Monday, April 21, 2008

And where did you get that information, Stephen?


Not surprisingly, it's been only hours but Blogging Tories co-founder Stephen Taylor is already doing a bang-up job carrying the CPoC's water. However, I am curious about something.

You see all that text in the blue? The stuff that immediately follows the sentence, "Here are the contradictions that they emphasize"? Where did that come from? There's no hyperlink, and that looks like some serious legalese, so how is it that Taylor has access to what appears to be some preliminary lawyering on behalf of the CPoC?

I'm sure there's an innocent answer to that, but it sure does strike me as odd that Stephen would reproduce so much text verbatim and not supply the source from whence it was obtained.

UPPITY DATE: As Ti-Guy mentioned in the comments, Taylor has just updated his post to reveal the source of all that crunchy legal goodness: "received via email (on the record) from the CPC." Which makes me wonder -- if I wanted to get timely e-mail updates from the Stephen Harper Party of Canada, would they send them to me, too?

More interesting, though, is the issue of whether Stephen Taylor is simply an unofficial conduit through which the CPoC pumps propaganda out to the public. Think that's not a big deal? Think again, since Taylor's "About Me" page on his blog reads, in part:

Since its inception, this site has served as log of personal reflection on a number of events that have shaped our country. During the 2005-2006 election this blog broke many election-related stories which got significant play in the mainstream media.

Now, normally it would be moderately impressive for someone to "break" numerous stories if they did it by dint of careful investigation and dogged sleuthing. It's not so impressive if all those election-related stories came about as the result of just sitting by the computer, waiting for the next Sandra Buckler private missive to come wafting in from the Intertoobz.

I think Stephen owes a few people an explanation as to what's going on here. Clever political blogging is one thing. But if it's just a case of from Harper's mouth to Buckler's ear to Taylor's keyboard, well, that's not such a big deal anymore, is it?

4 comments:

Ti-Guy said...

He's updating his post at this very second.

I checked your link and read:

"Here are the contradictions that they emphasize (received via email from the CPC):"

Then checked again a few seconds later and read that he'd added:

"(on the record)"...

Who's emailing you, Stephen, you old citizen journalist, you? Sandra Buckler?

Lindsay Stewart said...

all this horrible, awful, corruption (hyperbollocks heh) boiling out of the devious, conservative cabal concerning jiggery-pokery with election advertising and the funny movement of funds to and fro, why all that's missing is a montreal diner and a paper bag.

doesn't it strike anyone that mr. taylor is acting not as a private citizen but as a functionary of the party, using the new media to, in fact, advertise. call it breaking stories or call it what it is, yet more unaccounted for partisan advertising that elections canada should be examining. oh, oh i think i just invented the shill chill. what is the exact relationship between taylor, online mouthpiece and the party itself and the party's officials. if he takes a nickel from them i'd say it looks like a broader investigation is called for.

The Seer said...

Maybe they fly him in one of the planes normally used by the governor general to Ottawa for special in-depth briefings. It's called "psy-ops." I hear it's done in other countries too.

Ti-Guy said...

It's substantively different when it's an issue of communication between government officials and those connected to the Party.

In any case, he's never hidden the fact the he's a conduit for insider information; we just don't know from whom and in what capacity. And that's duplicitous.

Conservatives make me puke. Little high school gossips thinking they're shrewdly Machiavellian.