Quill and Quire: Conservative Party aims at Marci McDonald

So. I am not the only one who noticed the Conservative Party sound and fury when The Armageddon Factor came out. The political operative well oiled blanketing sound and fury.

This blog (and possibly others) had some drive by comments, and I wondered if they came from a paid political base tasked with making noise online or if a few religious fringe groups had emailed their followers to head out and speak up.

There was the predictable flurry of comments on media sites by people who hadn’t read the book. It’s a common tactic. Flooding online and over-zealousness in the back rooms doesn’t impress the reading public no matter which party sends out the verbal troops, but The Conservative Party has an obsessiveness with message control dominance that is unique to say the least.

I saw a segment on one of the networks where Conservative Party workers watched Ms. McDonald’s 8 minute segment with stop watches.  The next day a memo went out  and the public quickly picked up the tactic.  Media has certainly written about access problems and inability to get requested information. Two days later the CBC announced a study on  it’s coverage  bias.  The public isn’t stupid about the organized bullying and neither is the book industry.

Quill and Quire :

“Last night’s dominant CBC story – a full eight minutes in length – featured an attack on the religious affiliation of some Government members and supporters,” reads the memo. “Apparently the CBC thinks it newsworthy that some Conservative Ministers and MPs practise their faith. Even more scandalous, some members of the Prime Minister’s Office go to church!”

Though the memo never mentions the book or its author by name, McDonald, a former bureau chief for Maclean’s in Paris and Washington, feels it was a slight to her as much as to the network. But, she says, because her book is a work of independent journalism, it would have looked too suspicious to point a finger at her.

“Indirectly, I guess the intention was to intimidate me. I can’t imagine they were thrilled at my book,” says McDonald, who first read about the memo on the blog of Globe and Mailcolumnist and Ottawa correspondent Jane Taber. “It’s hard to take on just straight reportage without asserting that there’s something wrong…. I think it was convenient they could hit at the CBC.”

This latest Conservative assault on the national broadcaster is part of a growing list of attacks. Last month, the party alleged the network was airing tainted polls provided by EKOS Research pollster and familiar talking head Frank Graves, whom the Tories suggested was a Liberal Party of Canada partisan.

Although The Armageddon Factor is just one book getting flak from the Tories, McDonald worries Conservative book bashing could become more prevalent as more books criticizing the Harper government are published. This fall, Penguin Canada will publish Globe columnist Lawrence Martin’s Harperland, which assesses Steven Harper’s first four years in power.