Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW
He also offers his thoughtful perspective of Stephen Harper’s last 10 years in his recent eBook, The Harper Decade.

Categories: Capital Read, Inkless Wells

The wafer thing

by Paul Wells on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 2:55pm - 104 Comments

I would say “This is getting silly,” but that happened a long time ago.

Tags: Stop me if I get too technical

More by Paul Wells

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

[polldaddy 1820874 http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1820874/ polldaddy]
http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Hey, that's my shtick! ;-)

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

LOL, sorry, yes, I stole both poll and scandal! Will resist in future : ).

Dot

I think you're all the same people :)

http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

I think it is getting interesting now, personally. I believe the relationship between msm and pols should be adversarial so when journos receive a comeuppance for being too friendly with pols and/or their minions, I think that's a good thing.

http://intensedebate.com/people/avr avr

Agreed. The line a couple weeks ago – from ITC, if I recall – was that it was all well and good to indulge in Summer silliness, and anyone who wasn't having fun could go jump in a lake. Now there's blowback from this story that once again raises the question of media bias in ridiculous hit pieces, however, it's just too silly. What a nuanced and reasonable position…
http://www.intensedebate.com/people/avr avr

Agreed. The line a couple weeks ago – from ITQ, if I recall – was that it was all well and good to indulge in Summer silliness, and anyone who wasn't having fun could go jump in a lake. Now there's blowback from this story that once again raises the question of media bias in ridiculous hit pieces, however, it's just too silly. What a nuanced and reasonable position…

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Chris Selley's posts about Wafergate™ have struck exactly the right note of "silly season" hijinks and eye-rolling disbelief. This is officially the stupidest scandal to have preoccupied the political media of a G8 country in the last two decades, at least. Personally, I blame the catchy name for immortalizing this shameful debacle.

http://intensedebate.com/people/PolJunkie PolJunkie

I dunno CR. Seems to me that it was a relevant story given how much people are talking about it.
http://intensedebate.com/people/M_A_N M_A_N

I don't know…Monica? Teletubbies? Swiftboat? Secret Muslim?
Those were all silly on a much grander scale. Better visuals, too.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Teletubbies, Swiftboat, and Secret Muslim never made it to the level of "scandal", because they were never accorded legitimacy by the mainstream American press. At best, they were moronic, politically motivated rumors were never taken seriously by serious people. Wafergate, on the other hand, was a genuine pseudo-scandal involving the PM that received plenty of serious press, and then morphed into something more serious when T-J's journalistic malfeasance came to light.
http://www.intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Teletubbies, Swiftboat, and Secret Muslim never made it to the level of "scandal", because they were never accorded legitimacy by the mainstream American press. At best, they were moronic, politically motivated rumors that were never taken seriously by serious people.

Wafergate, on the other hand, was a genuine pseudo-scandal involving the PM that received plenty of serious press, and then morphed into something more serious when T-J's journalistic malfeasance came to light.

http://intensedebate.com/people/TJCook TJCook

The Swiftboat pseudoscandal was never legitimized by the press? Seriously?

It was earnestly discussed coast-to-coast and given far more credence than its faulty evidence should have enabled. The press took a miniscule ad buy by a bunch of nobodies and ran the ad nonstop. The very strategy of the group was to seed the media with a phony story and let it run.

I agree they were never taken seriously by serious people, but America's celebrity media is almost universally devoid of serious people.

The American media would have ignored Wafergate as not weird, sexy or interesting enough… for the love of god, Clinton was impeached for little more!

I'm dismayed that Canadian media are aping their US cousins – this doesn't bode well.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

I am equally dismayed that some in the Canadian media appear to be aping their US cousins in their appetite for tawdry, trivial pseudo-scandals. `

Fortunately, Wafergate may have a silver lining, because it exposed the craven motives of a small group of people who attempted to discredit the PM through outright lies and distortions. Perhaps some in the media will think twice the next time a similar story limps into the spotlight.
http://fullyoffset.blogspot.com Jon

Like TJ said…

SWIFTBOATS? really?
You don't remember a candidate for president being torpedoed constantly by the media, based on a partisan political lie?

Now we know that you only remember things if they validate your current argument.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

As a Canadian, I wasn't following the Swiftboat thing very closely five years ago, and I completely agree that the whole thing was reprehensible. If you feel that "Swiftboat" was "accorded legitimacy by the mainstream press" then I won't argue with you.

