Mac Olsen
When it comes to left-wing/liberal media, left-wing movies and actors’ activism, now more than ever, I am on guard and tune out to ensure I don’t become a victim of their propaganda.
The Golden Globe Awards show has become the latest soapbox for a left-wing cause. This year, most of the participants wore black to protest against sexual harassment.
I’ll make it clear that I do not condone sexual harassment, under any circumstances. In the last year, serious accusations have been made against Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein and others. They have to appear in court and answer for it, or disprove the accusations against them.
But events such as the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards are not the place to advance a political agenda, either from the left or from the right. Those events are intended as celebrations of the work of actors, directors, the behind-the-scenes workers and others – and they ought to be neutral, free of political rhetoric, activism and agendas.
Instead, left-wing and activist causes are hijacking these events. So I tune out and refuse to invest three or four hours watching something that is overtaken by agendas and causes.
I would say the same for any conservative who would use the Golden Globe Awards or the Academy Awards as their own soapbox. Don’t do it!
The last time I watched the Academy Awards was in 2004, when Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ won in all 14 categories it was nominated for. During that broadcast, no actors, directors or others stood on a soapbox and made political statements or advocated for a particular cause.
Yes, I am a right-wing conservative, and I tune in to CTV News, Fox News and certain other media outlets when I want to learn about what President Donald Trump is doing or saying, or what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is up to.
But I will not access media outlets like the taxpayer-funded CBC, which has a history of anti-Conservative bias and pro-Liberal promotion. Two-years ago, I discontinued my satellite service partly because I didn’t want to support the CBC.
On the other hand, a couple of weeks ago, I read an article on the CTVNews.ca website about Senator Lynn Beyak. That article was about her being kicked out of the federal Conservative caucus for refusing to remove a letter from her website. Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer deemed that letter to be “racist” against First Nations people.
Beyak is on record for saying that some “good” came out of the residential school system. However, I offered a scathing rebuke of Beyak in my column for the Smoky River Express on Jan. 10 about that subject.
Although I am a right-wing conservative, I cannot condone Beyak’s stance about the residential school system. Nothing “good” came out of that very dark chapter in of Canadian history.
The residential school system was meant to destroy everything about the First Nations identity; it was an attempt at cultural genocide. Simply put, it was racist in its agenda and outcome, and there is no way, morally, to defend it.
The media is where discourse on issues of racism, sexual harassment and discrimination belongs; they have no place on awards shows. So, to all activists and those on the left and right, don’t use them for your soapboxes.