The Vancouver Sun freed me up for two and a half weeks to look at a topic -- gambling -- that some provincial Liberals have acknowledged represents a broken election promise. The massive package we ran detailed the Liberals' promises not to expand gambling, and then detailed how various regulations on gambling in the province (everything from maximum bets to ATMs on the gaming floor) have been loosened under their rule. The series looked at what the province is (and isn't) doing to keep problem gamblers out of casinos, how other jurisdictions deal with the issue and how B.C. Lotteries wants to increase public support for gaming. I think only the Tyee could characterize this massive editorial investment as an attempt to keep readers "in the dark". And, for the record, I did respond in a bit more detail when Mr. Gutstein asked me about connections between some personnel in the Liberal Party and Great Canadian Gaming. Here is my full email, when asked why I didn't include the info: The short answer is that I wasn't aware of them. After receiving your email I went back and searched through Sean Holman's columns and found some references to Great Canadian donating to the Liberals. I'm assuming that's what you're referring to. While I reviewed several past articles on gambling before starting my own piece, I didn't come across Holman's column or any other articles that made reference to the Liberals receiving donations from gambling companies. Also, none of the gambling critics I talked to (like the NDP) suggested that political donations were the motivation behind the province's gambling policies. Had they, it's likely an angle I would have included in the story -- and followed up on myself by checking political donations records. There were many angles to pursue on this story (the series ran over two days and several pages). This was just one, of many I assume, that I missed. Hope this helps. Chad Skelton, Reporter, The Vancouver Sun

Well, media convergence HAS definitely come about, but unfortunately that convergence essentially consists of every Canwest newspaper, tv and radio station crawling as far and as fast up gordon campbell's ass, as their little cockroach legs will take them. AND IT'S CROWDED UP THERE. There's almost no space left what with the fraser institute, the vancouver board of trade, and the bc chamberpot of commerce, already so firmly "embedded" in that odiferous spot.

But then how can even the most vitriolic criticism adequately depict a media that runs endless puff pieces on NONEXISTENT BC LIBERAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS, that acts as if gary collins actions represented an achievement, instead of a bloody-minded unjustifiable attack on the most vulnerable; that gives bc liberal mlas daily platforms to lie the about the ndp and unions on the editorial pages of the sun, that shamelessly tries to effect election outcomes (lately highly ineffectually) with bald-faced, REEKING propaganda that would gag a maggot? Yes, we've all seen this media and its "compression" shat out daily in canwest's pathetic excuse for responsible media. I say Canwest has a hand in every unneccesary death caused by the bc backstabbers in this province, and I say SUE them, along with gordon campbell, for their GROSS betrayal of both their ever diminishing customers and democracy, and human decency in British Columbia.

Your right on target Lewis. Any publication that has the audacity to disagree with any of your views must be horrible and immoral. It is common knowledge that Lewis Swift is one of the brightest most knowledgeable people in this province, maybe even the world. If the Sun prints something you don't agree with they must be wrong maybe even maggots but most likely just lying. We all know that the unions or NDP would never try and mislead the public only the big bad Liberals do that. It’s nice to know that different points of view can be put forward in order to facilitate meaningful discussion. I think Lewis should start his own newspaper for as we all now know, all media lies except for that on the very left wing. Also running a business of any sort is very easy. You combined those two FACTS with the fact that Lewis has a breadth of knowledge unparalleled it’s a shame his new publication has not commenced.

I have to wonder what Jim thinks about the campaign donations that the BC Liberals have received from Hollinger and CanWest during the last two provincial elections. Does Jim think that the work of Can West reporters and columnists are affected by the knowledge that their employers want Gordo Campbell in at all costs?

Canwest Standards just get lower and lower. Read Dec18th National Post Letters to Editor. David Asper wrote personally responding to a complaint by a federal conservative MLA that one columnist in his paper attacked Steven Harper for supporting corporate welfare to Bombardier, while a second columnist attacked Steven Harper for not supporting corporate welfare to Bombardier. Asper's response was that this is proof his papers are providing fair and balanced coverage of issues!

