How is it only the Western Standard reported the communist sympathies of some NDP candidates in the present Alberta election? There are four of them. But if you didn’t read the Standard and only read the mainstream media, you wouldn’t know..Here they are..1. Rod Loyola (Edmonton-Ellerslie.) Loyola is the two-time elected representative for Edmonton-Ellerslie. During a parade, he marched with the Communist Party of Canada Edmonton Club..2. Diana Batten (Calgary-Acadia.) Batten retweeted a post about American hacker Aaron Swartz from a pro-communism Twitter account..3. Gurinder Brar (Calgary-North East.) Brar appears to advocate revolution on Facebook..4. Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse (Edmonton-Rutherford.) Stonehouse shared a pro-communism pamphlet on Facebook.. Gurinder Brar 2Those who say armed war is not the solution, read carefully. .We like to think our powers of investigative reporting exceed those of what’s left of Alberta’s mainstream media, to which for about 140 years Albertans turned for all the news that’s fit to print, etc. We suspect these days that’s less the case..However, in the brave new world of journalism by social media, none of this has been exactly hidden any deeper than Facebook and Twitter. If we found it, therefore the mainstream media could find it. The fact is they probably did, but evidently didn’t think there was a story there..Which brings us to editorial judgment..Now let's be as fair — what if one were to argue that sharing a pro-communism pamphlet on Facebook doesn’t make you a communist? Maybe that’s a story but not much of one? And as there is zero evidence that Aaron Swartz was a communist anyway so therefore, so what? Calling for a communist revolution is a bit naff, but people do say silly things on Facebook sometimes and all parties have their fringe. Give it a pass..Yes, you could indeed argue that..Thing is, when it’s somebody on the other side, they don’t..Take for example the case of Caylan Ford. Remember her? She's the onetime star rising UCP candidate who was ‘exposed’ as a white supremacist after an erstwhile ‘friend’ leaked details of private correspondence in which she deplored the dual standards that the MSM applied to terrorist suspects, and questioned the point of Pride parades..These, let it be said, are not way-out-there opinions — at least not unless you’re so woke that you give a land acknowledgement at the kitchen table instead of saying grace..Rather than ‘not much of a story and the leaker is a cad,’ or ‘all parties have their fringe,’ there was a media pile-on..Ford, by the way, is a thoroughly decent person and in no sense a white supremacist or homophobic. Nevertheless, she was forced to relinquish her UCP candidacy and was effectively cancelled, forced from the political scene with a damaged reputation..Ford was one of a number of potential UCP candidates rejected by the party, ostensibly for their social media use, although comment at the time alleged then party-leader Jason Kenney preferred candidates for the seats affected..Be that as it may, the MSM were only too quick to uncritically report the dismissal of people like Nadine Wellwood, Jodie Gateman and Tim Hoven.. Caylan FordCaylan Ford .But people on the left may publicly express an interest in communism, or even march in a communist parade, and that’s just what some people do..What? No double standard here. That’s just our news judgment..What it is, is newsroom groupthink..Mainstream media reporters are not for the most part closet communists. They just don't believe communism is a potent force any more and, lacking the historical context, don’t recall this ideology caused more deaths during the 20th century than its evil twin, National Socialism..Both National Socialism and Communism promised a perfect society — once people who didn’t fit had been eliminated. Hitler eliminated the Jews, Lenin the bourgeoisie and Stalin anybody he didn’t like the look of..It’s as if Stalin never starved 4,000,000 Ukrainians to death in the 1930s during the Holodomor..It’s as if New York Times Moscow correspondent Walter Duranty wasn’t a proven liar.. The Guevara watchYou can't tell everything about a politician by their choice of wristwatches. However, before she became premier, Rachel Notley was sufficiently enamoured of the Communist thug Che Guevara to wear his likeness on her wrist. Among other unsavoury recollections, Guevara oversaw the executions of individuals deemed to be enemies of the Cuban revolution. .It’s as if Chairman Mao didn’t cause the deaths of at least 40 million Chinese people through policies that led directly during the Great Leap Forward of the 1960s to starvation, unjust imprisonment and all forms of persecution and, of course, that default remedy for political disagreement, mass execution of one’s enemies..Why anybody would want to identify with this — especially anybody running for election — is a question that's burning to be asked. What are these people thinking? Is this their idea of 'a better future?' However, we're the only ones asking it and the NDP aren't talking to us..So Mr. Loyola can march with Edmonton’s Communist Club and none of this context matters. But let a UCP supporter draw attention to opinions that were totally mainstream just 20 years ago or declare themselves pro-life or give a shout out to people who think 10 years old is a bit young for children to be put on the road to a sex-change operation and the newsroom conscience is pricked and its owners stirred to righteous indignation..As we know, most journos lean left. Hiring tends to be self-selective, so that doesn’t change as the years go by. But what makes it worse is most deny this. And so, we’re left with this institutional cultural bias of which they are completely unaware and so they shrug when an NDP candidate affiliates with a movement responsible for 100 million deaths..They plain refuse to join the dots..We, on the other hand, do not refuse to make the connections.
