Angry in the Great White North

Liberals issue a non-denial about their alleged involvement in concocting the Wafergate non-scandal

Kady O'Malley of Maclean's has picked up the so-called Wafergate story.  In particular, she asked the Office of the Leader of the Opposition whether it was true that the Liberals pushed the (now discredited) story that Stephen Harper pocketed the communion host when he attended the funeral of former governor general Romeo Leblanc.  The allegation that this story was published as a result of collusion between the Liberal Party and Jamie Irving, the publisher of The Telegraph-Journal, was made by Robert Fife of CTV News.

Jamie Irving has since lost his job, as has editor Shawna Richer, over the scandal-within-a-scandal.

The OLO responded.  But it's not clearly a denial.

CTV News: The Liberals concocted the wafer scandal and used Liberal-friendly paper to spread the lie

I have always resisted falling into the habit of accusing the media of being lapdogs for the Liberal Party.

I am seriously rethinking my position.

Shawna Richer needs to answer some questions about the wafer lie

The Telegraph-Journal has apologized to Stephen Harper for publishing a story that the newspaper now admits was essentially a complete fabrication.

Not only did the newspaper print that Stephen Harper pocketed a communion wafer while receiving communion at the funeral mass for former Governor General Romeo Leblanc, the paper also reported that a priest had demanded an explanation from the PMO for what had happened.

The paper now admits that there was no factual basis for those statements.

Essentially, someone was writing elaborate fiction and passing it off as news.

The strange thing is that The Telegraph-Journal has recently been embroiled in another reporting controversy.  In that case, a reporter was fired for what seems to be relatively minor errors.

But this whopper with the communion wafer, attributed to "the editing process", seems to have cost no one their jobs.

The two stories are related, because the person who fired that reporter is Shawna Richer, the editor of the paper, and presumably responsible for "the editing process" that failed so spectacularly.

If she can't explain why the editor is not being held to account for an "editing process" that publishes fantasy as fact, then maybe the publisher can explain it.

Feel free to use the email address at the bottom of this story if you want to ask for such an explanation.

Thank God for Jason Kenney!

No, I'm not dead.

And thank God for Jason Kenney!