I suppose I don't hate Canwest as much as some but there is little denying the quality and variety of reporting has most definitely declined in the Lower Mainland (present electronic company excepted, natch). Of course covergence makes good business sense but the sharing of resources puts such a limit on reporting that one wonders how Canwest continues to manage to convince folks to subscribe to both the Sun and the Post (I was one of those dupes once). Not only will they read about the same story, they read the SAME story. I can't recall an occasion where I believed a story or column I'd read in the Post was so well written, researched and articulated that I'd want to read it again in the Sun the next day (or vice versa). But it gets worse. Lately (an inside "source" tells me) the local community papers (the Courier, for eg.) are required to send information, notes from story meetings, etc., to the Sun/Province in the interest of sharing information - so much for the community papers getting to 'scoop' the big boys!

It is refreshing to see that Vancouver Sun reporter Chad Skelton has the necessary respect for what he does that he is willing to publicly defend his methods and position on the gambling story. Having worked with Editor Rick Ouston in the past I have always been sure of his integrity and his commitment. At the very least, with the Tyee, we get to see two sides of a story.

its my understanding that the BC Liberal party accepted a donation from canWest while the last election writ had dropped and this breaks the law, and they were never charged. (i read about it in the globe&mail) basically CanWest was giving money to the liberals during the 30 day count down to the election and at the same time claiming to be objective covering the election and endorsing gordo onthe weekend before the election. the real facts are that the vancouver sun readership is dropping while the poulation of the lower mainland is increasing, this should be a concern to advertisers, furthermore the sun has fewer reporters today than 10 years ago, whatever happened to their labour reporter etc which means less fresh news and more recycled bits from the news wire.... i only read the sun so i know what folks in the lower mainland may be referencing...basically, the sun is the front end wedge of privatization and globalization in this province

I think the likes of Mr. Skelton and his CanWest colleagues spend more time than they would care to admit browsing the content of free and reliable news coverage in BC available on the Tyee - in fact, I've often found stories and sentiments expressed in the Tyee to be written up shortly in CanWest papers (and there is no denying that they love duplicating material - heck, the same paper often refers to the same news piece in different areas of the newspaper - separated by pages and pages of ads). But then again, let's be honest, the Tyee cannot grace the bottom of my cat's litter as well as The Province tab. But I sense that low quality and high quantity factory-made pollution is what society is made of nowadays - from your McD lunch to your farmed salmon - is there any wonder CanWest and globe trotting Aspers thrive in these predatory times?

Coming from you, Jim, your whine is a complement. Thank you for your unWITting endorsement. Oh, and, jimmy....grow up!

Didn't Larry Campbell, Jim Green, Raymond Louie and Tim Stevenson support slots at Hastings Park which is owned and operated by Great Canadian Casinos? Didn't Larry, Jim, Raymond and Tim support the RAV project which will have its major transfer point station a few steps from the Great Canadian Casino in Bridgeport, Richmond? Didn't Green and Stevenson also receive box seats to a Vancouver Canuck hockey game courtesy of Concorde Pacific? I think one would have to declare this according to the rules of Vancouver City Council. I wonder where the money is coming from to support this Gang of Four? I wonder why Tyee or Canwest Global or David Black haven't made this converge? The CBC is so often late to a good local story. Although there are a few good programs (radio) the appearance of CBC's organic fair-trade "news" is often no different from the commercial grind. While we're bashing the Aspers (the Murdochs of the North) let's have a look at David Black, who despite not having a big daily operates his weeklies similar to the mean-face logo of Canwest Global. Besides controlling a similar amount of "private interest" opinion cloaked as public opinion as the Aspers in BC, he heads up Gordon Campbell's BC Progress Board. I'm surprised the BC Liberals have to spend over $40 million a year on Public Affairs staffing when Gord has both the Aspers and Black to do it for free! There are no sacred cows in this city!

Lewis resorting to name calling. Ironic? Not really. Donations to the Liberals and the effects on the media have been greatly exaggerated. Lets face it, the Sun/Province tells it like they see it. The Tyee does the same doesn’t it? They just have different ideological views, I’m sorry to break it to you guys but your view isn’t always right. I have yet to see an article praising anything the Liberals have done, yet I’m not going into some tirade on how the Tyee is a terrible source for news and it’s run by the Unions. There are many more opposing views on issues in the major newspapers than in a smaller independent website/publication. You cannot call CanWest biased without doing the same for The Tyee, Georgia Straight and Courier. All media must be questioned, but to just question the right leaning media and not the left is hypocritical.

