Very interesting.
A Sun reporter was booted out of an event David Suzuki was speaking at because the environmentalist refused to do his presentation until the Sun News reporter, Jessica Hume, was removed: http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/27/david-suzuki-kicks-sun-news-out-of-debate-despite-elizabeth-mays-historic-hug-of-reporter/
Now, I know Suzuki is the closest thing to royalty we have (except maybe those Windsor people) and I’m taking my life into my hands criticizing him, but what the hell: the Sun is a legitimate news organization and dodging one of the biggest news chains in the country is cowardice for such a public figure.
I know, he feels persecuted by the likes of Ezra Levant: http://www.torontosun.com/2013/01/28/suzukis-nature-when-he-visited-a-small-college-recently-he-asked-for--female-bodyguards
But Suzuki knows the media game well enough to differentiate between Sun media generally – which, granted, takes issue with Suzuki regularly (and perhaps this isn’t the first interaction Suzuki’s had with Hume) – and a specific editorialist.
Levant has made pointed attacks. I’m not prepared to give them a full stamp of approval, but I’ll confess to being a little taken aback with what appears to be hypocrisy in what Suzuki says and does. Let’s just say that for a man on a soapbox about climate change, he burns more than his fair share of jet fuel. I’m sure he’s well-paid, too, which is all good, except when your political leanings swing left. Money and socialism don’t mix. Yet Canada’s limousine liberals love to decry the excesses of the wealthy while living a lifestyle themselves that’s opulent by the standards of 99-per cent of the humans who’ve ever lived.
But I digress.
Journalists are supposed to ask tough, pointed questions. Suzuki knows this. Kicking a critic out of an event that’s open to the public is censorship, plain and simple.
Some of you will be scoffing at the notion the Sun is staffed by journalists. That’s a mistake. For example, the Toronto Sun is a little more overtly partisan than the Toronto Star, but in some ways that makes the Star more worrisome – its bias is more insidious, less obvious. Both papers have lots of veteran reporters and editors who can pierce BS like a chainsaw through balsa wood (and yes, both have some staffers whose impartiality is polluted by their personal biases).
Bottom line, you may not like the Sun’s tabloid TV and print style but it is journalism and if Suzuki wishes to remain a public figure, he needs to take the Sun’s questions.
(Liberal isn’t a bad word, by the way, it’s just that it’s been hijacked by big government social engineers.)
UPDATE: On the (side) topic of censorship, here's a succinct, strong defense of free speech: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/02/28/john-carpay-taking-the-free-speech-campaign-to-the-legislatures/
