Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 12, 2007, Winnipeg, Manitoba Comment editor Gerald flood 697 7269 Gerald. Flood free press. My. Ca v new fro the w est a n d b e y o n d a 13 Winnipeg free press wednesday december 12, 2007 Winnipeg repress. Com t heres a parallel scandal to Karlheinz Schreiber Brian Mulroney and envelopes containing $ 300,000 in Cash changing hands in hotel rooms. This scandal involves the decision by All but a handful of journalists and Media Over the last decade to ignore dismiss even squelch the Story. The scandal continues today in reams of columns and editorials calling for Schr Eibers immediate deportation to Germany and the shelving of both the commons ethics committee investigation and the promised Public inquiry. William Kaplan is a Law professor and author. Norman Spector now a political commentator was Mulroney is chief of staff from 1990 to 1992 and then his ambassador to Israel. Lawrence Martin is a Globe and mail columnist and author. And Stephen Kimber is Rogers communications chair in journalism at the University of Kings College in Halifax. All have commented on the Mulroney Schreiber affair and what it says about Canadian journalism. In the opening chapter of his 2004 Book a secret trial Brian Mulroney Stevie Cameron and the Public trus Kaplan writes that he believe his ears when Veteran reporter Philip Mathias read him the Story the National Post refused to publish in 2001. Had it been canadians would have Learned almost seven years ago that Schreiber paid Mulroney $ 300,000 in three instalments in 1993 and 1994. Kaplan was equally shocked when Mathias recounted Why his Story was spiked. Mathias gave it to Post editors in Early january 2001. Three months later it still Hadnot seen the Light of Day. Frustrated Mathias wrote letters to Conrad Black and the Aspers the papers co owners. At a meeting with senior editors Mathias was told there was no Story. He was repeatedly asked Why he kept pursuing it and Why he went Over his editors Heads. That night Mathias was phoned at Home by Kenneth Whyte the posts editor in chief now editor in chief of a cleans Magazine. Whyte told Mathias he also backed killing the Story. Thus canadians did not hear about the Cash payments to Mulroney until the fall of 2003. Even then they were Only mentioned in passing in paragraph 26 of one of a series of articles written by Kaplan for the Globe. In a column last month Norman Spector excoriated the Media for allowing Kaplanis 2003 shocking but buried disclosures about Mulroney to fizzle out. Heres Why Spector thinks they did with the National Post having killed what would have been an extraordinary scoop or. Kaplanis Book ended up being ignored by most can West newspapers. In Quebec or. Mulroney has always enjoyed the Benefit of the doubt As Well As the support of influential friends in command of major chunks of the Media. In Ottawa Many reporters were looking for reasons not to write about the Book Spector went further in a Canadian press interview saying the Mulroney Schreiber affair could be one of the great scandals of Canadian history. Lawrence Martin has written several articles about the Canadian medias rightward migration. In a january 2003 column headlined its not canadians a Hove gone to the right just their mediate quoted an unnamed european Diplomat saying you have a bit of a problem Here. Your Media Are not representative of your people your values. Too Many political commentators Are right of Centre while the Public is in the Middle the Diplomat continued. There is a disconnect. Martin believes the disconnect began when Conrad Black converted the financial Post into the National Post hired a stable of conservative commentators like Mark Steyn David Frum and George Jonas bought the centrist Southam Chain and turned the entire package into a vehicle to unite Canadas right and retool the country is values to u. S. Style conservatism. Even further right rests the Quebe crowned tabloid Sun Media Chain. Mulroney was chairman of the Board of Sun Media and sits on Quebe corps Board. The country undoubtedly needs its share of right Wing voices Martin wrote in 2005. But How Many is too Many. Such is the ideological trend in the print Media broadcast has More balance that the largest segment of the population Centre left canadians Are at risk of losing their voice. Writing in the Halifax daily news last month Stephen Kimber asked How and Why the parliamentary press gallery and most major news organizations managed for close to a decade to not Only ignore but actively dismiss what will ultimately be one of the great scandals in Canadian political history. Kimber answered his question in a Telephone interview late last week. The Ottawa Media is Small c conservative and has been for a Long time. He thinks the conversion occurred during the Mulroney Era. Theress a whole group of journalists in Ottawa who were around during his time but Are still powerful who liked him personally and Felt he made them one of the boys. Conrad Blacks influence on the shift in the Media to the right really cant be overstated canadians have a right to expect a lot More of their Media that what they got in the Mulroney Schreiber affair. Right Wing Media covering up political scandal Frances Russell the economist i n the Early Days of the internet the idea that it represented an entirely new and separate realm distinct from the real world was seized upon by both advocates and critics of the new technology. Advocates liked the idea that the virtual world was a place less data sphere liberated from constraints and restrictions of the real world and an Opportunity for a fresh Start. This View was expressed most clearly in the declaration of the Independence of cyberspace issued by John Perry Barlow an internet activist in february 1996. Governments of the Industrial world you weary giants of flesh and steel i come from cyberspace the new Home of mind he thundered. Cyberspace does not lie within your Borders. Our world is different. We Are creating a world that All May enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race economic Power military Force or station of birth. Where Barlow and other Caber utopians found the separation Between the real and virtual worlds exciting however critics regarded it As a cause for concern. They worried that people were spending too much time online communing with people they had never even met in person in Chat rooms virtual game worlds and More recently on social networking Sites such As myspace and Facebook. A study carried out by the Stanford Institute for the quantitative study of society in 2000, for example found that heavy internet users spent less time talking to friends and family and warned that the internet could be the ultimate isolating technology. Both groups