Friday, September 10, 2010

Avaaz, Sun TV and the Self-Humiliation Machine

As one evaluates New York-based Avaaz.org's campaign against Sun TV -- which it dubs "FOX North" -- one has to truly marvel at the depth of the incompetence George Soros' money has been funding.

What began on the side of the vapidly self-righteous has degenerated into the utterly comical.

An email from Avaaz to its alleged 75,000 supporters -- alleged because it's entirely unknown how many signatories are legitimately Canadian citizens, as opposed to self-styled globalist leftists -- veers dangerously into the realm of the comical, as Avaaz repeats its breathless hate speech accusations, complains about alleged criminal interference in their petition, and alleged smears printed in SUN newspapers.

Those closely following the story know that the matter is actually rather different -- whomever signed up numerous Canadian journalists actually did so to reveal the extremely poor controls Avaaz has in place to prevent such occurances.

That doesn't stop Avaaz from waxing indignantly however, to utterly comical effect:
One supposes that the first response that comes to mind to Avaaz's appeal for donations is whether or not George Soros has enough money to back them. The second response is to note that the involvement of actual Canadian money in Avaaz's campaign is a welcome change.

Particularly amusing is the evident glee with which Avaaz seems to regard the prospect of siccing law enforcement on whomever revealed the deep methodological deficiencies in their petition. It's an especially petty response to their embarrassment in the eyes of the media.
Of course Avaaz's other problem -- the excessively-poor controls on their petition, as demonstrated by numerous fake signings -- actually lends credence to Sun Media's suggestion that their petition has been signed by a significant number of Americans.

To date -- as evidenced by a recent CBC segment featuring Teneycke facing off against Avaaz's Ricken Patel -- the basic tenor of the debate has each side accusing the other of similar falsehoods.

(Then again, that Ricken Patel appears via satellite from New York City doesn't help Avaaz's attempts to quell concerns about American interference in a Canadian media application.)

Errors such as a suggestion that Suncor, not Sun Media, are behind the application doesn't help Avaaz's cause either.

In other words, Avaaz's campaign against the SUN TV media campaign has, to date, been the work of a self-humiliation machine. The merits of Sun TV's applications are, quite naturally, up for debate.

The blatant ineptitude of the international astroturfers at Avaaz is another matter entirely.

At this point, one would daresay that George Soros should be reevaluating who he's giving his money to.




3 comments:

  1. What a blatantly assholish post. We all know the reason the Prime Minister lunched secretly with Robert Murdoch was to get this project going. A lot of Canadians hate the direction this country is going, and we'd rather not see a further "right" shift.

    Harper wants to see his cronies in a position of power in the media, and Sun News is just the way to do that. I note that you conveniently failed to mention who will be running Sun TV. The CRTC has indicated that they applied for a Category 1 license (meaning Canadians would be forced to foot the bill) and REFUSED - that's right, REFUSED - to apply for a category 2. They want to force propaganda down our throats, and we're certainly not buying it.

    Avaaz is putting power back in the hands of normal people, and that scares the shit out of politicians. They have fostered change throughout the world, and I hope they continue to do so for Canada. How can unbiased information be given to Canadian citizens when the government powers the media? Didn't we learn anything from Hitler?

    In case you are wondering, I am a Canadian citizen and I signed the petition AND donated money to Avaaz's cause. There are some individuals who can still think for themselves and recognize when the information being fed to them is pure bullshit.

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  2. Avaaz isn't putting power into any common people's hands. It's gullible to believe them when they say they're making such a big difference. They claim to, but the organization isn't run by the members who sign up, it's run by the asshole at the top of it.

    There's no discussion forum, no bottom-up decision making structure, no voting, just opportunities to sign petitions and tell the leader of the group what you think should be an issue. You don't get to decide, he does, but just like a corporation your view is data to him that could be useful if it fits his agenda.

    Avaaz is a waste of time, a waste of money, and a waste of faith. It's a centralized power structure with what amounts to a "complaints department" that convinces you that you have a place to voice your complaints, while getting nothing substantial done.

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  3. Sounds like you've had some frustrating experiences with Avaaz, Jason. Care to share some more? I'm interested.

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