Lord Kitchener's Own

I too blame that infectious name.

Are you at least getting royalties or something?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

I wish! I'd be rich. It was fascinating to watch (through the magic of google) as the moniker spread in the blogosphere before being published for the first time in the T-J follow-up story. From there, it was picked up by the rest of the print media (headline writers and TV news captioners seemed especially fond of it). Public reactions to the name ranged from laughter to eye-rolling disgust. There's enough material here for a fascinating sociological study, if you know of any sociologists who might be interested.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

It has a particular charm, but I just realised it's a single curl away from "Watergate." But I didn't notice before. Perhaps that's the secret of its success?

http://www.intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

That's certainly part of its charm. It works on so many different levels, and one of them is as a visual pun, as you noted.

Of course, "Wafergate" also benefits from the inherent silliness of combining an innocuous word like "wafer" with the infamous "-gate" suffix. The very name serves to diminish and ridicule the "scandal" that it represents. I imagine many Canadians rolled their eyes when they saw it for the first time.
William

I must have seen it a 100 times and it still makes my eyes roll

http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com bigcitylib

Its summer, Paul, let your hair down.
Dakota

I bet the lib-left media is going to regret gleefully coining the story "Wafer-gate". Although is actually does seem a little more fitting now.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

The "lib-left" blog commenter who originally coined the name intended it to be ironic. Through some weird alchemy, the name took on a life of its own, virally propagating through blogs before it appeared the following day in newspaper headlines around the country.

Dakota

Like I said, the lib-left media will be regretting it. Especially now that both the media and the Liberals are implicated in it.

Anon

You're suffering from leftist mental disorder.

Lord Kitchener's Own

There's the best (and only good) part of this whole story, CR referring to himself as a "'lib-left' commenter" (even with tongue in cheek).

http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

Politically, it's a completely silly matter. Nobody should give a crap what Harper did with the host, nor does it matter if some Liberal tried to feed a paper a story.

But, I don't think it's silly to keep a close eye on a newspaper that previously was considered a credible source. Given the state of flux the whole industry is in, it seems to me it's in all of our interest to ensure standards are ahered to, and that transgressions are well documented to help prevent future repeats.

(Just to be clear, I'm not painting the whole media with this one act of stupidity and incompetence.)

Dakota

HA! It took this for you to realize that the TJ is biased!

I bet you're one of those people that sees the CBC as balanced as well.

http://intensedebate.com/people/M_A_N M_A_N

I'm not sure, dakota, but I may be noticing a slight redundancy in your posting material. If you simply must be a "one side or the other" guy, at least, please, try to be amusing about it.
http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

Thanks for setting me straight. I never understood bias and false/unethical reporting to be exactly the same thing. Now I know better.

Do you really think you have enough excess insight to be using multiple pseudonyms on these boards? You might be spreading yourself a bit thin.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Nich Nich

“This is getting silly”

- Paul Wells (posted by Kenneth Whyte)
http://intensedebate.com/people/OntarioTown OntarioTown

All this kerfuffle on a sad day for the LeBlanc family. Maybe Harper wishes he never went. Funny, when Chretien named Romeo LeBlanc as GG (first Acadian/French) during the referendum days it created a lot of contraversy and there was a group that were trying to boycott that decision – one of them was Harper.

Maybe it's come back to haunt him – just kidding.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Still trying to find a way to blame this on the PM, eh? I liked the "shipbuilding" conspiracy theory better. Sure, there's zero evidence to support it, but I'm sure highly motivated individuals like WK or BCL will find a way around that inconvenient detail.

http://intensedebate.com/people/OntarioTown OntarioTown

How can mentioning the appointment as GG years ago implicate Harper being at fault for wafergate? And, the Irving family connection is interesting.

http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com bigcitylib

LeBlanc orchestrated this from beyond the grave? It all fits!

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

It sure does. Have we found a new winner?
Kat

I don't think this is silly at all. If politicians can feed reporters falsehoods and it gets printed and regurgitated over and over, that's just wrong.

How are we supposed to know what's true and what's not? We rely on the media to report facts and truths and then we make our decision on how to vote. Trust in reporting is involved here and right now that's taken a serious shot. And, as another writer mentions, at a time when the industry as a whole is figuring out how to survive.

What about that television reporter feeding questions to the Mulroney/Schreiber inquiry. Frankly, it all stinks.

