Sun suckers the rest of the media ... again

As the NDP rapidly and somewhat surprisingly closed in on the Conservatives during the last federal election campaign, Sun Media dug deep into Jack Layton's past to find something to smear him with and then flaunted it just days before the election. The rest of the media instinctively jumped on the bone and escalated the story to great heights.

Now as the Liberals, again somewhat surprisingly, close in on the Conservatives in the Calgary Centre by-election, Sun Media digs up an item from the past to smear Justin Trudeau. And again the rest of the media obediently follows the Sun lead.

This lack of savvy, of sophistication, on the part of the Canadian media, including the CBC, is disappointing if not pathetic.

The irony, of course, is that what Trudeau said was true. The gist of his message was that the problem with Canada is that it is being run from Alberta and Albertans don't represent Canadian values. Well ... they don't, do they? Albertans vote overwhelmingly Conservative (there is only one non-Conservative MP) and in the last federal election 60 per cent of Canadian voters made it abundantly clear that the Conservatives do not represent Canadian values. At least not if values are defined by a solid majority. Trudeau is being pilloried for stating the truth, and that doesn't do the media much credit either. Sun Media types must be grinning like Cheshire cats.

Sun has become to the Conservatives what Fox News is to the Republicans. Perhaps the rest of the media ought to be investigating that relationship rather than allowing themselves to be manipulated by a propaganda machine.