Time to start slapping some photographers

Hey, you! Yeah, you...the one complaining about how the Toronto-based left-leaning media is out to get Stephen Harper. Have a look at this. Feel stupid yet? You should.

No, not because Paul Martin says you don't like minorities. Nothing to do with that. I'm talking about the picture that the anti-Christ (that would be the CBC) used.

A picture tells a thousand words. And that is a picture of the PM looking old, tired, and defeated. Now, I won't deny he's probably looking like that a lot these days. But most of the freeze-frames at the media's disposal probably look a lot better than that one.

So why did the CBC go with the one where he looks like his dog just died? Simple. The storyline right now - the one that the Toronto-based left-leaning liberal media is pushing - is that Martin is a walking disaster area. And the way we're seeing that is mostly through images.

The folks who choose the photos that go in your paper, or the 10-second clips that go on TV - they're the ones who really tell the story about the campaign. If they wanted to help Martin, they'd be showing us images of him looking young and vigorous. Instead, those images (except for the infamous chicken wing shot) are going to Harper, at least to the extent that it's possible to make him look energetic.

I'm not saying there's an anti-Liberal bias. But there's no anti-Conservative bias, either, and there probably won't be this campaign. It wouldn't fit the storyline.