Having watched Premier Danielle Smith’s first full Q&A a week ago, and the subsequent hysterical reaction, I have concluded in a fair fight there is no way Smith can be defeated..But of course, it is not going to be a fair fight..Our modern media has shifted away from its traditional role in reporting the news, offering opinion, and providing a public square for the debate of society’s pressing issues. The legacy media now views itself as a serious player in determining society alongside government, our institutions and even the church. It sees its job as moulding the thinking and decision making of the great unwashed and shallow-thinking public. And for the most part the public loves this since it saves them having to think through hard issues or do the research required for informed decisions..People like to go along with the crowd and for the most part take the easy road and faithfully parrot talking points..To be fair, most people are just not interested or getting really tired of politicians and are forever condemning one another. But the fact remains the legacy media is very influential in our thinking and attitudes, even affecting the outcomes of elections. Sadly, the legacy media also suffered from a severe loss of credibility to the point where it's on life support, and has therefore now become the subsidized communication arm of government..So the way to beat Smith has nothing to do with NDP policy, but simply for the legacy media to continue their approach. Will she and her team figure out how to beat this, the real enemy?.The legacy media does not like Smith or the UCP, so here is their plan to defeat Smith. (True North media did a whole segment on the Smith reaction, in their Fake News Friday segment.).Continue with ‘Gotcha’ journalism. Reduce an entire 60 minutes of substantive back and forth to one single phrase and pretend this was the essential message. A more generous summary of her discrimination segment would be “state sponsored persecution by a western Charter-based liberal democracy.” Remember even Trudeau was initially against mandates..Smith’s team has probably already prepared a hundred or so “clarifications” for every possible gotcha outrage that is coming..Continue to reduce everything to black and white. ‘Orange man bad — doddering old fool good,’ worked for one election but will it work for two? Intergovernmental politics and the evolving Canadian constitutional wrangling can’t simply be summed up in “Sovereignty Act bad.”.Continue to take your headlines from the CBC. Before you publish, look to see what is trending on CBC. The CBC Smith discrimination story has closed comments at just less than 11,000. If you want to know where on-line hate lives, have a look — and this is after the most vile have been deactivated..Continue to use phony quotation marks to denigrate legitimate causes or self chosen names. So we endure endless 'so-called Freedom Convoy' references to disparage the truckers. If you used the phony-quotes around some small indigenous group wanting to call itself a “nation” you would be crucified. And then there is Calgary’s climate “emergency” that somehow avoids the fake quotes..When speaking of the “insurrection” that took place in Ottawa, continue to misrepresent the facts to make your point. We expect politicians to lie and are somewhat disappointed when the RCMP (so popular with our rural municipal governments) make selective use of the truth, but even the media? I know, you are appalled..Continue to misunderstand posturing for substance. The strategic point of the Sovereignty Act was to generate an apocalyptic response. How else would Alberta’s legitimate grievances make it into the consciousness of regular people in Ontario and Quebec? Ken Boessenkool’s over-the-top call for a UCP coup is part of the reaction that Smith hoped for. Thanks Ken..Continue to promote woke themes, such as the victimization of virtually everyone. The problem is everybody can’t be a victim: At some point we will surely run out. If you don’t somehow honour the preferred victims then you are a racist. It seems modern media hasn’t heard the phrase “Go Woke, Go Broke”..Continue to support your narratives with discredited “experts.” Political “scientist” Duane Bratt boldly predicted that Danielle Smith could not come back, given her history. And still he is quoted as an authority. There are of course plenty more where he came from and if they are not available, then go to the ultimate authority “the person on the street.”.Continue to publish unflattering photos or inappropriate facial expressions. As one commenter said “perhaps they can get a picture of Smith eating spaghetti”..Continue to refuse publishing editorials that explain your positions to your readers. The National Post does occasionally prepare an old fashioned editorial. Wouldn’t it be better for the Calgary Herald to state why they are so opposed to Smith and the UCP, rather than pretend Don Braid’s views are somehow independent of the Herald’s editorial position?.Continue to think people are idiots. To see they are not, just have a look through the comments on any news story sorted by ‘Most Liked’..The sad thing about this approach is that it works..Think of Jeromy Farkas in the last Calgary election. He started as the favourite but ended up losing. Given Jyoti Gondek’s performance so far, he would easily win a by-election in Calgary Elbow. Perhaps Jeff Davidson and Brad Field would also like to take a crack at provincial politics..William D. Marriott is a retired economist who specialized in public policy analysis of the oil and gas industry.
