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National Post View: The PMO’s selfish special forces blunder
The apology from the Prime Minister’s Office for exposing the faces of Canadian soldiers in its in-house vanity 24/Seven video series was a political classic. And not in a good way. It stumbled from blunder to evasion and falsehood in the service of shamelessly manipulative partisanship, especially in using our troops as PR props.
The trouble began when two videos from the prime minister’s surprise visit to Iraq showed the faces of Canadian special forces soldiers on anti-ISIL missions. But the officials in the PMO brushed off initial criticism, saying they hadn’t violated any security protocols.
When this feeble lie collapsed they took refuge in the passive-voice constructions and self-promotion typical of fake apologies. “The safety of our troops is our No. 1 priority” a prime ministerial spokesman claimed, beginning his pseudo-contrition on a self-congratulatory note.
Also a blatantly false one. Glorifying the prime minister is their first priority. It’s why 24/Seven even exists, and keeps some half-dozen people busy at public expense offering hollowly slick promotion of Stephen Harper complete with a ghastly “Fun” section (“Fostering Pets”) and breathless “Exclusives” of people toadying to the prime minister. It’s also why 24/Seven vetted these Iraq videos carefully to see if they made Harper and his ministers look good, as this term is understood inside the partisan fishbowl, while ignoring the safety of the troops.
“When concerns were raised about a few specific images,” the spokesperson went on, minimizing the offence while pretending to own up to it, “these were taken down immediately so we could review that the protocols were applied properly.” Again, brazenly untrue. They immediately denied the problem.
Or should we say the problem was immediately denied? “After a second review,” the spokesperson droned passively on, “it became apparent that two of the videos should not have been posted.”
We. Us. We bungled. Say it three times. Or at least once. But no.
In honest English that statement would read: “When cornered we realized we had blundered in an arrogant and selfish manner.” Instead of “should not have been posted” the phrase he was looking for, or should have been, was “we should not have posted them.” We. Us. We bungled. Say it three times. Or at least once. But no.
Instead, “We regret the error and are reviewing protocols for such images.” So we regret the mistake but don’t admit we made it. And we lie again, because there’s nothing to review.
The protocols are absolutely clear. Media travelling to Iraq with the prime minister were not just verbally warned not to show the faces of JTF-2 members. They were required to sign an undertaking not to. The 24/Seven team was just in too much of a hurry to promote the Tory brand to pay attention to the rules.
All this evasion and deception derives from the fundamental offence of using Canadian troops as political props, playing to the Tory base at every chance while botching procurement and spending less of GDP on defence than the Liberals in the much-derided “decade of darkness.”
It is so pervasively dishonest they can’t even fake a plausible apology when caught posing irresponsibly before our special forces.
National Post
National Post View: The PMO’s selfish special forces blunder
The apology from the Prime Minister’s Office for exposing the faces of Canadian soldiers in its in-house vanity 24/Seven video series was a political classic. And not in a good way. It stumbled from blunder to evasion and falsehood in the service of shamelessly manipulative partisanship, especially in using our troops as PR props.
The trouble began when two videos from the prime minister’s surprise visit to Iraq showed the faces of Canadian special forces soldiers on anti-ISIL missions. But the officials in the PMO brushed off initial criticism, saying they hadn’t violated any security protocols.
When this feeble lie collapsed they took refuge in the passive-voice constructions and self-promotion typical of fake apologies. “The safety of our troops is our No. 1 priority” a prime ministerial spokesman claimed, beginning his pseudo-contrition on a self-congratulatory note.
Also a blatantly false one. Glorifying the prime minister is their first priority. It’s why 24/Seven even exists, and keeps some half-dozen people busy at public expense offering hollowly slick promotion of Stephen Harper complete with a ghastly “Fun” section (“Fostering Pets”) and breathless “Exclusives” of people toadying to the prime minister. It’s also why 24/Seven vetted these Iraq videos carefully to see if they made Harper and his ministers look good, as this term is understood inside the partisan fishbowl, while ignoring the safety of the troops.
“When concerns were raised about a few specific images,” the spokesperson went on, minimizing the offence while pretending to own up to it, “these were taken down immediately so we could review that the protocols were applied properly.” Again, brazenly untrue. They immediately denied the problem.
Or should we say the problem was immediately denied? “After a second review,” the spokesperson droned passively on, “it became apparent that two of the videos should not have been posted.”
We. Us. We bungled. Say it three times. Or at least once. But no.
In honest English that statement would read: “When cornered we realized we had blundered in an arrogant and selfish manner.” Instead of “should not have been posted” the phrase he was looking for, or should have been, was “we should not have posted them.” We. Us. We bungled. Say it three times. Or at least once. But no.
Instead, “We regret the error and are reviewing protocols for such images.” So we regret the mistake but don’t admit we made it. And we lie again, because there’s nothing to review.
The protocols are absolutely clear. Media travelling to Iraq with the prime minister were not just verbally warned not to show the faces of JTF-2 members. They were required to sign an undertaking not to. The 24/Seven team was just in too much of a hurry to promote the Tory brand to pay attention to the rules.
All this evasion and deception derives from the fundamental offence of using Canadian troops as political props, playing to the Tory base at every chance while botching procurement and spending less of GDP on defence than the Liberals in the much-derided “decade of darkness.”
It is so pervasively dishonest they can’t even fake a plausible apology when caught posing irresponsibly before our special forces.
National Post
