by Conrad Black
Ashen and complacent though the Globe and Mail often is, it is a valuable and sometimes distinguished national institution. In these times when the public has, with good reason, lost confidence in the professional integrity of the media, a traditionally credible media outlet is more valuable than ever. In my many decades as a reader of the Globe and Mail (I was also a starting columnist in ROB magazine, but was fired on Christmas Eve, 1997, for having the temerity to be a co-founder of the National Post), and although it has often not dealt gently with me, I have often read pieces that justified its self-nomination as Canada’s national newspaper.
I think in particular of Aug. 10, 1974, the day after the resignation of President Richard Nixon, when Bruce West (a Globe and Mail writer for 40 years), wrote of his admiration for Mr. Nixon as being like a tirelessly courageous prizefighter who fought as long as humanly possible against unjust opposition. He made the points that there was no proof that Mr. Nixon had committed any crimes (there still isn’t), and that history would record that he had extracted the United States from Vietnam while preserving a non-Communist government in Saigon, had normalized relations with China, concluded the greatest arms control agreement in history, reduced the crime rate, initiated a Middle East peace process, and ended conscription and racial segregation and the rioting and assassinations of the preceding era. Despite a strenuous search, I found no other comment anywhere as perceptive and fair-minded.
On Nov. 20, the Globe and Mail published an editorial about Donald Trump which stated that he ”has no use for the rules and conventions of a constitutional democracy,” was an “authoritarian” who “mimicked the harangues of at least one well-known totalitarian monster.” It accused him of uttering a “dehumanizing invocation of a domestic infestation of moral and destructive vermin” which it called ”an echo of how Hitler’s Nazi Germany vilified its politically fabricated enemies, including Jews and Communists.” The animosity of the Communists was hardly fabricated-they fully reciprocated the physical and propagandistic assaults of the Nazis and the allegations of both groups against each other were justified. Donald Trump is a well-known pro-Israeli philo-Semite and almost half his family is Jewish.
The Globe and Mail editorial also asserted that Trump has pledged to “silence his future critics,” and that his chief objection to the more than eight million people who have entered the United States illegally since he retired as president, (described as “undocumented immigrants”), is racist, which are outright and defamatory falsehoods. It also asserts that he is pledged to purge all three million federal government employees, “of anyone who doesn’t support him and replace them with proven loyalists,” and to “expropriate the endowments of private universities.”
He pledged to purge those that had participated in illegal prosecutions of Trump and other Republicans and to tax the income of university endowments if the universities did not meet acceptable standards of academic rigour and racial and ideological toleration. Trump is, in sum, an enemy of “preserving America’s freedoms.” With these views, it is little wonder that the Globe and Mail’s editors found it difficult to explain or understand why Trump has apparently unshakable control of the Republican Party and is now leading polls against all Democrats in next year’s presidential election.
Foreigners often look to Canada as a likely source of perceptive and informed comment on the vast and complex political life of the United States and the ever-mobile currents of American public opinion. Our media is also expected to present Canadians as accurate and insightful a picture of American political events as possible. They have almost entirely failed in that obligation. This column will not assess the comparative merits and shortcomings of Donald Trump, only the lamentable biases of the editorial comment cited.
Trump is a phenomenon outside American political experience: the only person ever elected president who never sought or held a public office elected or unelected, or a high military command. He changed party affiliation seven times in the 13 years prior to his election and is the only person to parlay personal celebrity into election as president.
Once in control of the Republican party, he wrenched it out of the hands of the country club post-Reagan Republicans, who were in policy terms practically indistinguishable from the Democrats, his economic policies attracted millions of minority and lower income voters and was the only prominent American politician in 2015 and 2016 who saw clearly the extent of public discontent with what was widely perceived to be the promotion of the interests of the young and educated middle-class and the financial and entertainment elites at the expense of the lower middle and working classes. Their inflation-adjusted income had been stagnant since the start of the new millennium. There was no mention in the Globe editorial that Trump as president had virtually ended unemployment, oil imports, illegal immigration, and reduced taxes and avoided inflation.
The Nov. 20 editorial gave no hint that the Democrats had politicized the FBI and the principal intelligence agencies, that the National and Central Intelligence directors had misled, while under oath, congressional committees and with the FBI director had been complicit in the publication as authentic intelligence, of a pastiche of lies that had been collected on behalf of the Hillary Clinton election campaign about Trump that they knew to be spurious. There was no mention of the 17 separate activities that the inspector general of the justice department considered to be potential illegalities committed against Trump, including the use of false affidavits to justify tapping the telephones of the president-elect, (a matter which largely caused former FBI director James Comey to claim 245 times under oath a failure to recall recent events).
