FELDSTED: Newspapers once dug out what governments were and were not doing, and shone a light into the dark corners of our legislatures and parliament

Watching Finance Minister Morneau and Prime Minister Trudeau congratulating one another over their $585 million subsidy to the media industry made me ill.  The usual suspects came forth denouncing the subsidy as an attempt to buy off the media.

 

The media in Canada had an income of over $80 billion in 2016.  $585 million is a drop in the ocean – less than 1% of income (0.73%). It is less than one half of what they pump into the CBC every year.

The five giants who dominate Canadian media (which does not include the CBC as its revenues are made up largely of taxpayer subsidies) fear that a government may break up their monopolies. The top five - Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw and Quebecor accounted for 71.1% of the $80 billion network media economy in 2016.  The media in Canada is vertically integrated. The same owners control newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV stations, internet, cable and wireless services.

When Sun News tried to break into the market, it could not access cable bandwidth and died from lack of access to customers. Some media owners refused to run the Sun broadcasts on their networks. So much for free enterprise and freedom of the press.

Media consolidation has resulted in editorial and journalism consolidation. Network owners set the tone for its newsroom editors. The editors decide on copy and content for most, if not all, of the outlets in the network – newspapers, magazines, radio stations and TV outlets.

For practical purposes independent journalism and a free press is dead.

I had a good look at my Sunday edition of the local paper. Excluding the sports section, six articles originated with the Associated press, four were from the Washington Post, three were from the Canadian Press and one each from the L.A. Times and Miami Herald.

Associated Press (US), Canadian Press and Reuters are newswires owned by the media giants. They cover stories and send content to all subscribers. News outlets tack on their headline and print. You may see different headlines in various papers, but the content is the same.

We are being fed a steady diet of pap, much of it originating in the USA, because the Canadian media has cut its editors and journalists to a bare minimum and it is far cheaper to pick a story from a news wire service or US paper and reprint than to develop news stories with Canadian content.  It is troubling, as our media has a major impact on our society.

We have seen hours of TV coverage of the wildfires in California; how important is that to Canadians? Weekly updates might be justified, but I suspect it is really air time ‘filler’ for their broadcasts.

Our media covers a lot of US shootings … far too many … which builds a perception that we are more vulnerable than we really are. We have our own problems with violence and shootings, but our media should be focused on those and demanding to know what steps are being taken to stem the tide of killed and injured. That is the journalism and press freedom we are missing.

Newspapers were once feared by politicians. They dug out what governments were and were not doing and shone a light into the dark corners of our legislatures and parliament. The public was not fooled by government press releases and two-minute television announcements. We knew what was going on. We must recreate press freedom and that includes freedom from control by media giants.

We need to break up the media conglomerates (including the CBC) and not allow more than 15% ownership of media outlets in any market. The CBC would be sold off in the mix and the subsidies it gets redirected to help small town and rural outlets compete with urban rivals. Thousand of local papers have been swallowed up by the giants and we must revive and renew those that are left.

News editors are a unique breed who ensure content they print is accurate and fair. Journalists are professionals with standards. Far too many have lost their position to consolidation. We need them back to rebuild a truly free press in Canada.

John Feldsted 
Political Consultant & Strategist 
Winnipeg, Manitoba

FOOTNOTE:
I recently did two similar posts on this topic.  If you have not read them yet, check out:

https://acuriouslookatpoliticsinbc.blogspot.com/2018/11/if-media-is-going-to-survive-as-true.html

https://acuriouslookatpoliticsinbc.blogspot.com/2018/11/forseth-im-old-curmudgeon-of-63.html