To the Senate Committee on the state of the media in Canada: what took you so long to hold hearings in Vancouver?

Knowing the CanWest bottleneck of news on the West Coast, you must surely have known that this is an area in deep difficulty due to convergence. Many voices, many viewpoints are rarely seen in a CanWest newspaper.

Please compare the blanket coverage of former Premier Glen Clark's back porch or former Opposition Leader Gordon Wilson's private life, against the continuing silence surrounding the ministerial aides charged with serious offences affecting government.

Does this seem correct? Fair? And in the public interest?

As long as the Senate Committee believes there is nothing to be gained by enquiring into content or ownership, there is nothing to be gained period. Unless they see their role as one of looking out for the interests of advertisers, making sure they don't get gouged on the price of flyers and display ads by the CanWest monopoly.

Does this committee have a mandate to look at the CBC as well? I think their election coverage last June was one long paid political announcement on behalf of the Liberal Party, and it's time something was said about that.

Will only get excited about it all if something is done to get rid of the impossibly one sided pro liberal media in this province...and few people take the time to find out theyre getting tunnel vision news. Get some opposition to government writing for god sake...some different opinions..some political writers back...some investigative journalism to return!!!! I stopped reading the wretched newspapers and watching the Campbell news hour ages ago...Thank god for the Tyee , Monday Mag and Georgia Straight.

Couldn't someone attending this thing bring up the fact that coverage of this crucial hearing in CanWest's Vancouver media web was sorely lacking? This is the first I'd heard about it.

If it's any consolation it appears that two or three new daily commuter freebies will grace the city in short order. And only one of them owned by Canwest, aptly called The Dose....

One thing we can do is boycott all CanWest media resources. I read the Sun and Province all my life, but now I wouldn't touch either with a ten foot pole. Even under Southam they were so much better. $500,000 to Logan's journalism school, eh--and she says it won't influence her...Yeah, right! (I almost forgave CanWest when they published my letter to the editor last year, and I'm pretty well incorruptible--or so I thought.) And Kirk Lapointe says things are just "profoundly positive" with convergence. I do get an extended chuckle, though, when I see Kirk personally doing ads for the Sun. I guess he was standing around the office with nothing to do once too often. Time is money, eh, Kirk. But what I really love the most is Norman Spectre (is that how you spell it?) doing comments on Tyee, trying to convince us that CanWest is even-handed--not to mention the Post with Coyne and Fulford assuring us that all is well in the New American Century, and that we're damned near traitors for not having total faith in the Bushies. I read about a study last year which concluded that 74% of BCers, (it might have been Canadians) don't trust the media) The Graham said she was shocked, and maybe even "profoundly" disappointed. And, oh yeah, Logan claims that convergence "affords a new opportunity to use journalists more efficiently." Now that all the papers can share stories, they can "send the idle journalists out on still more projects, therefore exponentially exploding journalistic democracy." "Or, she continued, send them home." Okay, I'm lying about those last three quotes, eh. Those are my words, not hers. Anyway...74% Huge Mandate! I did enjoy Shelley Fralic's piece on his holiness, the Dalai Lama, though.

Some years ago the heir of the Southam fortune, Harvey Southam started (with publisher Ron Stern) a business magazine called Equity. I worked for it as a photographer from the first issue. Harvey was the editor and through the years I got to know him. It was easy to like this boyishly handsome man who brought his large dog to the office. I will never forget driving back with Harvey in his Mercedes convertible from Whistler (we had gone there to photograph Peter Brown in his new restaurant). We were munching chocolate covered espresso beans and I was a bit worried on how Harvey was cornering the Mercedes. He left for Toronto to manage his father’s empire and there were several who rose to the task of being editor including Mike Campbell. And I worked with him, too. It was during his tenure that the magazine skewered Premier VanderZalm with a PhotoShopped cover that had the premier shooting himself in the foot. Equity also featured Premier Harcourt and his minister Glen Clark in German brown shirt uniforms on the cover. By then I began to suspect and more so know when I read local newspapers and magazines that whatever criticism anybody may have thrown at Harvey he played fair in journalism. He had a feature called From the Left and From the Right where two writers (From the Left featured a Floyd Sully, I believe) would opine on the same subject with conflicting points of view. I miss the man more than ever.

