Ottawa

Way to control the news agenda, Tory War Room!

Breaking! Must credit – oh, heck, let’s give this one to Ryan Sparrow, just for old time’s sake. Anyway, it seems that the now-swiftly-becoming-infamous-for-all-the-wrong-reasons notaleader.ca did not, in fact, seek permission to use footage from at least one network, and that network – TVO – is not amused:

For a journalistic enterprise like the Agenda, it is crucial that we maintain a neutral tone. We want to learn about the subjects we cover, not promote preconceived views on them. So to have clips from our show taken out of context and used for political attack ads (and with our logo visible in the background in one) damages that objectivity. And think about it: TVO is a government-run broadcaster. Our neutrality in elections is crucial.

The Conservatives should have known they would never be allowed to keep the clips up (or they just hoped no one would notice). TVO is demanding the clips be removed.

Kady O’Malley of Macleans was the first to ask us if those clips were from the Agenda and wanted to know whether the Conservatives had permission to use them. They had not. “TVO has not licensed our content for use by the CPC or any other political party,” says Dan Dunsky, the Agenda’s executive producer.

Y’all, it may be time to give the War Room Kids a collective time out in the Thinking About What You’ve Done room.

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