were wrong of course. The internet has not turned out to be a thing apart. Unpleasant aspects of the real world such As taxes censorship crime and fraud Are now features of the virtual world too. Gamers who make real Money Selling swords Gold and other items in virtual game worlds May now find that the tax Man wants to know about it. Designers of virtual objects in second life an online virtual world Are resorting to real world lawsuits in order to protect their intellectual property. And several countries have managed to impose physical Borders on the internet to enforce local Laws from censorship in China to Frances ban on the Sale of nazi Memorabilia. At the same time however some of the most exciting uses of the internet rely on coupling it with the real world. Social networking allows people to stay in touch with their friends online and plan social activities in the real world. The distinction Between online and offline chatter ceases to matter. Or consider Google Earth which puts satellite images of the whole world on your desktop and allows users to link online data with specific physical locations. The next step is to Call up information about your surroundings using Mobile devices something that is starting to become possible. Beyond that augmented reality technology blends virtual objects seamlessly into views of the real world making it possible to compare real buildings with their virtual blueprints or tag real world locations with virtual messages. All these approaches treat the internet As an overlay or an adjunct to the physical world not a separate space. Rather than seeing the real and virtual realms As distinct and conflicting in Short it makes sense to see them As complementary and connected. The resulting fusion is not what the utopians or the critics foresaw but it suits the rest of us just Fine. Internet Best when coupled with real world by sue Hutchison l ast weekend May Mark the beginning of a historic turn of fortunes in the presidential election. Five words people Oprah has landed in Iowa. The Queen of All Media is stumping for Barack Obama the first time she has Ever endorsed a political candidate. And before you dismiss this As just another Hollywood style stunt that wont have much influence with the electorate consider that the big o is not your average Mega celebrity. For one thing Sheds not famous for acting singing writing playing a guitar or even being a corporate Mogul. The Core of her Fame is based on telling it As she sees it and changing Peoples lives especially the lives of a highly coveted demographic Middle income women Between the Ages of 25 and 55. What do Many soccer moms and Security moms have in common they re Oprah gals. And though Oprah lives a rarefied existence among paparazzi stalked superstars her millions of fans tend to think of her As one of them. Lets face it even the most ardent fan of barbra Streisand who has thrown her support behind Hillary Clinton does not imagine herself chatting in the Frozen food aisle with la barbra. But Many women have no trouble imagining themselves gabbing with Oprah about their Favourite lean cuisines. Oprah is perceived accessibility and her carefully marketed personal not political Agenda of striving to be the Best righting injustice and making big life changes could dovetail very nicely with a political platform. Now that the race among democrats in Iowa has become Micro tight Between Obama Clinton and John Edwards if Oprah can Sway even two per cent of voters that May be enough for Obama to win on Jan. 3 when the state has its caucuses. Look Oprah is a Force of nature. She practically sucks All the air out of a room said Barbara Oconnor director of the Institute for the study of politics and Media at California state University Sacramento. Sheds All about conflict Resolution and bringing together disparate parties and making personal connections. Women especially tend to respond to those tactics. Women viewers and women voters. The question is How these intangibles will play out in practical political discussions about subjects at the top of the National Agenda including health care foreign policy the Economy and education. Any True Oprah acolyte is not going to cast her vote for a candidate just because hers Oprah is Favourite Guy. Those who pay attention to the theme of Oprah is life lessons will feel strongly about relying on their own judgment and internal Compass especially regarding something As important As a presidential election. After All we Arentt just selecting a Good Beach Book Here. In the end the Oprah effect Isnit necessarily about the female Factor or the race or even the class Factor. Its about the sheep Factor. How Many voters will simply follow Oprah to the polls because Sheds Given a candidate her Seal of approval Sherry Bebitch Jeffe longtime political analyst and professor at the University of Southern California thinks that giving the Oprah effect too much credence is almost an insult to Iowa voters. The people in Iowa have seen these candidates up close for a while now and they ave formed their own opinions she said. What Oprah does is maybe bring in some people to see Obama who might not have come out and she can help with fundraising. And of course Shell keep the Media spotlight on him. But based on the polls the women who go for Obama seem to have already decided that hers the one most Able to be trusted and hers the one who is pushing the issues they re most interested in. That May be the key in deciding who is the democratic nominee. Will Obama be Able to persuade female voters that Hillary Clinton is not woman enough for them will he be Able to pull off his bid to cast himself As the Best feminist candidate the one most Likely to bring us decent Universal health care equal wages for equal work and equitable opportunities for the Best education it is easy to imagine that having of amass stand on those issues filtered through the Oprah prism of positive change spiritual strength and belief in the Power of the individual could be a very appealing Way to deliver a message to certain key voters. This Campaign season May go Down As one in which women played a most Pivotal role in every aspect of the presidential election As voters and front running candidate. But after the Iowa caucuses next month will the most powerful woman influencing the race turn out to be Hillary or Oprah either Way were looking at a political landscape weave never seen before. Sue Hutchison is a columnist for the san Jose Calif Mercury news. Distributed by Mcclatchy Tribune information services. The big o Oprah backs Obama for president but will it change anything Charlie Neibergall / associated press Oprah Winfrey listens As democratic presidential hopeful senator Barack Obama Speaks during a rally saturday in Des Moines Iowa ;