Jim - of course the views expressed in the Tyee aren't always right - in fact, I'd say they were closer to the left. It is no secret that the CanWest papers are visionless - which is why there is so little there when they tell it like they see it. But I do have to say - even though the ideal would be to have a balanced and unbiased news reporting - CanWest never made it a secret that they were anything but that. Asper didn't try to make the rust sheen any brighter when he was interviewed on CBC. It is then upto those - like the Tyee and the CBC and anyone not under the canwest banner to combine what resources they have and offer the people of BC the otherside of story.

People read their own biases into everything in print. But (to anonymous above) it's interesting that every one of David Black's papers in this area carry Rafe Mair, who consistently disses the BC Libs in his column.

Lack of Art Bias (or no Bias). In just about every critical essay on newspapers or the media that I read in the Tyee it is all about political bias. The arts are almost never mentioned and are poorly represented in the Tyee. There are articles on movies and TV shows (mostly American ones) but next to nothing on music, theatre, dance or the visual arts. The problem seems to be that because the Tyee is supposed to cover all of BC there is no reason to run a preview, a review or a essay on the arts if those arts are nonexistent in Kamloops. But since American movies and American TV programs are available in the interior they are covered by the Tyee. Consider today’s Vancouver Sun. The arts/life/style section is about the Lemony Snicket movie, narrow ties, men’s cosmetics and an excerpted piece on the Showtime movie, Reefer Madness. It would seem that culture in Vancouver and BC is all about American film. And that bias is across the board.

There ought to be law against such monopolistic control of the media...corporate control gone wild...but there isn't...and due to that folks...can we really say that when electors give their vote on e-day...is it really an 'informed consent' --no, I don't think so. Can one not make the argument that Citizens have democratic rights to non-monopolistic flows of non-converging information...otherwise...by what reason do is this still a democracy. Freedom of the press...demands the end of monopoly control of the media...is there a political party, politician gutsy enough to take this on.?

So what can we do about the situation? I did a small survey of friends and acquaintances around my place in Surrey, and discovered that most people have no idea that the Sun, Province and National Post--and several tv stations-- are all owned by the same family. Most, on finding out agree that this is just too much journalist output for one family and one agenda. I think there should be a law that one company can only own one major newspaper in a single market. I believe that is the case in the U.S., although I have not really done my homework in this regard. One thing that really chokes my chicken is the fact that so many CanWest journalists seem to be trying to convince Canadians that we don't need the CBC. Imagine Canada without the CBC, eh. Canwest would just take over and Robert Fulton clones would be writing everything. Okay, I exaggerate, but not by much. What this country needs is an amendment to the Charter which demands the right of Canadians to journalistic divergence.(Fat chance, eh) I guess we're going to have to fight for it. I don't recall any human rights coming easily. Any ideas?

Chad Skelton's failure--or more precisely his editors' failure--to look at the "quid pro quo" in the gambling story is a stunningly obvious lapse. I knew straight out of J-School that you look at the political donations and campaign connections when politicians make decisions that appear to benefit some lobby more than they benefit the public at large--and if I ever forgot it, my editors or our competitors would have reminded me... Why do we see such lapses? There's ample evidence the CanWest outlets are strongly biased towards the BC Liberals and other Asper pet causes. Sure, you'll always find reporters, stories and letters that aren't, but there's clearly a huge blind spot. Bias is everywhere--always has been--but it's more problematic when news media don't feel the need to curb it to maintain credibility... The other problem, and the focus of Gutstein's piece, is the loss of quality due to convergence and related policies. We've always had shared reporting--the CanWest News service was the old Southam newswire, just like CP, AP and Reuters. Newspapers always shared reports via the wire services to provide coverage outside their local area (very few can afford a global team of correspondents and even they still rely on wire services). The heart of the problem is CanWest's BC monopoly, which has allowed the local outlets to cut their in-house reporting and to skimp on quality, depth and balance. If the Sun were truly competing freely with the Province, for example, they'd never get away with the shoddy journalism that Gutstein and others describe. Ultimately, Canadian media monopolies aren't anything new and they're our own fault--Canada's lax regulations do little to ensure a free and vibrant press through free and fair competition.

