commissioner Barbara Hall and Dalton McGuinty's Liberal Party.

This week the National Post caught up with the story (with no credit to BCF, the petty weasels).

Update: Jonathan Kay writes a dopey piece defending the East End Madrassah.  Blazing Cat Fur responds in the comments.

An attack on Aussie freedom of the press

The Australlian Labour government's recent Report of an Inquiry into the Media and Media Regulation proposes draconian measures for regulating the press.  Andrew Bolt covered his and others' reactions in a series of blog posts.  The titles speak for themselves:

A foot on our throats

Even an online site read just by your relatives is threatened

Media inquiry wants to control even blogs with a reader a day

Finkelstein: dodgy excuse for dangerous power

Finkelstein’s media council: will sceptics be censored?

Why journalism academics are so hostile to our free press

The rise of the totalitarians

The totalitarian instinct in Finkelstein’s report

Next Finkelstein will quote Chomsky and Che

Your right to speak and read freely is in danger

To be “unbiased” would be to print government lies

An attack from the Left on the freedom of Gillard’s critics to speak

Another reason to fear the News Media Council

How dare the Press Council censor even politicians?

Freedom is our best defence against abuse of power

Stifling free speech won’t guarantee good speech

Good stuff.  If that doesn't kill the report, I don't know what will. More here.

[via]

Peter MacKay’s helicopter trip - a tempest (and a couple of dumb-ass colonels) in a tea-pot

My initial reaction to the press generated ‘furor’ over Peter MacKay’s ride in a Cormorant SAR chopper was near complete indifference. It’s much ado about bugger-all. I don’t see the scandal in the MND commandeering a ride in a military aircraft once in a blue-moon. Big deal!

Having read the latest story about the "scandalous emails" I’m still indifferent about MacKay’s helicopter trip, but disappointed in some of the military officers involved. If there’s any embarrassment in this situation it will be mostly because of stupid, indiscreet comments and speculation in emails that have been leaked [or FOI’d] to the press:

... At one point during the discussion, a different officer, Col. Bruce Ploughman of One Canadian Air Division Headquarters in Winnipeg, raised concerns about the optics of picking the minister up from a fishing trip with a military helicopter.

"When the guy who's fishing at the fishing hole next to the minister sees the big yellow helicopter arrive and decides to use his cellphone to video the minister getting on board and post it on YouTube," Ploughman wrote, "who will be answering the mail on that one?" [And he puts this in writing?! Good grief!]

Ploughman expressed reluctance to have the military accept the mission. [If true, Ploughman is truly an idiot. A tasking coming from high up the chain, in support of the MINISTER of Defence, isn’t something you’d expect a mere colonel to“express reluctance” about “accepting”.]

"If we are tasked to do this we, of course, will comply," he wrote. "Given the potential for negative press though, I would likely recommend against it, especially in view of the fact that the Air Force receives regular [freedom-of-information requests] specifically targeting travel on [military] aircraft by ministers." [Oh the irony! It doesn’t seem to have crossed Ploughman’s pea-brain that his own email musings might be even more damaging should they be made public.]

The next day, July 7, 2010, Lt.-Col. Chris Bulls wrote that the "mission will be under the guise" of search-and-rescue training. [“ ... under the guise of ...”!!? Kee-ryste - how about (at least) “... the mission is search-and-rescue training”??]

What a couple of dumb-asses! My bet is that those colonels’ careers will be suffering a severe set-back. Their bosses, right up to the CDS, will be livid.

Sun News Launch

OK! I've just tuned in to Shaw digital channel 177 and the Sun News channel is counting down to launch!

Update: Looking good! Levant, Lilley, Adler ... the whole crew are terrific.  It's obvious that the rest of the MSM (especially the CBC) will just detest Sun.  Great! 

We'll have to come up with an acronym other than "MSM" for the media we love to hate because Sun News is now part of it (the MSM, that is, not the hated part).

Go Sun!

"Right-wing" Sun News Network

One of the fun things about the Sun News Network launch is watching the hyperventilating and schadenfreude at all the other media outlets.  Invariably they attach a "right-wing" or "Fox-News-North" moniker to the network. 

"Right-wing", "Fox-North"? Geez, I hope so!

And I liked this in today's Post:

... a University of Maryland study concluded that regular viewers of Fox News were more "misinformed" than consumers of other media ...  [Heh. I'm sure that study had no biases :]

It's funny, you never hear these same clowns refer to the "left-wing" CBC and probably rarely if ever do they actually watch Fox News.

Western media - spineless appeasers

[via BCF]

Update: I've just sent this e-mail to the Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Vancouver Sun and the Toronto Star:

To the editors: 

I've searched the web in general and your newspapers' on-line material for references to the trial of Danish journalist and President of the Danish Free Press Society, Lars Hedegaard, for his so-called "hate" speech. This trial is an attack on free speech everywhere and yet nowhere but on the web (excluding the MSM) is it being covered at all. 

You and your fellow mainstream "news" media are being labeled cowardly appeasers for your stance (or lack thereof) on this and similar cases.

This video by Pat Condell and this blog-post provide cogent additional thoughts on the matter. You should find them very interesting.

 Thank you for your attention.

 Sincerely yours,

And here's Mark Steyn's piece on the subject a few days ago.