Warren has a great post (and links) about the downfall of Canadian media over at his blog. He points to an article by John Honderich which talks about the quality of discourse and the challenges to democracy.
I would go a step further and add that the concentration of media in a few hands is fundamentally undemocratic. Smaller cities in "newer Canada" - the West in particular - suffer from a form of groupthink related to limited media diversity. The major dailies are owned by CanWest Global. The TV programming that most watch (US sit-coms and action shows/drama) is piped in via the Canadian versions of Fox (Global, etc.). The slant is distinctly conservative (small c).
While funding is an issue for papers, it is the almighty dollar pursuit which is killing journalism. The bottom line is more important that good journalism (or journalism at all, judging by the number of "info-torials" in papers these days). Few journalists are free to "investigate" anything that goes against the "general frame of thought" of their editors.
Freedom of the press is fleeting in this country, and is a sick beast about to be put down by an ignorant public.
3 comments:
On the flip side...I think it is increasing visitor rates to blogs unaffiliated with MSM.
The downfall of journalism (at least in Canada) began when the participants stopped being journalists and started to become media celebrates and pundits. At that point, they no longer were interested in the facts; they became advocates for their position and began to manipulate events to fit their purposes. Even when there is money available, as with the CBC, their sole purpose is to advance their agenda by only investigating one group and only producing reports that fit their agenda. It isn't money (or lack thereof) that is destroying free speech; it is the single, university indoctrinated, world view alont with the acceptance by peers, that agenda driven, partisan reporting is acceptable. Journalists know how blinkered and partisan their colleagues are but willingly stand aside while trust in and reliability of the media deteriorates. If you want to build a solid temple of free speech and free press, you can't do it on a crumbling foundation of poor quality journalism.
"the quality of discourse"
prior to Harper & his gang, I can't think of anyone, who made a bigger contribution to lowering the quality of discourse in this country,
than your friend Warren
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