Santa visits Steve Murphy of CTV

I was not going to do a picture on Christmas, but then Steve Murphy of CTV got my attention last night. He was anchoring the evening news from Halifax and every few minutes he was giving the travel plans of Santa with a complete straight face and NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defence command) was participating. ;) It was odd that a major news anchorman would do that in a serious fashion as if indeed he was tracking Santa.

Please do not get me wrong. I think that Steve Murphy is a good anchorman and devotes lot of his time to good charities. But when it comes to politics he is biased. Whenever he interviews Stephen Harper or any of his cabinet members, he throws softball questions. He is also very buddy buddy when he interviews Bernard Lord. During New Brunswick's last provincial election in 2006, when he had a sit-down with the three party leader, Murphy threw soft-balls at Bernard Lord and overly grilled the Liberal and NDP leaders - something which many viewers noticed and commented upon.

Also, when it came to Liberal leader Stephane Dion during the federal election, Murphy really gave it to him by broadcasting re-takes. I thought that was quite over the top and it did damage Dion. He is also very chummy to Mike Duffy and may be next in line for a Senate seat if Harper is still Prime Minister after January.

I think Bob Rae straightened him out when Murphy interviewed him. Rae told him bluntly that he was biased. Murphy denied it but Rae told him that he should face it that he was biased politically. Come on Steve Murphy, be more objective. Atlantic Canadians do watch you give news.

Recommend this post

Stephen Harper does not like Canadians: His "Let Them Eat Cake" Moment

Peter Mansbridge of the CBC invited all the federal leaders to participate on his segment "Talk Back" where Canadians sent in questions for the party leadership. All the nationwide opposition leaders, Stephane Dion, Jack Layton and Elizabeth May, accepted the invitation but Stephen Harper refused to do so. Emperor Harper said that he would have a one on one interview with Mansbridge but no questions from the public. What is he afraid off? He simply does not want to deal with the public. There are numerous indications of that.

He called the election when US election was heating up, hoping that Canadians take interest in the US election and thus he gets less attention. He was hoping to just slide by. Then he agreed for an English debate on a day when the widely anticipated US Vice-Presidential candidates' debate was on, again hoping that few people would watch.

He agreed for an interview with Peter Mansbridge when the second US Presidential candidates’ debate was on. His interview did not air until after 1 A.M as CBC chose to broadcast presidential debate first. All this shows that Emperor Harper does not want to deal with the public.

Then there was Harper's "Let them eat cake" moment. As the Toronto Stock Exchange dived and the economic news became more dismal, his recommendation was that there are some good buys on the stock market as the prices were lower – to him it did not matter that you may not have a job any longer, that you may not have the money to pay for rent on your lodging or to make the mortgage payments, that you may not have money to buy food and other necessities of life. All Harper could say is that there is the opportunity to invest in the stock and buy at a low price. That is what Emperor Harper said. Can you believe this? How much more out of touch will this man be before Canadians realize he is not fit to lead the nation.

It is also ironic that Emperor Harper is making a big deal over Dion's interview with CTV Atlantic. This was Dion's second interview with the Halifax anchor, while Harper had given none. We can debate the merits or demerits of that CTV affiliate airing the "botched" interview start (I'm sure this is a topic that will occupy many journalism ethics classes), but it is clear that Harper wanted to turn it into a "gotcha" moment insensitive to Dion's hearing problems and to the fact that English is Dion's second language (another case of Harper being insensitive to francophones and to Quebecers).

Recommend this post

Steve Murphy of CTV interviews Bernard Lord

Lord still has a big headed ego ;)

Recommend this post