Media Continues to Manipulate the Public. Forget about Democracy! Ottawa Citizen censors a candidates' run for the office.
Forget about Democracy! We do not have to Vote because “Ottawa Citizen” paper does it for us. Ottawa Citizen censors a candidates' run for the office.
Any election poll results depend on and are very close related to the way media has portrayed all candidates. Therefore, the media cannot depend on polls, because polls results follow media. If the voter never heard about a candidate and his/her platform, how this voter cast a vote for this candidate?
Hence, only the media are in charge of the poll results.
Bellow is an email from popular OTTAWA CITIZEN columnist Ken Gray.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gray, Kenneth (ott)" <kgray@thecitizen.canwest.com>
To: "'Piotr Anweiler'" <panweiler@sympatico.ca>
Cc: "Gray, Kenneth (ott)" <kgray@thecitizen.canwest.com>
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 11:03 AM
Subject: RE: Question to you from Ottawa Mayoral Candidate 2006 election
> Mr. Anweiler:
> My column dealt with the major contenders for mayor. I'm sorry but it is unlikely your candidacy, as well as the others you mentioned, will be major factors in the race's outcome. Thus you were omitted.
> Thank you for your interest.
> Sincerely.
> Ken Gray
> > > > ----------
> > From: Piotr Anweiler
> > Reply To: Piotr Anweiler
> > Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2006 12:23 PM
> > To: kgray@thecitizen.canwest.com
> > Subject: Question to you from Ottawa Mayoral Candidate 2006 election
> > Mr. Gray
> > After reading your article from yesterday, Saturday August 25, 2006
regarding the election, I am surprised that you did not mentioned the 3 other candidates running for Mayor. I am the one of them.
> > You wrote about Mr. Kilrea and that he has never held a major political office before and about Mr. O'Brien, who doesn't have any platform yet and is unknown by the most of the people on Elgin St.
> > According to you:
> > "Depending on how the media gets behind this campaign, Ottawa could see as much as a 50-60 per-cent turnout".
> > I agree with you and also I agree with Mark Twain, who said:
> > "If you don't read the paper you are uniformed, if you read the paper you> > are misinformed".
> > This is exactly the case, where media continues to mislead the public by not showing them the other options they have.
> > The media, especially the Ottawa Citizen, a few times have already stated, that there are only 3 runners, which is not the truth!
> > The Ottawa Citizen as a daily paper and its columnists would not have credibility if continue to play with readers.
> > Because Citizen journalists do not perform a reliable job by showing the public other candidates' opinions, the public is not informed with all available options that they have.
> > This is unfair and a biased game with taxpayers by denying and influencing votes.
> > Since the beginning of June, I have sent all my Press Releases to many columnists employed by the Ottawa Citizen and to main email box.
> > As a result of their ignorance, I am left without the opportunity to present to the public my opinions, my ideas, my solutions, and my vision for Ottawans.
> > Can you please explain to me why it is this happens in a democratic society, where I had thought it was the responsibility of the media and its journalists to report the facts and all options available to its readership and the general public at large?
> > I firmly believe that this was a "duty" of any media outlet to "inform" and not withhold information which by doing so influences the outcome of the publics conceptions on any given matter.
> > Many times the media has asked for new faces, new ideas, someone with the business background. Here I am; 29 of May 2006 I filed papers to register as a candidate for Mayor of the City of Ottawa and what?
> > I work very hard on my platform, do research, spend money and most of my time on it, and the media ignores me.
> > What kind of the game is it?
> > Being an anonymous John Doe, I would not have a chance to present my ideas, vision, and other possibilities Ottawans could have. I want our city better.
> > So, as a Mayoral candidate, I assumed and thought it would be easier for me to open public's eyes. Though, I see it now, that my own eyes were not open enough.
> > Please do not take it personally, but I do not understand something here.
> > I direct this question to you, because you were the one of the journalists who did not even mention about the other candidates for mayor.
