Stacking the Deck? One Man's Opinion

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 03:45 AM

While these are only allegations and must be veiwed as such, it was interesting to see the court hear about what we have all suspected for many years and that is, the politicans have been trying to set up the talk show hosts with “planted calls” on behalf of government.

I suspected that was happening during the fight over the sale of BC Rail and this week in Supreme Court, Kevin McCullough, the lawyer for Bob Virk and David Basi (two former government Ministerial aides) raised the issue.

Keep in mind these are only, at this point allegations, but a reporter for The Tyee, Bill Tieleman has been writing the story day in and day out . He has done a commedable job of a story that wouldn’t have reached the light of day without him.

Here, is a portion of Tielman’s report which includes some of those allegations as made by McCullough:

That in discussing stacking radio show phone calls, David Basi tells Mike McDonald that "it wasn't him making the call but confesses that it was Jag making the call -- Dave was at home. Dave say 'Don't use Jag or Jerri on Meisner as they have distinctive voices. Sheila is a white girl who also makes fake calls.

That although there was no discussion in court as to who these parties are, Ben Meisner was at the time a Prince George radio talk show host, while Jag Bains was a Young Liberal introduced in the legislature by Gary Collins in March 2001, along with Aneal Basi, the former government communications aide who is also now charged with breach of trust.

This possible revelation comes as no surprise to me given that during the NDP reign it was Glen Clark , who I believe orchestrated from his office a number of calls of a similar nature. I was also told there was, at one time, someone doing a psychological profile of me, to see how I could be “handled”.

It was a problem in doing a talk show to try and weed out the fake calls from the people you really wanted to hear from.

Would the politicians try to stack the deck today? Of course they would. Nothing has changed, just the colour of the signs.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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Posted on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: heidi1555 on April 25 2007 8:45 AM

If everyone was honest and not corrupt they wouldn't have to worry about a way to handle you :) Must feel like you have an invader in your home type thing and makes me think who on your site posting comments is doing the "fake calls" now??? Anyway, you keep doing what you're doing the way you do it. The gut never lies. We need more people like you Mr. Meisner. Love ya!!!

Posted by: Jimmi on April 25 2007 9:22 AM

No wonder kids drink and drive in stolen cars with role models like these in office...

Posted by: Gofaster on April 25 2007 9:47 AM

Believe none of what you hear,
and only half of what you see,
ad even that half should be viewed with caution.

I consider politicians as half-truthers, what they say is always twisted just enough to suit their purposes,probably a lot of what they say would be considered half truths, if such a thing exists...mostly non-truths....

to the politicians ....if the shoe fits????

my humble opinion in any event...

Posted by: Harbinger on April 25 2007 10:34 AM

Still wouldn't vote NDP again. Learned my lesson. Still paying for it too.

Posted by: BillTieleman on April 25 2007 10:58 AM

Thanks for your kind comments about my writing on the Basi-Virk case at The Tyee and 24 hours newspaper Ben! Much appreciated and if your readers want to see all recent articles and more they can visit my website at: http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/

But I have to say that when I was Glen Clark's Communications Director in 1996 there was absolutely no way that paid callers were coordinated by me or my staff nor were paid phony protestors used, as has been alleged in BC Supreme Court about the BC Liberals.

I would also note, and you would remember, that every time political staff or politicians have been caught doing these type of dirty tricks they have lost their jobs and rightly so.

The Socreds in 1979 fired or forced to resign staff who counselled and wrote phony letters to the editor.

Paul Reitsma, the Liberal MLA who wrote letters to the editor under a fake name resigned to avoid being recalled.

And Prem Vinning resigned his job in Premier Gordon Campbell's office as a special advisor for making phony calls to a radio station.

Thanks Ben - Bill Tieleman

Posted by: Chadermando on April 25 2007 11:24 AM

I think the much more serious allegation is that David Basi received funds from a lobbyist that was received by his sister so as to avoid the conflict of interest involving the BC Rail sale.

Clearly that is a red flag that our government is being bought and paid for by those who wish to buy policy or public assets. Clearly this was A-OK with the premiers office. All they have to do is make payment through a third party, possibly off-shore, and then presto-what ever you want name the price.

I feel this not only happened with the sell off of BC Rail assets, but also in regards to the Kemano water rights, various mining interests, fish farm licenses and many other cases that take from the public interest for private gains.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on April 25 2007 12:54 PM

I think this goes much deeper than what we are seeing.I am also suprised that there has not been more dialogue coming from Gordon(2 martini's)Campbell on the entire Basi/Virk affair.
As Premier,Campbell has an obligation to pay attention to what is going on in his office.How could he NOT know what was happening with the B.C.Rail bid? he still has never explained that part.Much more digging needed here!
And my bet is that the Basi/Virk case will get turfed out of court and the charges dropped.If that happens,then something is just plain stinky!
I think fake callers to talk shows and letter writers to news papers have been an ongoing issue.A great way to manipulate the media and control what is said and printed to some extent, if you can get away with it.Fortunately they do get caught sometimes.

Posted by: mgeoghegan on April 26 2007 1:24 PM

The NDP website clearly shows what NDP Party employees are telling people to do. The point being, what the Liberal party was doing is essentially no different.

The NDP are asking their callers to use a script eg "With a phone-in show, be ready before you dial; write out your main point in 15 words or less, and be ready to tell it to the producer who answers your call."

There is much more to the NDP Party campaign to manipulate the media. Here is the link. http://getinvolved-speakout.bcndp.ca/

So the NDP can protest all they want but the fact is that stacking the phone lines is something that ALL political parties do.

Posted by: diplomat on April 27 2007 4:01 PM

During the recall campaign(s) in the 1990's it was noted by a few observers that many anti-recall letters to the editors of newspapers in B.C. were word-for-word copies of NDP party suggested/supplied form letters to be used by writers.

Nothing new under the sun, it seems. That's how politics are done in Lotus Land. Nobody has exclusive rights to indignant claims of innocence.

Not even the NDP.