How is it only the Western Standard reported the communist sympathies of some NDP candidates in the present Alberta election? There are four of them. But if you didn’t read the Standard and only read the mainstream media, you wouldn’t know..Here they are..1. Rod Loyola (Edmonton-Ellerslie.) Loyola is the two-time elected representative for Edmonton-Ellerslie. During a parade, he marched with the Communist Party of Canada Edmonton Club..2. Diana Batten (Calgary-Acadia.) Batten retweeted a post about American hacker Aaron Swartz from a pro-communism Twitter account..3. Gurinder Brar (Calgary-North East.) Brar appears to advocate revolution on Facebook..4. Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse (Edmonton-Rutherford.) Stonehouse shared a pro-communism pamphlet on Facebook.. Gurinder Brar 2Those who say armed war is not the solution, read carefully. .We like to think our powers of investigative reporting exceed those of what’s left of Alberta’s mainstream media, to which for about 140 years Albertans turned for all the news that’s fit to print, etc. We suspect these days that’s less the case..However, in the brave new world of journalism by social media, none of this has been exactly hidden any deeper than Facebook and Twitter. If we found it, therefore the mainstream media could find it. The fact is they probably did, but evidently didn’t think there was a story there..Which brings us to editorial judgment..Now let's be as fair — what if one were to argue that sharing a pro-communism pamphlet on Facebook doesn’t make you a communist? Maybe that’s a story but not much of one? And as there is zero evidence that Aaron Swartz was a communist anyway so therefore, so what? Calling for a communist revolution is a bit naff, but people do say silly things on Facebook sometimes and all parties have their fringe. Give it a pass..Yes, you could indeed argue that..Thing is, when it’s somebody on the other side, they don’t..Take for example the case of Caylan Ford. Remember her? She's the onetime star rising UCP candidate who was ‘exposed’ as a white supremacist after an erstwhile ‘friend’ leaked details of private correspondence in which she deplored the dual standards that the MSM applied to terrorist suspects, and questioned the point of Pride parades..These, let it be said, are not way-out-there opinions — at least not unless you’re so woke that you give a land acknowledgement at the kitchen table instead of saying grace..Rather than ‘not much of a story and the leaker is a cad,’ or ‘all parties have their fringe,’ there was a media pile-on..Ford, by the way, is a thoroughly decent person and in no sense a white supremacist or homophobic. Nevertheless, she was forced to relinquish her UCP candidacy and was effectively cancelled, forced from the political scene with a damaged reputation..Ford was one of a number of potential UCP candidates rejected by the party, ostensibly for their social media use, although comment at the time alleged then party-leader Jason Kenney preferred candidates for the seats affected..Be that as it may, the MSM were only too quick to uncritically report the dismissal of people like Nadine Wellwood, Jodie Gateman and Tim Hoven.. Caylan FordCaylan Ford .But people on the left may publicly express an interest in communism, or even march in a communist parade, and that’s just what some people do..What? No double standard here. That’s just our news judgment..What it is, is newsroom groupthink..Mainstream media reporters are not for the most part closet communists. They just don't believe communism is a potent force any more and, lacking the historical context, don’t recall this ideology caused more deaths during the 20th century than its evil twin, National Socialism..Both National Socialism and Communism promised a perfect society — once people who didn’t fit had been eliminated. Hitler eliminated the Jews, Lenin the bourgeoisie and Stalin anybody he didn’t like the look of..It’s as if Stalin never starved 4,000,000 Ukrainians to death in the 1930s during the Holodomor..It’s as if New York Times Moscow correspondent Walter Duranty wasn’t a proven liar.. The Guevara watchYou can't tell everything about a politician by their choice of wristwatches. However, before she became premier, Rachel Notley was sufficiently enamoured of the Communist thug Che Guevara to wear his likeness on her wrist. Among other unsavoury recollections, Guevara oversaw the executions of individuals deemed to be enemies of the Cuban revolution. .It’s as if Chairman Mao didn’t cause the deaths of at least 40 million Chinese people through policies that led directly during the Great Leap Forward of the 1960s to starvation, unjust imprisonment and all forms of persecution and, of course, that default remedy for political disagreement, mass execution of one’s enemies..Why anybody would want to identify with this — especially anybody running for election — is a question that's burning to be asked. What are these people thinking? Is this their idea of 'a better future?' However, we're the only ones asking it and the NDP aren't talking to us..So Mr. Loyola can march with Edmonton’s Communist Club and none of this context matters. But let a UCP supporter draw attention to opinions that were totally mainstream just 20 years ago or declare themselves pro-life or give a shout out to people who think 10 years old is a bit young for children to be put on the road to a sex-change operation and the newsroom conscience is pricked and its owners stirred to righteous indignation..As we know, most journos lean left. Hiring tends to be self-selective, so that doesn’t change as the years go by. But what makes it worse is most deny this. And so, we’re left with this institutional cultural bias of which they are completely unaware and so they shrug when an NDP candidate affiliates with a movement responsible for 100 million deaths..They plain refuse to join the dots..We, on the other hand, do not refuse to make the connections.
