{"id":5285,"date":"2020-12-23T00:48:01","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T05:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=5285"},"modified":"2020-12-23T00:48:32","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T05:48:32","slug":"the-fake-new-media-smear-the-weekly-end-the-lockdown-rallies-in-kelowna-anatomy-of-a-hatchet-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=5285","title":{"rendered":"The Fake New Media Smear the Weekly END THE LOCKDOWN Rallies in Kelowna: Anatomy of a Hatchet Job"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Fake News & the False News Media Smear the Weekly END THE LOCKDOWN Rallies in Kelowna: Anatomy of a Hatchet Job<\/strong>
I usually don’t reproduce lies and smears but, for the reader to fully understand what is happening, I am doing so here. Long before Donald Trump, people supporting freedom of speech, immigration reform or a host of other “rightwing” causes found themselves ignored by most of the mainstream media or, when covered at all, demonized. Donald Trump, however, crystalized this perception of the utter bias of most of the mainstream media by repeatedly labelling them as the Fake News or the False News media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 15 years ago, I developed the insight that most of the “news” media are not about news at all — a reporting of the facts — but, rather, are a soap opera where the reader or listener is told that there are good guys and bad guys, as in a soap opera. The good guys and bad guys are readily recognizable. The Fake News media slaps labels on the characters it reports on as “moderate”, “conspiracy theorist”, “racist” to signal to the reader good guy or bad guy. Often what the “bad guy” says or believes is not even reported, just the labels.
Many Fake News media stories fail the basic test of news reportage — it must be objective. In the words of the gruff, crew-cutted detective Joe Friday in the 1960s era Dragnet show,a good news story should contain “the facts, ma’m. just the facts”: the who, where, what, when, why and how. In many media today, the only stories that might get a passing grade — and I taught journalism — would be the weather and, perhaps, the sports. A good news story presents the objective facts and let’s the reader draw his\/her own conclusions. That’s not to say that a newspaper or radio or television channel has no room for opinion. Opinion as opposed to news should be clearly labelled as opinion columns or editorials.
Which brings us to the poisonous Fake News media coverage of the December 12 END THE LOCKDOWN mega rally in Kelowna which saw 2,000 joyous unmasked people, families, even couples with babies in strollers, peacefully parade through downtown Kelowna. The END THE LOCKDOWN rallies have been a regular every Saturday occurrence in Kelowna drawing anywhere from 35 to 2,000 participants concerned about the government’s repressive wild overreaction to the flu known as COVID-19, the coronavirus or the Wuhan Flu. One might imagine that such dedicated and peaceful protests would be of interest to the local media. Certainly, if it were a handful of aggrieved Indians or a few Black Lives Matter types, their every word would be lovingly reported. Instead, with almost no exception, the Kelowna media has ignored the protests. Indeed, although rally organizer Dave Lindsay has tried repeatedly to get media coverage, he reports:
“Local media from Castanet <\/strong>has recently admitted to me that he has
instructions ‘from above’ that they are not to give us any \u201cplatform\u201d at all on
their news site. Similar comments have been made from other media, who
simply refuse to state anything unless it is derogatory in nature, belittles all
of us, or somehow cites extremist elements. Our facts and laws are simply
ignored.Local Okanagan print media have already told me that they will not print any
ads that we may wish to print, that oppose the Government narrative.”
Thus, by their own admission most of the local media are merely shills for government opinion. They exist to suppress or belittle views contrary to the government line; in other words, a lot like the newspaper Gramna<\/strong> in communist Cuba or the old Pravda <\/strong>in Russia.
However, when a group can bring out 2,000 people on the streets of Kelowna, people start to ask questions, Why wasn’t there a report in the local media? Such a protest could not be ignored. So, the following week two reports occurred, one on Castanet, an online website, and the other in the Kelowna Courier.<\/strong> Did someone in the Medico-Stalinist government in Victoria set the smear dogs loose? These are reproduced below.
