Saturday, February 13, 2016

The Demagogue Speaks Again



Won't anyone tell him just to shut up?

Recently, the CBC, which has an ongoing yet inexplicable and wholly unwholesome relationship with Rex Murphy, gave him yet another opportunity to spew his denigration and venom about those who criticize Alberta and its moribund oil industry. It seems that the rest of Canada is not recognizing its debt to Alberta for being the country's former economic engine of growth.

You may wish to read the original piece, linked above, or move on to The National Observer's dissection of good Rex's cant. To whet your appetite, here are a few excerpts from that dissection, that cuts through the pretext of Rex's article to get to its real purpose: shilling, par excellance, for the oil industry as he vigorously denies climate change.:
After weeping crocodile tears for Alberta and Calgary, Murphy sets about his real work, tearing down anyone who believes fossil fuels have had their day and that climate change is a genuine concern.

David Suzuki and Neil Young are characterized as “dim-minded celebrities that took their jaunts to the oil sands to mewl over its planet-destroying potential.”

Murphy contends that the “critics bark without scrutiny, never receive the zealous oversight they impose on the industry. Environmental reporting is heinously one-sided and close-minded.”

Tell that to the many fine journalists in Canada and abroad - at the New York Times, the Guardian and many, many others - who do their best to tell the complex stories of energy and environment in a balanced, nuanced way.
Like his spiritual brother Conrad Black, Rex Murphy is quite adept at hiding his paucity of worthwhile thought with an elevated and clever use of words. Perhaps it is time someone told him the veneer is wearing thin.

10 comments:

  1. Rex has a large vocabulary, Lorne. Unfortunately, he hasn't got the ideas to match.

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    1. A less delicate way of expressing Rex's shortcomings, Owen, is that he attempts to baffle people with bullsh**t.

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  2. .. thsaurusaurus rex is seemingly in love with his own clever Trevor utterings.. Its a fools game even listening to such a ridiculous sellout.. My son is 30 years old, works at a very heavy international ad agency.. and has no idea who the rexatious one is.. or the unfortunate alleged sexual assaulter, also of CBC fame or infamy, innocence or ignorance.. That the previous PM of Canada has been kidnapped by aliens from Planet CPC, never to be seen again has also escaped my progeny's interest.. With no empirical evidence, I suspect my son has voted Liberal & helped elect one of 'young' 48 year old (older than Rona Ambrose) Justin Trudeau's cohort.. Where Rex Murphy fits in his view of Canada, the world, fact or fiction, friend or foe, is a mystery.. but to say Rex Murphy is hardly on his radar.. would be a fair guess ..

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    1. Well-said, as always, Salamander. Your comments help to put into proper perspective Rex's true and proper place in the universe. I suspect it is not a truth he could handle.

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  3. Far be it from me to impede the CBC's deathwish. I'm not sure what's left of Mother Corpse - looking on Ghomeshi, Amanda Lang, Kevin O'Leary, Mansbridge, Murphy and such - is worth keeping. There is no shortage of talented journalists in Canada but the paying jobs keep going to the most undeserving. Maybe it's time for a wholesale housecleaning.

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    1. A new generation of talented journalists is waiting for the opportunities impeded by the rogue's gallery that has passed through the halls of CBC, Mound. I know Mansbridge has said he will retire by the time he is 70, just a couple of years off, but who knows what the Corp. will look like even then. The prognosis is indeed grim.

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  4. .. the comments re 'journalists' & of course your article itself again trigger a question I floated out to several indy bloggers in the last 10 days.. that being how to pin a tail on the donkey or pin Rex's ears back re EnergyEast.

    That being.. that if grade 5 schoolchildren could do basic discovery, math etc and create school projects revealing exactly what the Energy East pipeline actually is.. who exactly profits.. what it will transport.. and where the 'resource' will go to.. and where the diluted bitumen will not go to...

    Then why aren't concerned Candians demanding such school projects be encouraged within our schools. and why aren't 'journalists' demanding Rex Murphy apologize publicly, retract his nonsense or resign his very very public position.

    Put another way.. if what Rex Murphy or the CEO of ScotiaBank, or a former Minister - Joe Oliver, or an elected interim Opposition Leader - Rona Ambrose.. have to say about a pipeline.. even a so called 'nation building' pipeline .. is utter bunk.. That its actually an environmentally disastrous energy fairy tale scam to benefit foreign owned highly subsidized profiteers.. And, that letting schoolchildren be indoctrinated with their blathered nonsense would be hysterical failure.

    What is Rex Murphy's position re Big Energy's involvement or entry into Alberta's educational curriculums ? Or British Columbia's ? From gradeschool levels and slithering upward even into schools of higher learning & research faculties! He certainly has a right to his dirtbag gaseous conceited opinions.. but to be paid by the public to preach them to the public.. or the horror.. to think schoolchildren might be exposed to his flat earth anti-environment natterings ? ?

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    1. Having students do such research is an excellent idea, Salamander. I am not acquainted with the current curriculum, but surely evidence-based inquiry is a mainstay. My own guess as to why such projects, as far as I know, are not being pursued is the fact that while the curriculum is set by the province, and hence is, in a very real sense a political construct, its implementation is the responsibility of local jurisdictions. Those jurisdictions have a wide latitude, but local officials such as principals, superintendents, and chairs whose goals may be more personal in nature (career advancement, for example) than driven by pursuit of educational excellence, are likely loathe to wade into what many would deem 'political' waters lest they impair their chances of even greater career glory.

      I would be happy to be proven wrong here; if there are such projects underway, let's hear about them.

      Re Rex's nursing on the public teat, he is an offence to the concept of taxpayer-funded news gathering at the CBC.

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  5. .. read it and weep ..
    http://www.desmog.ca/2014/03/11/alberta-partners-major-oilsands-companies-develop-kindergarten-grade-3-curriculum

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    1. Oh my, my, my. Thanks you for this link to a very disturbing article. I suspect i will use it very soon in a blog entry, Salamander.

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