I know I should be used to crap like that but it still makes my stomach turn to see such blatant lies being thrown around. And people wonder why politicians are ranked below used car salesman when it comes to honesty.
Left bias, not Liberal. 
Jones is a former NDPer so I'm not all that surprised with him going at the Liberals too.
Regardless I'm with Gene. Don't make promises you don't plan to keep. At least give yourself an out when you make it. Like, "we'll keep the power rebate as long as the money is there" or "we'll keep the first one and then decide if its the best thing to continue to do." But when you're asked will you keep the rebate and the answer out of Shawn Graham is a simple, "Yes.", well.
Spinks, I'm going to work hard to get you to look past my radical youth. Hopefully someday I'll do something you can embrace. You bloggers are a tough crowd but you're carrying a lot of the political debate in the province and I enjoy what you do. Keep it up.
Hey Robert
Nice to see you pop in.
Don't mind Spinks......he's just got a "thing" for CBC...lol
Great reports.......nice to see somebody in the media is paying attention, and keeping a record....
God know's we have nobody but the CBC these days in the MSM who even seem to know where NB is.......
Good post, PNB. And you're right, it appears as though he [Jones] and the CBC are more objective in their reporting as they actually called the Liberals on something. Lets get a standing ovation over here, shall we? Howver, the key word here is "appears".
Furthermore, before you get up and do the wave for Jones, one must ask themselves a key question here: What are the chances that Robert Jones [and the CBC] will run a long 2 part series right in the middle of an election campaign, like they did with Lord, the next time around? Any takers?
Moreover, you're right Spinks, he is definitely a Dipper, but when it comes to election time, according to the numbers at election NB, most of them obviously vote for the grits anyway. So, in the end, the NDP's hatred of a neoconservative right wing agenda naturally comes out against the Progressive Conservatives, or as the grits and dippers call 'em in New Brunswick, the Conservatives. Which is weird because the grit's platform in the last election was much more conservative, fiscally, than the tories. I mean, putting a cap on gas prices should have been a huge givaway. I guess they didn't bother to read the fine print, in that, they took the easy route and jumped on the anti-Harper bandwagon and started attacking, as they do best, the tories.
And in the end, who does that benefit? Yes, that's right, not their own party, but the grits. Which is why Shawn Graham should ultimately be thanking ppl like Robert Jones and Elizabeth Weir instead of his own party, because it was their strong opposition message to auto insurance that created the public outrage that led to Lord's demise in the first place. And btw, what did Graham ever do differently than Lord on auto insurance anyway? That's right, nothing. It was the NDP's call for a publically run system [in 2003] that got NBers thinking more on the topic, wasn't it? However, it didn't translate into votes, weird huh?
So I guess I will be a little reserved in thinking that Mr. Jones' supposed political loyalty lies with the NDP as it has never benefitted them electorally. Which is what politics is all about isn't it...winning elections that is.
Which is why this latest 2 parter by Jones appears more like "smoke and mirrors" to me rather than objective reporting. I guess they are hoping to make ppl believe they are balanced in their reporting. Most of us know otherwise. However, perception is sometimes reality. and the perception here is definitely not the reality.
Yet, I have been surprise before and who knows maybe he'll run a two parter on the broken promises of Graham's Liberals right in the middle of the next election. However, something tells me by the time the next election comes around you'll need at least a 15 part series [or better yet, a week] to outline that very point.
Hey Scott. I don't discount what you're saying about the timing of the auto insurance stuff during the election. You boxed my ears pretty good on your blog at the time and I understand where you're coming from.
In my defense I will say we have done reports like that during elections before. In 1995 I remember doing a big item on how Premier McKenna was faking his job creation record. That was in the pre blogging days so I'm not sure if people viewed it as an attempt to undermine the Liberals or not, but since they went on to win huge majority #3 I'm sure no one cared too much.
Auto insurance was not planned as an election story. It was in the works for a while and as I'm sure you remember the election came together pretty quickly during the summer while the story was in production.
The question was whether to put the thing off until after the vote, but because it was such a big issue in the previous campaign it seemed reasonable to look back at what voters had been promised in 2003 and what they got delivered instead.
Elections are a good time to air out stories like that, I think. But I respect the point you're making and like I said at the top I don't discount it.
Well I had a change of heart with Jacques Poitras, Scott's showing his soft side for the Left, and I'm trashing Conservatives on 101 people so heck, anything is possible. 
I do have to give credit where credit is due though, CBC journalists like Jacques, Robert, Mike Crawley and Karen Rawlines have actually attempted to engage bloggers directly while most other journalists or even politicians (Liberal Jack Keir the sole exception) have not.If it weren't for the Robert Jones report about Charles Leblanc, Charles might be up for a fine instead of having a whole bunch of new material for his blog.
Now a Robert Jones 4 parter about Carmel Robichaud's leniency on drunk drivers, I could get behind.
Geez Spinks, one banner doth not make me a neo-Chomskyite lodestone. Nevertheless, I never did consider myself a neo-conservative ideologue either. Which is probably why I have received extreme criticisms from both [far] ends of the political spectrum.
Anyway, enough talk about that. Back to the CBC and Mr. Jones for a moment.
You said Robert;
Auto insurance was not planned as an election story. It was in the works for a while and as I'm sure you remember the election came together pretty quickly during the summer while the story was in production.