Mulletaur

We read what you write, and then know the opposite to be true.

Kat

Why?

scf

How are we supposed to know what's true and what's not?,/i>

Critical thinking. Thinking for yourself – getting the facts and making a judgement of your own. Using numerous sources. Seeking alternative opinions. Staying away from obviously biased and partisan reporting (cough, cough, Wherry, cough).

Mulletaur

Just when Stevie thought he had convinced right wing Catholics that 'les Cons' were alright, one small careless gesture demonstrates his lack of respect and blows up in his face. It's not silly at all – it's all about electoral politics and how the Vulcan Chessmaster slices and dices the electorate, and then goes after that demographic.

I've always wondered, do his staff buy special folding chairs for him to kick ?

Dakota

Still grasping at straws eh?

I bet a few more Catholics are a little upset at having one of their priests embarrassed by over a zealous lib-left media and a Liberal insider looking for a smear story during a funeral.

Mulletaur

Not at all. Very entertained by the fact that one little comment seems to have attracted a great deal of attention from the PMO and the Little Shop of Tiny Tories, though.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Just when Stevie thought he had convinced right wing Catholics that 'les Cons' were alright, one small careless gesture demonstrates his lack of respect and blows up in his face.

Are you still peddling that line? You must have missed the memo. The whole "Catholics are so offended" angle has been completely deflated by the lack of offended Catholics.

Wayne

well said C : in point of factg I think that this is one of those backfire stories where against all logic an original negative premise turns out to be positive – this story feeds into conservtive ' Narrative ' which doesn't happen all that generally it's all evil meanie Stevie – but this one ends up with most people saying good grief get over it hyper partisan lefties and no doubt about it!

Mulletaur

Nobody is saying Harper is an "evil meanie", Wayne's World, just that he is very disrespectful towards others, in this case, Catholics.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

With respect, Mulletaur, at this point only an idiot would buy the line that "Wafergate" demonstrates that the PM is very disrespectful towards Catholics.

Mulletaur

Not at all. He went into a house of worship that was different from his own. Not just a little different, but which has serious theological differences with his own faith and church. He should have at least asked how to act and what to do. You or I would do nothing less faced with the same situation. He is not just anybody, he's the Prime Minister. That is what is disrespectful about this whole episode.

And that raises the question in the minds of some as to whether the Conservatives genuinely welcome Catholics in their party, or whether the party is just the same old gang of proddie haters it's always been. That's also a good illustration of what the Conservatives are all about for all the people of other faiths that they are working so hard to attract.
http://www.intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

As a Catholic, I think the question you raise about whether "Conservatives genuinely welcome Catholics in their party" is not only offensive, but stupid and patently ridiculous. Catholics are very well represented in the Conservative Party. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Conservatives received more Catholic votes than the Liberals in the last election. Your pathetic and disingenuous attempt to divide Canadians along religious lines is causing me to reconsider my opinion of you.
Mulletaur

They may well have in the last election. In fact, there are serious strategic reasons for them to have to do so if they want to win. But there is nothing more pathetic and disingenuous than Finley trying to put this whole thing back on the Liberals because the Conservatives know what Harper did or didn't do with that wafer is hurting them, so before you rush to judgement about me, you should consider that the Conservatives themselves have opened up the issue again and I am just returning fire. Keep your pious cant for the Conservatives.
Orson Bean

Keep floggin' that dead horse . . .
wilson

''But there is nothing more pathetic and disingenuous than…''

What is more pathetic than the LPC and their partisans using the funeral of one of their own to fabricate a story, to 'get Harper'?
It just doesn't get more pathetic than that.
Jenn

No, Mulletaur, I take your point and it is a good one, but the onus was on the Priest or whomever. I will never buy the argument that the priest 'didn't know' Harper wasn't a Catholic. If it would have been disrespectful to the Catholic faith for a non-Catholic to take the host, he should never have been offered it. I can't see it as anything other than Harper being a polite guest. And of course that kills me, because I really hate defending Harper on anything. Still, I can take comfort in the fact that I still see shades of grey.

As for a Liberal giving the story to a newspaper–even news media who are known as friends–the onus is on the media, not the Libeal party. Otherwise, nobody would ever get anything out of any of them, because every political party is going to slant their "leaks". I mean, how did CTV know in advance of everybody else what was happening on that exciting day at Rideau Hall? Conservatives fed their friends, that's how. But it was up to CTV News to confirm the story. This is where the TJ failed, and the blame rests solely with them.

