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Posted by Kate Butler Oct 16, 2006 |
Michael Ignatieff has certainly had a difficult few days: his comments about Israeli actions in Qana this past summer have caused an uproar in his campaign headquarters, and have also altered the tone and manner in which he is being treated by the Canadian media.
The controversy erupted when Ignatieff apologized on Radio-Canada for his statement in the summer that he did not lose any sleep over the deaths of 28 Lebanese citizens killed by Israeli bombing. In fact, Ignatieff claimed, he was so horrified by the actions that he believed the incident should be considered a war crime.
Ignatieff lost the support of his campaign co-chair, Susan Kadis due to his flip-flop on the issue of what happened at that small Lebanese village in August. He also drew much flak from Bob Rae at the Liberal leadership debate on Sunday due to his ambiguous response to the Qana situation.
It is the media’s reaction, however, which might prove to be most difficult for Ignatieff to overcome in that national newspapers and news stations are giving this event extended coverage and airtime. Ignatieff’s missteps on this issue are no bigger or worse than ones made by many of the other candidates during this campaign, and yet this is a story that seems unwilling to die. The Post’s coverage of the leadership debate focused mainly on the Rae-Ignatieff exchange about Qana, and the Globe had both a cover story about the debate (again focused on Ignatieff’s prickly response to Rae’s questions about the war crimes comment), and a column by Jeffrey Simpson about the attacks on Ignatieff by his rivals.
It is not as though the media has been loathe to criticize Ignatieff’s positions in the past, but we can safely say that there seemed to be an equitable amount of coverage of negatives in other leadership hopefuls’ campaigns as well. While some might argue that Ignatieff is getting so heavily criticized because he is the frontrunner, it is difficult to see how this can ultimately be a good thing for the man who believes he is destined to be the next leader of the Liberal Party. Whether the press lets up in the final weeks before the convention is yet to be seen, but we can only assume that Ignatieff will be a bit more careful when it comes to making such bold statements.