Alex Waterhouse-Hayward point about the lack of local Bc arts coverage is an important observation about the Tyee and one that i second...

electric - perhaps the lack of general comment on Alex's observation is that 1) it wasn't really on the gist of the issue, and 2) Tyee never stated that it is necessarily geered towards directing its limited resources on giving reviews on the the arts which plenty of other resources - such as the georgia straight and even the courier cover for most main stream arts events - and the alternative arts/dance scene is often covered in the CommonGround - redundancy is reporting is something that is actually being discussed in this thread.

I have to second Truman's staunch support for the CBC - it is our link left to reality and we need to make sure that it is never stolen by CanWest monopolizing manipulations.

I thought C Skelton's gaming report followed the money trail. Quite plainly put, provincial gaming revenues doubled under the NDP and doubled again under the Liberals. (If anyone thinks this cash cow is going to be turned off by either of these two parties after the election, they are deluded.) Skelton also told the personal stories of gambling addiction and the lives it destroyed. The greatly reduced share of revenues received by charitable causes, and the hypocrisy of the Liberal party's pre-election promises to reduce government dependency on gaming revenues, was part of the package. All in all, an above par read for the Sun, whatever Skelton's critics might think, and probably not received with gratitude by the Sun's advertisers in the gaming business (in gov't or private enterprise) or their overpaid employees. D Gutstein's other criticisms were worthy though. And Alex W-H is quite right about the quality of the arts coverage in the Sun, although I must admit I look forward to their weekend books section.

The thread of Gutstein’s article has to do with the phenomenon of a newspaper chain taking advantage of convergence as a way of saving money and running more, and often repeated articles, (calling them exclusive by inserting a small variation). This phenomenon not only affects political reporting but also business, sports and “culture”. In Vancouver I see a lot of emphasis on jogging and fitness sports. It would seem that we stress a sound body without taking into consideration that culture (the jogging of the mind) takes care and rounds out the Greek ideal of a sound mind in a sound body. Having photographed most of the federal and provincial NDP heads since Barrett I have had the opportunity of bringing up the subject of the promotion of culture with my them in the intimate location of my studio. My subjects ranged from Alexa McDonough, Glen Clark, Ujall Dosanjh to Jack Layton. In all instances I was met by a blank stare. I brought up the problem of the struggling symphony orchestras of Vancouver with a recovering Mike Harcourt who told me that enough had been spent in saving these orchestras before and that sooner or later only one would be left and that was the reality. In my years of going to art openings, ballet, lectures, concerts and theatre the only politicians (besides the culturally-hungry former Vancouver Councillor, Gordon Price) I have ever seen attending are Jim Greene, Peter Ladner and Sam Sullivan. And consider that they can all attend for free any performances at Vancouver Civic Theatres (the Orpheum, the Vancouver Playhouse and the Queen Elizabeth). Culture is low priority in our province. For 13 years I taught photography for Emily Carr’s Outreach Program which was founded and promoted by Nini Baird. Artist/teachers were sent to the interior to teach printmaking, photography, sculpture and other visual arts. The Outreach Program took me to such places as Cassiar, Uklulet, Prince George, Atlin and Prince Rupert. The classes were attended by incredibly eager students of all ages. When the province stopped the funding some years ago the program died. I think we must have a healthy promotion (education is part of it) of the arts through our newspapers, television and radio. This can only happen if we demand it and not ignore it. It cannot just be an “American film based one”. We must make sure that our federal, provincial and city governments put culture into their platforms as an active necessity for the wellbeing of all citizens. Promotion of the arts is not (only a small part) the spotty previews and reviews to be found in our national, city and suburban newspapers.

Like Alex, I'd like to see more issues covered in the Tyee. How about weather forecasting? No, not a story on perils of forecasting, but a daily update on yesterday's weather where Canadians can discuss that exciting subject. Maybe even a photo or tastefully drawn rendition of a snow storm in April. Can you imagine the debate it would spark? Also, I don't know why the Tyee isn't gushing with glee in daily editorials over the generosity and wisdom of our current regime in Victoria. But what really gets me going is that the Tyee isn't running any of those Believe in BS ads the Sun so generously makes room for. Of course, I'm beginning to wonder about Alex, who assured us all below another recent article by Gutstein, that the author would surely defend the quality of journalism at the Sun and prove we negative nellies are little more than envious know-nothings. Oh, before I forget, doesn't the Sun still have a library of back files where reporters and editors can research the history to learn who the power players are, such as Jacee Schaefer, who has been a fixture in the Liberal/Social Credit backrooms since Bill Bennett was a wannabe? No cross referencing in those files anymore? Cutbacks, you say? Alex, I'm afraid you have this Vancouver Sun mixed up with the one the Southam News chain used to publish in Vancouver. I wonder what ever happened to that paper. Maybe that 'other' former owner did a little bait and switch when the Aspers weren't looking.

