I love it when the folks at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation start complaining about a city councillor’s $45.00 lunch tab at a downtown restaurant. The CTF complains a lot about nickel-dime government spending, but there is never a peep from these folks about the $1 billion per year — that’s $1 BILLION per-freakin’-year — our federal government spends on the CBC.
It’s an amount of money that is appalling, at least when one stops to consider the nonsense that is far too often spewed by the wealthy, taxpayer-paid commentators at the CBC.
I bring this up because of the dreadful piece of garbage that Ron McLean handed us last Saturday night when he eviscerated former Manitoba Moose forward Alexandre Burrows, simply because Burrows, now with the Vancouver Canucks, had the audacity to criticize an official.
McLean, an official himself, used his pulpit at the CBC to embarrass and ridicule Burrows who was simply putting into a very clear perspective what referee Stephane Auger did last week.
Auger made two calls in the Vancouver – Nashville game last Monday that looked — at least to any bookie who cares about the NHL, and granted, there aren’t very many of them — as if the fix was in. The calls were horrendous, an embarrassment to the NHL, and they ultimately cost Vancouver a hockey game.
After the debacle, Burrows claimed that in a pre-game “conversation” that was on video all over the world, Auger said he would “get” Burrows for an incident that had taken place back on Dec. 8. Auger is alleged to have accused Burrows of taking a dive in a game against Nashville and according to Burrows — who has no reason (nor any history) to lie — Auger was going to exact his revenge.
He did. Obviously. Clearly. On viral video. And yet, the NHL fined Burrows $2,500 for criticizing an official and let Auger — the same guy who slandered the very Christian Shane Doan for a comment that Auger wanted to make more sinister than it was — off the hook. Not a surprising decision, of course, when one considers that the NHL must support its officials or have another work-stoppage on its hands.
Sadly, by the time this entire incident reached the CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada bully pulpit, it was all Burrows’ fault and Auger was as clean as the driven snow. McLean attacked Burrows and gave Auger a free-ride in one of the worst examples of one-sided television “journalism,” in Canadian sports history.
The Burrows family is, naturally, angry. Frankly, they should sue. It was slander and McLean needs to apologize. If he doesn’t, then it’s clear that the CBC does not represent Canadians. It simply represents the musings of its high-priced help and as a taxpayer, I’m sick to my stomach that my hard-earned cash has to help pay for it.
Too bad the CTF hasn’t got the collective cojones to take on the worst example of taxpayer-supported corporate welfare in our country. The CBC is an embarrassment to Canadians who believe in honesty, balance and fair play.
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TIGER’S IN SEX REHAB. OH, REALLY?
The mainstream media is at it again. The morons of the microphone, the kooks of the keyboards and the crazies with the cameras now want us to believe that Tiger Woods is in a sex-rehab clinic in Mississippi.
Where does this stuff come from? Oh, the New York Daily News. Why, of course, a daily newspaper.
Anyone who believes ANY of the Tiger Woods reports these days probably believes that, indeed, Dwayne Johnson is the Tooth Fairy.
In fact, anyone who believes a word coming out of the mainstream media has a brain the size of a peanut. Whatever happened to editors? Is the business in so much trouble that this kind of crap has to be passed off as a legitimate news story?
Sometimes it’s hard not to think that the sooner the daily newspaper industry just collapses under the weight of its own mismanagement and hubris, the smarter we’ll all be.
UPDATE (Jan. 20): Wonder if they got it right this time?
This alleged Mississippi clinic is, allegedly, the THIRD sex rehab centre that Woods has allegedly checked into. Allegedly.
The interwebs now say there are alleged pictures of Tiger, allegedly at Pine Grove Behavioral Centre in Hattiesburg, Miss. Allegedly, he’s now even allowed to masturbate. Allegedly.
Wow! After guaranteeing that Woods was in a rehab centre in Arizona and then one in South Africa, the media might have finally got it right. Congrats. Keep throwing cowpatties at the wall, one might stick.
UPDATE (Jan. 22): Wrong again.
Turns out the alleged pictures of an alleged Tiger Woods at an alleged Sex Rehab Drive-In in Hattiesburg, Miss., turned out to be nothing more than photos of an employee on a coffee break.
Another cow patty failed to stick. Wonder what’s next?
Gawd, if you want it late or you want it wrong, buy a newspaper.
Allegedly.