Long-time Conservative operative Keith Beardsley demonizes social media

Shorter Keith Beardsley: Social media is full of dirty fucking hippies who are not nice to Conservatives.

You know what I find the most egregious about our Conservative-dominated media? It’s the pearl clutching of its older, more established journalists and op-ed political operatives when it comes to social media. Here’s a guy, one Keith Beardsley, who frets his furrowed brow over the ‘demonization of political opponents’ in social media.

Of course, Mr. Beardsley is really upset because his party is in the firing line with the RoboCon, C-10 and C-30 scandals. He sounds worried. He should be. Social media, combined with Vikileaks and Anonymous, has forced the right-wing media to find a balance, to stop being stenographers for the Conservatives and do their jobs. The recent reporting on RoboCon in the National Post has been stellar, a welcome new wrinkle of non-partisanship from a very partisan source.

Beardsley isn’t finished. He implores us all to not pre-judge the RoboCon scandal. Curiously he doesn’t mention a certain Conservative politician using his privileged position in government to pre-judge the NDP for the Vikileaks prank. Funny that.

It’s a little rich when a fellow like Beardsley concern-trolls for his party. All of a sudden, after months and months of ugly attack ads against Michael Ignatieff (and his family) followed by a steady stream of below-the-belt rhetoric from Sun Media and Conservative MP’s, Keith wants us to switch to civil discourse. He doesn’t mention the Levants, Lilleys or Corens. No, it’s just the evil social media that irks Mr. Beardsley. Who knew being civil was such a one-way street?

X-posted at Let Freedom Rain.