Mulletaur

That's not what Harper's internal polling is telling him, otherwise he wouldn't be trying to peddle the ridiculous story that the whole thing is a put up job by the Liberals. The video says otherwise.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

You have no idea what Harper's internal polling is telling him. Canadians have just witnessed a major journalistic scandal in which a publisher and editor were fired because they made up a sleazy pseudo-scandal about the Prime Minister. Now it appears that there may have been an LPC connection to the journalistic malfeasance, beyond the usual lib-blog antics. We shall see.

Mulletaur

I don't have to see the internal polling of the Conservatives to know that they are hurting because of this – all I have to know is that Finley has tried to twist this ridiculously into some sort of Liberal-media conspiracy and unleashed the conbots. Every party tries to spin the media. Some journalists and editors actually do their jobs correctly. At the end of the day, the video showing Harper accepting the host and then not doing anything with it in particular doesn't lie.

Wayne

So what you are saying is that the Liberal Chair of the Liberal Senate is a liar then along with several other people there – as he is on record stating he saw Steven eat the wafer – you can not have it both ways even though Lib's keep trying it doesn't work – sorry you also have not looked into the practise at hasrpers Chhurch where they take the wafer back to the pew and consume it there.
http://intensedebate.com/people/KadyITQ KadyITQ

Actually, he's a Conservative — Noel Kinsella, that is.
Stephen

We going to get any Kinsella (Warren) on Kinsella (Noel) action?

And maybe a 3 way by adding in Patrick?

http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

** News Flash **

"Anonymous sources say Michael Jackson visited Osama bin Laden in Peshawar.
Private plane from Dubai involved.."

Will that help ?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

I'm afraid that would not offend any particular Canadian constituency, so thank you but unfortunately no.

http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

You're right. My intended audience was sane people.

Paul Wells

I take it back. This isn’t silly at all.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

As soon as the critical mass of "silliness" is attained, it stops being silly altogether.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

One more, CR:

[polldaddy 1821329 http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1821329/ polldaddy]

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

LOL. I see that you spelled "shtick" with a "c" (both versions are acceptable).
http://www.intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

LOL. By the way, I see that you spelled "shtick" with a "c" (both versions are acceptable).

http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

One thing that would make it better could be that we demand someone -anyone – produce
a birth certificate that's already been made public. And then stand around and yell " No! No!
the real one !"

Jenn

LOL! Yup, that beats us in the silly department.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Harbles Harbles

I seem to recall your 'handle' as "Inkless Wells" before. Did you have to change it?

http://intensedebate.com/people/doug_rogers doug_rogers

http://dougsamu.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/the-wafe…
http://intensedebate.com/people/Gaunilon Gaunilon

Granted I'm a dour, humourless righty, but I don't see the silliness.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Inkless Inkless

That's why this is so great.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

You know, I actually pondered that! You don't think "schtick" looks too, well, German and not Yiddish enough? Now I kind of wish I'd gone for "shtick."

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

I'm comfortable with either version, but I think you're right about "shtick" looking more Yiddish without the "c". According to wiki: "Shtick" is derived from the Yiddish word shtik (שטיק), meaning "piece".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shtick

scf

This is not silly! Two people have been sacked and a religion has been desecrated in this great multicultural land. Jesus has been personally insulted.
Journalistic ethics have been compromised, and Cronkite can no longer save us.
I propose a national inquiry, with Schreiber on the stand. Either that or a green shift. Parliament should be recalled so that it can be progogued.
No doubt, Bush and Haliburton are behind this, along with the CBC.
Ceeger

Why was this issue not silly to MacLeans when the Telegraph story first went out on the wire, became international news and made Harper look bad?
Yet now that the newspaper that broke the story has made a grovelling apology for unethical and inaccurate reporting, and its editor and a publisher have been dismissed after falsifying the work of two reporters for apparently political purposes, MacLeans is content now to write the whole thing off as just "silliness"?
"Neutral" journalists don't even try to hide their biases anymore, do they?
Back to the blogs for the real scoops, I guess … at least the ideologues there make their biases clear to everyone from the get-go, unlike our so-called mainstream media.

scf

I agree with you. Suddenly, now… it's silly. Previously it was serious subject matter for numerous Wherry and O'Malley posts. The timing is a little off. The PM himself accurately defined it as a low point in Canadian journalism.