A year or so ago several of the staff from the BCTF attended a meeting with some of the editorial staff from the Sun and the Province. The puzzlement of the Federation people related to why these press barons seem to have a hate for public education in general (unless there's some feel-good story) and the BCTF and teachers in particular. For example, the press supported then education minister Christy Clark's comments that four-day weeks might not be a bad option (as have been adopted in Coast Mountains School District). When asked what their attitude would have been if the BCTF, who have been openly critical of Liberal education policies, had made such a recommendation they replied, "Then we'd have been against it." The attitude of the press power-brokers in this example is the heart of why press consolidation is a bad thing. Specific political favoritism is the hallmark of the consolidators, not a healthy debate between two or more positions on controversial issues. The press in North America, and particularly in BC, are hand in glove with political power. Shades of Pravda and Goebbels. Whether in support of left or right, this kind of monolithic opinion and opinion-making is extremely unhealthy.

Kudos to Mr Gutstein for suggesting how the situation can at least be remedied to some degree, instead of simply carping and whining about how awful things are, or using that other popular journalistic methodology, whereby one simply cuts and pastes a bunch of numbers into something approaching a "theme". Hey Tyee - give this guy more columns - he looks like a real journalist...

How are the UBC journalism students supposed to get the required liberal bias with Donna Logan running the place?

There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it… The business of the Journalist is to destroy truth; To lie outright; To pervert; To vilify; To fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and or lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes. – John Swinton, former Chief of Staff, The New York Times, circa 1880

``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 ------------------------------------------------- ``Th e Internet is a frightful danger to all of us.'' -Walter Cronkite, in a speech given at the University of California - Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism http://www.mega.nu/ampp/media_bias.html#centralization

What about telus? talk about evil Monopolies. they increase their size and reduce quality of service. Ask anyone who was a Clearnet customer, now owned by telus and operating as telus mobility and if you live outside of a city good luck getting your phone line repaired within a week. I hate those bastards! and we don't seem to have a choice as to who hooks up our phones.

We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.'' -George Orwell

Sorry. The story I referred to above can be found in the December 7, 2004 issue of the Vancouver Sun.

Warren Buffet(2nd richest individual on the planet) believes it is not possible to have competing newspapers survive in a single market in the long-term. The reason is because each newspaper undercuts the other newspapers for advertising-revenue and profits are reduced, and over time newspapers keep losing money until most of them either go out of business or are purchased by one competitor. When there is a newspaper-monopoly in the long-term, the newspaper(s) can increase advertising rates and become more profitable than ever. There are several biographies of Buffet as well as his own writings, including a case-study of Buffalo that illustrates this point, but it could very well have been Vancouver or a number of other cities on the planet. While Buffet has used this knowledge to acquire newspaper monopolies, I believe this is one example of how economics undermines democracy/free-speech. We should use this knowledge to have publicly-funded national, provincial, and municipal newspapers.

Get involved and quit being so milquetoast and nice (I realize Tyee types already accept this but you need to get the message to Canadians from Surrey to St John's)! In the U.S. when the FCC (our = of the CRTC) voted, last yr to relax media ownership restrictions under the direction for then-chair Mike Powell (Colin's son) consumer groups and other groups from all ends of the spectrum fought the measures in court and won. The Bush adm just decided not to appeal a federal appeals court in Philadelphia (3rd circuit) decison to strike down the new rules.This decison upheld a federal district ct decision to kill the rules.

A good local case study is how CanWest Global and the Black group of weeklies and CBC (another monopoly) in BC delivered the goods for the YES side during Vancouver's Olympic Plebiscite...Jack Poole given a weekly column...CBC and the private media conglomerates provided free public service announcements during the Plebiscite to the 2010 Bid Corporation...did you hear the national anthem being played softly under the sour grin of Nancy Greene? But the best example now is the Iraqi elections. CNN and the other imbedded media (including CBC) have participated in staging the "news" to show one side of the election issue. Fallujah is decimated, no work to repair the damage done by the US troops, yet they could find "friendly" folks just itching to cast their ballot. hmmmm. Or the "new" Iraqi tanks sporting brand new Iraqi flag stickers to indicate that Iraq is defending the polling booths. After Sunday, they'll be manned and ladied by US troops. Read Fisk and Jamail from Bhagdad. Non-imbedded reporters.

