media conglomerates and the formation of public opinion

[raedyn]

One media conglomerate – CanWest Global – controls the flow of information about world events to a good chunk of Canadians. And they shamelessly use their stranglehold to push their own agendas and ideologies. The company (and, more to the point, the family that owns it) are relentlessly anti-public ownership, pro-Liberal Party, pro-Israel, pro-private health-care, and they make sure their papers and their TV stations support these stances. They even run "national editorials" which all the chain’s papers are required to run – and the editors have been instructed not to carry columns or letters to the editor taking issue with these editorials.

The list of audacious & questionable policies/practices is impressive:

• editing Reuters and Associated Press stories to say ‘terrorist’ Palestinians instead of ‘militant’ or ‘insurgent’
• editorials referring to the "barabric Arab Middle East" and saying "Islam is at fault for blowing up civilians, including women and children … [Islam] is the new evil empire."
• reporters have been disciplined and dismissed for writing stories contrary to the ideologies of the family that owns the chain – there are many many examples of this
• a leaked internal memo instructing their papers & their TV stations to give favourable reviews to books they publish
• changing stories to suit the preferences of the owners. Example: reporter for my city’s only daily newpaper (owned by CanWest) wrote a story that initially read: "CanWest Global performed ‘chilling’ acts of censorship when it refused to publish columns containing viewpoints other than those held by the media empire, a Toronto Star columnist said Monday." The story ran like this: "A Toronto Star columnist says it’s OK for CanWest Global to publish its owners’ views, as long as the company is prepared to give equal play to opposing opinions" Hmmm… Did they change the message? YaTHINK?
• The CEO distainfully calls journalists "Marxists", and the executive vice-president calls them "bleeding hearts" and "riff raff".
• The company would not run this story by aboriginal journalist Doug Cuthand because it was "historically inaccurate" and too anti-Israel. Read it for yourself. You decide.

In response to these and other incidents, the International Federation of Journalists has condmned CanWest for "corporate censorship and victimisation of journalists who are trying to defend professional standards".

CanWest’s assets include

• Canada’s 2nd biggest private TV network – reaching the homes of more than 90% of Canadians
• 1 of the 2 daily national newspapers
• 14 metropolitan dailies in every major Canadian city except Toronto and Winnipeg – and in 4 of these centers they are the only game in town
• 126 smaller papers from coast to coast
• canada.com Canada’s 2nd most popular internet portal
• a new book publishing company
• numerous specialty cable TV channels & production companies
• several radio stations

Much more complete and coherent coverage of this here

Recommended reading: yourmedia.ca

This particular conglomerate’s missteps are well-documented IF you know where to look. What are the rest of them doing that we don’t know about?

To my eyes, the people of a democratic nation look towards their media to help them get information to form ideas about the world for themselves. The content (or lack of content) can significantly impact public opinion. There's information and there's disinformation. When a news-delivering company admits - behind closed doors - that it has preferences and biases but publicly puts on a face of serious journalism... doesn't that have an impact on the democratic process? Don't the people have a right to know what your motives are and why?

Maybe I'm just a screaming idealist. *shrugs* Who knows. But learning about these situations does bother me. And I know a lot of other people don't have a clue. How do I educate my fellow citizens about the slant they are getting their news through? Should I even try? Where do concerned citizens turn for information that is not filtered in this way?

To the Canadians on the board – did you know this stuff? Do you care?