Harper to shun Ottawa journalists

Where have all the media gone?

One, two, three, four, five…was ‘accountability’ part of Harper’s five government items?

If so, would avoiding the media really be the best step in that direction??? It’s easy enough to say you are accountable if you don’t have to show that you are accountable.

Harper has stated that he will be avoiding the journalist on Parliament Hill because the media will not do what he says, how he says. They are upset that they aren’t allowed to asks him questions, so he now refuses to answer questions….my oh my…. ‘My way or the highway’ goes straight from backbencher to cabinet to journalist.

Definitions:

Prime Minister: the official head of a cabinet or ministry; especially : the chief executive of a parliamentary government

Oppressor: To keep down by severe and unjust use of force or authority: a people who were oppressed by tyranny.

Wait a second…Prime what??

S.

PM to shun Ottawa journalists
May 25, 2006. 01:00 AM

OTTAWA—Stephen Harper says journalists on Parliament Hill are biased against his government so he'll be avoiding them.

The Prime Minister says the parliamentary press gallery seems to have decided to

become the opposition to his Conservative government.

He told A-Channel in London, Ont., yesterday that he is having problems with reporters that a Liberal leader would never face.

So he says he will take his message out on the road to less hostile local media.

"Unfortunately, the press gallery has taken the view they are going to be the opposition to the government," Harper told the TV station. "They don't ask questions at my press conferences now."

On Tuesday, two dozen Ottawa reporters walked out on a Harper event when he refused to take their questions.

Harper does not want to hold press conferences unless his staff choose which journalists ask questions from a list they compile. The Ottawa press gallery won't accept those rules.

"I have trouble believing that a Liberal prime minister would have this problem," Harper said yesterday. "But the press gallery at the leadership level has taken an anti-Conservative view."

A media analyst said Harper was being paranoid, and that his remarks could backfire.

"Basically, what he's saying is the regional media can be trusted to be compliant. They will find that insulting," said Chris Dornan, head of Carleton University's journalism school.

"Just as the national press corps will find insulting the suggestion that they're all paid-up Liberal hacks."

Yves Malo, a reporter with Quebec's TVA and president of Ottawa's press gallery, said he was neither pro- nor anti-Conservative.

"I'm just a journalist who's trying to do his job," he said.

Canadian Press