My eyes couldn’t have gotten much wider when I saw well-known anti-Conservative Errol Mendes being interviewed on CTV’s Election 2011 today as an expert on coalition governments. (see here)
There can be no way that the people who booked Mendes didn’t know about his tin-foil hat episode when he ran to the Toronto Star saying that the Conservative Party was digging up dirt on him and his buddy, the Afghan torture-claiming Amir Attaran (see here).
Roger Smith from CTV has done the same using Attaran multiple times as an “expert” without disclosing his bias (see here).
This is not a coincidence and can only be explained as a deliberate attempt by CTV to deceive its viewers.
March 28, 2011 at 9:56 PM
Googled him. Laughed when I saw the results. Standard CTV operating procedures….Bless their very little hearts.
March 29, 2011 at 3:50 AM
Manual for journalists Rule # 23. page 164
When you want to say something yourself but are not allowed to by your make-believe “objectivity” then you enlist the aid of someone you trust to give you the answers you want and then ask then questions that will elict those very answers.
This is a classic example. (and of course you will never see even a whisper of question or condemnation by any other journalist in the entire country).
(Hint – Rule 1 – Piss all over anyone else but not another journalist).
March 29, 2011 at 4:01 AM
I’d like to add that this is why you see journalist leaning on “experts” so much.
Whereas a REAL PROFESSIONAL” would enter the potential story with an open mind and seek ALL evidence then draw a conclusion and write about it.
You know, like a doctor making a diagnosis or a policeman investigating a crime.
A (snicker) “professional” journalist knows right from the outset what story she/he wants to write and collects those facts that will fit.
That’s why they depend on vetted “experts”. They can control the story. If they actually asked a member of the public they might not get the answer they desire. (Or given the the public’s well known low opinion of journalists they might even get a well deserved pop in the nose).
March 29, 2011 at 5:36 AM
I use to watch and respect CTV, not anymore their open adoration of Iffy and their overt contempt for Conservative Canadians is boarding on hate TV.
March 29, 2011 at 9:32 AM
Ignatieff the democratic. and I thought the liberals ndp and bloc hate the americans.
March 29, 2011 at 6:30 AM
Would this be the same Erro Mendes who Paul Martin appointed as advisor to the PCO in 2005?
Any time I see an “expert” from Ottawa University quoted on political matters, I tune out. This may be unfair, for it is possible there are some conservative minded professors teaching at this insitution. If so, I have never seen one of them interviewed on CTV or CBC, and they certainly employ them a lot.
March 29, 2011 at 11:30 AM
There is one Ottawa U professor, now retired, who is an honest, fair, and balanced commentator: Clinton Archibald.
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=9163
Unfortunately, he’s limited to appearances on CPAC’s Revue Politique, the French language shorter version of Prime Time Politics, and the translation doesn’t always do him justice. (I don’t envy translators’ jobs)
March 29, 2011 at 8:07 AM
Last month another blogger found this on El Cda website:
2007, Amir Attaran contributed $400 to the NDP
2007, Amir Attaran contributed $400 to the LPC
2008, Amir Attaran contributed $200 to Michael Ignatieff leadership contestant
2009, Errol Mendes contributed $200 to Robert Rae, leadership candidate
2008, Errol Mendes contributed $1,064.28 to the LPC
2008, Errol Mendes contributed $20 to Michael Ignatieff, leadership candidate
2007, Errol P. Mendes contributed $962.56 to the LPC
2007, Errol Mendes contributed to each of leadership candidates:
Robert Rae, Hedy Fry, Scott Brison, Maurizio Bevilaqua, Stephane Dion,
Gerard Kennedy, Carolyn Bennett, Martha Hall Findlay
March 29, 2011 at 9:36 AM
And the Election Canada says ” go check the conservatives but leave the lpoc and coalition alone.