Ungrateful evacuees

Canadians aren't buying the media's slant (full text subscribers only).

You could sense that, in the evacuation from Lebanon, much of Canada's media thought it had another Walkerton or Katrina on its hands. The Globe and Mail, CBC, CTV and others were positively salivating over what they saw as an opportunity to sting yet another conservative government for not caring enough about a public crisis...

The trouble (for the get-Harper outlets, at least) is that the vast majority of Canadians failed to swallow these reports in the spirit in which they were filed. Most Canadians watched and read these accounts and couldn't believe the ingratitude and sense of entitlement of those who had been saved from the war in Lebanon...

...[a] woman whose name I didn't catch, said the escape was "hell." (More hell, ma'am, than the war you were fleeing?) She insisted that while she had loved her adopted country of Canada for more than 30 years, the incompetence of the Canadian government in her evacuation had caused here to doubt her choice. (But, let me get this right, you are still willing to come back to Canada, at Canadian taxpayers' expense, right? We're all relieved you still love this country that much.)..

Still the CBC and CTV luxuriated in the constant stream of complaints from evacuees as they descended the gangplanks in save-haven ports. And from the tone of their interviews with government officials -- notably Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay -- you would have thought these officials had been standing on a Lebanese hilltop laughing at civilians as they were bombed by Israeli jets...

...the media slant was likely an admixture of too much faith in government to make us safe at all times and too little understanding of military matters and of logistics (a mass evacuation under fire is always chaotic). Then, as in Katrina, there was more than a dash of race/multiculturalism politics to add topspin. And as with the Walkerton water crisis, there was a belief that a right-of-centre government could be dinged for not showing sufficient compassion...

Mark C.

Update: CBC Radio in Toronto making the point about media slant, interviewing a Canadian Lebanese grateful for the evacuation; listen to this bit, "Proud To Be Canadian" (thanks to commenter John B:).

Posted by markc at July 24, 2006 10:03 AM