Just Another Imposter

I'm Not Sure About the Honesty Part

I hate organizations and groups of people that give themselves names that misrepresent what they do, who they are or what they stand for. Groups that try to project one image while they in fact, are something completely different.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation for example. Not a group representing the interests of people concerned about taxes but a cranky, right wing group mostly funded by business interests. Their pro-Conservative stance on spending, particularly when it might actually benefit people, not private sector business, drives me crazy.

I am probably not much more than a cultural Christian but, I find it offensive that the term Christian has been appropriated by the relatively new fundamentalists whose use of the term, dismisses any of the more traditional churches as, not quite up to snuff.

Pro-life groups are not about celebrating life. Most of us, after all, are pro-life. We want to hang on to it as long as we can.

Pro-lifers lobby against a woman’s right to choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Surely that is something quite different.

The Progressive Conservatives did change their name to just the Conservatives. Now that was honest but I do admit, off point.

The latest in this long line of imposters I came across is HonestReporting Canada. They had a letter published in the Globe and Mail today complaining about a story which looked at the new flotilla trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza which featured an interview with a Canadian who was aboard a ship in the last attempt to bring supplies through the illegal Israeli blockade into Gaza, and who was arrested in the process.

Until today I had never heard of HonestReporting Canada but just a little investigative research would tell anyone who bothered to look that HonestReporting Canada are not what they seem.

Now I suspect that anyone who tries to criticize the organization will be labelled anti-Semitic, which I am not, but here goes.

HonestReporting, was founded in the UK in 2000, at the onset of the Palestinian uprising which by the time it was done saw a death toll estimated to be 5500 Palestinians and over 1100 Israelis, as well as 64 foreigners.

HonestReporting's self-declared mission is to expose what its members consider bias against Israel in the western media.

HonestReporting Canada was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Toronto.

HR's self-declared mission statement claims that,

Israel is in the midst of a battle for public opinion – waged primarily via the media. To ensure Israel is represented fairly and accurately "'HonestReporting'" monitors the media, exposes cases of bias, promotes balance, and effects change through education and action


HR defines itself "as an organization dedicated to defending Israel against prejudice in the Media" they will provide resources to anyone wishing to advocate for Israel. We have seen it again and again. Any attempt to offer both sides of the very complex Middle Eastern story with be met with howls of outrage and accusations of  antisemitism. This group and others are basically propagandists all but working for the government in Israel and never far from the official party line. 

If we take a good look at the honesty exprerssed on their website look no further that their description of
the organization’s Executive Director Mike Fegelman. They say Mike is someone who “specialized in broadcasting and international reporting. An eight-year veteran of the Canadian journalism industry, Mike was a former editor-in-chief, reporter, and anchor of various news programs and publications.”

I don’t know how they define veteran but if he is a “veteran” I must be the leader of the free world.

Mike it seems was the editor and writer of a free Ottawa weekly newspaper produced by Carleton University Journalism Students and his news anchoring experience was at the University Campus Television Station. Veteran - my ass.  Talk about honest reporting.

 Honestly, the group isn’t about honesty in reporting. It is basically a Jewish nongovernmental organization using what critics claim are coercive tactics to silence critics of Israeli government policy.

Who were those People?

There were stories on the web yesterday and in several newspapers this morning about Jack Layton's meeting with Little Stevie. The Liberals have been meeting with the Conservatives all summer so, big deal. Jack got a meeting set up so he could show that he was pushing the government on his issues too.

What struck me about the stories was the Reuters photos that accompanied them. It showed a couple of earnest young adults behind Layton holding up a couple of signs criticizing Jack for meeting. The signs I saw read "Jack will do anything for a new office" and "NDP + Conservatives". The cut lines read something like, "Protesters greet Jack Layton at the Langevin Block as he goes to Meet Stephen Harper."

The story that wasn't written by any reporter was "Who are those people?"

The left, however annoyed they might be at their party or the effectiveness of the leader, tend to grumble about it with each other and very, very seldom air their discontent in public.

That leaves us with the probability that the "protesters" were simply there to try to embarrass Jack. So who were they? I see two possibilities.

Either they were;

• Liberals staffers, annoyed that Jack's meeting with the PM took attention from their own discussions about Employment Insurance.
• Conservative staff trying to undermine the meeting before it even took place.
  

I am betting that the PMO agreed to the meeting with Layton knowing before hand that nothing would be accomplished.

• They knew that Little Stevie was not going to suddenly, see the error of his ways after a chat with Jack, and suddenly veer to the left.
  
• Jack Layton was hardly going to buy into Harper's right wing agenda.
• They did know that Layton wold emerge from the meeting to say the Harper Government is on the wrong track.
  

So what to do. They could just let it all unfold as expected or, try to undermine Layton's meeting right from the get go. My guess is that the stunt originated in the Prime Ministers office. Now how cynical is that? We shouldn't be at all surprised, political junkies take courses in this kind of thing.

I think the question should be, why don't the media report it.