Fifth Estate - Hamilton Style
The nearest thing I have to a local TV station is CHCH out of Hamilton (Ont). Being a bit of a news junkie, I usually dial them in at 6 p.m. - although I confess to being a habitual clicker. Well, last night I tuned in, as usual. Now what earth-shattering story do you think led off the newscast? There are, of course, many options in these electric times, and a discerning news director would have his hands full deciding who should bat lead-off. Among his choices, for instance:
There's the ongoing court case in Brantford, where the city has filed an injunction in an attempt to stop the Indians from demanding "fees" from developers in that area. One city lawyer yesterday referred to the practice as a good old-fashioned "shakedown". Fascinating stuff, and a story that's only going to heat up in the weeks to come.
Alas - that was not the lead story on CHCH last night.
What about the tantalizing tale of the biker chick and the MP? You know - the one where our foreign affairs minister, Maxime Bernier has taken a fall for leaving "secret" documents at the apartment of his girlfriend - the fetching Julie Couillard. Ms. Couillard apparently has a past that would make for a good Sidney Sheldon novel, and a rack that I'm sure has the folks at Maxim magazine salivating. It's rather interesting that sanctimonious types like Christie Blatchford have chosen to make her the devil in this mix. Never mind that Bernier left the "secret" (what the hell was in that envelope - the formula for getting the goo in Cadbury bars?) documents there for FIVE weeks. No wonder he's been declared Harper's "Puddin'head Of The Month" (a rather prestigious award named for the PM himself). Now Harper is forced to make another trip down to Moron's R Us to find himself another cabinet minister. I might add that our esteemed MP Diane Finley would never be caught doing anything circumspect like that. Well, technically, she's never actually done anything AT ALL...but that's another story.
In any event - the bimbo and the bozo didn't make the cut at CHCH.
So what did, you're wondering? Skyrocketing gas prices? Nope. Scott McClellan's new book suggesting that George Dubya Bush is a moron? (okay, okay - that's not really news) But no again.
Last night CHCH chose to lead off its venerable 6 o'clock newscast with FIVE AND A HALF MINUTES (yeah - I timed it) of stories about the new movie Sex And The City. I'm not making this up. This is a film about 4 women who live in New York City and spend their days...um...fighting crime? Okay, I have no idea what they spend their days doing. I've never seen the TV series and I would drive knitting needles into my eyes before I would watch the movie. But CHCH had all of the salient and fascinating details. This is a station that only allotted a minute in a half to the 9/11 attacks before going to Merry Weather Matthew for the weekend forecast.
I can't wait 'til tonight. I have a suspicion they're going to do an in-depth feature on The Andy Griffith rerun showing later this evening. Although if Barney Fife was involved in this little dog and pony show, I'm quite certain he would advise them to nip it. Nip it in the bud. I'm with ol' Barney on this one.
There's the ongoing court case in Brantford, where the city has filed an injunction in an attempt to stop the Indians from demanding "fees" from developers in that area. One city lawyer yesterday referred to the practice as a good old-fashioned "shakedown". Fascinating stuff, and a story that's only going to heat up in the weeks to come.
Alas - that was not the lead story on CHCH last night.
What about the tantalizing tale of the biker chick and the MP? You know - the one where our foreign affairs minister, Maxime Bernier has taken a fall for leaving "secret" documents at the apartment of his girlfriend - the fetching Julie Couillard. Ms. Couillard apparently has a past that would make for a good Sidney Sheldon novel, and a rack that I'm sure has the folks at Maxim magazine salivating. It's rather interesting that sanctimonious types like Christie Blatchford have chosen to make her the devil in this mix. Never mind that Bernier left the "secret" (what the hell was in that envelope - the formula for getting the goo in Cadbury bars?) documents there for FIVE weeks. No wonder he's been declared Harper's "Puddin'head Of The Month" (a rather prestigious award named for the PM himself). Now Harper is forced to make another trip down to Moron's R Us to find himself another cabinet minister. I might add that our esteemed MP Diane Finley would never be caught doing anything circumspect like that. Well, technically, she's never actually done anything AT ALL...but that's another story.
In any event - the bimbo and the bozo didn't make the cut at CHCH.
So what did, you're wondering? Skyrocketing gas prices? Nope. Scott McClellan's new book suggesting that George Dubya Bush is a moron? (okay, okay - that's not really news) But no again.
Last night CHCH chose to lead off its venerable 6 o'clock newscast with FIVE AND A HALF MINUTES (yeah - I timed it) of stories about the new movie Sex And The City. I'm not making this up. This is a film about 4 women who live in New York City and spend their days...um...fighting crime? Okay, I have no idea what they spend their days doing. I've never seen the TV series and I would drive knitting needles into my eyes before I would watch the movie. But CHCH had all of the salient and fascinating details. This is a station that only allotted a minute in a half to the 9/11 attacks before going to Merry Weather Matthew for the weekend forecast.
I can't wait 'til tonight. I have a suspicion they're going to do an in-depth feature on The Andy Griffith rerun showing later this evening. Although if Barney Fife was involved in this little dog and pony show, I'm quite certain he would advise them to nip it. Nip it in the bud. I'm with ol' Barney on this one.
posted by Brad Smith at
9:08 AM
2 Comments:
Oh please, get your facts straight.
Four PRETEND women in New York City. Geesh.
No media in this town touches real issues - especially anything to do with native affairs - with a ten foot pole. Political correctness retains a strong footing, to the point of ill-serving the media consumer, who is so used to learning more about pretend issues they'd probably no longer recognize a real one if it snuck out from behind a (closed) steel mill and smacked them between the eyes.
Actually, if you think about it, it makes sense. A pretend police force, pretend politicans and pretend issues all presented to us by pretend media. Even Alice didn't have it this good.
How 'bout you do a proper round up once a week? A highlight reel of the lowlights, as it were?
S. Elliot
Too funny. I thought I had escaped their less than relevant news casts when I moved to Toronto, but recently Global has replaced it's morning show with the one and only CHCH. I couldn't believe it! I had to watch it the way you sometimes can't stop watching a really bad movie. Is it possible that Brian Woods looks younger than I remember, or is he just trying harder to look younger?
-Former Canfielder/Dunnviller
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