The Tyee differs vastly from the sun and other canwest birdcage liners in that even the most odious rightwinger can freely post what passes for their informed opinion without having to submit their comment 5 times, or having to threaten to go to the CRTC, as is so often the case with CRAPWEST papers. One post in today's province, WHICH I AM ARCHIVING FOR A FUTURE HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL, REFERS TO A DUMPSTER DIVER AS A "HUMAN GARBAGE BAG..." aND I THOUGHT IT WAS ILLEGAL TO INCITE HATRED AGAINST OTHERS, BASED ON RACE, GENDER OR SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS. Apparently this is not a problem for canwest nespapers...

As we enter the holiday season, I would suggest that many of the over-priveleged types posting above, take A LONG HARD LOOK AT THEIR UNEARNED AND UNJUSTIFIABLE TAXCUT, AS THE BC BACKSTABBERS CONTINUE, IN THE FACE OF A SURPLUS DUE TO EQUALIZATION PAYMENTS FOR THE FAILED BC LIBERAL ECONOMIC STATEGY OF "TAXCUTS WILL PAY FOR THEMSELVES," AND TURN THEIR TAINTED MONEY OVER TO THE FOODBANK. Then you could BEG your own children's forgiveness for selling them out for nickles. For unless your taxcut furnished enough for $10,000 a year college tuition, high rents caused by the gutting of rent controls, clean air, and safe streets that's EXACTLY what you've done. But whether you've sold out just other people's children or your own as well. YOU SHOULD BE DEEPLY ASHAMED...

I meant to include the fact above that the $100 cut to the food allowance OF INNOCENT POOR CHILDREN IN BC CONTINUES, despite the 1.2 billion in equalization payments, GIVEN SOLELY BECAUSE BC WAS A HAVENOT PROVINCE UNDER THE FAILED NEO LIBERAL ECONOMIC POLICY OF "TAXCUTS WILL PAY FOR THEMSELVES..." (OH, AND IF THEY DON'T WE'LL JUST USE THESE SAME TAXCUTS AS AN EXCUSE TO ASSAULT LITTLE OLD LADIES AND DISABLED CHILDREN.) My contempt for BC's so-called elite, approaches the boundless...

anyone notice that today's van Sun front page story about the bc legislature raids and charges against Bassi by journalist chad skelton does not mention the Liberal government once by name, this seems to be the same theme addressed earlier in this discussion about the lack of connection between the liberals and casinos in mr skeltons's earlier articles too

Correction, Lewis: your incoherence is beyond bounds. And what's this tax cut you keep talking about? Haven't seen one myself but since you seem to have a multitude of them please send me some.

The whole purpose of media monopoly is to keep the masses stupid and blissfully unaware so like sheeply Canadians we will mindlessly let the BC LIB/CONS sell more of BC to the USA. Keep in mind the Canwest/Asper monopolists are Liberal supporters BIG TIME ($$$$$$$$$) "But NO NO their is no covering up or glorify-in our supreme leader". "All hale the great Gordon"!! submit or die!!

No tax cuts Kurt> Where hav eyou been living, in the deep forest on a high Mounatin? Jimmy Pattison received $25000 I recieved $250. I bought a new car with my new found Liberal wealth ( deficit producing tax cut). Meanwhile, many of my colleagues face unemployment in the new year because of Liberal underfunding.Life is not so rosy away from the lower mainland. Gordo and the gang have demonstrated a mean spirit never before witnessed in our history, reckless ideology in the name of reform, and profoundly stupid economic decisions in favour of a nerrow agenda favouring an insider vested interest group, who might die on their swords. Spare us your pompous admonition of Lewis. He is right on.