Why waste your time? Just turn them off, don't read the shite and get on with doing something that changes things for the better. Stop gripping over those a..holes

Re: ranters who simply cannot read the details. How can we expect the press to meet our exacting standards if we ourselves slant the reading of what is contained here? Equity was a magazine not a newspaper. My last name (which I inherited from my father) is Waterhouse-Hayward. I worked all those years for Equity and looking back now I realize that the standards that Harvey Southam had look very good in comparison to present standards in Vancouver. The photograph of Harcourt and Clark that was manipulated by the art director was not mine. They knew then that I would not have allowed such modification of my photograph. The real sad aspect of that infamous cover is that it came and went and the media (the TV stations and the newspapers) never made an issue of it. With the superior ability of present day PhotoShop such pictures can now me made so seamless that we can never really know how real a photograph is. I can quote here the best newspaper photographer in Vancouver, Nick Didlick who once told me, "The credibility of a photograph can no longer hinge on the reptuation of a publication. It depends on the reputation of the photographer. If you know the photographer then you can believe the photograph."

"Warren Buffet(2nd richest individual on the planet) believes it is not possible to have competing newspapers survive in a single market in the long-term. The reason is because each newspaper undercuts the other newspapers for advertising-revenue and profits are reduced, and over time newspapers keep losing money until most of them either go out of business or are purchased by one competitor." How then does one explain the fact that London, Paris, Rome etc have at least 6 dailies? To which I might add, several are left-wing? How is it that large circulation left wing papers exist there and not here?

How is it that large circulation left wing papers exist there and not here? ...that is 'the' question anarcho!. ...the quick and dirty answer is...insufficient support, a different class structure in some of those countries, more leftist & activist labor ...who are willing to put their asses and money on the line to get out a 'left' paper. ...but mostly...it is a lack of support/subscriptons. You can bet that all the internet e-zines are struggling. There is a simple way to reduce the power of this media empire, a collective action by a large number of pissed off, empowered populace to boycott those media, and those advertisers who support them. ...and then create alternatives, or support existing alternatives.

I wonder how applicable this is here??? If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism. Hunter S. Thompson

Dave- pleaded, plead and pled can all be used as past forms for the verb "to plead". In British English it may be different. My mum and I had a 10 minute argument once over the past participles "got" and "gotten". She had never heard of "gotten", and hates it- it's in my grammar books and the one I always use (I can't NOT use it). But- she grew up speaking British English.

What ever happened to the concept that journalism is practised by competent individuals who are beholden to no one? I ask this because Ms. Logan would appear to have accepted that the only possible reason why someone would enter this occupation is so they can work under the control of newspaper chains. Why is it that her view on the industry is filtered through this narrow corporate model rather than from the perspective of a young or new journalist. Are they told there is no such thing as independance in journaliam or are they too learning that money talks?

What this forum needs is a little more decorum. Is anyone the least bit curious why working journalists are not posting in The Tyee media threads? Even under an alias. If I'm your average Joe Bloggs journalist and read the elementry level comments from so many posters villfieing my profession then I'm unlikely to try and enter into the discussion and give you my views. If I am thought of as some species lower than loggers during the Clayquout protests then I am not likely to give you the insight you need to make informed complaint. Has anyone ever wondered why Media Democracy Day is only attended by those journalists who have taken the legendary Conwest buyout and not our working press? Finally if the Media Union is concerned about there members maybe they need to get down in the trenches and support their members rather than simply saying they can withhold their byline. Maybe the Media Union could hold a conference of their members to find out what life is like on the shop floor rather than the rarified air of their offices.

I guess I've had a reverence for the printed word -- and for good newspapers -- since I first began to care about the state of the world I was growing up into. As I evolved into a wildcat form of journalism myself, and into the study of history, I really thought I was a slit-eyed cynic who combed the newspapers and saw both facts and flaws. Even when I found the flaws, I believed that even the most wrong-headed publisher or bitter and twisted news editor were working from their own perceptions of the world around them. And I had no difficulty with granting them that right, providing others had the same rights to their world views, too. But now, the shock ... !

Never did I imagine ... well, here's the story, written up in The Independent (U.K.) ... and when I asked a Canadian working editor if he had ever heard of such a thing, he said yes, it does happen, even in Canada. Read it and weep:

Bush administration paying independent commentators By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 27 January 2005 The controversy over the Bush administration paying money to supposedly independent commentators reignited yesterday when it was revealed that another syndicated columnist had been paid to promote the president's policies.

Maggie Gallagher, a regular media commentator on so-called family values, admitted she had received an undisclosed payment of $21,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services to promote Mr Bush's $300m initiative to encourage marriage. She received a further $20,000 to write a report about the government initiative for a private organisation.