There was no mention of the immense fraud of the Trump-Russian collusion fable, nor that the first attempt to impeach President Trump was bred on an unexceptionable telephone request of the president of Ukraine about the Biden family’s commercial activities in Ukraine, which are now known to have been a long-standing influence-peddling operation which may have involved serious illegalities, but was certainly unseemly. And of course, there was no mention of the tens of millions of harvested ballots in the 2020 election, in which a switch of 50,000 votes would have changed the outcome, or of the refusal of the courts to hear any of the 19 lawsuits against the constitutionality of the voting and vote-counting changes passed improperly under cover of the pandemic, nor of the non-prosecution of Hillary Clinton for destroying 33,000 emails after her private server was subpoenaed.
There was no mention at all by the Globe and Mail editors on Nov. 20 of the four criminal indictments against Trump which his supporters and many eminent legal scholars who are not his supporters, (such as Professors Alan Dershowitz and Jonathan Turley), consider to be outrageous harassment by a politically corrupted Justice Department. The next presidential election, if Trump is a candidate, will in large measure be a choice between those who prefer Trump to a heinous perversion of the justice system, and those so averse to Trump, they will support or overlook such a deformation of the justice system to be rid of him.
Unless Canada has completely fumbled away its status as a serious country, any aspirant to be its national newspaper will have to do a good deal better than this adulterated rubbish.
First published in the National Post.
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15 Responses
Well said Mr Black! But probably unnecessary.
The fact is that fewer and fewer intelligent people tune in to legacy mainstream media now, precisely because of the sort of garbage masquerading as “journalism” which you highlight.
A sadder truth is that, as American society disintegrates, the current edition of the Democratic party is hellbent on turning the US into a banana republic. Their contempt for democracy is matched only by the contempt legacy media outlets have for their ever dwindling band of readers by refusing to perform the duties of the 4th estate in a functioning democracy. I am just waiting for them to reveal to us that “Trump” is the cause of teenage acne!
I haven’t thought of the Grope and Flail as anything other than a left wing propaganda machine for years. It’s only virtue is that it is not as bad as the Toronto Star.
The editorial is worth reading, and whatever the Globe and Mail’s defects, it’s got a lot more credibility than a propagandist who is, as usual, pushing his highly selective and distorted version of reality.
Must be a nice feeling to peddle stuff you know isn’t true to fanatics and sheep eager to drink it up. Or I don’t know, maybe it sucks to know that those are your only admirers you have.
_________________________
“In the four years since, Fox viewers had become even more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations. Instead of understanding his narrow win in 2016 as the upset it was, they were told forecasters were going to be wrong again. Me serving up green beans to viewers who had been spoon-fed ice cream sundaes for years came as a terrible shock to their systems.”
For more intelligent readers, some facts.
The Globe and other Canadian legacy media have been heavily subsidized by the Canadian government in recent years: at the end of 2018 the Trudeau regime allocated almost $600 million in subsidies over 5 years to “select” (read failing mainstream) media outlets. These outlets were failing because they were
already producing enough garbage to drive away large numbers of their readers. Of course, when money is given the donor expects something in return. And in this case crude propaganda was the quid pro quo. As a result, the product became ever less digestible for anyone with more than 1 or 2 brain cells. It’s no wonder, therefore, that “Koolaid”, in the propaganda business himself (and clearly not well-endowed in the brain cell area), found this mendacious article “worthwhile”. More astute folks, however, continue to abandon media like the Globe because they don’t see any value in paying good money to have their intelligence insulted daily.
The whole Canadian subsidy fraud was destined for failure, and fail it did. Because the simple truth is that the Globe and their ilk cannot compete in an open market. Bar a few fellow travellers like Koolaid, the wider, discerning public are not interested in consuming garbage.
One can, however, be creative in these matters: a Russian friend once told me that in the old Soviet Union people used to pick up unsold copies of Pravda (of which there were many) because it was a good substitute for toilet paper, which was frequently unavailable because the morons running the country knew nothing about economics. Now there’s an angle for the Globe’s marketing team!
The editorial is worth reading (poor Conrad can’t even link to it correctly), and whatever the Globe and Mail’s defects, it’s got a lot more credibility than a propagandist who is, as usual, pushing his highly selective and distorted version of reality.
Must be a nice feeling to peddle stuff you know isn’t true to fanatics and sheep eager to drink it up. Or I don’t know, maybe it sucks to know that those are the only admirers you have.
_________________________
“In the four years since, Fox viewers had become even more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations. Instead of understanding his narrow win in 2016 as the upset it was, they were told forecasters were going to be wrong again. Me serving up green beans to viewers who had been spoon-fed ice cream sundaes for years came as a terrible shock to their systems.”
