The Tyee takes a grizzly paw-size swipe at British Columbia's right-wing newspapers this week. It concerns the scam pulled by the Campbell faux-Liberals in 2002 to prepare the public for the transfer of B.C. Ferries to a private company.
A government memo marked "confidential" lays out the government's intricate plan to pitch the scheme to what they knew would be very wary voters.
An appendix to the strategy details the things the public might dislike about the change. There would be "public concern about steep increases in fares and cuts in service," it said.
"British Columbians are proud of and feel a sense of ownership in the ferry service," it added. And there would be "Public concerns about foreign ownership, especially by a U.S. company," a concern for which the spinners were yet to come up with a planned response.
And then there was the question of accountability: "Concerns that an independent BCFS will no longer be accountable to ferry users and the voting public at large." At least in the old days the public knew who to blame when something went wrong.
And who was the chief Judas goat? Why noneother than Mr. Integrity himself, then BC Ferries board chairman David Emerson. Cough, sputter, gag.
Even before the announcement, the communicators would be preparing the public for what was coming. "Leading up to announcement, arrange for David Emerson and other Board members to 'publicly muse' through briefings with trusted reporters about the Wright Report findings and the challenges facing BC Ferries."
Emerson and B.C. Ferries board members were to "place calls to key media" in the two weeks ahead of the announcement.
And who were the "trusted reporters" mentioned in the report? Well, they weren't named but the Tyee story noted which media ran inside stories prior to the public announcement - outfits like CanWest's Victoria Times Colonist, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province and Nanaimo Daily News.
Now there's nothing wrong with a reporter getting a leaked story or writing up a scoop but to be labelled, by the government, a "trusted reporter" who could be relied upon makes you wonder what else these scribes and their papers had done to establish their reliability credentials.
And yes, the public concerns the report identified were right on the money - and they've all come true.
http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/03/05/FerrySpin/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=090309
A government memo marked "confidential" lays out the government's intricate plan to pitch the scheme to what they knew would be very wary voters.
An appendix to the strategy details the things the public might dislike about the change. There would be "public concern about steep increases in fares and cuts in service," it said.
"British Columbians are proud of and feel a sense of ownership in the ferry service," it added. And there would be "Public concerns about foreign ownership, especially by a U.S. company," a concern for which the spinners were yet to come up with a planned response.
And then there was the question of accountability: "Concerns that an independent BCFS will no longer be accountable to ferry users and the voting public at large." At least in the old days the public knew who to blame when something went wrong.
And who was the chief Judas goat? Why noneother than Mr. Integrity himself, then BC Ferries board chairman David Emerson. Cough, sputter, gag.
Even before the announcement, the communicators would be preparing the public for what was coming. "Leading up to announcement, arrange for David Emerson and other Board members to 'publicly muse' through briefings with trusted reporters about the Wright Report findings and the challenges facing BC Ferries."
Emerson and B.C. Ferries board members were to "place calls to key media" in the two weeks ahead of the announcement.
And who were the "trusted reporters" mentioned in the report? Well, they weren't named but the Tyee story noted which media ran inside stories prior to the public announcement - outfits like CanWest's Victoria Times Colonist, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province and Nanaimo Daily News.
Now there's nothing wrong with a reporter getting a leaked story or writing up a scoop but to be labelled, by the government, a "trusted reporter" who could be relied upon makes you wonder what else these scribes and their papers had done to establish their reliability credentials.
And yes, the public concerns the report identified were right on the money - and they've all come true.
http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/03/05/FerrySpin/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=090309
