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Just Report Balloon Trips Premier Asks by Barrie Zwicker
MONTREAL — A journalistic tendency to turn politicians' trial balloons into hard assertions was criticized by Saskatchewan premier Allan Blakeney at the national seminar on the press and the confederation debate. Blakeney did not use the phrase "trial balloon." He said politicians must "throw out ideas that are not palatable" to large segments of their electorates. "Trade unions based on linguistic grounds" was one idea among several he cited which he had raised publicly but which he did not personally endorse. Terming his suggestion "a narrow plea," Blakeney said it is unfair when a politician raising questions in public about courses of action is "reported as advocating" those courses of action. "My plea is for a fair amount of precision," the former Rhodes Scholar said.
Published in Content's SOURCES December 1977
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