Private Media Barons - Election Fixers?

It appears more and more that the consortium that runs the media in this country will do anything it can to snuff out a moderate or left-leaning voice. It used to just be speculation - based on the vastly conservative ownership of media in this country... They used to cover it up well, by using populist rather than blatantly right wing appeals to their readership. They were good at dumbing down stories for the benefit of the beer and donuts crowd... and at the same time making it cool to be one of those people. You know who we're talking about. People who should be voting NDP or Green - maybe Liberal - but certainly NOT Conservative.

For a long time the media snuffed out any discerning voices with waves of populism, racial-profiling nationalism, and the deification of "Joe Average" - that non-existent dream of most right wing politicos. This week the private "old boy's club" went a little too far...

What the private media has done today is really the most undemocratic thing we've seen in this country for years. Keeping a legitimate national party leader out of the leadership debates is a disservice to the people of Canada. It is a shame. It is something that should well be remembered the next time the good guys have a chance to govern: do we allow more "deregulation/Americanization" of the media in Canada? The private media (Rogers, Shaw, BCE, Global, etc.) all have interests linked to American ownership, neoCon nationalist pastimes (like war, big oil, etc.), and conservatism in general.

It's a shame. It's time for Canadians to wake up and start fighting for what we believe in. Time to fight for our nation.