Thank you, dgbeggs. You know kurt, THE 25 PERCENT UNCAMPAIGNED UPON TAXCYT FOR THE RICH UNNANNOUNCED UNTIL THE DAY AFTER THE ELECTION, THAT "WILL JUMP START THE ECONOMY AND RAISE LOTS OF MONEY TO FUND SOCIAL PROGRAMS..."" QUOTE, UNQUOTE??? THE SAME TAXCUT used to manufacture an artificial crisis AND SET SOCIAL JUSTICE AND PROGRAMS BACK 30 YEARS? DDDDUUUUUHHHH!!!!!! Just when I thought your posts finally showed a glimmer of intelLigence from the right! I should have known better. What did you do with yours, kurt, snort it up your nose? Perhaps your defective social conscience is tied to your equally defective memory and intellect...my wish for you is for you to lose your every means of support, and then try and live for even ONE day on the street. My guess is you wouldn't even last a day...

since the charges have been laid according to can west one might never know that these people were top government aides, since the big sweep of 2001 we never hear what's going on the province, vancouver's booming so everything must be ok? the raids aound in vivtoria last year its a quck news item with global and then on to that kitten stuck in a tree in chicago

This is how the Big Guys knee-cap the Little Guys every time ... pull off the big one (like Organized Crime and their $6 Billion a year pot trade) then have us squabble about journalistic etiquette. This is how we meekly voted in a Federal election without knowing whether we were voting for criminals or if the electoral process had been hijacked. This is how a whole year has drifted quietly by without a single riot in front of the B.C. Legislature demanding to know exactly why the R.C.M.P. raided a legislature for the first time in Canadian history. If you haven't at very least written your Letter-to-the-Editor to any CanWest newspaper, you forfeit the right to sound off on the topic.

Write all the letters you want doesn't mean you will be heard. somehow the pot trade is worse than minister aids reciving bribes and letting corporations from another country look after our medical records isn't a big deal... humm I think BC is going to be the 51st state in no time, and we will probably not know a f-ing thing about it untill we see the stars and stripes over Victoria parlament buildings then they will say "No we didn't" then we will all have guns and be so scared of our neibours that we will have a need to carry guns so we feel safe by shooting at anyone that looks at our car the wrong way. But hey atleast we get to have cheap gas and lots of crack supplied by the CIA and a real expensive medical system that only the high income bracket can afford.

``If you're a liberal, anything you say is protected. If you're a conservative, anything you say is hateful.'' -Laura Schlessinger http://www.mega.nu/ampp/intro4.html

Watching how all the Canwest reporters and editors cheer for the Campbell Liberals reminds of this quote from George Orwell ( a fitting person to comment on this 3-ring circus of propaganda & spin going on BC don't ya think?) "Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks the whip, but the really well-trained dog is the one that turns somersaults when there is no whip". And this sums up the the sorry state of real journalism in BC today...you have journalists poudly proclaiming that they're not biased when they won't 'fess up that the only reason they are on board an Asper publication is that they KNOW not to rock the boat or they'll be fired so quickly they're heads would spin...See ADBUSTERS campaign to start some real action against the Asper empire.

Perpetuation of the holiday scam, which is used to focus pressure on non-compliant members of the public, particularly by galvanizing the indignation of those who are compliant, and by creating a sense of alienation for the non-compliant http://www.mega.nu/ampp

``The power to control information is a major lever in the control of society. Giving citizens a choice in ideas and information is as important as giving them a choice in politics. If a nation has narrowly controlled information it will soon have narrowly controlled politics.'' -Ben H. Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly http://www.mega.nu/ampp/media_bias.html

It's a bit misleading for Gutstein to suggest that the Sun's appropriation of the Surrey Now scoop is somehow related to the fact that CanWest now owns a big chunk of the media in B.C. The Sun has always operated like this. For decades, it has viewed itself as the New York Times of Vancouver, routinely matching or just lazily rewriting stories from newspapers in Prince George and Kamloops that its own reporters missed, and never favoring the original reporters with byline credits. The best you could ever hope for if the Sun scalped your story was that you might be identified at the top as "Sun news services." The ownership may have changed but the practice remains the same.

So, Brian, when are you going to write a book on our west coast pirates? It would make a nice sequel to Scoundrels...

Simple question: how to clever posters sometimes achieve INDENTED PARAGRAPHS in their statements, which make a posting so much easier to read. I put paragraphs into my message but it comes through on one big glob. OK, I told you it was a simple question. Got a simple answer? Thanks ... and a Happy New Year to all British Columbians.

