"is the Media a Bully" by Gerry Nicholls

The article "Is the Media a Bully" by Gerry Nicholls which was published on the Canada Free press on April 29, 2013, claims that the media is not innocent or morally good when it comes to criticizing politician maleness or looks. His article contains many examples of the use of connotation for the purposes of supporting his thesis which is that, when it comes to politicians the media portrays then in an unfair way. His article also drags attention to many flaws on how the media can influence people into believing unrealistic ideas such as stereotyping politician, and how they can be biased in how they want the public to portray certain politicians they like from those they do not like.

Although the author presents many examples of current news to prove his point about how the media has been negative towards politicians, however, I will argued that his argument is only focuses on one side of the story. He does not present or acknowledge the media having some truth to their claims. For instance, he mentions on his article that, recently a campaign by the Conservative party was intended to "plant doubts in the minds of voters about Trudeau's manliness". I believe Nicholls is accusing the media of the way conservative portrays Trudeau which the media has nothing to do with, that is how the conservative party wants the public to view him. Trudeau is very young and handsome and it is no doubt that his looks enhance his popularity.

At the end of Nicholls' article, he made a statement that the media is always prepared to stimulate a person if it fits their needs. He first used Trudeau as an example, referring to recent boxing match between him and Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau that he won and how he was portrayed as a "star" not because of "his policy ideas" but for "his toughness", "his material appearance", and " his talent with his fists". To prove his statement Nicholls has several examples in his article. He talked about how Toronto Mayer Rob Ford was made fun of because of his weight, due to a recent video on "The Toronto Star website" "of a woman laughing at Rob Ford as he ordered meal at KFC restaurant". I do not believe the media is at fault for presenting this; after all it was not them that made fun of Ford, but the lady that saw him order the food.

One area I agree with Nichollos' article is that media can be at times biased to a person they like. For instance, I read a recent article about a video that was posted on the internet showing Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. The source of the video was unknown; the Mayor later responded that the video of him smoking crack does not exist. Coun Dough Ford brother of the Mayor also said that the video could have come from formal employees who are trying to tarnish the mayor's image. The