Newly-appointed Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez told reporters the Liberal government’s plan to regulate online publishers has “nothing to do with free speech.” According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Rodriguez made the comment Tuesday in response to a question about Bill C-10, a sweeping update to Canada’s Broadcasting Act that critics have called an attempt to regulate Canadians publishing content online. When asked by reporters to address the Conservative’s concerns that the bill infringes on the free speech rights of Canadians, Rodriguez responded by saying: “That bill has nothing to do with free speech.” “C-10 is a top priority. I am currently in discussions with stakeholders and it will be treated as such. It will be one of the priority bills,” said Rodriguez. “I had an initial discussion with my Conservative counterpart and I think we can work together to make this happen.” Bill C-10, which died in the previous legislature when the election was called, would have expanded the authority of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to the digital space. Certain provisions in the legislation also sought to have web giants like Facebook and Google compensate Canadian media outlets for the content they host on their platform.
Media & Internet
An article appeared in the Guardian this week written by an anonymous NHS respiratory consultant claiming that “in hospital, COVID-19 has largely become a disease of the unvaccinated”. This reads to me like a blatant attempt to stigmatise the unvaccinated as selfish, a burden on society and a threat to the vaccinated. (The clue is in the headline: “ICU is full of the unvaccinated — my patience with them is wearing thin.”) Given the polling (which may not be very reliable of course) showing that 45% of U.K. adults would support an indefinite lockdown of the unvaccinated, this is all starting to look and sound rather ugly. The most frustrating thing about this anonymously written article is it doesn’t cite any data even though its arguments are based on claims which only data can validate. It consists instead only of a single medic’s subjective impressions, with no sources provided to see if his claims holds water. Are the hospitalised mostly unvaccinated? Not according to Government data from the UKHSA. Here is the breakdown of hospitalisations by vaccination status in England for the four weeks up to November 14th from the latest Vaccine Surveillance report.
A Bangladeshi social media sensation in a recent interview exposed the extent of online hate, bigotry, abuse and chilling threats from Muslims she had to endure, all because of her religious identity. Hundreds of people not only used unspeakable profanity against her and her family, but also the Gods she prayed to. Some even left threats describing how they would molest her. The virtual terror unleashed upon her not only wrecked her mental wellbeing, but made her second guess every aspect of her identity and life in Bangladesh. Is it a sin to be born as a Hindu in Bangladesh? She recounts that she couldn’t sleep for days. While speaking with Manju Ahmad, anchor of a Bangladeshi talk show, the celebrated TikToker Samonty Shoumi stated that she had posted a video of herself at the Durga Puja Pandal on the seventh day of Durga Puja this year. In response, Muslims, who had so far been unaware of her religious background, hurled unimaginable abuse at her, including: “You are a sub-human”; “You Hindu whore”; “F*ck you and f*ck your fake idol-worshipping religion”. “Dirty Hindu maid,” and so on. There were choicest of obscenities, very descriptive ones, for the Hindu Goddess Durga as well.
A former New York Times reporter says the liberal newspaper waited until after the presidential election to publish her exposé debunking the narrative that the August 2020 Black Lives Matter riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, did not harm the local community. The three-day riots erupted in August 2020 after Kenosha police officers shot Jacob Blake, an armed black man who was resisting arrest following a domestic disturbance call made by his girlfriend. Independent journalist Nellie Bowles said in a Thursday post on Bari Weiss’ Substack channel, Common Sense, that the Times held her story until after the election. The move is yet another sign that despite their pretense to journalistic objectivity, the establishment media — especially The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post and MSNBC — are merely purveyors of left-wing propaganda. Bowles said she was sent to Kenosha last summer to report on the “mainstream liberal argument” that allowing BLM to destroy small businesses was an appropriate way to promote “racial justice” because the businesses could recoup the costs through insurance. She learned that this was false.
Kyle Rittenhouse shot three black men. Kyle Rittenhouse traveled across state lines with a gun. Kyle Rittenhouse had an AK-47. These are three examples of false information being spread about Rittenhouse, whose trial ended last week with his acquittal. Prominent influencers, including lawmakers and reporters, are sources of some of the misinformation — possibly disinformation — leaving experts troubled. On CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, reporter Mark Strassman falsely said Rittenhouse “drove in from Illinois armed for battle.” On CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” on Friday, Harvard University professor Cornell William Brooks falsely said Rittenhouse was carrying an AK-47. The Independent falsely reported late last week that Rittenhouse shot three black men. Rittenhouse, 17 years old at the time, shot three men, two fatally, with an AR-15 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020. All were white, as is Rittenhouse. The gun was bought by a friend and was picked up by the teenager, who resided in Illinois, from a home in Kenosha. Rittenhouse claimed self-defense and the jury agreed, clearing him of all charges after video footage and witness testimony during the trial showed he was attacked by all of the men he shot.
President Biden’s approval numbers continue to drop. Republicans are up ten points in the generic ballot for the 2022 midterms. Blue Virginia elected a Republican governor, defeating a pillar of the party since the Clinton administration. Inflation is reaching record highs, as are gasoline prices. Meanwhile Xi, Putin, and Khamenei are geopolitically partying like it’s 1979. Yet the progressive Dems and their media PR flaks keep promoting policies and indulging in political antics guaranteed to alienate more and more voters. A year out from the midterm elections, a party with razor-thin margins of control in the House and Senate seem headed for a massive repudiation. Their most recent example of political myopia is the grotesque lies and hysteria over the Kyle Rittenhouse trial and acquittal. As the New York Post’s Miranda Devine writes, “Of all the willful lies and omissions in the media’s coverage of the Steele dossier, Brian Sicknick, the Covington kids, Jussie Smollett, the Wuhan lab, Hunter Biden’s laptop and so on, nothing beats the evil propaganda peddled about Kyle Rittenhouse.”