Another media guy says "Harper winning media war"

From Larry Zolf, regular (but officialy "retired") contributor to the CBC. He says that Stephen Harper is winning the "war on the media".

In this war with the media, no one is talking about the excellent use Harper is making of television. In his dealings on TV, Harper looks calm, cool and collected. He looks good on the House staircase facing the media, like Brian Mulroney used to do, and excels on TV when he uses the podium to deliver messages to the public.

On TV, Harper is the lone gunslinger, and the opposition critics and the media are mere bit players.

On CBC and on CTV, just about every word Harper says goes on air. He serves the TV networks wisely and well.

Harper is winning his war with the media because the media is hated by the public. Harper is loved by the public, so he is on top of the fold.

The media war has been a total Harper victory. The media will have to learn to play by Harper’s rules or they won’t be in the great game at all.

Comments? Thoughts?

I don't know if I 100% agree with the analysis, but I think it's fairly accurate. When the "war" was declared, I was expecting to hear fewer sound bytes and see less in print. I've seen just as much coverage as before. But the main problem I see is, come election time, all the print reporters, who have been burned by Mr. Harper, won't be printing much pro Tory news. So, in that aspect, I don't know if the war can be considered as "having been won".

Often, something that appears on the front page in print in the morning can spur the 6 o'clock news cycle... in essence, the media making the news. Thus, if you're seeing tons of negative headlines on the front pages during the campaign, guess what the evening news will be commenting on? Often, they'll end up covering peoples reactions to what appeared in the morning paper. So, we may end up having negative news stories on both the front and back-end of the news. And during an election campaign, that's not a good thing.

If that's the case, history may judge Mr. Harper as having won the first battle, but ultimately losing the war... and 24 Sussex in the process. I certainly hope that this is an occasion where I'm wrong.