.. in today’s edition of Surrey Now:
I’m loathe to admit it, but Conservative MP James Moore and I do have one thing in common: We have both suffered the public indignity of being wrongfully accused of doing something we did not do.
In my case, of course, Moore led the Conservative Party charge claiming that I fraudulently “doctored” a taped conversation with Stephen Harper in connection with the so-called Cadman Affair.
In Moore’s case, the young MP was accused of viewing “soft porn” on his laptop computer while in the House of Commons, back in December 2007. As it turned out, he’d actually been looking at pictures of his girlfriend. At any rate, Moore was clearly distressed by the false allegation. Mortified. Humiliated.
“I hope nobody in this House goes through what I did in the last 24 hours,” he told the media, after the dust settled.
In my case, I hope no Canadian ever goes through what I’ve been going through over the past year.
At least Moore’s accuser, an NDP MP, had the class to apologize. Do you, James Moore, have the class to apologize to me? [...]
And yes, in case anyone wonders, ITQ agrees completely. Tom Zytaruk deserves a public apology from Moore, and from every other footsoldier who was — and, in at least one case, still is — willing to cast unproven – and, in fact, subsequently debunked – allegations against a journalist solely to spare the Prime Minister from having to explain what he meant by “financial considerations”. Frankly, he also deserves an apology from the rest of us in the media, who, for the most part, pretty much stopped asking that question after the PM filed suit against the Liberals — not because it had been satisfactorily answered, but due to the not unreasonale fear that we might find ourselves similarly targeted. In fact, we owe the public itself an apology for that one, so consider this mine.
