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Yesterday, Christie Blatchford wrote a column for the National Post full of back handed compliments to Jack Layton on the day of his death. Between the lines, however, lay a great streak of right-winged opportunism, attacking the man and his party for their beliefs and actions. Using terms like ‘vainglorious’ and ‘sophistry’, Blatchford used Layton’s death not to honour the man but as a platform to eviscerate the left’s grief and attack his party’s legacy.
As you would expect, Twitter responded with anger at Blatchford – and the National Post – for this unfeeling opportunism. The paper took note and instead of an apology it amplifies Blatchford’s cold, cold words with a haughty ‘fuck you’ to those who took offence. In a column today by Jonathan Kay, NP does the unthinkable and praises Blatchford’s cowardly sniping as ‘courageous’ and and well, let me just let the man speak for himself:
“We can all draw inspiration from Jack Layton’s political drive and courageous battle against cancer. But no man is perfect. And his letter made a spectacle of his imperfections. As a writer, I derive a different kind of inspiration from the woman who had the guys [sic] to say so.”
You’d almost expect Kay to feature an illustration of Blatchford looking off into the horizon like an old time war propaganda poster, full of heroic victimhood and noble intentions. A little editing wouldn’t hurt either, Mr. Kay.
I’ll say this for Blatchford, she does have one ‘guy’ (NP typo finally corrected now) who has her back, no matter how vile and petty her words may be. The day of a leader’s death and one of mourning for many, many Canadians is not the day to use that death to further an unfriendly ideology. Jonathan Kay should know better but his first instinct is to fight, not make peace with those offended by one of his writers. But that’s how modern right-wing journalism works. Never apologize. Never admit a mistake. And when caught, double down.
In response to Kay’s defense of Blatchford, this tweet I think summarizes it all so much better:
“Time and place, Mr. Kay. Refusing to wait a day or two, out of respect for our shared mortality, isn’t courageous”
- Don Gardner
UPDATE: Tabatha Southey objects to any linkage to the Blatchford/Kay garbage:
“Oh, don’t give BlatchKay the hits, read @aaronwherry on Layton instead: tinyurl.com/3vx7evd”
UPDATE II: Blatchford pal Tim Powers also lets Christie off the hook. Mr. Powers, Ms. Blatchford and Mr. Kay: the reason you find the outpouring of sympathy for Jack offensive is that he is not a Conservative. You can’t stand to see a left winger get any press, let alone Jack Layton. A common undercurrent of bewilderment runs through these columns – how can Canadians show so much affection for a ‘commie’ and a ‘socialist’?
You see this phenomenon in the US right with their desperate attempts to take away any credit for Obama’s successes. It’s more than jealousy or attempts to control the narrative; it is an emotional and psychological condition that plagues conservatives. To share is to fail. They want it all.
Cross posted at Let Freedom Rain.
Sadly our country is becoming divided between the ideolouged right and ideologued left. I was personally saddened by the death of Jack Layton, never voted for him and probably never would, but how can you not respect him. What a thankless job politics or for that matter public service is.
But then I thought what would my resonse be to the death of Harper and sadly all I could think of was good riddance. Of course I probably would of kept my opinion to myself, which is what these assholes should do.
ck Reply:
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:13 PM
my grandmother always told me that if I couldn’t say something nice, don’t say it at all. To be honest, Ffib, I don’t think I could muster any feelings of grief if anything happened to Harper neither, and since I’m no hypocrite, I wouldn’t even fake any tribute to him on my site. I certainly wouldn’t break into celebration on my site neither. I just wouldn’t post anything.
Jymn Reply:
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:18 PM
Good comments, Ffib and ck. It’s perfectly fine to skewer the living but when someone passes, many others grieve. Allow the process to complete itself. Then you can take all the shots you want. If Harper goes, I would STFU. Not just out of respect for his family but also so I don’t look like an asshole. Too bad too many on the right do not agree.
Beijing York Reply:
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:50 PM
I too would stay silent, be it Harper or anyone else that I didn’t have an ounce of respect for passed away.
Not that I would ever wish anyone a shorter life because of a cruel, relentless disease. Cancer is too cruel for even the worst of enemies.
I think the right media was scared because the groundswell is happening for the social democratic movement, and all those elections are coming up – it’s scaring the crap out of them & they so want to prick all those orange balloons rising up across the nation – so they don’t give a rat’s butt.
Bina Reply:
August 25th, 2011 at 10:15 AM
I think you’re right. All the orange on Parliament Hill yesterday scared the piss out of these ‘wingers. They know who the popular politicians here are, and their boy Harpo just is not one of them. Never was, never will be. So they call Jack Layton’s last letter “vainglorious” and “partisan”, and the media’s honest reporting of people’s real affection for him “mawkish”. The fact that Canadians have had enough of their shit is more than apparent to them, and the bleat of fear underlying their words is obvious to anyone with an ear attuned for it. If the media made a point of actually catering to their readers, not their advertisers, Blatchford, Kay, et al would never have another day’s work in their useless idiotic lives.
As self serving as it may seem and in fact be, I just thought I would share my thoughts on the matter:
http://www.michaelmurray.ca/blog/?page=news&id=525