Use the following for paragraph breaks, novice:

-at the end of your intended paragraph. BC Mary, I have encouraged others to colonize the sound off threads at the the sun, the province and he colonist, with some success, the left is now beginning tom dominate these threads as well as the canada.com sound off threads, where the right dominated only a few months ago. Canwest is now running so scared that they cancelled many of the threads, including the one where gary collins got his butt kicked. Letters to the editor are even better, but I believe many people wish to remain anonymous, as is possible on the sound off threads...gordon campbell continues to do poorly on the canada.com sound-off! campbell versus james thread...whoops, not sure about INDENTED paragraphs, novice...

Whoops again! I should have written use capital Ps twice in arrow brackets for paragraph breaks.

Lewis, that's really nice of you to try to help: - Trouble is, I have no idea what you just said in your 2nd posting (above). Clues?

Lewis, that's really nice of you to try to help: -but it didn't work for me: -Also, trouble is, I have no idea what you just said in your 2nd posting (above). Clues?

Novice, the arrow brackets are the upper case symbols, above the comma and the period on your key board, accessed by holding down the shift key. You need two sets of arrow brackets, next to one another, without spaces, with a capital P inside each set of brackets, in the place where you want a paragraph break. I don't know what the html code is for indentations, although I don't think simply using the space tab works to create indentations.

Paul Willcocks, the master of praising by faint damnation, wrote a column in today's online vancouver sun suggesting that campbell needs to do a much better job of explaining bc rail scandals to taxpayers than his ministers and flacks have done, haven't read the actual text yet, as you need to be a subscriber to access it. Don't expect much, though, from either willcox or campbell. The sun, province and colonist continue their cowardly deleting of nearly every "Sound-off" thread referring directly to gordon campbell as they are afraid of the increasingly overwhelming negative remarks directed at the bc liars and gordon backstabber, as well as the continual repetition of the truth about the bc economy and bc liberal policies. The only comment thread impacting campbell much left on bc liberal policies is at canada.com. where the bc liars are taking an ass whupping. My advice is to complain to the crtc about this latest abandonment of canwest of its responsibilities to the canadian public.

If I'm not mistaken there have been a couple of attempts to get Canwest for its print and/or internet products by hitting at its broadcast entities through the CRTC and the CRTC has used the proverbial 10-foot pole to keep away from them. There's no appetite for creating a pan-media regulator by stealth -- in fact, the CRTC itself is relatively toothless. Even properly constituted government bodies that could have done things about media convergence like the Competition Bureau have been completely useless, especially in Vancouver, where we went from three daily newspapers owned by Thomson, Southam and the local Cromie family to two both owned by Canwest, along with a dozen free weeklies and the biggest TV station (see Pacific Press by Marc Edge for an excellent account of the Vancouver newspaper monopoly). The public awareness of just how much of Canada's media is owned by one company just isn't there, and therefore neither is outrage needed to give the government the guts to take on Canwest. Better to start building alternate media sources to help build awareness of what journalism could look like. When do you take this show on the road, David? Alberta needs you...

Novice, a few HTML tips for you:

Start paragraphs by putting this <p> before the first word of your paragraph.

End paragraphs by putting this </p> after the last word of your paragraph.

Using <p> and </p> will force a text break, including one blank line. If you do not want the space between your sentences, that is you would rather that the following text start on the very next line below, use this <br> right where you want the text to end.

If you want to make text bold, put this <b> before the text you want bolded. Stop the bolding by putting this </b> after the last word you want bolded.

Another way to make text bold is to use <strong> and </strong> the same way you would use the bold tags <b> and </b>

Underlining for emphasis is not always recommended as the underlined text could be mistaken for a link, but I'm pretty sure on this site anyway, the links are orange and underlined text is black. Start the underlining with this <u> Stop it with this </u>

<Hope that helps>

Not too long ago I filed an official complaint against canwest global with the CRTC. It was stemmed by their shameless pro-liberal damage control spin during the Elaine Brenzinger affair. (Roque, deeply disturbed mla dares to critique our glorious leader etc etc) By law a senior canwest editor was required to respond to my complaint. His response was as predictable as any canwest editorial outlining what a great job the traitorous neo-con pocket liners in Victoria have done in their dark tenure. Altough I felt better by venting a little of my anger and frustation at the state of our "media" I now realize that a file with my name on it probably exists at canwest/pravda. When the 4 a.m. knock on my door eventually comes I hope I remember to say: "Who me? what for?". p.s.- to my future gulag comrades: Thank you in advance for complaining to the CRTC like I did with each new piece of trash that appears in the canwaste vast empire of lies. (It's really easy, just goto the CRTC website and follow the links!)

