It's Friday evening

and I'm tempted to take the night off, but I can't resist one or two more examples of the 'media is the story' theme.

Following the Globe and Mail's page 6 column on Sun Media's attack of the CBC, the Sun volleyed back with an editorial, "Grey Globe Goes Lefty" (Sun).  In it, the Sun accused G&M of having lost touch with its roots; shame on it for its defence of the CBC by its New York artsy guy.  Wondering just what kind of impact this would have on the Globe, I nearly choked on my coffee today as I turned to pages 4 and 5.  Two huge photographs, one of Stephen in an Olympics jacket playing bocce, and the facing page of a huge sign for Julian Fantino.  The Fantino article describes the Tory's tightening of "the cone of silence," reporting the refusal of many Conservative candidates to participate in all-candidates debates,  another anti-democratic play in their quest for autocracy.  The other article boasted Stephen "promising a majority Conservative government" would deliver on a "bold justice bill pledge" "within 100 days of taking power."  Guess it felt guilty for spilling the story of yet another sordid dimension to the Bruce Carson affair on the front page and needed to make amends.

Is this what it has come to with our press?  Needing to affirm support for the party in power in order to maintain its ad revenues?  It makes one wonder.  The Tory boycott of the Haliburton County Voice this week because the managing editor had decided to run for the Liberals in the riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock was reported yesterday.  No doubt Laura Redman should have taken leave of the paper sooner than she did (she says she couldn't afford to), but the action of Conservative Barry Devolin does not sit well with the editor, who writes,"'It is virtually unprecedented in the history of Canadian journalism for a powerful federal party to use its power to deny a small independent paper's employees their right to work and their right to pursue their craft.'" (G&M)

Maybe unprecedented, but the Tories have no problem with that.  Refuse to engage where you can't control the responses?  Sounds like a plank in the Tory platform.