Right Slanted Corporate Media Telling Us How to Feel & Think Yet Again

Indeed they are. This time, it’s old health care debate on both sides of the border. Yep, Talkin’ about Danny Williams,  Premier of Newfoundland. National Posties’ columnists are proving particularly all ga ga giddy over this with the phony outrage over this (phony for the most part any way). What’s worse, is they really don’t have the whole story, so they are inventing as they go along.

Move over Shona Holmes. You’re second-rate propaganda material now.

Indeed, she has. She is no longer as popular or as covered with perhaps the exceptions of the Hamilton Spec or Faux News. She has lost credibility. Those who have seen her video of her backyard, complete with pond of her mortgaged house would lose sympathy. Worse, we all know she lied on those ads. She didn’t have a big bad fatal brain tumour; it was just a cyst. She was never going to die; her doctor at the Mayo Clinic on their website never indicated that she would have died.  The lawsuit is still happening. Nothing new there.

Yes, the way they pounced and rushed onto the Danny Williams going to U.S. for heart surgery half-baked, without waiting for those pesky facts. According to Deputy Premier  Kathy Dunderdale,

Williams is “more than prepared” to answer all questions “once he recovers.”

That’s just the problem, if  buffoons like those from the National Posties or other Canada.com papers didn’t rush half baked to put this out with half truths and a whole lot of missing information, Williams shouldn’t have to answer any questions.

Sometimes knowledge is power and it’s important to know as much as possible in order to make informed decisions or protect ourselves. Other times, what we don’t know won’t hurt us.  Danny Williams’ situation (and those like him) falls under the latter.

Personally,  I don’t care where Danny Williams or any other politician or members of Canada’s (or any other nation’s) rich and famous go to get themselves well. This really should a private matter in their private lives.

That said, with the media already having a field day with their inuendo, I would like to hear what he has to say and let the truth (or truth according to Danny Williams for that matter).  However, if truth be told, whether or not he answers and questions or gives a statement following his recovery; the media would have already spoon fed the easily impressionable newly indoctrinated neo-cons who like big shiny things and all things American.  Ironically, no one will care about what Williams, himself has to say.

Another stupid assumption by Don Martin and others: they  made him the new poster child for private for profit, most likely to replace the media whore, Shona Holmes. Somehow, I just don’t see him splashing his face all over Faux News and doing ads for Americans for Prosperity, Patients First and other American Conservative interest groups. I don’t see him or his friends trolling all over facebook trying to close pro-medicare  groups down and intimidating their members. If National Posties and the rest of Canwest  as well as  Harpercon talk radio are celebrating a newer, more credible advocate (NOW, that’s funny! A politician more credible than Shona Holmes, a citizen)  to push their pro-American Health Care propoganda, I think they would be disappointed. Not that this pesky little detail would stop them.

As for those calling Williams a hypocrite along with other politicians who have sought treatment in the U.S. (and elsewhere like Europe for that matter, funny how no one talks about Europe, isn’t it?), namely Belinda Stronach:  Former Quebec Liberal Premier, Robert Bourassa; and Jack Layton (well, not in the US but at private hospitals and clinics for treatment)  among others. All politicians who by in large support universal health care in Canada and upholding the Canada Health Act who, themselves, seek treatment elsewhere.

I don’t think he  (or the others mentioned) is hypocritical necessarily. They never preached to the rich to wait on waiting lists and force them to stay in Canada if they choose not to. There are private hospitals and clinics across Canada and I don’t see them trying to shut them down necessarily. What he and those other politicians advocate for is that all citizens have access to health care and no one should ever be denied that basic need due to socio-economic status.

Let’s put this another way. Everyone remembers when Bill Clinton first took office in January, 1993?  He got some lambasting from the media because he supported public schools but sent Chelsea, then 12 to a private school.  Again, falls under the heading of no one’s business. Clinton’s job as president, like any politician is to serve its’ citizens; period. Where he sent Chelsea was a family matter and should have been left that way. Although, I have to say, I don’t remember nearly this much press about that as there is now about Shona Holmes and then Danny Williams from either side of the border.

My father taught high school for the Montreal public school system for over 20 years and he liked the programming at the last school he taught at before leaving for an Ontario private school. However, he still chose to send my brother to private school as the public school where he taught at (or other public schools in Montreal for that matter) didn’t offer what my father felt my brother needed at the time. Of course, My father isn’t rich or famous, but is he a hypocrite?  Again, I don’t think so.  From what I have heard over the years from his previous students, he was a favorite and well respected teacher who actually cared about his students and their education. What about those higher up, like upper management of school boards? Surely, many of them send their kids to private schools.

