Saturday, December 15, 2007

Canadian Media: Who Owns What? The BIG THREE



The problem with intense concentration in the media, such as today’s big monolithic and homogenious three, is that these monopoLIES start cranking out lousy products like the Big Three in Detroit. Consumers are the first to suffer, followed by the standards and employment opportunities of those who work in the industry and inevitably the whole industry itself is in jeopardy, since the industry ceases to have ongoing reasons to exist, particularly in light of the internet as it pertains to media.

I think the media scene in Canada today is at the equivalent stage of devolution as Detroit was in the 70’s, where consumers had the choice of owning a pimp mobile like a Chrysler LeBaron Opera Edition with Rich Corinthian Leather, or alternatively a smog legal Chevrolet Corvette that was perfect for the local Saturday Night Fever shoe salesman that cranked out a whopping 142 horsepower.

Investigative journalism in Canada is virtually dead

Simply look at the media’s ready acceptance of 18 pages of blacked out documents as satisfactory evidence to support a $35 billion loss. Who cares, it’s only our parent’s and grandparent’s money that’s being ripped off? Almost reminds a person of the Mulroney era, doesn’t it? However, unlike the Stephen Harper regime of today, Mulroney had sufficient empathy and/or political savvy towards the elderly to have famously reversed his position on pension indexing when confronted by an elderly woman seeking redress in a public encounter with the Chin. I guess these pesky senior people are now out of sight and out of mind with the big three, who are more preoccupied with severely limiting senior’s investment alternatives to those products that can be sold via paid advertising in the print and broadcast media, like the ubiquitous Income Plus by Manulife, as opposed to the latest income trust offering whose issuer and underwriters are precluded by law from advertising. Meanwhile the “media buy” of people like Manulife and Power Corporation’s Investment Planning Council is overwhelming the advocacy work done by token seniors advocacy groups like CARP, which have simply devolved into marketing portals to the consumer needs and habits of the growing demographic known as seniors or “50PLus”.

Quite pathetic indeed on all accounts, the extent to which money corrupts Canada’s democracy and the rights of its citizenry. Brian Mulroney is presently giving us a speed course in that reality. Who knows, maybe 14 years from now, we’ll finally learn that Mark Carmey was actually cooking the government’s books to fabricate the impression of tax leakage, since that appears to be the glacial speed at which today’s journalists operate, despite the internet and the abundance of irrefutable evidence that lays bear this complete falsehood, for any one brave enough to acknowledge it in the here and now:

Canadian Media: Who Owns What? The BIG THREE:

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Has the Canadian media gone down the same road as the U.S media. So very little real investigation in what is happening in our country. The media did very little on the Income Trusts other than report what happened on Oct. 31 2006...Halloween. I know some tried to get the report that was blacked out buy why did they not try to go further.

Anonymous said...

We need to take a page from the farmer`s battle to hold onto the Canada wheat board.

Harper wanted to dismantle this farmer`s group saying that it`s demise would result in higher grain prices , when farmer`s knew the opposite would be true.

Lower prices would certainly have been a good thing for Harper`s buddy Brian Mulroney & His association with ADM.

Harper did not count on the farmer`s will to fight--they took the gov`t to court & won.

This was quite an accomplishment for the little guy.

However , I do not recall ever hearing much about the story in the media.

This was another "slide by" attempt at policy implementation by this gov`t--they seem to be able to slide this & that by the media without them noticing--or if they did , they were instructed to downplay the story.

What has happened to the media outlets in this country--at one time , we could count on them being a watchdog on all things government.

Now they just watch.

Anonymous said...

A Globe editorial some time ago supporting the Income Trust policy angered me so much that I considered cancelling my subscription .. but what are my alternatives .. the Toronto Sun .. the Star?

Like WMD .. if you hear it often enough you believe it .. so let's keep up the chant .. $35 billion lost .. $35 billion lost

Anonymous said...

For the most part, and especially when it comes to political matters, the Canadian media has devolved into simply reporting and allowing "he said-she said" statements. Little, if any, discerning questioning or challenging goes on, let alone time and effort being spent on actual fact and evidence finding.

And yes, much like Fox News in the U.S., it does appear that some media organizations have become quite partisan. One need only watch some of the Mike Duffy Live program on CTV NewsNet to get a sense of this.

As for the Globe And Mail, last year I didn't renew my subscription.

Others may also wish to take this approach.