And so the horse race begins

Two election panels tonight on CBC — not one word from anyone about issues, policies, ideas. All focus was typically on theatrical performance.

If you were to go through one year’s worth of CBC’s “At Issue” panels, you’d be hard pressed to find more than two or three instances where the usual gang debates, say, actual policy proposals. For these theatre critics, it’s never “A makes a better case about […] than B because of x, y, and z.” It’s always “A looked more comfortable talking about […] than B.” They’ll say things like “x talked up his experience on the economy,” but they’ll rarely bring up x’s economic record or explain x’s economic proposals, and almost never will they discuss the merits or shortcomings of said record and proposals. The people the CBC presents to us as “political analysts” don’t talk much or at all about politics. They talk about PR and marketing strategies. In the name of “objectivity,” or something, they’ll say, for instance, how they think x’s slogan will go with some group, but never how they think x’s policy might affect the group.

How do panels such as this one in any way help (the public broadcaster’s!) viewers make sense of what’s at stake? Worthless from start to finish. A true public service.