Read over both articles. Nowhere does either explain WHY people are protesting the lockdowns and the forced masking. This despite the fact that all of organizer David Lindsay’s e-mails announcing the rallies contain pamphlets with copious documentation that the threat of COVID is wildly exaggerated and that masks are not just useless but harmful. the Fake News media are not interested in presenting the facts so that a reader might judge. The Fake News media want to tell you that these are bad guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let’s examine the Castanet<\/strong> smear. It’s almost certain that Castanet’s<\/strong> reporter was not even present at the December 12 Mega Rally. The picture of Dave Lindsay was taken in the summer, not on chilly December 12. Look at the short sleeves. Most of this article is a biased account of Mr. Lindsay’s lecturing, court work and activities. I’ll not discuss this as they have nothing to do with the COVID craziness, which Castanet<\/strong> refuses to discuss, but is simply a way to shoot the messenger. Notice the headline which accuses Mr. Lindsay of “profiting off conspiracy theorists”. I’ve known Dave for over a quarter of a century. What he’s charged for seminars or collected at meetings has never done more than cover modest expenses. Notice the smear words “conspiracy theorists”, “fringe groups” and the unsupported editorial judgement :\n“Lindsay has spread pamphlets <\/a>across the Okanagan containing misinformation related to COVID-1.” We’re not told what this misinformation is or who says it’s misinformation. The accusation is a blanket smear and the intended impression is that organizer David Lindsay \nof Common Law Education And \nRights\u201d (CLEAR) Initiative is a disreputable character.
To add to the impression that David Lindsay is a disreputable character, Castanet<\/strong> links him with me. To be clear, I have never been more than an attendee at about a half dozen END THE LOCKDOWN rallies in Kelowna. I have never been a speaker. Then, Castanet <\/strong>accuses him of attending part of the Arthur Topham “hate law” trial in 2015 — any citizens right — with other “fringe” characters and doing a video interview with me criticizing arbitrary “searches of attendees carried out by sheriffs at the courthouse, falsely claiming they were illegal.” Again, Castanet<\/strong> offers an unsupported conclusion that David Lindsay is wrong.
Castanet<\/strong> offers no evidence or even an interview to support its judgement: “The views of Fromm \u2014 one of Canada’s most prominent white nationalists \u2014 do not reflect the vast\n majority of attendees.” Frankly, no one knows. The END THE LOCKDOWN rallies draw people with a number of different motives. Some oppose the attacks on churches and religion. Many oppose the imposition of masks or the closure or restrictions of businesses. Others fear that the imposed masks are merely a dry run for compulsory vaccinations. Some are suspicious of Big Pharma or non-natural methods of healing. Some, like me, fear the restrictions on free speech meetings and gatherings.
Castanet <\/strong>never interviewed me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, for the Kelowna Courier<\/strong> article. Although the article leads off with a number of lies about me, I was never interviewed or given a chance to label myself. Instead, the article lets mortal free speech haters from the government-funded, BMO-funded Canadian Anti-Hate Network label me as a “neo-Nazi” and “White supremacist”. I am neither. I doubt writer Alastair Waters was even at the rally. The picture of a person even the Kelowna Courier<\/strong> is not certain is me was taken from a video of the event. The reporter apparently wasn’t there to ask the man in the photo who he was. The entire smear is based on information from the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. There is no attempt to get a statement from the object of the smear — me. It would be the equivalent of writing about the Christian Church, relying only on statements from Satanists!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article warns: ”\nThey include an \nover emphasis on individual rights over what\u2019s good for the community, \nconspiracy theories and, in some cases, outright racism and bigotry.” This smear is a lie, with no specifics — again “conspiracy theories”. What examples of ”\noutright racism and bigotry” are there. The Kelowna END THE LOCKDOWN rallies attract people from a number of different racial backgrounds.
The article is not a news story. There is almost no mention of what was said at the protests or the concerns that led people to give up a number of hours of their time Saturday after Saturday. The article is typical soap opera, labelling those concerned about individual freedoms as “bad”!
Paul FrommDirectorCANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION

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Kelowna anti-mask protest leader has long profited off conspiracy theorists, rubbed shoulders with white nationalists<\/h1>\n\n\n\n