This Canadian column is a classic in the annals of modern journalism. Glib repetition of the party line is all that is necessary for a column these days. No insight, no cleverness, no knowledge is needed to be a modern journalist. Just the Party Line, and willingness to enforce it. Women make the best modern journalists. They open their cluckers and the rest comes natural. It never occurs to a woman that questions are settled by fact rather than fashion.
The woman-journalist of 2007, who cares more about the figure she cuts than anything she writes, laughs at a man who is stuck in prison for holding the wrong opinion. You might think that the journalist would side with the right of a man to speak his mind, but if you did, you’d merely betray your failure to understand the conditions under which modern journalists are employed. They are told that they enjoy free speech, but must use it responsibly. Being women, even the men, the contradiction doesn’t bother them. Free speech means everybody agrees on what can’t be said. This makes sense to women and women-men. So Ernst Zundel eats bread and water while Cockburn cackles.
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