Campaign Trail 2011: Shoot the Messenger

Inside Television 548

Publication Date: 4-8-11

By: Hubert O'Hearn

The television news cycle has a broken wheel and I'm damned if I know how to fix it. Nothing quite like the feeling of conceding defeat just as the battle begins, but a lifetime spent as a Chicago Cubs fan does prepare one nicely for this sort of thing.

It would be much more fun to write about The Masters, whose second round is underway as you read this. (You're not feeling well are you? Bit icky sicky? Best to call the Boss and say you won't be in. Wouldn't be right to spread that infection. Might be ... beriberi! Probably not, but one never knows. Can't have the staff all hacking up beriberi if that indeed is what beriberi makes you do. Meet you in front of the TV, Amber Restorative Liquid at the ready.)

Andrew Coyne - Not likely to be wearing a green jacket on Sunday

Well, I'm just going to blame Andrew Coyne, the long-jawed 'Maclean's' editor and CBC perpetual pundit panelist. Coyne and I follow each other on Twitter and the other day he had an extended grump on (you knew I was getting to it) the news cycle. 'Why are you winning? Why are you a winner? Why are you losing? Why are you such a loser?' Day in, day out, on and on until election night when the journos stop asking the leaders a selection of those four questions and instead break exciting new ground by asking each other those same four questions. Not quite true - they ask why Jack Harperieff is such a winner/loser, not each other. I'd pay good money though to watch Rex Murphy turn to Peter Mansbridge and say, 'Peter, why are you such a loser?' Whereupon Mansbridge would rip off his sunglasses, raise the People's Eyebrow and say, 'Rex, I'll see you next year in Miami at Wrestlemania!' That would hype the ratings, you have to admit.

But such wanderings aside, that is the cycle. Lead with the Prime Minister, follow with Ignatieff, drop in on Jack Layton, quick cut to a disappointed Elizabeth May trudging down courtroom steps and finally a shot of Gilles Duceppe looking silly. Gilles Duceppe, by the way, is the most successful politician in Canada. Of the five leaders, he's the only one I'd bet still has that job a year from now. One of the others - okay, Harper or Ignatieff - will be Prime Minister. the others will be delivering a heartfelt valedictory at a Leadership Convention.

Meanwhile, on Facebook, I was chatting with a friend from northern Manitoba who was hurt and angry that the citizens of St. Theresa Point First Nations have no running water and that sad state of affairs is not an election issue. True. Instead, when Big Media covers 'the rural vote' the concentration is purely on the Long Gun Registry, as though everyone who lives within ten minutes drive of deep woods only cares ripping the guts out of God's creatures with bullets. Then, the journos yawn, it's back to the bar and what's the leader up to?

And we wonder why people are less than engaged in this election. Sometimes shooting the messenger is an option. Be seeing you.

(Thanks for reading, and if you enjoyed, there are Share buttons and gadgets all over this blog. Hint. Cheers! - H)