Bias examined at the CP & the Grope & Maul

Recalling Sandy’s challenge, I went looking for an article to examine for those gentle and subtle hints of biased reporting... As luck would have it, I managed to find something although the bias is far from subtle.

Tories blast CBC in party fundraising letter

Mac sez... Nothing like a stirring headline to catch your eye, eh?

ALEXANDER PANETTA

The Canadian Press

December 25, 2007 at 6:37 PM EST

Mac sez... Merry Christmas to you too, Mr. Panetta.

The Conservative Party of Canada has slammed the country's public broadcaster in a fundraising letter to party members.

Top party official Doug Finley has sent Conservative grassroots supporters a letter in which he lambastes the CBC and asks people for money to help fight an election.

Mr. Finley, the party's campaign director, says he was shocked by allegations that a CBC reporter helped produce questions for a Liberal MP to ask Brian Mulroney at a recent parliamentary hearing.

Mac sez... Slammed, lambasted, shocked... Poor Doug Finley must be exhausted with all of that violent emotion. It’s a wonder he took the time to write to party members.

Now he's using the incident as a fundraising message to the party faithful: Tories face a chronic disadvantage because of their powerful enemies, and need your cash to overcome it.

But while casting the governing party as a perennial underdog, Mr. Finley glosses over the fact that the Tories are — by far — the top dog in the money department.
Notice Panetta doesn’t dispute the chronic disadvantage or the powerful enemies. Nope... it’s easier to just say it and then use a logical fallacy to dismiss the whole concept. The Conservatives can’t have powerful enemies or be at a disadvantage if they’re out-fundraising the other parties, right? Wait a minute... what does one have to do with the other? Nothing; therein lies the fallacy.

The Tories are loaded with cash after out-fundraising the Liberals by millions of dollars at a four-to-one ratio, and that money has allowed them to staff campaign headquarters and run multiple TV ads.

Mr. Finley glosses over those advantages in a letter that focuses on the challenges of being a Conservative.

Mac sez... Let’s see... we want to raise funds... so let’s tell everyone how well our previous fund raising has worked and how much we’ve managed to raise compared to the other parties. That should pretty much guarantee no-one will bother giving the CPC a dime.

“Let's face the facts,” Mr. Finley writes in a letter, released by the party Monday.

“Running as a Conservative in Canada is never easy.

“The Liberals have long benefited from the support of the country's most powerful vested interests. And the NDP has always been backed by the country's loudest vocal interests.”

He goes on to ask for $100 or $200, and argues that financial support will help the Tories overcome the challenge of fighting the Liberals and “their vested interest allies.”

Mac sez... So you’re willing to quote a few sentences from the letter after all. I wonder why you don’t publish the “slams” and the “lambasting” which you object to so much, Mr. Panetta? Perhaps it wasn’t quite as slamming and lambasting as you would like us to believe? Once again, you’re not offering anything to disprove Doug Finley’s assertions. I expect that means there’ll be a logical fallacy to follow...

The Conservatives already do have plenty of help sitting in their bank account.

The party has so much money that for months it's been operating a 1,500-square-metre election headquarters in an Ottawa industrial park.

And Mr. Finley leads an election team that has remained in place throughout the two years since the last campaign.

That team has spent millions bombarding Liberal Leader Stephane Dion with five waves of negative TV ad campaigns, and the cash-strapped opposition has been left to reply with low-budget Internet ads on Youtube.

Mac sez... Panetta doesn’t disappoint. Well, actually, he does... I mean he went for the logical fallacy as predicted. He reiterated the first fallacy and moved on to talk about the CPC election team and the TV ads which the CPC have used to effective define Dion... and then describes the opposition (feeling a need to include the Dippers, I guess) as being cash strapped and only able to reply via Youtube. Oh, poor helpless Opposition!! How desperate your plight!! So what exactly does any of this have to do with the CPC having powerful enemies, facing media bias, etc? Nothing... just a fallacy to falsely debunk Finley's letter...

But the Tory fundraising letter suggests the Liberals get help elsewhere.

Mr. Finley's letter mentions two other CBC reports where the network was accused of bias against Conservatives. He notes, in passing, that the CBC received $1.11-billion in government funding in 2006-07.

CBC brass have said they are investigating and considering possible disciplinary action against a reporter who allegedly supplied questions for Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez to ask Mulroney.

But the broadcaster's reaction has left some puzzled on Parliament Hill.

Other reporters say they've suggested questions for politicians in the past — for instance, when Conservatives were in opposition and grilling the Liberals during the sponsorship scandal.

Mac sez.... So, Finley cites more than one recent example of the CBC’s overt bias against the CPC and you don’t bother to quote Finley’s words, Mr. Panetta? How curious. Instead, you elect to focus on the single incident. One wonders what those other examples might be... but I digress...

The CBC brass is concerned enough to investigate and consider discipline but you prefer instead to question the veracity of the complaint and cite cases of anonymous reporters who supposedly supplied questions to unnamed politicians of no particular partisan group in an undefined past... all without providing any reference or proof whatsoever... and then, as the cherry on top, you mention the Conservatives in opposition during AdScam.

In other words, you haven’t slandered anyone. You haven’t provided any evidence whatsoever of reporters supplying questions... or even given the names of reporters who might have done so... or of politicians who have received such suggestions... You’ve proved nothing, you’ve disproved nothing... yet you’ve provided a “vehicle” for leftists to feel outraged against the CPC, for them to feel sorry for the destitute Opposition and to perhaps persuade them to open their wallets for someone OTHER than the Conservatives... which I expect was the whole purpose of your scribbling.

100% free of substance, detail and reference... specifically designed to provoke an emotional reaction against the CPC and it’s fundraising. It is noteworthy that these fund raising letters weren’t sent to just anyone. They were sent to party faithful and no-one else... (you did mention that in passing, didn’t you, Mr. Panetta?) so this story is really an invasion of the CPC’s privacy... unless you plan to start airing the sordid details of the fund-raising letters sent out by all the other parties as well. Is it okay if I don’t hold my breath waiting for you to do so??

Well done, Mr. Panetta of the Canadian Press. You’ve shown exactly how biased reporting works and you’ve proved it happens not only in the CBC but also in the Canadian Press... and the Globe and Mail who decided to publish this reekingly biased article you produced on a lovely Christmas Day.

I dedicate this Fisking to the ever-faithful Reg of Mitchieville...