Legacy media won’t back off MPs meeting Christine Anderson
Episode Stats
Words per minute
178.46626
Harmful content
Misogyny
21
sentences flagged
Toxicity
7
sentences flagged
Hate speech
13
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Summary
In this week's Fake News Friday, Andrew Yang and Sue Ann Levy take a deep dive into Canada's racist Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and the media's double standard when it comes to racism and anti-Semitism.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome to you all. It is Friday, March 10th, 2023. Another week has come and gone,
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which means it is time for Fake News Friday. Nothing fake about our analysis, but we
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harangue those who are fostering the hurricanes of deception. We swim through the whirlpools of
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verbal wizardry that occur. And I'm just making up these adjectives now and I'm right out of them.
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So let's just introduce my loyal and fantabulous co-host, fantastic, never a fabulous, Sue Ann
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Levy. Sue Ann, how was the week? And I will add to that happy belated International Women's Day to
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you. Oh my God. I actually decided I'm going trans because of International Women's Day. And maybe I
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can get more recognition as a woman if I become a trans. So can you imagine a trans woman who's
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actually a lesbian, but really is a woman? I mean, I'm totally confused, Andrew.
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There was a story years ago in the Washington Post about a lesbian couple somewhere in the U.S. who
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one of them transitioned to male and they were upset that all of their gay friends now just saw
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them as a regular old straight couple because one was a man and one was a woman. So you can actually
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like over diversify your way out of being diverse, apparently. Oh my God. I rely on that oppression
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intersectionality of being a lesbian. So I'm not leaving that, you know, that niche that I have
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created. Well, I hope you felt significantly fetid as a woman, at least for the time being on
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International Women's Day. Let's get into the mainstream media and their perseverance, I will
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say, in crafting a narrative and trying to flog that narrative like a dead horse. One of them is
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that the Conservatives are these evil, hateful, right-wing Nazi apologists for a few MPs meeting
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with the German member of the European Parliament, Christine Anderson, a few weeks back. And Pierre
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Paulieff has now been asked about this time and time again. He was in this one press conference and
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they just wouldn't lay off him about it. Take a look.
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We have no consequences on members of your caucus who met with Christine Anderson,
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whose views yourself said were vile. Well, I think right now what I'm more concerned about
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is the vile and racist views of the Prime Minister, who after over half of, if I could, if I could,
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over half of his adult life dressed up in vile, racist costumes so many times that he cannot
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remember them all. Such an odd and pointed question. Are you going to kick them out of
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caucus? It's almost as though they're lobbying for that to happen. Yeah, well, you know that the
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legacy media has ceased to be reporters. They're repeaters and they've become lobbyists
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on behalf of the Trudeau government. Much of them, of course, many of them being on the payroll of the
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Trudeau government, in particular, CBC. So, I mean, why should we be surprised?
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Yeah. And I think that, you know, the line that I've used on the show in the past and on my own
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show is that when the media goes after the liberals, it's for not living up to what a liberal is
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supposed to be in their view. When they go after conservatives, it's for being conservatives. It's for
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believing the things that they believe. And in this particular case, even if Pierre Polyevre were
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to say, yep, you know, absolutely, we're going to kick out Lesley Lewis and Dean Allison and Colin
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Carey, it wouldn't make the problem go away. You would just give them an ounce of flesh and they'd
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keep on looking for more. Yes, they're never going to be content. And, you know, the hypocrisy,
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it just reeks of hypocrisy because, you know, we've seen so many times when Trudeau or one of his
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cabinet members, highly placed cabinet members have met with suspect people. And, you know,
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just recently there was a whole group of people, Omar Al-Khabra and some of the MPs meeting with
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Palestinian, like anti-Semites on Parliament Hill with Palestinian terrorists. And, you know,
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there was very little coverage of that. It kind of went and happened and then it blew away,
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which it often does with the legacy media. But, I mean, I'm getting very frustrated with the
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absolute double standard of how they cover Pierre Polyevre versus, you know, I guess their,
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their handout master. What did you think of how Polyevre tried to turn it around on them and
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basically say, you want to talk about racism, let's talk about Prime Minister Blackface. Do you
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think that was an immature low blow or is that how you have to play the game now?
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You know, I, that's the way I play it. I, cause I always say that, you know, there is a double
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standard and I think, you know, and they like to use that word, what about ism, you're just engaging
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in what about ism because they can't handle the truth. But the point is that there is a terrible
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double standard. So maybe it comes across as immature to some, but the whole thing is that he's not,
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Trudeau is not judged on anything to the degree that Polyevre is at relatively minor things.
