I was sifting through the Saturday edition of the Leader-Post last night. I don’t actually subscribe to the newspaper, but was availing myself of the office copy. On page D8 I came across this commentary by the National Post’s “Stephen Maker”. It’s in the range of 1000 words, and the ENTIRE article is about how the federal Conservatives, via ties Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other party heavyweights have with the Alberta oil industry, are overly focused on promoting that industry to the detriment of other sectors of the economy, the environment and the general well-being of Canadians.
Here’s the opening paragraph:
You don’t have to fit yourself out for a tinfoil hat to convince yourself that the federal Conservatives are taking their marching orders from the oil industry.
Yet if you check the above link, you’ll see that the headline chosen to encapsulate the article is “Federal Environment Policy May Hinder Oilpatch”.
The headline in no way, shape or form reflects any aspect of the article. In fact, Maker (actually, it’s columnist Stephen Maher) even makes the point that some oil industry players are uncomfortable with the zeal Harperites have shown in dismantling environmental regulations, shutting down research projects that monitor our air and water quality, and just generally denying the validity of any argument by First Nations, environmentalists, renewable energy advocates and others against the wholesale exploitation of oil and other carbon-based energy sources.
I don’t know, maybe the headline writer was playing an early April Fool’s Day joke. Otherwise, I’d be forced to conclude that the Postmedia chain was also in the pocket of the oil industry. And that couldn’t possibly be true.