Calgary columnist challenged to write about Harper neoliberalism

On January 11, 2012, I offered any mainstream journalist at any large Canadian daily a free-dinner-for-two (value$150) if he/she could convince their editors to let them write an article or column describing the neoliberal policies of the Harper government. I have had no takers.
 
But this week, I did hear from a journalist by the name of Ian Robinson. He has some interesting opinions. He believes that “politicians fall somewhere below the humble, yet useful dung beetle and above penicillin-resistant staphylococcus.”
 
And: “The heart of the Occupy movement is a festering, black mass of envy and hatred for success.”
 
Lastly, "climate change is caused by the sun". 
Robinson is a “shoot now, ask NO questions” columnist and copy editor with The Calgary Sun. 
In a comment on my blog, he took exception to my earlier article, in which I said that there is a silent conspiracy amongst media corporations to censor any discussion of the Conservative government’s neoliberal ideology. 
I believe that the wide-open, free-for-all neoliberal environment that exists for the business community and that is ignored by the mainstream media, was responsible for the 2008 economic crash and is behind the current mess in Europe.
 
And Robinson’s opinion of me? That my views “strike him as less political position and more a symptom of some sort of mental disorder.”
Well!



Robinson, who says he worked for seven Ontario newspapers “before fleeing to Alberta after the NDP formed a government in his home province”, seems to indicate that he can get any article he writes published in The Sun.

“I have never been told what topic to choose by an editor,” he wrote on my blog. “Never had a column spiked. Your view of the business I’m in is distorted beyond belief and bears no resemblance to the newspaper industry in which I’ve spent most of my adult life.”

Hmmm, them’s fightin’ words!

As indicated, I earlier wrote that I would provide a “prize” of $150 for a Dinner for Two – the author and a friend – at any restaurant of his/her choice to the first mainstream newspaper journalist who wrote a full article about the neoliberal policies of the Harper Conservatives.

Because Robinson indicates he has full control over the content of his column, I am challenging him to describe the Harper government’s ideology to his readers.

I think it’s very possible that Robinson, like many mainstream journalists, has been so heavily conditioned to stay within traditional media boundaries by his pro-conservative workplace and cultural environment that he would very seldom come up with a story idea that would be unacceptable to his editor. 

It seems to me that he has a very narrow view of the world. But I could be wrong, so I am challenging Robinson to find out who is right on this matter.

A point of clarification:

So there is no misunderstanding concerning the meaning of neoliberalism, I am sending Ian – I think we should be on a first-name basis – this article from the international organization CorpWatch, which monitors the behavior of corporations worldwide. 

Given his beliefs, I am quite sure that Ian will be in favour of the Conservatives’ way of doing things. That’s okay. He can write whatever else he wants to just as long as he explains to his readers, in some degree of detail, that the Tories’ ideology consists of, among other things,

• Transferring control of the economy from public control to the private sector;
• Deregulation: Reducing government regulation of everything that could diminish profits, including protecting the environment;
• Privatization: Sell state-owned enterprises, or force the closure of public organizations, such as the Wheat Board;
• Eliminating taxes on corporations and reducing the taxes of the most wealthy in hope they will reinvest in the economy (trickle-down theory);
• Reducing wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers' rights that had been won over many years;
• Cutting public expenditures like health care and other social programs;
• Pressure the poorest people in society to find solutions to their lack of health care and social security all by themselves -- then blaming them, if they fail, as "lazy." and,
• Eliminating the concept of “the public good” and replacing it with “individual responsibility.”

So let’s see if Ian is a good sport who will take up my challenge of trying to get this idea approved by his editor, or . . . . . . .

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JABS AND LEFT HOOKS: CBC Radio launched a new program, Type A, out of Calgary this week. It is supposed to be about “strong personalities who are not afraid to speak their minds.” Hosted by Ralph Klein’s former Chief of Staff, Rod Love, and journalist/broadcaster Karin Klassen, the first program about whether corporations were good or not was a bit shaky.  Joe Bakan, producer of the film The Corporation, was the only strong voice on the program. After Bakan explained to Love and Klassen that a lot of top corporate executives have psychopathic traits, they cutely chucked about this with their business guests. In one of my blogs a few weeks ago I wrote about a British study that showed similarities between the behaviour of top business executives and psychopaths who were in prison . . . . Love and Klassen wasted time asking executives whether corporations were good or bad – Dooo! Unfortunately, they never discussed the most important thing that determines the behaviour of corporations: the framework they operate within – neoliberalism. If we had a strong, controlling framework, we would have more corporations that acted responsibly. But under neoliberalism . . . well you know my views.