Sunday, November 29, 2009

Travers Makes Himself Useful

In the OLO War Room, columnist James Travers must have seemed an inspired choice. He can turn a purple phrase with the best of them. He stands foursquare against troops, widows, and orphans. He's for plummies, toffs, and pointyheads. He's short on guts and glory, long on assay. He has an ego as big as the Ritz, and fragile as a Gruyère Soufflé. To receive a document drop on a Matter of National Importance would be sweet validation, which most likely happened under Liberal governments.

So the Ignatieff Liberals—someone in the OLO—got the brilliant idea of having Travers write about a trove of Richard Colvin’s long-sought emails from Kandahar, the same documents three esteemed generals had justlaid wayside with their testimony.

This is a standard bit of hardball damage control. Refute damning facts, testimony, and documents to anyone who might review them with credibility, pass them instead to a compliant journalist—a “high-value third-party,” in PR lingo—who can be counted on to convey their content with opposition-friendly gloss.

Travers did not disappoint. His piece in Saturday’s Star is replete with snide references to the Pm and three generals, who did not spend more than enough time outside the wire for his liking to be able to state the facts. Apparently volunteering to step into the shoes of the highest ranking military personnel ever to be on the front lines in Afghanistan isn’t sufficient for our Liberal leaning scribe.

9 comments:

  1. heh , the names have been changed and it's actually a much better fit , now .

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  2. PM Harper has spent more time outside the wire in Afghanistan than Colvin, who spent about 1/2 a day all told outside the wire.

    PM Harper spent a night outside the wire with our JTF2 troops on his first trip in 2006. Now that takes guts.

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  3. Travers has never been to Afganistan. In fact he has never been anywhere. He is a true toff.

    For him to cross examine Christie Blatchford today on Qp is laughable.

    Blatchford is the most credible journalist in Canada because everything she states is based on fact.

    Travers does not know what his role is.

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  4. Hunter, check your email which I sent you just an hour ago.

    Pm stood in the front lines. Whereas the liberals spend behind the curt tails of the media.
    What Travers should do, is personally confront the taliban and tell them 'how to operate things.'

    I promote Christie Blatchford to be our media reporter in afghanistan and report from there 'live'

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  6. Travers has a superiority complex,
    it's an affliction that a few other journalists have too...

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  7. superiority complex
    [n] an exaggerated estimate of your own value and importance .

    Describes Travers to a t, right!

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  8. It is a matter of marketing. This is all about how you market yourself in personal irrespective of the work, which you have never ever done. This is what going on here. I agree with Wilson's point.

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