Admitting you have a problem, is the first step to recovery
In Lawrence Martin's article in today’s Globe and Mail, he says that if there had been "more journalistic inquiry", the electorate may have been "startled" by the depths of the efforts of Harper to put a 'stranglehold" on the Canadian political system.
Seems to me journalistic inquiry is not something we have to worry about with the Canadian media.......where, for example, “tax leakage” is a given, and investigative journalism is not. Another example where Harper put on a “stranglehold”. In this case the Canadian capital markets by arbitrarily limiting investor’s freedom of choice. That may have been a great outcome for those who lobbied for these measures (ie , BCE’s Michael Sabia, Gwyn Morgan and the Life company CEOs), but it corrupted our democratic system, destroyed $35 billion of Canadians’ savings and put $7.5 billion in annual tax revenue at risk.
I close with the words of Carol Goar of the Toronto Star, who is one breath says:
““Then there was the income trust fiasco. Harper's contradictory signals left investors reeling and seniors clutching shrunken nest eggs.”
And in another states:
“I didn't explore the possibility that [Flaherty] was lying [about tax leakage]. Perhaps I should have.”
Having made the first step to recovery, the second step would be to actually do something about it.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Canada's mediocre media
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7 comments:
"More journalistic inquiry"??????
I would settle for "some".
Waiting for the fog to clear from the journalists` inquiring minds has left many of us speechless wondering where the hell they went.
There is no excuse for this inadequacy.
The people of this country rely on the media to keep us informed as to what the devil is really going on.
Maybe you guys need to seek out the possibility of putting "investigative" back into the equation.
Dr Mike Popovich.
remember the context. Thanks to down-sizing and building media empires, most newspapers are operating with 30-50% fewer reporters than they used to have. They operate in a web of inter-locking corporate concentration of ownership. CTV and Globe and Mail are owned by the same corporation. One of the victims of this trend has been "journalistic inquiry."
Elizabeth May
Elizabeth:
You are absolutely correct. Our media is FAR TOO concentrated. As witnessed by the media cabal who thought they could preclude you from the Leaders’ debates? Another pathetic exercise in blind capitulation by the media to Harper (and exploited by opportunistic Jack Layton).
Ironically enough, the income trust model was being embraced by newspapers as a form of ownership that permitted stand-alone ownership of media outlets. This is what spooked the Toronto Star owned by Torstar. Their editors were apoplectic at the thought of becoming an income trust, since conversion of Torstar to a trust would have meant abandoning Torstar’s voting/non-voting share structure which is how the Honderich/Atkinson et al families exercise voting control over a company in which they only have a sliver of economic ownership. This voting/non-voting structure is how the so called editorial freedoms of the Atkinson Principles are assured the editors of the Toronto Star. This Atkinson dude must be rolling in his grave, if he knew how the preservation of his principles were being totally abused by toady’s Toronto Star’s editors, to ensure these principles’ ongoing survival? As I have pointed out many times in the past......”what price editorial freedom”?
Pox on the press. It looks like the politicians of the day, are now burdened with doing the press’s job for them. Just think of that as another iteration in newsroom “downsizing”. They are making themselves truly obsolete. Much like buggy whips.
Brent Fullard
The Canadian media has committed the sin of an evil brother.
A major reason that Harper has suffered political psychosis is that the media helped induce the condition in his mind. He's done some very weird things--especially running the 2008 campaign under armed guard before invited audiences only--but the media said nothing. They have investigated nothing.
Steve 'Blinky' Harper deluded himself into believing that he is the Golden-boy of a New Age Canada, Well he had a lot help from the media in his delusion.
Did you ever hear the story of Alcibiades? He was another failed Golden-boy.
If Harper was to resign this week, would that be enough to let the CPC continue?
Not me for me. First Harper would have to resign his seat, and post a $1 million bond to not run for any elected office for 10 years (a la an OSC order). And he'd have to take some liars with him. Flaherty for sure. Clement too.
Take what the "objective" media says with a grain of salt... The media is indeed far too concentrated in Canada. We need to limit collusion and concentration. This has to be the role of the CRTC. That means limiting buy-outs, and deals that allow media groups to divvy up territories in Canada.
I would be careful about their recently found "religion of truth". What they're really saying is, "now that the Conservatives are out of power, we'll be sure to apply full investigative 'journalism' to the new coalition government"
Just heard the news about Mr. Dion, PM. Yowzer... who'd have thunk?
This is a news story of the century and the Canadian media just don't get it.
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