After nearly 7 years the TDS-induced paranoia is not getting any better. You should know that with co-operation from the patient, chronic TDS can be cured. Please try: life outside the Koolaid bubble is infinitely more rewarding.
_________________________
For years, CNN, MSNBC and other corporate media viewers had become ever more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations. Instead of trying to understand why Trump appeared to be so popular they were told there was NO way Hillary Clinton could lose. Having been spoon-fed the idea that Clinton would win by a landslide it came as a terrible shock to their systems when Trump won. The result was a colossal, collective hissy fit which lasted for more than 4 years. Hysterical reactions were sprayed across the US by corporate media and prominent public figures: voting had been rigged, the election was stolen, Trump was an illegitimate president, Russia hacked voting machines and so on ad nauseam.
KOOLAID WARNING:
Be aware that commenter “Koolaid” is our resident government troll on these pages!
As such he is trained to monitor the Iconoclast, and to jump like a performing monkey & spew out invective at the writer of any article which paints Trump in even the most remotely favourable light. He will then frequently blurt out classic conspiracy theories like Trump was a Russian agent, the Hunter Biden laptop was “Russian disinformation”, January 6th was an “insurrection” and (showing his pervert side) the notion that Trump hid nuclear secrets in his wife’s underwear after leaving the white house.
In short, With “Koolaid”, it’s non-stop TDS.
I have never said a word about a laptop, Russian agents, or Trump’s wife. You are hallucinating these things, and I think the likely cause is the large amount of Orange Koolaid you’ve drunk, which has made you very angry at me.
As for January 6th, you’re absolutely right, it wasn’t a mob attack at all. It was just a lot of nice people having a peaceful Sunday picnic. As can be clearly seen in hundreds of videos of the event, like this one.
Until next time, you goofy fanatic. Paid government troll out.
_________________________
“In the four years since, Fox viewers had become even more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations. Instead of understanding his narrow win in 2016 as the upset it was, they were told forecasters were going to be wrong again. Me serving up green beans to viewers who had been spoon-fed ice cream sundaes for years came as a terrible shock to their systems.”
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks”
Come, come “Koolaid”. You’ve spent years on these pages pushing every Trump related conspiracy theory there was. This level of denial is a classic symptom of TDS. And dangerous. If this continues you could well progress to stage 4 TDS, a place from which return is almost impossible. Help is at hand though: do avail yourself of it.
P.S. Regarding Jan 6, we already knew that YouTube had pulled thousands of videos of protesters wandering peacefully through the capitol, that the whole protest was infested with government agents provocateurs and that the capitol security tapes were being withheld deliberately for no good reason. The real reason, of course, was to allow the “violent insurrection” narrative to be “proved” by a handful of cherry-picked images and a video put together for the Jan 6 committee by a television producer for maximum effect. It was literally fake news. But the cat is out the bag now. “Koolaid” is apparently unaware – or studiously avoided mentioning – that the new house speaker started
releasing all the J6 security tapes just 2 weeks ago. Here is the insurrection explained in one clip (enable the sound for full effect).
Readers can view the entire archive releases so far at the Committee on House Administration Reading Room. And make up their own minds!
You’re like a faucet that spouts a steady stream of bull, 95% of which is too stupid to respond to. But some things you say are worth pointing out because it helps to illustrate what an utterly unhinged fanatic you are.
For example, your statement that “we already knew that YouTube had pulled thousands of videos of protesters wandering peacefully through the capitol”
That lie is so stupid no remotely intelligent person can be expected to believe it. The Capitol was closed and off-limits to the public on that day, idiot, because the certification of election results was underway. So it’s completely impossible that anybody in there could have been “peaceful”.
The footage you’re describing doesn’t exist, not just because it’s impossible to make information like that disappear, but because the reality is that what took place was a violent attack. You’re not just a liar, but a bad liar. Hilarious, claiming people are cherry-picking facts, when you’re the one trying to spin an account that’s disproven by an absolute avalanche of evidence.
PS. I just love that new sig, man. Nothing says “this person has really made me upset” like a pathetic imitation of an awesome quote that states a couple of hard-hitting truths. PLEASE keep using it, I would appreciate it very much.
_________________________
“In the four years since, Fox viewers had become even more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations. Instead of understanding his narrow win in 2016 as the upset it was, they were told forecasters were going to be wrong again. Me serving up green beans to viewers who had been spoon-fed ice cream sundaes for years came as a terrible shock to their systems.”
