The Black Rod

There's a great disconnect between the Winnipeg Free Press and the public. As the newspaper's circulation has melted away by the thousands, its owners have gradually abandoned the average citizen to align themselves with the rich and powerful. They don't stand up for the little guy anymore; they believe the little guy is standing in the way. They see their own readers as stupid, so consumed by their petty hardscrabble lives that they can't see the big picture and thus need the guidance of the Winnipeg Free Press to understand reality. Case in point---a column Saturday mocking the hoi polloi by veteran city hall reporter Bartley Kives which was titled: What do we want? Everything! Just don't raise our taxes http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/breakingnews/what-do-we-want-everything-138735589.html Kives compared Winnipeggers to spoiled children. He called them "impressionable if not outright clueless", people too dense to realize that

Congratulations are in order. Winnipeg's very own Krista Erickson has been fully exonerated by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council for her feisty interview with dancer Margie Gillis which sent Canada's left-wing elite into a carpet-chewing frenzy. Sun News had barely begun broadcasting when, last June, Krista went toe-to-toe with Gillis over government funding of the arts. Gillis, who hops around, flaps her arms and calls it modern dance, has been sucking at the public tit for most her, ahem, career. The challenge to Gillis drove the arts community wild. An organized Facebook campaign resulted in an unprecedented 6676 complaints to the CBSC. Friday, Krista kicked 6676 Leftie butts with a vengeance. The CBSC said her interview met the standard of a full, fair and proper presentation, which might have been controversial, but in a way that is "essential to the maintenance of democratic institutions." Addressing the complaints directly, the council said