How about some separatist politicians; staunch politicians who will go to the ends of the earth to protect the French language in Quebec; to do everything including pushing that constitutional envelope to restrict access to English schools? Talk about the extreme and the sometimes overboard and ridiculousness! When my father went to teach private school in Ontario, he was teaching art to the daughter of a Bloc Quebecois MP.  Former Parti Quebecois Premier, Jacques Parizeau  studied at and received his doctorate from England’s prestigious London School of Economics. Bloc Quebecois founder and former Parti-Quebecois Premier after Parizeau, Lucien Bouchard’s two sons went to American boarding schools. I have no doubt there are more similar stories.  Something that would surely sound hypocritical if not somewhat ridiculously extreme never got that much media coverage from any media outlet of either language or any political stripe. Why? Because it doesn’t serve any political agenda right now, nor back during those politician’s careers regarding the French language.

A few examples of double standards that didn’t get nearly as much media coverage. Why are Danny Williams’ health issues? Why the other politician’s decisions to seek health care outside Canada for that matter?

The names that came up often as I mentioned above were Belinda Stronach and Robert Bourassa (Jack Layton went to private hospitals in Canada).  Here is what the right slanted media isn’t talking about though and really bears mentioning.

Belinda Stronach had her preliminary treatments for breast cancer at Sunnybrooke hospital in Toronto. She decided to go to California as the reconstructive surgery she sought was not offered here in Canada. Let’s all remember that California is the capital of all things cosmetic surgery. Most rich folks from all over the world go to California for cosmetic procedures from head to toe. Hardly a great judgement call.  Since she paid for all this out of her pocket and not covered by the tax payers: what’ s the problem?   Not to mention, she has been actively fund raising for breast cancer research and yes, money so that Canadian women can have access to that same kind of breast reconstruction without spending a fortune to go state side.

If  treatment for heart disease is inadequate in Newfoundland, I hope that Danny Williams will  attempt to fix that problem in the province he serves. It will also be up to the voters of Newfoundland to take his government to task and push for health reforms (under existing medicare system) and if they don’t then it would be up to them to vote accordingly at their next political election.

As for Robert Bourassa, interestingly, as I searched on google and every other search engine about his experimental treatments for malignant melanoma in the U.S. , I didn’t find much of anything documented at the actual time he underwent treatments. Ok, the internet wasn’t nearly what it is today and back in the early to mid 1990s, most didn’t have access to the internet. Likewise, I don’t think there would have been all that much documentation on line. Also, it was before all those cuts by right leaning Liberals to transfer payments to the provinces and the baby boomers started aging. No one was really bitching about our health care system at that time and we certainly didn’t hear the push for private for profit health care in Canada; just wasn’t thinkable. He was instrumental in getting Quebec to join the Medicare program and basically turned it into one of the most progressive in North America during his first two terms. Yet, he had experimental treatment in the U.S.  Most of today’s documentation on the subject would be quick to convince Canadians the late Quebec premier was a hypocrite. Convenient, since he can’t react this.  I’m inclined to believe that he went where the experimental treatment was. It happened to have been in the U.S. If it were happening in Europe, he would have gone there. If it were available in Canada, he would have had it here. Nothing to do with all things big and  shiny in the U.S.

Also note, The late Hollywood starlet, Farah Fawcett , who actually lived in a state with all the luxurious hospitals went off to Germany for experimental cancer treatment. Funny how she was criticised in the media and of course, those terrible tabloids for everything except that. No, that would definitely go against the GOP message that American health care is superior. If anything, it would bring up potential criticism of the Americans to not be so quick in approving experimental cancer treatments as the Germans and the Swiss are.

Since most Canadians still support universal health care and would like to see improvements to our existing medicare system rather than implementing the American Health Care system in Canada; no matter what political stripe they may wear; Harpercon cheerleading media must force feed the advocacy of the American Health care system. Is it working?  While most still support our health care system, I have found more and more on the Blogosphere who do want the U.S. model here in Canada.

In order to prevent the Corporate media from winning this battle for Stevie, we’re going to have stop being complacent. I know the British may bitch about their health care system, but try to take away their National Health Service, and their would be rioting in the streets. The French had rallied and demonstrated to have their #1 ranked health care system in the world. We have, for much too long, taken for granted that we would always have universal health care and don’t realize that we are at risk of losing it, particularly if law suits like Shona Holmes’ or Melvin J Howard’s case before NAFTA arbitration are to be successful. An uphill climb it shall be for obvious reasons.  There are Facebook groups to join; No Shona Holmes, We do not want an American Style Health care system! and for those who wish to avoid the whole Shona Holmes thing altogether, there is: Stand Up for Universal Health Care and Canadian Health Coalition and many others. Facebook has proven not long ago to be a thorn in the side of Corporate media, perhaps new life should be breathed into those groups.