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Whereas, you know, I've lost count of the, the many, many issues that Trudeau has gotten a free
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Yeah. And, and when you talk about minor issues that actually feeds into this next story here,
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which I will say is probably one of the most Polyevre derangement syndrome affirming stories
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we could come up with. So there's apparently this Canadian band called the tragically hip,
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which everyone in Canada likes and no one outside of Canada has ever heard of. And, you know, I,
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again, I know what it is. I could probably name three of their songs and not sure if I could pluck
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any of them out of a lineup except for the late Gord Downie, but Pierre Polyevre keeping with Canadian
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content, which we're supposed to be celebrating and having more and more of at one of his events in
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the background. It wasn't like his stage entrance song or anything. He wasn't doing it like Eye of the
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Tiger and Newt Gingrich walking into CPAC. They had in the background a song called 50 Mission Cap
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by the Tragically Hip. And it was Karima Saad, the independent journalist and lawyer that had tweeted
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a clip and mentioned this. And then the guitarist for the Tragically Hip, Paul Langlois, tweeted out
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that it was highly offensive, if true, highly offensive that Pierre Polyevre was using their song.
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Then they, of course, found out that because the event was being held at a venue that is registered
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with SOCAN, which is the licensing agency for music. And if you book an event there, you pay a
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SOCAN licensing fee that lets you pay all of these songs. It was entirely fine. It was entirely
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legitimate. They could play the song. And then the Langlois actually sort of backed up and he said,
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well, you know, we would like it if people sought our approval, but we weren't sure about the
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specifics. No, they stepped in it. They absolutely did. And, you know, I think Tragically Hip, what have
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you heard about them lately? I mean, we heard a lot about them when poor guy, Gord Downey, was dying
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of brain cancer. But what have we heard from them lately? And I would be, you know, if I were a member
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of the Tragically Hip, and I'm no longer Tragically Hip, because I'm a boomer.
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I'm just tragic. I've never been hip. Tragically hip. But I would be happy that I got some publicity.
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My goodness. I always thought in this business, there is no negative publicity. Just celebrate the
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fact that your name is being mentioned. And, you know, to lose your lunch over it, to get crazed
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about it. I mean, it just, this is the world we're living in right now. And it's not a good world.
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Yeah, and it's kind of an odd one here when he's saying that they want permission for people to
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play their music. No, when you register with SoCan and allow your song to be played at SoCan
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facilities, you have decided that you'll just take the money of whomever is going to play your song,
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and you don't really get any oversight on that. And there was this little kind of snippy exchange
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between someone else who said to Paul Langlois, oh, am I allowed to play it while I'm working alone
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baking? And Paul just says, no, you're not allowed. And someone said, I'm having a party
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next weekend. Can I play your music for my guests? And he says, yes, thanks for asking,
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but you don't have to. So now all of a sudden, no one knows if in Paul Langlois' eyes, you're
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allowed to play the Tragically Hip. So I think we all have to, just in the interest of being
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cautious, of being abundantly cautious, not play the Tragically Hip. We don't want to offend
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the sensibilities of the guitarist. I'm not playing any Tragically Hip songs,
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you know, anywhere in my house, okay? Because he may find out that I'm a conservative,
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and he doesn't like conservatives playing his songs. But, you know, this speaks to the absolute
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derangement of people who don't like Pierre Polyev. He didn't even check into what the situation was.
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He just reacted emotionally to a tweet without even doing his homework or research, and then,
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you know, stepped in it and then had to back off. And, you know, all you can do is laugh.
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Indeed. And one thing that is no laughing matter at CBC is their diversity unto death approach,
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where you have to have all of the boxes checked if you are this religion, this ethnicity,
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this sexual orientation, this level of ability or disability. They want to know so that they can
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have all of these diversity quotients. Well, CBC staff were, according to an article in the National
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Post, rather shocked to find that all of these confidential diversity things they were filling
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out in one survey ended up stored in their online HR files. So the employees were putting in their
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sexual orientation, their gender identity, and all of a sudden they appeared in their online
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human resources profiles when they thought they were just filling out confidential diversity
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surveys. And, you know, I don't think you should be that surprised because if your company is reducing
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everything down to these top level identities, of course they care enough about these to put them
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in your HR files. Yes, exactly. I mean, you can't sort of suck and blow at the same time. You want the job,
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you get the job because you're a member of an oppressed group. I'm using the activist language.
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You're, you know, you're diverse. You have intersecting. How many words can I throw out this afternoon?
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Intersecting identities, but then it shows up as part of your human resources file. Well,
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hey, that's how you probably got the job or got to keep the job or helped you get the job. I mean,
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that's the way the world is these days in various institutions. Not this is CBC, but I see it in
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school boards as well. You know, if you're a member of an oppressed group, you get a jump on other people.