“Armed insurrection” special
With a splutter and a bluster and much spittle our troll has spoken! Of course, like any propagandist, his utterances are laced with lies. And what he doesn’t lie about he studiously avoids discussing. Good propaganda is always accompanied by much bluster, and this is one thing our self-confessed government troll is good at. After all it’s what he gets paid for, with taxpayer dollars ironically enough.
But seriously, your progression to unhinged stage 4</b TDS is concerning. What you’re suggesting is an absolute denial of reality. Next thing you’re going to tell as that a man can be a woman or that it’s “democratic” for (very recently) former intelligence officials to interfere in the election process; or that Ray Epps just got lucky by not being prosecuted for incitement on Jan 6!
Some gentle clarification: your contention that “The footage you’re describing doesn’t exist” is false. It actually does exist. (Turn up the sound, it may jolt your comatose sense of humour 🙂 ) Likewise the actual security tape videos from Jan 6 DO EXIST. They’re all on the website of the CHA Oversight Subcommittee Reading Room and more videos are expected to be released in the weeks ahead. So the public can make up it’s own mind without being subjected to infantile evidence-free bluster!
The fact is that a majority of the US public now thinks there was some level of law enforcement involvement in the Jan 6 protests. And this is not surprising. It was clear from very early on that there were numerous anomalies about the manner in which events unfolded during the disturbances on Jan 6; and thereafter. The Jan 6 select committee was a stitch-up – only 2 Trump-hating Republicans were allowed to participate with the DP “insurrection” extremists: whoever heard of an “investigation” where key certain witnesses are simply not called upon; and no cross examination of certain witnesses is permitted? YouTube censorship of anything deviating from the official “J6 insurrection” narrative was savagely censored, frequently with the charge of “election denial”. Election denialby approved parties was and remains entirely democratic. There is much more, but, were an open, democratic investigation permitted, a simpler option would be available: just ask Ray Epps!
_________________________
For years, CNN, MSNBC and other corporate media viewers had become ever more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations. Instead of trying to understand why Trump appeared to be so popular they were told there was NO way Hillary Clinton could lose. Having been spoon-fed the idea that Clinton would win by a landslide it came as a terrible shock to their systems when Trump won. The result was a colossal, collective hissy fit which lasted for more than 4 years. Hysterical reactions were sprayed across the US by corporate media and prominent public figures: voting had been rigged, the election was stolen, Trump was an illegitimate president, Russia hacked voting machines and so on ad nauseam. “Armed insurrection” special
With a splutter and a bluster and much spittle our troll has spoken! Of course, like any propagandist, his utterances are laced with lies. And what he doesn’t lie about he studiously avoids discussing. Good propaganda is always accompanied by much bluster, and this is one thing our self-confessed government troll is good at. After all it’s what he gets paid for, with taxpayer dollars ironically enough.
But seriously, your progression to unhinged stage 4</b TDS is concerning. What you’re suggesting is an absolute denial of reality. Next thing you’re going to tell as that a man can be a woman or that it’s “democratic” for (very recently) former intelligence officials to interfere in the election process; or that Ray Epps just got lucky by not being prosecuted for incitement on Jan 6!
Some gentle clarification: your contention that “The footage you’re describing doesn’t exist” is false. It actually does exist. (Turn up the sound, it may jolt your comatose sense of humour 🙂 ) Likewise the actual security tape videos from Jan 6 DO EXIST. They’re all on the website of the CHA Oversight Subcommittee Reading Room and more videos are expected to be released in the weeks ahead. So the public can make up it’s own mind without being subjected to infantile evidence-free bluster!
The fact is that a majority of the US public now thinks there was some level of law enforcement involvement in the Jan 6 protests. And this is not surprising. It was clear from very early on that there were numerous anomalies about the manner in which events unfolded during the disturbances on Jan 6; and thereafter. The Jan 6 select committee was a stitch-up – only 2 Trump-hating Republicans were allowed to participate with the DP “insurrection” extremists: whoever heard of an “investigation” where key certain witnesses are simply not called upon; and no cross examination of certain witnesses is permitted? YouTube censorship of anything deviating from the official “J6 insurrection” narrative was savagely censored, frequently with the charge of “election denial”. Election denialby approved parties was and remains entirely democratic. There is much more, but, were an open, democratic investigation permitted, a simpler option would be available: just ask Ray Epps!
_________________________
For years, CNN, MSNBC and other corporate media viewers had become ever more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations. Instead of trying to understand why Trump appeared to be so popular they were told there was NO way Hillary Clinton could lose. Having been spoon-fed the idea that Clinton would win by a landslide it came as a terrible shock to their systems when Trump won. The result was a colossal, collective hissy fit which lasted for more than 4 years. Hysterical reactions were sprayed across the US by corporate media and prominent public figures: voting had been rigged, the election was stolen, Trump was an illegitimate president, Russia hacked voting machines and so on ad nauseam.
