The Sixth Estate Weekly Flack Awards are given to the Cabinet ministers whose communications staff make the most appalling and disrespectful spectacle of the week, taking the already low standards of government propaganda and sinking them even further. I really, really wanted to give this week’s award to Agriculture Minister
Continue readingTag: Flack Awards
The Sixth Estate: Sixth Estate Flack Award Recognizes Year-Late Government Celebration of Parks Canada Anniversary
The Sixth Estate Flack Awards are a regular series created last December to recognize ministers and their subhuman mouthpieces for going below and beyond the call of duty in crafting the very worst in government press releases. Communications incompetence is actually a specialty of the current regime. Since creating the
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Fifth Sexth Estate Weekly Flack Awards
The Sixth Estate Weekly Flack Awards are a regular series dedicated to recognizing the silliest and the worst in the generally pathetic field of government communications. These awards recognize absurd errors, bizarre subjects, unnecessary excitement over trivial programs, and preposterous quote-mining. This week there were strong entrants in all categories. For
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Sixth Estate Flack Award Goes to Amateur Historian Stephen Harper
The first Flack Award of the New Year goes to Stephen Harper and the Prime Minister’s Office. There were no particular howlers among the usual dull propaganda sent out by News.gc.ca for the week, but I was quite stunned to see Stephen I issue the following announcement welcoming the promotion
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Sixth Estate Flack Awards Recognize Militarization of Santa, Government Subsidies to Naval Targets
The only reason the preposterous announcement that Santa’s sleigh will be receiving an armed escort by CF-18 fighters doesn’t win the Flack Award this week is because the same announcement has been made for several years now. Why does Santa need a military escort through Canadian airspace? Is the government
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: The Prime Minister’s Office Buys Maria a Fridge at the Second Sixth Estate Flack Awards
One day has now passed since the dishon. Peter MacKay threatened to sue his critics for libel, and Sixth Estate has not received any requests to take down posts “attacking his credibility.” The Sixth Estate Weekly Flack Awards are given to Cabinet ministers and their mouthpieces for going below and
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Sixth Estate Announces Inaugural Weekly Flack Award for Worst Government Press Release
Government press releases have probably never been, shall we say, the go-to source for reasoned and well-informed commentary on the issues of the today. They are, rather, propaganda, pure and simple. But they have taken a definite turn for the worse under the Harper regime. This turn isn’t merely a
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