Right in the centre - Winnipeg Free Press wrong, again
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- Published on Thursday, September 24, 2015
By Ken Waddell
The Neepawa Banner
As a daily reader ( or at least scanner) of the Winnipeg Free Press, I have become painfully aware of the grand old paper’s drift to the left. They slid a little further left again this week.
In their Monday editorial, the Winnipeg Free Press slammed the Harper government for appealing the “veil” law. Seems that one lady wants to take her citizenship oath with her face almost completely covered. The federal Conservative government doesn’t think that is right. I don’t either. I am willing to bet that most Canadians find it objectionable as well. The Winnipeg Free Press, in typically left wing fashion, springs to the defence of people to cover their face at this public ceremony where a person pledges allegiance to Canada.
Covering one’s face while pledging allegiance, while voting, while testifying in court is just plain wrong. If I were to show up to vote wearing a balaclava, I think I would be told to take it off. I know I would as people voting in Canada are required to provide photo ID. In a country like Iraq, where many, many ladies veil their faces, they go to vote and are required to dip their finger in indelible ink to show they have voted and to avoid the possibility of voting twice. That works. But in Canada, we have to show our ID and our face to avoid voter fraud. It’s an accepted law that makes sense.
The Winnipeg Free Press does so many things right. They have a huge paper by prairie city standards. It’s daily and full of news, features and advertising. It’s reasonably well printed and well distributed. They have a stable of writers.
But they do so many things wrong, such as defending veils in public ceremonies. They also went on to defend drug dealers rights in the same editorial.
The Winnipeg Free Press does their editorials by the board system. A group of writers write the daily dose of newspaper wisdom and guidance. That’s wrong as well. A newspaper should have an editor or editors and the respective person’s name should be attached to the editorial. The Winnipeg Free Press hides the writer’s identity behind the “editorial board”. That’s wrong. Put your name on it if you write it. To avoid putting your name on a column is tantamount to voting from behind a veil or a balaclava.
I said that the Winnipeg Free Press has stable of writers. That’s another problem. It’s too stable, in several different ways. For one, it’s an old group of writers. Some of them are ancient in age and in viewpoint. Because of the union rules and the Winnipeg Free Press’s shrinking budget, they can’t add fresh, young writers to the stable. The old ones stick around and while they come up with some good stuff once in a while, they are pretty set in their ways.
One writer in particular, while not old, is certainly set in his ways: Dan Lett. Ah Dan, how we know your predictability. Lett went through a bit of drought a few years back. When then premier, Gary Doer retired in 2009, Lett lost his main source of writing inspiration. Perhaps it was humorously stated but it was often spoken that Lett couldn’t release a column without the NDP war machine’s approval. It’s still somewhat that way. If Lett were ever to write a column favourable to any party but the NDP, or maybe the Liberals, the columns supporting the Free Press building might crumble.
Most, not all, but most of the Winnipeg Free Press writers are left wingers. They support the NDP with a dogged ferocity and occasionally will lean over the fence a bit to look at the Liberals. They won’t give the Conservatives’ view the time of day unless it’s to slam them.
The Winnipeg Free Press has never been conservative. In the Mackenzie King era, which lasted decades in the 1920s-1940s, Prime Minister King wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning until he had had a phone call or a telegram from Dafoe, the long time editor of the Winnipeg Free Press.
In summary, the Winnipeg Free Press is blatantly biased about anything that looks conservative. They use a method of editorial writing where the actual author is never really known. That allows a paper to assume a certain mystical persona where they can say, “In the opinion of the Winnipeg Free Press…”. That’s rubbish. Papers don’t have opinions, people do.
You will never see an editorial or column in The Banner that doesn’t have a name attached to it. Since 1989, I have written over 1,300 editorials. Kate Jackman Atkinson has written over 300 and our names were attached to every one. Our other writers attach their names to articles and columns. It’s the right thing to do. We need to be vocal, visible and transparent. That’s something you can’t do hiding behind a veil, a balaclava or an editorial board.
