There is a saying that “what goes around comes around.” Or, like a self-fulfilling prophecy — if the media says or writes something frequently enough, journalists eventually begin to believe it. And, what has been going around since Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party became the government in January 2006, is that he is a controlling meany and a bully.
Wikipedia describes a self-fulfilling prophecy as “a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior.”
So, how did this self-fulfilling narrative, of Harper’s controlling, bullying nature, get started? It originated in the winter and spring of 2006, when PM Harper elected to choose which journalists could ask him questions at an April 2006 parliamentary press conference—a decision that would eventually be referred to as the pre-arranged list.
Well, as readers of political blogs know, most of the journalists in the Parliamentary press gallery went ballistic and had a hissy fit because the PM dared to challenge established protocol. This is really strange, given that President Obama does the exact same thing now. Yet, I have not read any complaints about the Obama list on this side of the media border. Could this be a reflection of an ingrained bias against Conservative leaders rather than concern for press gallery protocol?
In any event, fast forward from 2006 to August 6th, 2010. It seems, the parliamentary press gallery have repeated the “Mr. Harper is limiting the media’s access to government and therefore is nasty and mean” false narrative so long, they are now starting to believe it as fact. Susan Delacourt recently repeated this narrative in her Toronto Star column, as did Chantal Hebert in hers.
For example, Delacourt wrote:
“But it is my impression that a cumulative narrative is building up out there about a government that doesn’t seem to like the citizens it’s supposed to represent. Four and a half years of sneering and anger at any hint of criticism and the strict controls on free speech are taking their toll.”
Similarly, Hebert wrote:
“That unease seeps right into Conservative ranks, where the continued absence of justification for the summary expulsion of former minister Helena Guergis from the government caucus last spring is raising private doubts as to the Prime Minister’s bullying approach to internal party discipline.”
A government that limits free speech, sneers, does not like its citizens and has a bullying approach to internal party discipline? Talk about hyperbole!
What poppycock! The Prime Minister is the leader of this country and leaders make tough decisions. He is not “iffy,” nor does he “dither.” Yet, the media, with the Liberal opposition’s help, were all over Helena Guergis for weeks, demanding that the PM fire her. So, she resigns and Harper removes her from the Conservative caucus and the media start complaining about the PM's “bullying approach.”
Similarly, during the past few weeks, the media have repeatedly said that the long form census was being “scrapped” when it was only being made voluntary. This falsehood was used by the press as another example of how the Conservative government doesn’t like the people it represents.
In other words, the media sets up these self-fulfilling scenarios then says: “See, Harper is a bully! We told you so!”
Well, where I live in southern Ontario, what I am hearing is that it is the Canadian MEDIA who have become mean bullies. In fact, I have heard about people who are normally NDP supporters who, like myself, can no longer watch Canadian politics and news shows on TV.
So, instead of Delacourt writing:
“Four and a half years of sneering and anger at any hint of criticism and the strict controls on free speech are taking their toll,”
and Hebert writing:
“Since he has become Prime Minister, Stephen Harper has burned more bridges than he has built and he is in the process of destroying his last best avenue to a governing majority,”
they might try writing opinion pieces that are based on reality, not self-fulfilling media prophecy. And, the reality is that Canada is the envy of the western democracies. The economy is strong. There are many concrete accomplishments. Jobs and prosperity are coming back. And, we are hearing that the stimulus-based deficit will be paid down a year early.
Endnotes:
Here are other recent columns by Canadian journalists pushing the same negative narrative and self-fulfilling prophecy:
Robert Silver/Mark News/Conservatives’ wounds are self-inflicted
Jane Tabor/Globe and Mail/Is Harper just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic?
Dan Gardner/Ottawa Citizen/Stephen Harper’s departure from reality
Sandy Crux is a retired teacher and teacher educator, as well as a former special education & dyslexia consultant. Following early retirement, she also spent some time between 1995 and 1999 as an EA and communications consultant for an Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP.
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