Last Word On Ontario Election

Toasting Tory with his school funding idea, for instance - burying him, really - whilst ignoring pretty much every other issue during the election, was a pretty key media strategy during the recent Ontario election - I don't know why the true rulers wanted McGuinty and not Tory this time, nor do I really care - but it was obvious that 'the fix was in', as the old guys in the know say. Every day they focused on this, carried more stories about this, about people being angry, turning away from him, the leader struggling, party members unhappy, etc and etc and etc. They could have done exactly the same thing with any issue, and any leader - and from either side of the coin, building them up or smashing them down, as they did here with Tory. Imagine if the press had of put some other issue front and center - the unhappiness with many people about McGuinty's suitcaseful of broken promises, for instance, or how about if Ontario people had of read about how great MMP would be every day during the campaign, instead of reading about it only a few times, and then from the perspective that it was too difficult for most people to understand, and really bad anyway because it would give 'backroom party hacks' even more influence in the legislature? Imagine if there were 'learned commentators' every day on the tv news, and every day in the paper, explaining that actually MMP was no more complicated than figuring out which tv show to watch at night when there were two on at the same time you liked, and that it would result in many good things for the people? They could have done that, if they wanted. And if they were actually interested in 'reporting' things, instead of guiding their readers/viewers in certain ways, they probably would have. The people organising this sort of thing know that they only have to get to a certain number of swing voters with this sort of thing, people who don't know much. They're not going to influence hard core supporters of either side, nor are they going to have much impact on people who think independently, who read widely and make up their own minds about things. But that 5-10% of what they call swing voters are up for grabs, and very susceptible to this sort of thing. Look what they're doing federally - every day we're getting stories about Harper et al making smart moves, moving to the center, etc, and stories about Dion and the Libs in disarray etc - the mantra of issues and positions that is going to inform the election that will be soon coming. It's like a big ongoing soap opera - told to the passive Canadian audience by the narrating media. The assumption that they want you to believe is that the political parties are doing the manipulation, and the media just kind of innocent secretaries reporting what the parties are doing - but if you question that assumption, it doesn't take much thinking about it to see that the media themselves are a central part of what is happening - and it's all just a big farce, a big circus, in which eveything important is decided ahead of time and behind the scenes, and the Canadian people are herded along like sheep into whatever pen the rulers want them in today. Outright manipulation of the voting public, and pretty blatant if you're watching for it - but of course, you will never read about the influence of the media in the media - haha that's actually kind of funny, like asking why lawyers aren't on the news exposing other lawyers who are ripping off their clients or something - ain't never gonna happen in this world. The capitalist world, that is to say - but once the people of Canada start to look outside the box, to places like Green Island - well. Things are different here. It is possible to have an honest media that actually reports the news without trying to spin it, and that features a full spectrum of intelligent, honest commentators to give truly informed opinion from all different sides - so that ultimately the People of Green Island decide whatever they decide, by themselves - not simply following their leaders wherever they want to take us. It's called We the People Democracy, and it relies very much on a good, honest media, working for We the People and not They the Story Wizard. I wish you well in your struggle - but you have to start writing your own story, and stop being little playthings pushed hither and yon in someone else's, before Democracy really happens. (With working links, and more on media issues in Canada, at On Green Island - http://www.rudemacedon.ca/lgi/ogi-home.html ) [Proofreader’s note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on October 15, 2007]

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