lidsville.bsky.social
Writer. Upcoming book on UN Habitat ‘76: http://habitat76.ca
Lidsville was a psychedelic 70s kids show about surreal cartoon villains which feels apt. Comms & strategy on climate, old growth logging, Site C dam & housing speculation. PS Covid is not over
2,055 posts
3,009 followers
3,450 following
Getting Started
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
I Get to Keep Ian Hanomansing's Car: A Bluesky Conversation
comment in response to
post
Yet my response to CBC pandering to the far-right is increase not cut its funding, which is shockingly low by international standards. Oddly the Heritage Minister flagged this 2 days ago. The low funding & insufficient arms length creates symptoms like Hanomansing. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
comment in response to
post
This is my response to Hanomansing's latest update. bsky.app/profile/lids...
comment in response to
post
That's the thing - pandering to the right isn't that smart, tactically, yet they all reflexively keep on doing it.
Touring with Dick Cheney didn't help Kamala Harris at all but these types just keep doing it. You guys: the far right is just not that into you
comment in response to
post
Looked at more structurally, I think part of the reason CBC panders to power is that it's the lowest-funded public broadcaster in the Commonwealth by a decent margin & is insufficiently arms length. Oddly the Heritage Minister flagged this problem 2 days ago. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
comment in response to
post
Agreed. I did mine and it just took a few minutes.
comment in response to
post
I suspect their bothsidesism only pretends to be "balanced" but is probably a pure political calculation: to hedge their bets they play off a Liberal party-friendly viewpoint against a Poilievre Conservative-friendly one. This way CBC panders to whichever of their future masters wins the election
comment in response to
post
This is not reassuring. Again you downplay the pandering to fascists that we've seen repeatedly from you & CBC. You are gaslighting a broad swath of Canadians who are rightly enraged. The correct response to your episode is the same as Rob Delaney's response to CBC downplaying Bolsonaro's fascism.
comment in response to
post
Never mind that "both sides" in this country" tends to be two sides of a manufactured mainstream: a right-of-centre "centrism" and the far-right (both of them often white). A lot of "sides" are missing entirely
comment in response to
post
Seems a lot of media still labour under very simplistic ideas of "balance," "objectivity" & "impartiality" which "both sides" is a further degraded version of. These concepts were already dated when I taught them decades ago to Communication undergrads in "Political Economy of Canadian Media"
comment in response to
post
Is there anyone not on Signal already 😂
comment in response to
post
I see this a lot in media—a condescension toward any form of resistance to abuse of power. It's ingrained in the structure of media organizations & probably has an element of shame to it (they know they're failing to afflict the comfortable).
comment in response to
post
I don't know if the CBC's power structure and bad politics eventually turns everyone into Rex Murphy but my take is—and maybe this is harsh—if you can be made to normalize fascism there was something wrong with you to start with. I can't find any moral compass in this guy's vicinity.
comment in response to
post
Over time I've come to feel there's a certain brand of niceness that isn't nice at all, & that so many of the people widely considered "nice" are in fact pleasers who are extremely complicit with power & when called on it, distinctly not nice
I guess that's the long way of saying "banality of evil"
comment in response to
post
Have already done it.
comment in response to
post
Interesting idea that had not occurred to me. Someone should. cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/impact-an...
comment in response to
post
Could not agree more. He's probably going to profit from this pandering
comment in response to
post
"Journalism." Call in shows are a favourite staple of the small town, right-wing talk radio stations that have driven the development of the far-right across the US, so of course CBC is making sure it gives us as many of them as possible
comment in response to
post
These idiot call-in shows add nothing to public discourse—they're a low-quality Tower of Babel. They're making Canadians stupider.
comment in response to
post
*Gilliam
PS Hanomansing has a strange tendency to respond to Twitter criticisms with uninvited argumentative DMs, where he is tetchy & won't respond directly to argument but is evasive yet stubborn. I know 3 different people he's done this with (& have seen screenshots). Is this appropriate, CBC?
comment in response to
post
It's just sickening. I hope as many people as possible are contacting the CBC directly about this obvious normalization of fascism. bsky.app/profile/aeri...
comment in response to
post
This has been infuriating to witness. I am so disappointed in CBC for both sides-ing what is an overt declaration of intent by Trump to annex Canada. Like, how is this even a discussion? It's not an academic exercise to discuss for funsies, it's an open threat by an unhinged foreign leader.
