Excerptcize

The other day while discussing the prorogation of parliament with my dad, an interesting point came up that is worth mentioning here. I was saying how depressing it can be paying heed to events as they unfold in the US, as right wing ‘conservative’ commentators have honed the act of endlessly spouting partisan vitriol into a science, whereas when reading comment threads on the CBC about a story such as Omar Khadr’s, how surprised and taken aback I am by the extremely base language that is rather prevalent. My dad was not surprised by this in the least. My differing reactions to the same kind of mindless commentary coming from both sides of the border highlight three worthwhile points.

First, Canadian social conservatives not only exist, but they make up a larger part of the populace than I know I instinctively feel is there. To make a generalization, Canadians tend to be shy and reserved with many of their personal viewpoints. In the States, abortion is a very visible, vocal and dividing issue. In Canada it just does not have the same power.

Second, socially conservative, right wing political factions in the US have truly earned the label ‘noise-machine’. Social conservatives in the States are vocal, well organized, well funded and extremely active in all levels of politics. As such, an entire cottage industry has formed to recycle talking points through an endless echo chamber that greatly increases the media attention given to what are often fringe opinions. The huge media saturation that these groups are able to attain inflate their perceived strength (which is not to say that they aren’t strong.)

The last thing I wanted to point out are some aspects of the US media that magnify the already over represented, vocal minority of social conservatives. Thankfully, Canadian reporters as a whole have not completely devolved into he said/she said, stenography ‘journalism’. The same can not be said for their US counterparts. And while Canadian journalists are bad for spending to much time on the ‘horse race’ aspects of politics, they do deliver policy analysis. The Villagers of D.C. however are in perpetual campaign coverage mode (did you know there’s less than 11 months until the midterm elections? Are the Dems in trouble? Stay tuned..) When that is the model used to deliver news, it is self serving to portray two competing sides as if they were in extremely close competition. It is mind numbing the extent that US news reports will feature blatant lies voiced by one side of an argument as a rebuttal to a perfectly reasonable and true claim. Readers are treated to both claims, yet sadly, truth distinctions are rarely made. You need to suggest that ‘death panels’ are going to be installed before many media outlets will even bother to think of doing a fact check.

So, if you feel yourself disheartened as you’ve just heard some crazy conservative wingnut blame an entire nation for forsaking god and bringing a devastating earthquake upon themselves, don’t get to worked up. Figures like that are over represented in the US media, and valuable resources for countering insanities such as the one just mentioned from Mr. Robertson have formed in recent years and do a good job of media pushback. The other side of that coin though is to not forget that Canada does have it’s own share of folks who would like nothing better than to dictate to private individuals how to live their lives.

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