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It's a sad reality. But what did they expect? Yeah. One employee said they felt it was a betrayal
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of trust because they thought this was just going to be purely statistical data. CBC spokesperson has said,
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yeah, but it is strictly confidential and only a few people have access to it. And the survey was
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voluntary. If an employee wanted to do the cultural census, they can see their own answers,
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but their supervisor doesn't have access to the information. So, you know, look, I think the whole
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point is that when we start breaking down identity into these different categories, the overlapping
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identities, the intersecting identities, racial, sexually, like, you know, why does it matter if you
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are of a particular sexual orientation at work? I mean, unless you're trying to run the CBC internal
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dating app, I don't think it really matters if someone is straight or gay. Oh, come on. Most
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people probably know these days, what's the big deal? I mean, it wasn't like back in my day in the
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nineties when I had to live in the closet because I thought it was a, you know, career limiting to be
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a lesbian, um, in the workforce, um, and a conservative paper. It's totally different world
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now. Like, I think they're just finding things to, to complain about. Maybe they're not busy enough.
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Maybe there are too many people going out on a story all at once. Yeah. That's my question is how
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much time was spent and how much money was spent on the CBC cultural consensus or cultural census or
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whatever they're calling it. Um, there are some areas though that are insufficiently diverse to some
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people. One of those is the construction business, a, an op-ed in the Toronto star written by a woman
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named Kristen Coots says we need more women in construction. Now, I don't know how many women
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there are in construction, but I do know that any construction project I've ever had around my own
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home has had all male crews. And, uh, most construction sites you drive by or walk by have all
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male, not always, but there is fairly consistently a dearth of women in the construction business. And what,
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uh, Kristen Coots says is that she's getting, it's getting tiring and predictable to see middle-aged
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white man wearing a t-shirt, jeans, construction boots, and sunglasses strutting out of people's
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homes after putting in a half day with no confirmation on when they're coming back. It's
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infuriating. She says construction is a playground for men. And she makes the point that male contractors
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are ripping women off. She talks about getting screwed by a plumber. I think there are some
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unscrupulous contractors that will just as easily rip off men and women that are equal opportunity
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scam artists. But I think most are, are fairly honest there. Uh, she says women make up only
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5% of those in the skilled trades. And that is a generous stat at best because it includes
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hairstyling and aesthetics professionals. We need more women. We need more women of color. Sue Ann,
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do you care as a woman that you are underrepresented in construction?
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Not a bit. And, you know, by very sheer fact that it's like the firefighting business or being a
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firefighter. Um, there are very few women who are firefighters. Why? Because, I mean, the reality is
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that men have, you know, are able to lift and run into tall buildings, lifting hoses, wearing 40, 50, 60
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pounds of equipment. Um, and women just physically are not able to do that. The same thing with
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construction. There are certain tasks in construction that women are just not capable of doing physically.
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Having said that, you know, there, I've seen women. Um, I, I, I live in Toronto, very close to the
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LRT, unfortunately too close to the LRT boondoggle, the agricultural cost town. And I've seen women
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on the job site. Um, but again, there are physical limitations to women. And I, I dare say she didn't
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think this through. And I also would say that she didn't really get any statistics. This was all
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anecdotal. I don't recall her saying, well, I looked at stats Canada, there are X number of women in
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construction. But I think that for the certain jobs, like being a plumber or, or even electrician,
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I mean, those are jobs that women can do. Yeah. I mean, look, I would also feel very weird
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in a situation and maybe this is my own issue, but I don't think it is. I'd feel very weird
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in a situation where I have to like bark some, you know, not that I, you know, try to be rude or
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anything that I'm barking orders at some woman in my home, like pick that up, move that over there.
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No, I think you need to do this. Or, you know, like, I, I just think there are certain things that
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are more suited to women and men. And there are some people in those categories that want to defy those
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categories. And I think they should be encouraged. I like, there's not a single thing she does here
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to explain why women are not gravitating to construction. She's identifying what she thinks
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is a problem. But if women want to, and they're achieve in their encountering a barrier, what's
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that barrier? I think the issue is a lot of women do not want that. Yes, exactly. And I think because
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of the physical limitations, and I think that women, you know, it's, it's a dirty business. And,
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you know, a lot of women just choose not to do it. I don't think for a minute that they're being
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excluded from construction business. In fact, I know in major cities across Canada, there's a dearth
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of construction workers. And if women wanted to do it, they need them. But again, I mean, can you see
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women lifting heavy piping, or, I don't know, going out, you know, the scaffolding, up high, you know,
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60, 70 feet high, they just probably choose not to do it. Yeah, if they want to power to them,
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if there's an issue that's preventing them, we can talk about that. But you can't just kind of throw
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out the idea of there aren't enough women in construction, and then not identify any reasons
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for that, which makes me kind of think it comes down to personal preference. But Sue Ann, I
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absolutely encourage you and your lovely wife, if you want to put on your hard hats and start
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schlepping dry while you have my full approval in the name of diversity. Well, I'll leave that. But I
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can hammer and I can screw in a nail. So I'm actually and my wife is very, very good. She is so
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handy. It's unbelievable. So you know, we should we should tell the lady who wrote this article that
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there are women who actually do things around the house and are very handy.
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There we go. Well, that does it for us. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. We'll be back
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with more fake news Friday, probably on Fridays, although you never know these days. Sue Ann
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Levy, I'm Andrew Lawton. Thank you so much, everyone.