This is hilarious. The guy spouting a deluge of poorly written blather is calling other people unhinged, and offering up an extremely cherry-picked couple of minutes of footage to accuse other people of being liars.
_________________________
“In the four years since, Fox viewers had become even more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations. Instead of understanding his narrow win in 2016 as the upset it was, they were told forecasters were going to be wrong again. Me serving up green beans to viewers who had been spoon-fed ice cream sundaes for years came as a terrible shock to their systems.”
Ha ha ha. Pearls of wisdom from an expert. And to think he actually gets paid for this nonsense with taxpayer dollars which are the product of the hard work of ordinary citizens who do real work. What a great grift! And when confronted with facts all you do is lurch into bluster mode.
Seriously, this could indeed be the onset of stage 4 TDS. One way to treat this affliction is to start off by agreeing with everything the patient believes. So, yes, “Koolaid” is right: the earth is flat; Trump is a Russian agent; J6 was an armed insurrection – planned & implemented by extremist 60+ grandmothers – which almost brought the Republic down; democracy means enlisting the secret police (aka “intelligence” officials) to interfere in elections; censorship is good; and the moon landing was faked. Anyone who disagrees with all these theories is a Trump-loving maniac who should be thrown into jail without trial.
_________________________
For years, CNN, MSNBC and other corporate media viewers had become ever more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations. Instead of trying to understand why Trump appeared to be so popular they were told there was NO way Hillary Clinton could lose. Having been spoon-fed the idea that Clinton would win by a landslide it came as a terrible shock to their systems when Trump won. The result was a colossal, collective hissy fit which lasted for more than 4 years. Hysterical reactions were sprayed across the US by corporate media and prominent public figures: voting had been rigged, the election was stolen, Trump was an illegitimate president, Russia hacked voting machines and so on. Denial and preposterous conspiracy theories became normalised in the discourse of this class.
[ P.S. we’ve left your perverted thoughts about Trump’s wife’s underwear out; there are limits! ]
You know bud, you kinda should be careful about making things up about other people and their statements. For me you calling me perverted is not that big of a deal, but I feel like if I don’t warn you about what you’re doing you’ll get bolder and start making bigger and bigger fabrications. One day you’ll do it to the wrong person and find yourself getting hauled into court for libel.
I know you’re really upset with me, but trying to discredit people you don’t like by fabricating things is just not a smart move to make, okay? Just some friendly advice. 🙂
Well, well, well. Is this the same “Koolaid” entity who has spent years knee jerking at anything “Trump”, “Jan 6”, etc. etc. and indulging in vicious ad hominem attacks on the writers of articles in which these topics appear? Yet a mild dose of his own medicine in a satirical wrapper gets instantly under the skin and has him making veiled threats.
I’m afraid you flatter yourself with the word “upset”. The correct word is “disgust”. For readers of these pages, the experience of encountering the “Koolaid” droppings is not unlike navigating a sidewalk littered with animal excrement: the language is crude, the repetition mind-numbing and the propaganda patently transparent. In short, “Koolaid” has nothing to offer. I’m reminded of the little grey commissars who monitored & cajoled & spied on the population in the Soviet Union for so long they effectively ended public discourse in that unhappy country.
Speaking of legality, it might be worth checking whether the self-confessed “Paid government troll” (a “Koolaid” too) who signed out above (and then curiously signed back in 🙂 ) is indeed paid for with Federal govt. funds. Once upon a time it was constitutionally forbidden for a sitting US administration to fund operations directed against it’s political opponents. But on second thoughts, probably nothing to worry about: “our democracy” is much more flexible with the constitution these days!
Stop Press
Last week The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government heard testimony about The Cyber Threat Intelligence League” (CTIL) revealed by a whistle-blower. Documents show that US and UK military contractors not only directed censorship but also engaged in offensive operations to influence public opinion, discussing ways to promote “counter-messaging,” co-opt hashtags, dilute disfavoured messaging, create sock puppet accounts, and infiltrate private invite-only groups.
The Twitter files revealed how that company was a dirty little rats nest of “ex-FBI” employees taking orders from their old bosses and other government agencies like CISA in order to censor what the public might read or say. Now, in the CTIL disclosures we also learn that instructions were given from the very top of the Obama administration to create a counter-disinformation project to stop a “repeat of 2016”..
The dirty little secrets of government censorship & disinformation operations are seeping out into the open and the smell is awful. Disgusting in fact!