National Newswatch

Truth loses out in Fox News settlement, and that’s apparently what having a spare $780-million in your jeans can do

Apr 24 2023 — Michael Harris — Here’s the bottom line on last week’s epic debacle in the Fox News-Dominion Voting System lawsuit: cash by the carload ensured that the truth did not prevail, took Fox off journalistic death-row, and left the network’s host-serial liars in the same positions of power they used to divide a nation with information they knew to […]

No one ever stopped a bully by turning a blind eye

Apr 10 2023 — Michael Harris — So Donald Trump is the newest citizen in the Indicted States of America. He joins a host of former aides and associates who either went to jail or admitted to wrongdoing after working for him, including Allen Wiesselberg, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and Lt.-Gen. Michael Flynn. His former chief financial officer at the Trump organization, […]

Poilievre’s Big Bet on Convoy-Loving Politics

Apr 5 2023 — Michael Harris — The Canadian Press picked the “Freedom Convoy” as the biggest news story of 2022. The Conservative Party of Canada made it the biggest political gamble of its recent history. Stay Sharp on Alberta. Sign up for Alberta EdgeStay Sharp on Alberta. Sign up for Alberta Edge The Tyee launches a new free newsletter with fresh […]

Note to Poilievre: politics of personal destruction can only go so far

Apr 3 2023 — Michael Harris — No one can deny that the Conservatives’ Hate-Trudeau campaign knows no bounds. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre set the bar low when he effectively called the prime minister a traitor who was covering up alleged Chinese interference in Canadian elections, instead of calling a public inquiry. Two parliamentary bodies and a special rapporteur are looking into […]

Equality before the law has been compromised in two of the world’s putative great democracies: the United States and Israel

Mar 27 2023 — Michael Harris — In America, the law is king, the king isn’t the law. That sentiment was expressed by 18th century English-American political philosopher and pamphleteer Thomas Paine. He wanted to persuade his fellow colonists that it would be better to break way from England and form a republic, a view he successfully advocated in his famous 47-page […]

This ain’t no party, but populism is destroying our federal politics

Mar 20 2023 — Michael Harris — Opposition politics has always been the process of casting the appropriate lights and shadows over the other guy’s record—and the facts. No surprise there. The job of opposition is to oppose, so the characterization of incumbent governments has almost never been what might be called “good-faith” criticism. There is little credit for the good things […]

The most hopeful sign Trump is headed for con-man oblivion

Mar 13 2023 — Michael Harris — For the 17th straight year, global freedom has declined. Despite Pierre Poilievre’s feckless rants, Canada continues to buck the trend. It is no accident that democracy is under attack worldwide. For years now, there has been a surge in the number of “strongmen” who have emerged with illiberal, populist agendas, a trend that accelerated with […]

Liar choir at Fox News has been outed, court documents suggest

Feb 27 2023 — Michael Harris — So it appears the liar choir at Fox News has been outed. According to court filings, the Big Three at America’s most-watched cable “news” channel all knowingly lied about the 2020 election being stolen. That’s Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity, the Fox News hosts with the largest prime-time audiences. More than that, court […]

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