> > If you do not know where to find my platform, here it is:
> > http://www.anweiler.ca/ and here is my last blog:
> > http://prt-ottawa.blogspot.com/
posted by City_Citizen @ 10:20 AM
12 Comments:
Hi All,
My friend is currently running for Ottawa's Mayor election in
November; however, such incident happened that the media shows
ignorance to these new faces who try to contribute to the city and has
not even been given a chance. Personally, I think it is not right that
these kind of actions happen, I suppose the media should be neutral by
all means. Please forward this to all your friends if you happen to
agree with me. If not, thank you for your time reading my email.
sincerely,
Daniel
Piotr;
You must be feeling incredibly frustrated with the media.
Perhaps you should submit your letter as an open letter in the Citizen and have it published there. Another option is to send it and the response you received to The Sun, and maybe some friendly competition between the two papers would have a reporter contact you in order to get more information on this situation. Another option might be to contact the other two candidates being slighted by the Citizen, brainstorm solutions and move forward against the media together.
It is unfortunate that the Citizen is not covering the election completely, as it is Ottawa's mainstream source for news.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I sympathize with your situation and understand your frustration. But as in everything we do, there are usually lessons to be learned. Here is my take on it.
1) The media outlets are no one's allies unless you are a friend of the editor or the owner. They look for shocking stories, bad news and adversity (i.e. the battle of words between leading candidates). This is what sells. Even at that, I am mildly surprised that the citizen would not publish the platforms of all the candidates. This certainly seems newsworthy to me.
2) The media is not especially interested in reporting truth. It is actually the largest source of propaganda, next to the government.
3) Democracy is often a thin veil of camouflage for a system that empowers the rich to remain rich, and get richer. Democratic societies are somewhat better off for the freedoms and distribution on wealth that is afforded, but our political system is by no means ideal. The wealthy control the media, business and even our government. Those who get elected are mostly either the wealthy, their friends or their candidates.
4) Religion often partners with business to elect candidates, such as Bush and Harper. A relative few get elected by working their way up the ladder and playing a smart media game. With the system we have, a smart, young and relatively unknown candidate such as yourself often does not have the influence to garner enough support to win a major elected position. If you should win this one... Yippee!
At any rate, I expect you will have profited from your experience this time around and I thank you for offering some competition to the establishment.
Good for you Piotr! Remain credible and objective (which you do), and keep
at them, force them to give time to the little guys!
What is the definition of "major contenders for mayor" of Ottawa....May
be you should ask Gary...Is it how he already defined or the people of
Ottawa will define?
I feel since we live in a true democracy, each candidate's voice should be heard - not censored like it would be in Belarus, Russia, or Cuba.
This country wasn't founded on people's wealth, but on noble ideas for a democracy that exist to this day.
Now that you are here, have a successful business and would like to help Ottawa grow by devoting your time to public service you have this powerful journalist deciding the election for its citizens - just like the former Pravda Communist newspaper in Soviet Union!!!
What has this election come to - the candidate that can buy his way into the office!!!
I cannot agree more that we need to stand on guard for democracy. It will only be as good as the electorate will ensure its quality by active participation in the democratic process.
Accountability of the governments is the main principle of democracy. The Democracy starts at the lowest level of the elected structures of the Canadian Government. This is where the local public interacts most with the governmental institutions.
That is why the municipal elections are very important to all the residents of Ottawa. We have to make the best choice of our representatives in the City Council. For that we need to be presented with a broad choice of candidates and their programs to elect the ones that represent the public best.
Thank you for your participation in the elections and giving the residents of Ottawa this extra choice.
But what about the taxpapers right to judge for themselves. By not reporting on all candidates, you deny the freedom of choice and also education. Your column is to inform or entertain...not to judge
Piotr, Did you try other local newpapers, ie. The Sun, Nepean Weekly, etc...? What about the local TV stations? Are they going to have a debate with ALL the candidates? Community centres host debates sometimes.
I think it's in everyone's interest that all voices are heard. Candidates like you can raise interesting issues that are worth debating. I would also write a short letter about this to the Globe and Mail.
Sandra
I sympathize with my contenders for the municipal election.
As a patron and connoisseur of healthy living, i promise to improve our current state of municipal healthcare. Why should you elect me Mayor? I am not a politician. I’m a life long resident of Ottawa and my only interest is in making this city what we all know it can, and should, be. I’m a successful businessman, with no entrenched interests at council, whose career has been marked by absolute transparency and personal accountability. Vote for O'Brien
Thanks Larry ;)
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