Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

FELDSTED: We have lost the diversity of media opinion through consolidation, and the concentration of media reporters, to a few multiple media outlets


Justin Trudeau Says Politicians Should Work On Their Social Media Skills -- He said some leaders are dividing people with technology.
Jordan Press  ~~  Canadian Press / Huff Post  ~~  11/12/2018

PARIS — Politicians working to harness the power of social media to connect with voters need to figure out how to do so positively in the face of leaders using those platforms to undermine democracy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.

Without mentioning anyone by name at an event in Paris on Monday morning, Trudeau suggested there are politicians who are trying to use platforms like Twitter to foster polarization and controversy in the electorate.

The medium is not without its benefits, Trudeau said, pointing to the ease of putting out a tweet of condolence or support being easier, more direct and resonating more with citizens than issuing a press statement carried by traditional media.

That same ease and directness that Trudeau said can be used to build confidence in government and democratic institutions can just as easily be used by politicians trying to "make you angry or make you divided or make you hate your neighbour" — pitting one kind of social media politician against the other.

CLICK HERE to read the full story  


Great advice – let’s move political discourse to social media sites where unfounded gossip, rumours and trolls posting fake news rule. That will ensure that the public is baffled by conflicting opinion, some truth sprinkled with innuendo and outright lies and no way to sort out facts from fiction.


In the meantime, media consolidation in Canada, through acquisitions by conglomerates has stifled fair and balanced news that is fact checked and accurate. Through consolidation we have lost rational diversity of opinion. The option of turning to social media is even worse than the opinionated pap we get through our newspapers and the TV now. 

Defending freedom of the press -- while allowing five conglomerates (Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw and Quebecor, in that order when ranked by income) to dominate (71.1%) of the telecom, media and internet industries in Canada -- is ridiculous.

Competition creates diversity of opinion and attention to accuracy.

Today, far too many articles in our media originate with the Canadian Press whose reporters send their stories to all major media owners.  From there we get the same unchecked, and unverified, pap from media outlets coast to coast.

Trudeau will never try to break up the media conglomerates – they could turn on him and destroy his chance of re-election.

That, in a nutshell, is the danger of media concentration and influence.


John Feldsted
Political Consultant & Strategist
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

GORDON F. D. WILSON: When The Trick Masquerades as The Treat

Thirty-seven years ago, Halloween 1987, I became the leader of the BC Liberal Party.   British Columbia was badly polarized. Social Credit held one side and the NDP the other. It had been twelve years, 1975, since Liberal MLAs Garde Gardom, Pat McGeer, and Alan Williams had walked away from their party to join Social Credit, one year after the lone Progressive Conservative MLA Hugh Curtis had abandoned his party to sit with Bill Bennett, the son and heir apparent to long-serving BC Premier, WAC Bennett.   An unwritten agreement by the biggest Canadian political shareholders, the federal Liberals and Conservatives, decided that if British Columbia was to remain a lucrative franchise from a revenue perspective, they couldn’t risk splitting the electoral vote and electing the real enemy, the NDP, so no resources would be used to finance either a Liberal or Conservative party provincially.   “There are two sides to every street,” I was told by a very prominent Canadian businessman who cont

FORSETH: You Have To Be A Bit Crazy

  Ward and his wife Carleen celebrating his win on election night.   In March of this year, I took on the role of Campaign Manager for BC Conservative candidate Ward Stamer.  It’s the third time I’ve had the opportunity as I took on the role for Peter Sharp in 2013, and for Dennis Giesbrecht in 2020. Now let me tell you, in the past, a BC Conservative campaign team generally consisted of myself, the candidate and one or two helpers – and very little in the way of a campaign budget. Thankfully, a benefit of having spent 30+ years in the broadcast media afforded me the ability to do ad copy and write candidate speeches, and prep both Dennis and Peter to deal with the media – it’s also something I have always enjoyed. That was part of my duties this time around as well, however having a team of a dozen and a half volunteers meant that for the first time we had people available to ID our supporters, put together and install campaign signs, distribute campaign literature, and help out at ou

FORSETH: As a BC Conservative member, and campaign worker, I will again state that the fact these errors were found -- AND brought to light BY Elections BC -- shows the system IS working

Sadly, two and a half weeks after the BC provincial election campaign, those who want to undermine our political process are still at.  PLUS, we also have one who doesn’t even live in our country, never mind our province. I speak of the buffoon running for President of the United States, who has poisoned the well when it comes to faith in the electoral process. Just today alone, comments such as the following, were being made of posts that I shared online: ... all the votes they keep finding has just favoured NDP on in all critical ridings and soon they will flip another riding in favour of NDP, Come on. ... Elections BC has ridiculed British Columbians, and I no longer have confidence or trust in their process and competence regarding the results Then there are others online, with comments like these – who are claiming fraud in the October 19th election: ... Who is the oversight for Elections BC? They should be investigated for election fraud! ... Fraudulent election ... should be red

Labels

Show more