Stephen Taylor has caught CBC correspondent Christina Lawand in a blatant manipulation of press conference footage, designed solely to damage PM Stephen Harper. See the video here.
For those who are on slow dial up connections (trust me, I sympathise) the main points are:
Harper is asked how he feels about the surge in Conservative support from the Jewish community, and on the flip side, about the loss in support from other communities for his mid-east policy. He gives a long and detailed answer in the unedited footage, explaining that he appreciates the support and intends to listen to the voices of all communities, but that when dealing with international issues of great strategic importance, no government can be driven by polls alone.
Lawand picked out one 10 second segment from this two minute answer, and instead of using the original question, she poses her own, cutting from footage of protestors outside to the clip of PMSH. The message is (as Stephen Taylor puts it) Harper is a cold-hearted jerk who doesn't care about the protestors.
Later, another answer is manipulated, as Stephen Harper explains that his government does intend to listen to all voices and that is why Peter McKay met with some of the protestors. Lawand cuts this answer and uses clips out of context to cement the Harper-as-cold-hearted-jerk image.
This particular incident is blatant and obvious, but how much more of this kind of thing goes on daily and unnoticed? It's time Canada's state broadcaster was held to account for their abysmal, dishonest, biased and shoddy journalism.
