Scrum Wars: The Prime Ministers and the MediaThe image of the scrum -- a beleaguered politican surrounded by jockeying reporters -- is central to our perception of Ottawa. The modern scrum began with the arrival of television, but even in Sir John A. Macdonald's day, a century earlier, reporters in the parliamentary press gallery had waited outside the prime minister's office, pen in hand, hoping for a quote for the next edition. The scrum represents the test of wills, the contest of wits, and the battle for control that have characterized the relationship between Canadian prime ministers and journalists for more than 125 years. Scrum Wars chronicles this relationship. It is an anecdotal as well as analytical account, showing how earlier prime ministers like Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier were able to exercise control over what was written about their administrators, while more recent leaders like John Diefenbaker, Joe Clark, John Turner, and Brian Mulroney often found themselves at the mercy of intense media scrutiny and comment. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 63
... French, Alberta Report from Maclean's, the Sun tabloids from the Globe and Mail, and the CBC from everyone. “The people who are lumped together as 'the gallery,”' journalist George Bain wrote in a 1985 Saturday Night article, “are ...
... French Tory dailies that suffered financially as the Conservative Party's fortunes declined in Quebec after the hanging of Louis Riel in 1885. Such pressures eventually caused more and more papers to split from the party on some ...
... French). The dour Edward Blake, who had recently resigned from Mackenzie's cabinet for the second and last time, offered his partisan opinion about the French Conservatives' self-serving behaviour on the latter issue. This was too much ...
... French Canadian colleague Hector Langevin. On the train trip back to Ottawa, Langevin read a news report of the event which noted that Dufferin had spoken “the purest ancient Greek without mispronouncing a word.” “Good Heavens,” said ...
... French Montreal daily La Minerve. He spent a decade assisting his Winnipeg supporters in their ultimately unsuccessful efforts to start a Conservative paper that would challenge the supremacy of the Liberal-leaning Free Press. Further ...
Contents
No League of Gentlemen 19141956 | 83 |
Illustrations | 104 |
The Unofficial Opposition 19571992 | 207 |
Notes | 365 |
Bibliography | 380 |
Index | 383 |