CanWest Global Communications is creating an era of unprecedented global media consolidation in Canada. For example, in Vancouver, it owns both daily papers (the Sun and Province), Victoria's Times Colonist, Global TV, 12 community newspapers, 8 TV stations and 1 national paper, which supposedly makes Vancouver into the single-most media concentrated city in the west. Canwest owns 70% of the media in Vancouver-how is this not a monopoly?.  A recent report by Sean Condon stated that reporters who talked out against CanWest and their corporate policies towards reporting would find they could not work anywhere in the Vancouver area b/c they did not "tow the company line".

CanWest now owns 13 daily newspapers in areas where their only competition is tabloids. Canwest is being accused of using these newspapers to manipulate content to push a single point of view. Condon argues that CanWest had put forth a one-sided view on Canada's role in Afganistan, where the editorals back the country's military intervention, but pay little attention to the mounting civilan casualties and ongoing human rights violations.

In the case of the Sun, CanWest tried to implement a national editorial and demanded its papers not to run any editorial that held views opposed  their "core positions"- which primarily focused on lowering taxes and supporting Israel in the Middle East. Angered, the Montreal Gazette withheld thier bylines and caused a controversy the resulted in CanWest droping the policy. However, it sends a clear message that independence in the newsrooms is vanishing.

CanWest is right winged and corporately biased and has run "reports" on companies/products that are basically paid advertising written to look like an article praising the virtues of X company/product. The bottom line is more important to them than public trust.

Currently, 4 corporations own 77% of Canadian media (nationally). A 2006 Senate committee on media concentration released a report stating" the concentration of ownership has reached levesl that few other countries would consider acceptable" and recommended that large mergers be publicly reviewed, it was outright dismissed by Heritage Minister Bev Oda, who argued that "convergence has become essential business strategy in order to stay competitive" No Canadian government has ever tried to stop consolidation which is a danger to democracy...how else would it people hostage?

This is a very serious issue.  "The News" as a concept is the way we as every day citizens get to see what's happening in the world.  When we're only given information that supports someone else's agenda, that's pretty close to the situation we free westerners judge China and Russia for.  As long as companies continue to make political contributions (either on or off the books) I expect the government won't intercede.

You see this in other countries notably the US with Rupert Murdoch's media empire.  What is left then is the sites on the internet, but with net neutrality at risk... where else would one go?

valid point, but who would want to see western democracy reduced futher into an illusion?

If you would prefer illusion to reality, then there's no hope for democracy.

I don't think that this is really a new problem, it's just getting worse.  There is no real neutrality on the internet news feed, because those authors get their information from the same sources as the rest of the journalists (unless they happen to be one of the few who actually travel to the source of the story, be it Iraq or Parliament Hill).  I think most of the news stories we read have their source in either Reuters or Associated Press.  I've lamented for years the fact that the opinions of the public are based on the perceptions that the media wants them to have.

There are few sites, which I have logged onto in the recent past, which do not rely on either reuters or associated press.  These sites rely on a whole host of journalists from around the world.  

Quoted from Hawkeye

If you would prefer illusion to reality, then there's no hope for democracy.

Don't prefer illusion to democracy. But you could hardly argue that CAN today is truly democratic when the Prime Minister of Canada prevents normal media coverage of parliamentary activities; threatens journalists with jail time for reporting his activities; allows his party to publish a book on how to prevent democratic process from occurring; reduces the rights of CAN women; hires an USA soldier to command the CAN armed forces...and the list goes on....


Maybe modern democracy is not the utopia, our ancestors once thought it would be...maybe it is time for a new system.

I would like to take this opportunity to nominate myself for the position of supreme commander and overlord.  

...Of what? The city dump? Rosie's feces?

I was thinking the world, but i think I need some more time to campaign.  An believe me, nothing can master Rosie's feces; it's too prolific!

Interesting how the big players in the canadian media are saying they can't compete if they can't merge.  They want to tackle the big boys like Rupert Murdock and fox.  I don't know, but quality of reporting as a result of cost cutting is going down into the shitter.

Quoted from danmick

I would like to take this opportunity to nominate myself for the position of supreme commander and overlord.  

lol-sure why not!

I find the whole corporate agrument that "we cannot compete unless we merge" rather obsurd...if you keep merging eventually there is no one to compete with; it will be a monopoly...hmmmm no competition there...let me guess what is next..fix the prices so that they can make more and more profit now that we have a captive comsumer group...


I was reading an article about the American elections and how candidates paid Google to have their websites appear when people search for unrelated words on the web to give their sites greater access to the population. Anyone want to hazard a guess at what words were bought and by whom?

Also, the article gave the impression that the real power in the USA is not the government but the media outlets who get chose whos campaign ads and at what cost these ads will be run.

I would say 'penile implants' were used by Hillory Clinton's web page...

Back on the topic of Journalism, here's a long (but interesting) article by a former Dateline correspondent about how the News industry has lost it's way.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19845/

I read the article and, yes, that seems to sum up american media to a tee... do not ask the hard questions, do not bring anything shady to light, and above all else, never miss the emotional centre of the day.  No wonder corruption seems so rampant in the states and here as well, without journalists who delve into the deeper more complex issues all we are left with is reporters who merely report on events, not the backstories...