I remember the day that the announcement came out about the BC Ferries contact going to an overseas bidder, Global TV headlined a story about a stolen dog for about 10 minutes. Alex, I agree with you about the abysmal lack of arts promotion. I would love to see the Tyee take up some of the slack.

Thanks for both the html advice, and the feedback about the crtc, rob and others. My best guess about the crtc is that a case would have to be made proving gross dereliction of canwest's duties to the public, or FOR THE COMPLICITY OF CANWEST FOR INCITING HATRED AGAINST AN IDENTIFIABLE GROUP-AN OFFENSE UNDER THE CHARTER OF RIGHTS. Approaches to this could possibly be made about canwest sound-off threads, where rightwingers seem to post with ease and the leftwing has to submit about 5 times to even get through. One avenue might be canwest promoting what is virtual hate literature against the poor, by posting such suggestions as work camps for the poor, euthanasia for the poor, etc, which I have seen on several canwest sound-off threads, including the current one at canada.com about officials, mostly bc liberals, not insuring homeless shelters were open during the current cold weather, -too busy partying in hawaii, I guess. There are also some comments of highly qurestionable taste, and perhaps, legality posted on the current province thread about the jack the ripper dolls being marketed by some socially challenged vancouver company. These posts couuld easily be construed as promoting hatred towards women. Perhaps what's really needed is for some group with resources, like the BC federation of Labour, to launch a class action lawsuit....

What about the monopoly of CanWest in universities? The journalism program at Concordia is almost entirely made up of Gazette employees, past and present, and looking into grad school, I see that the faculty at UBC's journalism department has a lot of CanWest employees as well. I want CBC profs!!!

The Sound Off section for the Jack the Ripper story sounds like there are a bunch of Troglodytes that belong to the Marc Lepine fan club. How do they get away with it? Does the CRTC actually have jurisdiction over the print media? What about the BC Press Council? I noticed their Exec Director used to be Bill Bennet and Bill Vander Zalm's secretary. They're self regulating so I suppose they protect their own.

Recently, Jim Good on cknw radio had Moe and his right wing friend agree in opposition to changing the voting to stv. I have a major problem with that item. In talk radio, it is customary to use an adversarial approach, yet there was no defender of STV on the show. In Ireland, they are simply not allowed to produce propaganda in that way. We had Moe saying STV was not good for politics and politicians. Yet in Ireland under STV, a far higher percentage of politicians get re-elected than in BC. Could it be that the people there are happier with their politicians? Perhaps the experience of doing a political job for 10 or 15 years, makes a politician better at his or her job? These are a few of the major points that could have been made on the programme, had anybody been there to make them. Shame on you CKNW! What wrotten News Radio They are required by law to have balance in radio shows in Ireland. So, how do I complain officially here? Brian White

Canwest global has at this time a public application before the CRTC in which they are applying to be allowed to show even more advertising in exchange for providing a minimum of canadian content, no doubt one of their pathetic stephen harper will be prime minister any day now "news" talk shows...It is now possible to enter web comment on the CRTC's site about this, why not complain about the Canwest trying to fix election results, and using two inch headlines to lie about gordon campbell fixing the bc economy... you probably cannot remain anonymous however...

In fact it is possible to remain anonymous, simply give your mailing address as general delivery and use a psuedonym if yoy prefer...

Ive been looking for some alternatives to canwest global's media for some time in vancouver,(honestly, you think there would be a law against a media monopoly) and all ive found was the Straight, The Tyee and CBC. Is there no published daily newspaper in greater vancouver that isnt owned by Canwest? Im in Manitoba, so i dont know what is over there except for the internet.

You might try Terminal City, Kevin, a weekly Vancouver youth oriented magazine whose political coverage is becoming increasingly sophisticated...I also reccomend Kevin Potvin's The Republic of East Vancouver as well. Also try googling "BC Politics," for online blogs...

Testing....

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