Yes, you're right, the election did come together rather quickly as the retirement of Peter Mesheau came as a shock to many in the party. However, my recollection of your piece on auto insurance was that it also looked or appeared like it was brought together rather quickly. Btw, that's not a slight against the content of the report, it is just a tribute to the capabilities of new technologies and how much more efficient it has made reporters, not to mention, Bloggers. lol
But it was not as much the length or timing of the report the concerned me the most, my concerns rested more on the manner in which the sources and clips were presented. As I said last fall, the sources you used appeared to be very partisan, although, they weren't identified as such. Which is why it raised a red flag with myself and many others to boot. I mean, one of the individuals was a card carrying member of the NDP and the other a liberal, but both were identified under the title of "auto insurance analyst" or "critic" or something to that degree? I don't mind a good arguement for or against auto insurance, but when you have to soften peoples political biases to do it, well to me, that's not being forthright as a journalist. But now that you have set the record straight on your past reporting, my mind has been put at ease. And I mean that.
But before I go, I just wanted to raise one more concern I have with the CBC. That being, their institutional ethos which stands as an irresistible ideological attraction to many new Canadian journalists who, on average, tend to have a left of centre bias. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with having this mind set nor is there anything wrong with aspiring to work for the CBC as it is a dream come true for many, not to mention, a lifelong ambition. That is why most of them attempt to align themselves with the Mother Corp's agenda the minute they enter journalism school.
Which, in my opinion, is not a healthy practice for a truly democratic society to engage in. Journalism schools should be in the business of being unbiased wherein they give the students the tools to succeed in the business. They should not be trying to swade or mold their students opinions politically at the starting point. Case in point, the CBC's partnership with the STU journalism school. Much like the NDP's arguement that big business and large corporations have no roll in the world of academia nor should they have a presence in the classroom, well, the same could be said for the large public broadcaster [CBC], which btw, is paid for by our tax dollars. I, myself, as a Canadian taxpayer, don't want the CBC engaging in political brainwashing of apiring young journos or citizens on the street for that matter.
My hope is that someday the CBC will realize that it has to represent all its shareholders, not just the ones that agree with its bias political agenda. It never hurts to dream.
Aw, I'm just razzing you Scott, I'm still with PNB that you met a girl at a protest over CBC cuts or something over Christmas.
Oh and your comments on CBC. Ditto. Althougn in fairness, the groupthink indoctrination affects almost all facets of journalism not just CBC. You can actually figure out if you have groupthink pretty easy by asking a few questions or an anonymous survey in the newsroom over the topics of today. If there's no disagreement, you have a problem. Some diversity of thought is greatly needed.
Oh and Scott, good to have you back.
I just arrive here. You got to fix the background on your site PNB!
I never seen the 9 comments.
I believe it was 0????
Anyway, Robert has always been neutral in his stories and that’s the way it is.
I told the guy 15 years ago that he was my hero and he’s still the best.
Of course this has nothing to do with his coverage of my arrest in Saint John.
If someone points out a story to Robert? He’ll study it and decide if he should report the facts to New Brunswickers.
People called him a pro liberal but he proved them wrong. If the Liberals screw up till the next election? He’ll report the facts.
He’s non-bias!!!
He reports the facts!!!!
I am jealous on one issue!!!! Robert Jones has never left a comment in my blog.
You should be honored PNB????
Lol
Oh Charles, it's obvious that you want so bad to be part of the "elite" mainstream media.
If I'm right, and that's the case, you better start by getting yourself reinstated because a chunk of the news, not to mention laws, are made on the floor of the house.
It's like a regular New Brunswick bloggers' hall of fame in here. Where's David Campbell?
Charles, I can't post in your blog you make the news too much. I wouldn't be able to cover your next arrest if I was yakking it up at your site. PNB, thank you for your warm welcome, I neglected to acknowledge it in my last posting.
Scott, the complaint of a biased and institutionalized ethos at the CBC is one I hear a lot. I have a friend from university days who rages to me about it on a regular basis. He's a devout Catholic and feels that things he considers precious are sneered at directly and indirectly in coverage of all sorts of issues. He has given me lots of examples over the years and it has been difficult to dispute.
He was especially enraged at the old Newsworld show CounterSpin with Avi Lewis. I liked Avi and Rex Murphy is okay and so on but there is a vibrant and articulate conservative community in the country and I do think its a mistake the CBC doesn't reflect that more in it's programming. Don Cherry has to be the most popular CBC personality ever hired and you'd think management would test that side of the spectrum more often since it worked so well once.
That's on the commentator side. For reporters, personal feelings about the world should be an irrelevant issue. I think one of the best journalists to work in New Brunswick in the last 25 years was Neil Reynolds, the libertarian editor of the Telegraph Journal if I remember his politics properly. I was in his office one time and he had a quotation framed from William Randolph Hearst - "News is something someone doesn't want printed, all else is advertising."
I thought about that a lot and eventually put the quote up over my own desk. If you work to uncover things that someone somewhere is trying to keep hushed up it really shouldn't matter if you play left or right wing in your spare time. I feel I could work for and see eye to eye with Neil Reynolds as a reporter easily even if I might never vote for him in an election.
RJ wrote, "He has given me lots of examples over the years and it has been difficult to dispute."
Okay, I'm gaining a new found respect for Robert. I've been writing that for a LONG time. RJ is the last one I thought would agree so WOW! There's hope for that organization yet.
It's like a regular New Brunswick bloggers' hall of fame in here. Where's David Campbell?
Yeah we are a notorious bunch for commenting in each others blogs.
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for David here though....lol
That quote by Hearst is a great one......it should be hanging on all reporters walls.
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