By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.
There probably will be a bit of a splash following Ezra Levant’s op-ed in the National Post this morning.
However, the conservative activist is doing something that may be of use to non-conservative readers too–citing factual errors in The Armageddon Factor.
He cites “dozens” that he has found, but quotes only a few, which I will be adding to our own running post of McDonald errata when I have a moment.
Although I would agree with Ezra’s critics on the left that it is naughty to scrub one’s blog of mistakes without apologizing for them, Levant’s efforts in his op-ed moves towards both “sides” in this affair getting to the meat of the matter, namely what exactly is reported accurately and what, if anything may be discounted, which I think is useful.
Well, except that several of her cited “errors” may not be errors at all, and others are not very serious ones.
As I said over there:
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“Dozens of errors,” says Ezra Levant, but he brings forward only seven–in a 400pp book–and some of those are contestable as errors, or relatively minor.
For example, Kenney was Stockwell Day’s chief advisor and speechwriter during the latter’s leadership bid. “Chief of staff” is clearly wrong, but McDonald is noting a connection here, and that’s a rather strong one.
Frank Klees did study Baptist theology at a seminary, but wasn’t ordained. A minor mistake, given that, once again, it is the connection that is important.
Kenney’s ethnic outreach strategy was indeed leaked to the Globe in 2007. So what if he had been appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism earlier? That fact alone isn’t a strategy. No error here.
The Rob Anders mistake was foolish, but appears only in her end-notes.
And the jury is still out on Faytene Kryskow’s visit to Stockwell Day’s home.
All rather minor stuff in any case. But maybe we should be fact-checking Ezra as he fact-checks McDonald.
Ezra’s error about Rod Love’s alleged red Toryism has already been mentioned. At his own blog, he mocked McDonald for allegedly not knowing that Joseph Bon-Ami is Jewish rather than Christian. This is plainly not the case, as her book makes very clear indeed.
He had also criticized her for claiming that Klees had sponsored a bill in the Ontario legislature to accredit a private Christian college. When another blogger provided a link to the bill, with Klees’ name on it, that criticism mysteriously disappeared from Ezra’s post without explanation.
So let’s tally, shall we? Seven errors in a 400pp book, if we accept that all seven points above are indeed errors. And, in a mere two blogposts and one column, Ezra has made three. Doing the math, I’d have to say that McDonald wins the accuracy sweepstakes by several lengths.
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And further, from me:
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Of course “ethnic outreach” was a central part of Kenney’s portfolio at the time. But the actual strategy, not the mere fact of his appointment as Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism, was what ended up in the Globe.
Here’s the reference:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/article789385.ece
Pay attention to the details of the strategy therein. Surely referring to this doesn’t count as an “error” simply because he’d been appointed to his position earlier.
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Pretty small potatoes, really. A bit like Stackhouse objecting to McDonald’s perfectly current idiomatic use of the word “shibboleth.” Reaching for it, in other words.
Page 395: Rob Anders
This will be difficult to prove or disprove.
McDonald says a 2009 10 percenter targeted at Montreal stated the sender is Edmonton MP Rob Anders of the CRG- Government Caucus Services.
Either the flyer was wrong or McDonald is.
Erza Levant points it out, the onus is on him to prove it.
His next point is silly.
Pages 38 and 368 re: the leaked memo regarding Jason Kenny’s ethnic outreach efforts. Kenney was sworn in as Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity January 4, 2007.
And that has what to do with the 2007 Globe and Mail memo story?
Kenney may be a devout Roman Catholic, a conservative Roman Catholic or even a charismatic Roman Catholic.
Levant repeats Kryskow visiting Day’s home as if it’s an error.
Page 70. Canada Family Action Coalition.
It is not a charity, and as far as I know has not been a charity since being established in 1997.
Levant may have gotten that one right.
I think the other points Levant raised have been addressed in the errors post.
FYI, my very conservative blogger friend Kathy Shaidle has noticed Ezra’s op-ed too, and cites some of the things he writes:
http://www.fivefeetoffury.com/:entry:fivefeet-2010-05-20-0006/
Not a fan, I can assure you.
You wouldn’t want to see the email Ms. Shaidle sent BDBO awhile back.
If you could get hold of your friend Terry O’Neill and have him send the NatPo op-ed which is no longer online that would be appreciated.
Either Ms. McDonald made an error or she didn’t. By extention I’ve made one or I haven’t and I’d like to address it., and correct it if necessary.
Yes, Kathy does things in her own way…but I chose to mention it as she does have quite the readership on the right, so she is one of the conservative meme setters.
The library downtown might have the Terry O’Neill column on dead tree or microfilm. Shall report on this after I am able to nail this down.
Ms. Shaidle does, as does Levant.
I thought an error had been made at religious right alert.
If we did we’ll correct it.
http://tiny.cc/akkw5
(He gets around to mentioning that he is actually on the board of Signal Hill, and therefore presumably playing the role more of interested promoter than critical columnist, only midway down the page, and his bio, characteristically, doesn’t mention the connection either.)
The print copy of O’Neill’s op-ed in NatPo you’re going for should put this to bed.
If Ms. McDonald made an error, the onus is on Random House and her to correct it.
Anders apparently was sending ten percenters to Mississauga in 2009:
http://simonproxy.blogspot.com/2009/03/not-entitlement.html
and to there and other places in 2008:
http://www.garth.ca/weblog/2008/08/04/from-calgary-to-halton/
Also here: http://www.garth.ca/weblog/2008/08/14/election-anyone/
Holly, thank you.
We got so many Conservative 10 percenters I got to the point they didn’t get in the door, they went straight to the recycling bin in the back yard.
I did call one of the MP’s constituency offices, and his parliamentary office to complain. I also tried to contact the local Conservative Party office, they weren’t home.:^)
For all the good it did.
I cannot remember which MP it was, I was working on biting my tongue and not displacing considerable annoyance on a staffer tasked to answer the phone.
4 of the five 10 percenters Garth Turner put up have Compliments of Rob Anders MP. (target Halton)
The first blog post correctly identifies Anders as an Albertan MP.
(target Mississauga)
So we don’t know if the Montreal 10 percenter said otherwise.
The second blog post correctly identifies Anders Calgary riding.
(target Halton)
Did the Anders 10 percenters targeting Montreal say Edmonton MP Rob Anders?
Very nice catch.
Ha, I live in Calgary, so they rarely bother to send me ten percenters, though I think I got one recently from some Conservative in a different riding. I’m in Prentice’s riding, and get some newsletters and perhaps a few ten percenters from him. I wonder if he sends any out to other parts of Canada. A Minister might have some excuse to.
If you google – “rob anders” edmonton mp -, you find various interesting things, such as this article:
http://www.hilltimes.com/page/view/transfer-03-08-2010
and this, which might possibly cause the Edmonton confusion if someone saw this on Facebook and did not check Anders out any further:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rob-Anders/10421606980
and Anders was campaigning in Edmonton for someone else:
http://www.ndp.ca/press/reality-check-with-friends-like-rob-anders
There might be more, I just grabbed a few near the top.