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July 12, 2006: More media concentration:
Bell Globemedia to take over CHUM in deal valued at $1.7 billion
A report on the Media - Cannabis and Canada: Year 2002 in Review
Report of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs: Chapter 10 Canadians' Opinions and Attitudes THE MEDIA Mainstream Media: The Drug War Shills Everything you need to know about mainstream media's vital role in perpetuating our (U.S.) nation's three-decade, trillion dollar War on Drugs despite overwhelming evidence that it is a fraud you can learn by watching a Three Card Monty Operation. The Masses vs. The Media - A Narco News Special The media plays a very influential role in aiding governments to shape policy and that holds very true for drug policy. It is known that as far back as the 1920's, articles in Macleans magazine written by Emily Murphy , that became the basis for her book, "The Black Candle", played a key role in Canadian drug legislation. Dissenters seem to be losing their voice in the media, and the call for free and responsible media is sought by the public, science, journalists and non-government organizations (NGO) who are alarmed by these developments. Linking together the current trends relating to the media and how they affect the overall picture, gives us a better idea of where things stand and where they are going. Those who feel abandoned by the media, business and politicians know the internet is the last white hope and bastion for free speech for the average citizen. (Not if everyone has their way though).
Pubdate: Feb 2, 2002 Dare to change The American public supports a tough stance on drugs, even though it doesn't work. The only way things can change is if the media start confronting some unpalatable facts, says Maia Szalavitz [ snipped ] So here's an appeal to American reporters: start to confront your biases and those of your audience, and make the effort to understand the science. Dare to follow the data, not the crowd. As in the US, where "Wall Street has carved up the dial", there are clear signs that media policy, like so much other policy in recent years - infrastructure, privatisations - will be driven by brokers and merchant bankers. This has infected the media itself. Newspaper journalists wanting informed comment on the media now turn to investment analysts rather than to media watchers in the universities or anywhere else outside the money markets. To the media itself, the media is no longer the Fourth Estate but a stockmarket play. That is ominous. Investment analysts and merchant bankers want takeovers and corporate consolidations, not the development of new products. There are no fees in new products. The big story for the media is not the water bombs and cream puffs being thrown at each other by think tanks and poseurs of the Left and Right but the increasing power of impenetrable bureaucracies and cynical governments. There's some protection in numbers. Governments are more likely to be challenged when there are more media owners and more media products than when there are less. That's the main reason for resisting any more concentration of media ownership. "The Sydney Morning Herald", Saturday, 2 February 2002
OPINION But it has a much more intricate relationship with big business. Today's news media are themselves frequently a part of large, often global corporations dependent on advertising revenue that, increasingly, comes from other large corporations. As public companies themselves, the news media are under the same kind of pressure to create "shareholder value," by reducing costs and increasing earnings, as are other public companies. And they face numerous potential conflicts of interest as they grow larger and more diversified. Russ Lewis, The New York Times Co. In The Washington Post, Wed. January 30, 2002; Page A23 Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 11:49:01 -0800 A call has been issued for a national boycott of CanWest Global (TV) and Southam media outlets following weeks of what has been described as "a troubling pattern of interference and censorship" at Southam newspapers. CanWest Global and Southam are owned by the Asper family of Winnipeg. Southam owns over 120 papers nationally, among them the Halifax Daily News, St. John's Telegram, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Windsor Star, St. Catharines Standard, Regina Leader Post, Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Vancouver Sun, Victoria Times-Colonist. The pattern of editorial interference and censorship has included forcing columnists to rewrite columns to reflect Southam head office ideological committments to engineer what they call a "national consensus", no doubt to serve corporate interests and the enhancement of corporate power in Western Canada and across the country. It has included censoring columns by Saskatchewan Aboriginal journalist Doug Cuthand. A number of journalists with the corporate chain have already resigned in protest. Over 70 reporters at the Montreal Gazette have also protested the pattern of interference. They have set up a web site in protest where concerned citizens can get more information about the controversy and the threat to free debate (http://www.fpjq.org/canwest). Letters of support for the Gazette journalists can be sent to gazreporters@hotmail.com A Berlin Wall of disinformation, propaganda, and mystification is being erected, especially around Western Canada where CanWest/Southam has a near monopoly of major daily newspapers. Please support the boycott and spread the news to ensure and enhance the creation of a free press, free speech, and free debate in Canadian communication and social policy. Join the National Boycott - Related sites: A multi-trillion dollar financial scandal is occurring in the United States right now. It threatens to inflict unprecedented carnage upon Corporate America and horrific damage to our national economy. The mainstream media is aware of it, but most Americans are not, because the corporate news outlets refuse to report on it. [ snipped ] Those who claim that Enron was an exceptional case are technically correct. While Enron overestimated its earnings by 100%, the average large publicly held American corporation is overestimating its earnings by only 42%. IBM reports pro forma earnings. So does Intel. And Cisco Systems. And Dell. And Sun Micro. And Motorola. And Microsoft. And... By engaging in such manipulation, with the assent of accountants and governmental oversight agencies, Corporate America has conned the public into investing trillions of dollars based on phony earnings. Cisco, for example, has used its artificially inflated stock price as capital to acquire other companies. Many corporate empires have been built on such accounting legerdemain, including General Electric (NBC), Viacom (CBS), Disney (ABC), AOL/Time Warner (CNN, Time Magazine), News Corporation (Fox), The Washington Post Company (Washington Post, Newsweek), the Tribune Corporation (Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times), and the New York Times Company (New York Times, Boston Globe). Enron is the tip of an iceberg on which sits the entire mainstream media. MISSING THE OVERAL, By David Podvin NOTE: Babel Fish Translation, In English: [original french version here] The journalists request a parliamentary inquiry into the concentration of the press from the hands from CanWest Anne-Marie Dussault and Rob Cribb / 2002-01-26 The two more significant trade associations journalists in Canada required yesterday of the deputies and of senators of all the parties in Ottawa of launching an exhaustive parliamentary inquiry into the effects of the concentration of the press between the hands of the great landowner of newspapers of the country, CanWest Global Corp. In a letter with all the deputies and senators, the Canadian Association of journalists (ACJ) and the professional Federation of the journalists of Quebec (FPJQ) denounce " the pattern of censure and repression from the divergent points of view " at CanWest. The behavior of the group of press " threatens our democratic traditions ", supports the letter signed by the president of the ACJ, Rob Cribb and the president of the FPJQ, Anne-Marie Dussault which is said " alarmed by the acts of censure repeated of the newspapers of CanWest through the country ". The letter expresses their concerns about the recent decision of CanWest, which holds a dominant position in the property of the newspapers of several Canadian cities, to dictate starting from the registered office the policy of the leading page of its more significant daily newspapers. " We are also very anxious, continues the letter, of the threats of settings to foot uttered by CanWest against its journalists who denounced these abuses ". " the concentration of the property of the medias of information reached in Canada a level without precedent. One needs measurements to guarantee the diversity of the opinions in the medias of information, continues the letter. Time had just carried out a complete parliamentary inquiry into this critical situation. " A press kit of 161 pages on this controversy was being enclosed in the letter sent to the members of Parliament. It gathers articles coming from national and international medias, of the examples of censure on behalf of CanWest as well as other texts. The CAJ and the FPJQ hope that the deputies and senators will raise this question at the time of the caucus Libéral party which is held this weekend here in Ottawa and during the recovery of the parliamentary session Monday. Press kit to www.fpjq.org/canwest Source:
Fédération Professionnelle des Journalistes du Québec
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