Mario was a gentle bear of a man, who loved his family, his work and his friends. Just a couple of weeks ago, we talked about what jobs we imagined ourselves doing at this age when we were in our 20s -- where did we dream of working? Mario, somewhat surprisingly to me, told me he'd wanted to be a filmmaker; he'd gone to school for that. But he somehow glided into the political communication business, working first for Quebec premier Robert Bourassa, then landing in the civil service, then becoming Paul Martin's first comms director when Martin landed as prime minister. Martin appointed Mario to the ambassador's spot in Costa Rica; then, after a stint in Switzerland with an environmental organization, he landed last fall as Ignatieff's communications director. He was doing a lovely job, as anyone on the summer tour would attest. And he loved the job. Maybe not the hours (14 a day during the week, 6 to 8 a day on weekends).

On Saturday night, we had dinner and drinks, as we often did on the road. We were in London, sitting on the outdoor terrace of the Ceeps, and Mario was talking, among other subjects, about the motorcycle he'd bought. I expressed my misgivings about motorcycles (I had a bad fall off one many years ago), but Mario assured me that he was a cautious driver. I'm sure he was.

He was a safe driver, so why did he die on his way to work?

Adrian MacNair summarized the battle between the Liberals and the media in the following terms:

Michael Ignatieff is the victim of a persistent media bias, according to Liberal party president Alfred Apps. In an 18-page analysis obtained exclusively by Victoria freelance journalist, Sean Holman, Mr. Apps suggests the media “increasingly appears to have lost all perspective on reality” in coverage of the federal Liberal Party.

He suggests much of the media, aided from within the ranks of the Liberal Party itself, has bought into the narrative that Mr.Ignatieff and Liberal electoral prospects under the leadership have all the “marks of being Tory/NDP-inspired.”

It’s a vast left and right-wing conspiracy, then? Intriguing. Mr. Apps also criticizes the “consensus” view from the Canadian press that Mr. Ignatieff is arrogant, aloof, and unable to connect with the ordinary Canadian. Liberal electoral fortunes slide every time the media propagates these untruths.

This is a rather sad, not to mention desperate, attempt to turn conventional wisdom on its head. It isn’t, as we perceive, Mr.Ignatieff’s hugely unpopular leadership that is to blame, but a collective delusion by society that can be attributed to media “Groupthink.” Worse still, not only is the general public being manipulated by the media, but the hapless media have bought into that “Tory/NDP” inspired propaganda against the Liberals and Mr. Ignatieff.

The Liberals have been alternately blaming the media and the Conservatives for hijacking their message since the days of Paul Martin. When Stephane Dion was overwhelmingly rebuked at the polls for his “green shift” idea, he blamed the Conservatives for distorting the Liberal message, and refused to admit Canadians just didn’t like the carbon tax.

Despite losing 26 seats, surpassing even the disastrous results of the 1984 election, the Liberals avoided taking personal responsibility for their inability to connect with Canadians. Instead they blamed the Conservative campaign machine, and constant negative advertising against them, including website attack ads that focused on Mr.Dion.

Mr. Apps penned his complaint following an article in the Toronto Star entitled “U of T offers Ignatieff Exit Plan.” Mr.Ignatieff and the Liberals denied the existence of any such prospect for the former Harvard Professor, with Mr. Apps writing that the story was rooted “entirely in rumour and spread by unattributed sources.”

It’s more than a little difficult to swallow the idea that the Toronto Star is out to get the Liberal Party. No newspaper has more faithfully supported one party over a longer period than the Star has the Liberals.

Mr. Apps writes that articles such as the one penned by Star columnist Jim Travers do not necessarily indicate a political bias, but a deficit of journalistic integrity both by the writer and by the editors who cleared it for print. Because journalists are trusted and taken seriously by the general public, this negative “spin” represents a serious impact in the “broader political ecosphere”.

I think the Liberal party president gives the media entirely too much credit for its ability to form and shape opinion. Certainly, there are cases where the media can misrepresent a subject, or blow it out of proportion to such an extent that it appears far more serious than the facts bear out. A perfect example would be the attention paid to the detainees story in Afghanistan, which despite the rivers of ink spilled, has yet to produce any confirmed evidence of torture.

Mr. Apps appears to believe Canadians are unable to discern “the truth” without the benefit of the Liberal party clearing up the distortions of their enemies. That sort of attitude is hardly unique. But the Liberal party’s problem is that it’s providing abundant material to validate the picture portrayed by the media. The media may build the fire, but it’s getting the wood from Alf Apps and his party.

The vast right wing conspiracy is responsible for getting Stephen Harper elected so it is safe to say that it is also responsible for murdering the gentle giant who was preparing to bury Stephen Harper's re-election prospects.

By the way, we don't credit the media with anything but THIS TYPICAL INCOMPETENCE.

The first rule of the professional, media savvy murderer is to create the appearance of a random death. Having focused on all the stories about Helena Guergis and how she is doing just "fine" after being involved in a car crash, the picture is repeatedly reinforced as we are repeatedly assured that the military police are investigating the accident.

The story about Mario Laguë is stone cold dead.

Is it supposed to be randomized through osmosis?