01.09.2013 04:47 PM

Scott Anderson, revealed

About a decade ago, I was asked by Izzy Asper to write a column for the Ottawa Citizen.  “You’re a Liberal,” he said over the phone from his beloved Winnipeg.  “They’re too conservative.  I want you to write for them.”

Okay, I said.

After a few months, Citizen editor Scott Anderson – who wanted me always to dish on the Liberals, but never the Conservatives – called to say they were dumping my column.

How come, I said.

“You’re too Liberal,” he said.

That’s what Izzy wanted me to be, I said.  It’s what I am.

“Um, er,” he said.

Anyway.  Once a weasel, always a weasel.  Scott Anderson – conservative fart-catcher – is now fully and inarguably revealed, here.

Somewhere, Izzy is laughing his ass off.

 

10 Comments

  1. Mulletaur says:

    Just proves once again, as if more proof were needed, how ridiculously partisan our mass media is.

  2. kre8tv says:

    Every time I see yet another story of a supposed objective “journalist” cross over to a purely partisan gig like this one, I’m reminded of an old Lou Reed song: “don’t believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.”

    None of what you read, either.

  3. Mitch says:

    It is folly to attack a for-profit corporation which (successfully or not) previously sought some semblance of balance in content through retainer of a writer known for opinions contrary to the the winds which might prevail in the Boardroom. Apologies for the run-on sentence.

    Good on Izzy, and others, who have tried to do so. And good on WK for accepting the challenge, at that time, or since.

    But when the minion (Anderson) is called upon to end the attempt (of Asper, not Anderson), it “reveals” no more about the messenger than it does the recipient – that is to say: nothing! . And since “nothing” is the upshot, it draws more blood from WK than SA to label the latter a weasel, fart catcher etc. Undoubtedly some folks then (Citizen), and now (Sun), would attribute equally unflattering (but equally ignorant) descriptions conversely. Um, er…yeah conversely.

  4. JH says:

    Sorry, not getting this WK. Surely he’s not the first journalist to go to work for a politician.
    Having said that, I go along with yourself and a number of others who have written recently about the 4th Estate in less than complimentary terms. Are there anymore real journalists anyway? The scandal-a-day, gotcha!crowd of opinion poll chasers in the Ottawa bubble certainly provide plenty of evidence in Canada there’s not and surely that little Jorno-list Cabal crowd of Obama’s first campagn in the US did the same there. Funnily enough, I hear Milewski, Fife, Ibbotson, Ivison etc. plus the Pundit Choir on the Hill moaning all the time about the Cons, especially Harper going over their heads to the local press. But can you really blame them? Look at all the negative First Nation stories by the National Press recently. Yet here’s a great story about Aboriginal communities that had great problems and trouble 20 years ago, but look at them now. You’ll never read this story in the National Press
    http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Kahnawake+keeps+tight+rein+finances/7792477/story.html#loop

  5. kit says:

    PMO has 4 writers and Harper still sounds like CRAP?

  6. Patrick says:

    The truth is, with precious few exceptions, Canada has the worst mainstream media culture of any advanced democracy other than possibly Berlusconi’s Italy.

    Literally the whole industry is dominated by pricks ranging from thinly veiled CPC hacks to full on, bought and owned CPC tools.

    It’s just a goddamned disgrace. One citizen ‘journalist’ is running for the damn conservatives in elections and the other is a PMO stooge. This is just some straight up Pravda shit.

    Damn, this needs to be rectified. A major overhaul of journalistic culture in this country is needed. Much as they bitch, these hacks account for as much of this country’s public confidence deficit as politicians do.

    • Peter says:

      Literally the whole industry is dominated by pricks ranging from thinly veiled CPC hacks to full on, bought and owned CPC tools.

      How long are you going to keep up that pathetic whine? The provinces are in their pockets, the media is in their pockets and this week we learned that even the accounting profession takes orders from Stevie. Three elections won by the man you claim is destroying the country and has no popular mandate, with Warren predicting a fourth is all but a lock, but still we have to listen to endless repeats of Shari Lewis and Lambchop’s signature song—“It’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not fair…”. Does the left ever look in a mirror?

  7. billg says:

    Just throwin’ this out there. One of Stephen Harper’s biggest hurdles was to get his MP’s and candidates to stop whining about the CBC and the Toronto Star and the Globe because, bitching and moaning about how unfair the MSM was to your side only got you more bad ink.
    There are partisan reporters? Good, why would I read the non partisans.
    Heather Mallick drives me nuts, and, I read every word she writes.
    We need more partisan reporters in this country not less. Gimme Lilley vs Kinsella…that I’ll watch.

  8. bluegreenblogger says:

    Shades of Peter Kent.

  9. Houland Wolfe says:

    A conservative fart-catcher? How I miss Frank magazine!

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