Schreiber on the stand was silly. In and out was silly. Raitt-gate was silly. Ritz-gate was silly. Cadman-gate was silly. With every ridiculous so-called scandal, the media move onto their next attempt to smear the PM. They're all silly.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

Cadmangate was not silly, it was about the buying and selling of MP's.
scf

Of course, as Paul has pointed out, and as I look at his original post, the whole point was that this was silly long ago.

So I guess I should have posted my comments somewhere else.

Paul Wells

I’m not sure what a “MacLeans” is, but I didn’t write about this when it broke, I didn’t write about it a week later, I wasn’t writing about it last week and I’m afraid it’s still silly this week. I don’t tell Aaron and Kady what to write and they don’t tell me. This story is silly in a house, it’s silly with a mouse, I do not like it it Ceeger I Am, I do not like the wafer scam. But thanks for keeping the silly going, you paranoid freak.

Ceeger

Wow, a revision of a children's rhyme followed by an ad-hominem attack as a response to some questions.
And I'm the freak?
You got me on paranoid, granted. But a freak?

Chuck VS Macleans

Bottom Line, the MSM/PPG is Liberal. You guys/gals will print whatever will smear PM Harper. But it is amusing watching you Libs at macleans cover your tracks.

I just go to Liblogs now, to look for the next smear on PM Harper. But you LPC shills, do have better writting styles, I will give you that,

And to think, I actualy payed for the last 3 weeks mags from this LPC rag. Your right Paul it is silly. It just points out how much of Harper haters you people are.

So whats the next Harper smear? Have the Liberals given you PPG people your talking points yet?

Now I must go and check Wherry's new cut and paste post from Liberal HQ.

Canadian Media, the most useless journalist in the world.

Never, will I ever give a dime to you Liar Liberal media people. I hope you your mag folds.

http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

You do know that posting here helps drive their on-line advertising revenue? Heck, even clicking on the various blogs to read them adds to their traffic.

Maybe you should just mail stuff to them via Canada Post from now on.

http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

Hmm, just imagine how pleasant the world will be if Harper ever gets his majority.

http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

Bah, I'm starting to feel like it would only be a difference of magnitude. Like the difference between someone peeing a little bit in my pool, or a whole bunch. Either way…
Orson Bean

Yes, one rant from some anonymous right-winger on the internet (unless it be a troll) definitively proves that if the CPC formed a majority government, babies would be eaten and kittens strangled on an unprecedented scale.

Brendan Kane

LEAVE STEPHEN ALONE!!!! (sniff)

wilson

p.s. insert 'alleged' above where needed, as this too is just another 'anonymously sourced' story….it never ends, eh
André

On a completely related note; Paul, if you're so bored you should sample some of this guy's music.

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=1303969…
Maureen

The response by the media to their own 'antics' is typical of journalists – they have no contact with real people (and particularly religious people) so all they can do is project their own feelings/opinions onto the situation and usually in some sort of 'I'm superior that you because I'm a journalist". This story was created by the media and the LPC and the media was very willing to go along to get along (in the hopes of getting special treatment by the LPC in any upcoming election). Well, it has backfired and at this point journalists should be stepping back and reflecting on their own actions, what they accepted as 'facts', and how they fueled the story. Instead we get a big 'so what' move along, nothing to see here. This is why real bloggers (not the fake kind that use their magazine's website to 'blog') are increasingly getting more and more respect. Bloggers clearly state their biases so that the reader knows where the blogger stands on things and it is bloggers that are breaking more stories with real facts (Human Rights Commissions is a good example, where the traditional media just turned away – although Mcleans did fight back, but other newspapers were reluctant to make any comments until bloggers informed the public on the silliness of HRC). Traditional media try to con the public into thinking that they are unbiased and well-informed, but they are rapidly losing any moral ground on that. With this story breaking, all media outlets that ran the story and particularly if they added to it, should be asking forgiveness from their readers and vowing to not be such willing dupes in the future.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Inkless Inkless

Hi Maureen. Which of my many, many, many writings on the wafer thing strikes you as the best example of my eagerness to go along to get along in the hopes of getting special treatment by the LPC in any upcoming election?

Here's a hint: I never wrote about it before this post.

You're welcome. Oh, and here's a handkerchief so you can wipe the flecks of spittle off your lips.