sabotabby | A l'il bit of media analysis

Sorry to go on about the Don Cherry thing when there are other, more important things to talk about, but this is a fascinating example of the way the media enables and promotes white supremacist ideology.

See, there was a protest against Cherry being fired. Two guys showed up. LOOOOOOL.

But.

If you watch the video itself, it's fascinating. It's seven and a half minutes long. There's a media scrum. For two guys standing in front of CBC! There are more people milling around than protesting.

Here is what happens in the video:

1) Two protesters show up. This is worthy of coverage by at least 7 different news outlets. I don't remember seeing CP24 coverage of, say, pro-Kurdish demos that get a lot more people out.

2) The protesters, to put it mildly, are not very coherent or prepared with their talking points.

3) To the point where the "journalist" from Rebel Media needs to basically put words in the guy's mouth.

4) CP24 devotes quite some time to allowing the Rebel Media guy to air his opinions under the guise of an interview.

This is why Ford and Trump. This is why the military was able to overthrow a democratically elected leader of a country and install far-right Christian fundamentalists and the soft liberal media has not dared call it a coup. This is how the People's Party of Canada, despite being a fringe group, got as much coverage as the mainstream parties. This is how the media makes far-right ideas look like their part of the mainstream discourse even where these ideas are not particularly popular or mainstream. So it's not actually that funny after all.