Imagine you’re in Afghanistan, and the state-friendly radio station announces on the day of an election that voters can go to the polls and choose from 3 candidates/parties. If there were 4 candidates running, you might not be surprised that the fourth moderate candidate was ignored, and implied not to exist as a choice, even though they are on the ballot.
Now, would you accept that sort of biased reporting from a Canadian media station? If you would, you’re no friend to democracy. Sadly, there’s a station in my own city who acts no better than a puppet mouthpiece from a war-torn country.
620 CKRM has recently rebranded its radio station, calling it “The Source”. The first time I heard this, I laughed out loud, even though they’ve been saying “Your Source for Sports, News,” __ whatever for years. “The Source” to me was ‘the source of all evil’, in Charmed, a popular TV show about witches. This Monday morning, CKRM lived up to its alternate meaning, being either intentionally evil, or accidentally incompetent.
On the 8:00 AM CKRM news, they played a Canadian Press report that did not mention the Green Party or Saskatchewan Liberals running in the by-election today. They then followed up the story with a comment that the Saskatchewan Liberals did not run in either of the two by-elections today. Eileen would certainly disagree with their ability to count. One is not none.
Here’s their website blurb from this morning, also un-to-mis-informative:
Voters in two Saskatchewan constituencies will head to the polls today in provincial byelections. NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter is running in Regina Douglas Park, where Harry Van Mulligen stepped aside. The Sask Party candidate is Regina lawyer Kathleen Peterson, and Victor Lau is running for the Green Party. Danielle Chartier will try to hold onto Saskatoon Riversdale for the NDP. It was held by former premier Lorne Calvert. The Sask party’s candidate is teacher Corey O’Soup. The Sask Party holds 38 of the 58 seats in the legislature, while the NDP has 18.
Do they have Leftdog as the news director or something?
The Canadian Press, and CBC who took their story from the wire, also failed to count the Green Party of Saskatchewan, and the Saskatchewan Liberals in the vote percentage totals given in the report, as if they didn’t exist.