Yes, Stephen Harper is definitely a mensh/mensch.

Well Done!

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Fortem Posce Animum
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"Harper says he's finished with Ottawa press corps"

24 May 2006

CBC News

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he'll no longer give news conferences
for the national media, after a dispute led a number of journalists to walk
away from an event when he refused to take their questions.

Speaking to A-Channel in London, Ont., Harper said "unfortunately the press
gallery has taken the view they are going to be the opposition to the
government."

Yes, they often arrogantly assume that is their function in life.  -- DSH

"They don't ask questions at my press conferences now.  We'll just take the
message out on the road.  There's lots of media who do want to ask questions
and hear what the government is doing."

Increasingly, that is what President Bush has been doing too.  -- DSH

Since becoming prime minister in January, Harper has had a testy
relationship with the national media in Ottawa.  His staff has tried to
manage news conferences by saying they will decide which reporters get to
ask questions.

Of course, the President and Prime Minister should get to call on whom they
wish.  -- DSH

The press gallery has refused to play by those rules.  "We can't accept that
the Prime Minister's Office would decide who gets to ask questions," Yves
Malo, a TVA reporter and president of the press gallery, told CP on Tuesday.
"Does that mean that when there's a crisis they'll only call upon
journalists they expect softball questions from?"

On Tuesday about two dozen Ottawa reporters walked out on a Harper event
when he refused to take their questions.

That led Harper to say that from now on he will speak only to local media.

The CBC says it will continue to cover the prime minister.  "If the prime
minister chooses to take questions we will be there to ask them," said
Ottawa managing editor George Hoff.   "We will have a journalist there to
ask questions," he said.

Harper's supporters said Wednesday they believed the conflict is being blown
out of proportion.

"I think this will get sorted out over time," Conservative Geoff Norquay
said during an interview on Politics on CBC Newsworld.

"I think both sides have an interest in sorting it out and I think they will
over time.  The reality is that every new government wants to keep a tight
lid on its messages and this one in particular because it had the previous
example of Mr. Martin who had so many priorities that they all turned to
mush in the minds of the Canadian people.  And that's why this government is
tightly focused on its messages," he said."
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Martin HIMSELF turned to mush.

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Deus Vult