CKNW Editorial
for August 17, 2001

A very unsettling factor has settled into the local print media. The two major Vancouver papers, the Sun and the Province, are owned by the Izzy Asper media Empire. The editors of both papers, along I’m told with all others in the group, have been instructed only to report favourably on the state of Israel. Izzy Asper is Jewish. And the policy is, of course, disgraceful.

We live in a free enterprise country where, within the law, owners can do as they wish. And if owners want to slant the news, subject to the laws of libel of course, they are free to do so. What is not clear is whether or not Mr Asper has insisted that his editorial writers and columnists take a consistent pro Israel line. However, the fact is he doesn’t have to. It would be a brave writer for any of these papers who, under these circumstances, said a kind word or two about the Palestinians or their cause.

In taking this stand, Mr Asper has done two things. First off, he has violated a basic precept of journalism, namely that news reporting must be fair and accurate. Unfairness can come in a couple of ways. It can come through slanting a story in favour of one side of a dispute or the other or it can come from simply not presenting both sides.

This is in the tradition of the British Press barons of former days like Lord Beaverbrook …with this difference. In London then as now there were choices both with the tabloids and the broadsheets. In Vancouver there is none. You either take a pro-Israel "no matter what" paper or you take none at all.

But the second sin of Mr Asper is even worse. It is impossible not to conclude that Mr Asper takes his position because he is Jewish. If a Muslim were to buy one of the papers and instruct his editors to only publish pro Palestine stories Mr Asper would be the first to scream that the owner was anti Jewish and publishing his paper accordingly. The dissemination of news, and probably editorial content as well has, then, become a racial issue. And that is horribly wrong. It’s not illegal … but it is no less wrong for that.

Those of us who comment on public affairs have long run the risk that criticism of Israel will be taken as anti-Jewish for that reason alone. Most thinking Jews have vigorously rejected that reasoning as being false unto malicious. To equate even prejudice against Israel as being anti-Jewish is wrong and most unhelpful to the cause of seeking the truth by examining all opinions.

Mr Asper may argue that his policy has nothing whatever to do with the fact that he is Jewish. He might well argue that if Rafe Mair can criticize Israel and not be anti Jewish that he can take a pro-Israel position and not do that just because he is Jewish. That is tendentious reasoning – there is a hell of a difference. Rafe Mair has no private commitment to either side and, in his share of the media, he encourages opinions from both sides of the issue.

Even Lord Beaverbrook used to have dissent in his papers … the famous cartoonist David Low, who drew for the Express for years, was a lifelong socialist.

Mr Asper would do himself, his papers and the cause of journalism a huge favour by revisiting and altering this wrong-headed policy.

On another matter, here’s how the federal Liberals can restore their fortunes in British Columbia … and I almost choked getting those words out. I heartily detest the federal Liberals as only one who once was one can. They have nothing but contempt for this part of the country and, in fact, only care about Central Canada. Their MPs are lickspittles. They don’t deserve a vote in this province.

Having said that, the Canadian Alliance is about to hand the Liberals a huge slug of votes on the argument that, what the hell, you have to support someone. The Alliance and to a large degree the Reform Party before them have badly misread the average BC supporter – he or she is not a right winger like we see in Alberta. This is a much more tolerant, middle of the road province than is our neighbour to the east and this in fact is born out by the obvious cleavage between Alliance MPs from Alberta and those from here.

If the Alliance selects the far right wing Stephen Harper as their next leader they will alienate a hell of a lot of British Columbians who have voted for them in the past.

Speaking in post war terms, BC switched from Liberal to Tory in 1972. They didn’t do this because they suddenly so the virtues of Toryism but because Pierre Trudeau, and his henchmen Jim Coutts and Keith Davey, made it obvious that British Columbian no longer mattered to the Liberals. The province voted Tory because it was mad at the Liberals. When the Tories were thrown out in 1993 the Liberals weren’t thrown back in – no, it was a case of a plague on both your houses and we selected the Reform Party mostly because they were neither Liberal nor Progressive Conservative. And here was where the mistake was made. The Reform Party assumed that British Columbians, like so many Albertans, were fond of right wing red neckism and had just made the appropriate commitment.

Now many of the Alliance MPs from BC know better … especially the ones from more middle class ridings know better.

What happens if one of two things is the case – what if, at the next election, the Alliance is led by the likes of Stephen Harper or, what happens if the Alliance is still badly divided? The votes have to go some place. They won’t go NDP, that’s for sure. They’re not likely to go for the Tories if only because they are unrepentant Meechkins who would bribe Quebec and bribe her again if they thought it necessary. This leaves the Liberals. Sure they too would bribe Quebec, but at least they’re not right wing zealots.

Of course the Liberals will make it hard to support them. They will continue to run the country as if only Quebec and Ontario mattered. But, as I say, the votes have to go somewhere and the Alliance has to understand that to British Columbians the slogan "Unite the Right" does not mean that we necessarily are right wing but just that we want opposition to the Liberals united. If the Alliance lets us down, as they look to be doing, the Liberals, yes the hated Liberals, have a good shot of picking up a lot of seats right here in British Columbia.