Rancid & Corrupt Mainstream Media
Winning side of a recent debate slammed Freedom Convoy news coverage.
Last week, an old fashioned public debate took place here in Canada. The topic:
Be it resolved, don’t trust mainstream media.
Journalists Douglas Murray (UK) and Matt Taibbi (US) argued the pro/agree side.
Journalists Malcolm Gladwell (Canada) and Michelle Goldberg (US) argued the con/disagree side.
The event was sponsored by Munk Debates, which has been holding these events since 2008. Before the debate commences, audience members vote. Two hours later, they vote again.
On this occasion, the opinion swing was dramatic. The 'don’t trust’ side grew by 39% - apparently the largest swing ever in a Munk debate. At the beginning, slightly less than half of the in-house audience held this opinion (48%). Afterward, it was two-thirds (67%).
(When two-thirds of a population agrees on anything, you’re in supermajority territory - a number large enough to change constitutions.)
Here’s the key point: the winning side of the debate placed great emphasis on the scandalous manner in which Canada’s mainstream media covered the Freedom Convoy. Residing as he does in Britain, Douglas Murray had no trouble cutting through the nonsense. In the 3-minute video clip at the top of this post, he says our Prime Minister started by calling protesters names, and ended by invoking the Emergencies Act. Here’s what he says next:
At such a time, what would the mainstream media do? It would question it. It would question it. The Canadian mainstream media did not.
The Canadian mainstream media acted as an Amen chorus of the Canadian government. I will give you a couple of examples, but ladies and gentlemen I could go on for hours with examples of this. You had a CBC host describing the Freedom Convoy as a quote feral mob…
Why is this so rancid? Utterly, utterly rancid and corrupt. Because in this country, your media, your mainstream media is funded by the government. A totally corrupted system.
The full debate was free to watch online for a brief time, but this doesn’t appear to be the case any longer. [EDIT: It seems to be live again here, for the moment. The first 2.5 minutes are an extended intro] Tera Henley, a former CBC journalist who quit her job in dismay, reports that Murray began his remarks this way:
…Canada has become really interesting. It became interesting in January and February of this year. Why? Because you had protestors in Ottawa. Really interesting when people come out in large numbers. And you know what the job of reporters is? The job of reporters is to go ask people, “Why are you on the streets? What brought you here? Why are you here with your kids? You’ve got a bouncy castle in the middle of Ottawa, that’s a bit strange.” Ask them questions. Just find out the story. [source here]
The world was watching what happened in Ottawa. The world knows Canadian journalists behaved shamefully.
Thanks, Frank, for letting me know the video is available again here:
https://vimeo.com/munkdebates/review/775853977/85003a644c
I never even knew there was a debate. I could not be more disgusted with CBC or CTV (they are all an embarrassment).