comment in response to
post
Hanomansing did this exact thing with the Convoy too. He also aggressively defended Bonnie Henry when she was withholding rapid tests and making vaccines and Paxlovid less available than any other province. Is there no cruel, punitive power he won’t reflexively defend?
comment in response to
post
Hanomansing’s cheery, blancmange both-sidesism is one of the creepiest examples of obeying in advance and normalizing fascism I’ve seen and it has a filmic quality, as if we’re watching an eager servant of the oligarch class in either the Hunger Games, Terry Gillian’s Brazil or equivalent dystopia
comment in response to
post
This is so reckless. CBC isn’t on here and nor is the senior producer of this show - people need to complain directly or at least try Twitter
comment in response to
post
Watching Ian turn into Rex was not on my 2025 bingo card, but here we are.
comment in response to
post
Cancel it and replace with some real journalism—which is badly needed at this moment in time. CBC already has enough low-nutrient call-in shows, ffs
comment in response to
post
? He needs to change, and fast.
comment in response to
post
I really don't get the sense he's being pushed into this. I have heard him be heatedly reactionary when he's speaking off the cuff. I don't think anyone is making him do this.
comment in response to
post
Seconded. And in the meantime I think everyone should make the formal complaints Aerin listed in this thread. bsky.app/profile/aeri...
comment in response to
post
B) Complain to the show via its feedback mechanisms that the framing is grossly inappropriate.
Call during broadcast 4 pm ET on Sunday: 1-888-416-8333
Text, including your full name: 226-758-8924
Email: [email protected]
Google Form on the website: www.cbc.ca/radio/checku...
2/2
comment in response to
post
“Some people”??
Everyone:
A) Complain to CBC Ombud about episode framing — e.g., it violates CBC mission, normalizes invasion! — and urge that it be immediately changed.
Episode: www.cbc.ca/radio/checku...
CBC mission: www.cbc.ca/amp/1.1294364
Ombud: cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/ombudsman...
1/2
comment in response to
post
I don’t know whether Hanomansing comes up with these consistently idiotic framings or his bosses do, but if it’s the bosses he has enough clout to veto them.
No matter what, he’s more like Rex Murphy than he probably imagines. CBC: fix Cross Country Checkup or cancel it
comment in response to
post
He's going to carry on appeasing the far-right under the flimsy alibi of "both sides" even when everyone in the country is yelling at him to stop platforming fascists & their idiot ideas
comment in response to
post
Yes, and you could actually tell. It felt shallow. The sensation I had was one of those worms from Dune moving directly under the floorboards (from roughly north to south)
comment in response to
post
Can you *really* not see what's wrong with your framing?
Stop normalizing Trump on our dime. Quit entertaining the stupidest of his idiot whims & eruptions. You did this inane & dangerous bothsidesing with the convoy too.
If you want to appease fascism, don't do it on CBC time or ours. #cdnpoli
comment in response to
post
Can you *really* not see what's wrong with your framing?
Stop normalizing Trump on our dime. Quit entertaining the stupidest of his idiot whims & eruptions. You did this inane & dangerous bothsidesing with the convoy too.
If you want to appease fascism, don't do it on CBC time or ours. #cdnpoli
comment in response to
post
I've felt quite a few earthquakes in BC but this was definitely the strongest. Felt like a rumbler. I did find the one in 2015 pretty strong - more of a back and forth shaker.
comment in response to
post
My nephew was in the basement at my mother's house, heard a bang, thought it was an intruder, grabbed the first implement he could find and ran upstairs brandishing ... an umbrella
comment in response to
post
Ha ha maybe this is planetary applause and the news just took a long time to sink in
comment in response to
post
This is always what I tell myself too (but I don't think the location of this one has much to do with the Cascadian Subduction Zone issue)
comment in response to
post
No damage here, not even to the glass that fell off the shelf while I was standing right next to it, WHICH I CAUGHT. That will teach me to put glasses less close to the edge
comment in response to
post
Bulletin Issue Time: 2025.02.21 21:31:40 UTC
Preliminary Magnitude: 5.1(Ml)
Lat/Lon: 49.874 / -123.696
Affected Region: 160 miles E of Port Alice, British Columbia
Note: * There is NO tsunami danger from this earthquake.