Writing in 2002, for instance, for the right-wing National Review Online, she said: "The Bush marriage initiative would emphasise the importance of marriage to poor couples and educate teens on the value of delaying child-bearing until marriage. [This could] carry big payoffs down the road for tax-payers and children."

Last year, in appearances on television, in columns and with newspapers she defended Mr Bush's proposal for a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Her website currently carries an article which claims evidence from Sweden suggests gay and lesbian married couples are more likely to divorce than heterosexual couples.

Contacted yesterday by The Independent, Ms Gallagher declined to comment, saying she had addressed the issue in a column posted on her website. In that column she wrote: "My first instinct is to say no... I had no special obligation to disclose this information. I'm a marriage expert. I get paid to write, edit, research, and educate on marriage. If a scholar or expert gets paid to do some work for the government, should he or she disclose that if he writes a paper, essay, or op-ed on the same or similar subject? If this is the ethical standard, it is an entirely new standard."

She added: "The real truth is that it never occurred to me. On reflection, I think... I should have disclosed a government contract... I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers."

The news about Ms Gallagher, president of the conservative Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, follows the earlier revelation that right-wing commentator Armstrong Williams was paid $241,000 to promote the government's education policy. Though he apologised, Mr Williams has lost a number of his columns as a result of the controversy.

Questioned about the practice of the White House making undisclosed payments to pundits, Mr Bush yesterday sought to put the blame on Mr Williams, saying he had "made a mistake". He then conceded that the Department of Education had also acted wrongly, adding: "All our Cabinet secretaries must realise that we are not paying commentators to promote our agenda. Our agenda must stand on its own two feet."

Steve Rendall, an analyst with the independent media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), said Mr Bush was trying to place blame on the commentators rather than accepting that it was the White House that paid them to support its policies.

"The real offence here is that readers or radio listeners are being defrauded in a sense lied to," he said. "They believe they are reading the words or hearing the opinion of an independent pundit but they are being propagandised to by a covert government agent."

He added: "Mr Bush says his policies can stand on their own but they apparently can not." The Independent (U.K.) Also today in The Globe & Mail, Toronto.

ONCE AGAIN I ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TOP SHOW UP AT HARBOUR CENTER, TOMORROW, MONDAY, AND TUESDAY AS WELL, CARRYING IF POSSIBLE THE FRONT PAGE OF THE DECEMBER 7, 2004 EDITION OF THE VANCOUVER SUN, WHICH CANWEST DELIBERATELY USED, COMPLETE WITH TWO INCH HEADLINES, TO MISLEAD BC VOTER'S ABOUT GORDON CAMPBELL HAVING IMPROVED BC'S ECONOMY. I ALSO RECCOMEND BRINGING PRINTOUTS OF PROVINCE AND SUN "SOUND-OFF THREADS THAT ENCOURAGE HATESPEECH ABOUT WOMEN AND ABOUT THE POOR. EDITORIAL PAGES IN WHICH THE FRASER INSTITUTE IS GIVEN A HUGE AMOUT OF EDITORIAL SPACE ARE ALSO PERTINENT, AS OUR EDITORIAL PAGE GIFT PODIUMS SPREADING LIES AND DISTORTIONS ABOUT UNIONS IN BC. ARGUMENTS SHOULD BE MADE AGAINST THE PREMIER'S BROTHER BEING ALLOWED TO CONTINUE TO WRITE PRAISING HIS BROTHER'S TEARING DOWN OF BC, WITH A MANUFACTURED CRISIS CAUSED BY AN UNAFFORDABLE TAXCUT AS HIS SOLE EXCUSE. IN THE OPINION OF MYSELF AND MANY OTHERS CANWEST SHOULD BE HELD LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MANY DEATHS OF DISADVANTAGED PEOPLE IN BC WHO MANY FEEL IT COULD BE PROVEN IN A COURT OF LAW ARE DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATHS OF MANY DISADVANTAGED PEOPLE IN BC. A NEWSPAPER MONOPOLY LIKE CANWEST'S IS DAMAGING THE PUBLIC GOOD AND IT IS EASILY DEMONSTRABLE THAT THEIR OVERWHELMING AND BLIND BIAS HAS DEPRIVED THE PEOPLE OF BC OF EVEN AN OPPOSITIIOON IN THE BC LEGISLATURE. THE PEOPLE OF BC NEED TO SAY NO TO A CANWEST MONOPOLY NOW AND FOREVER.

Caps lock....must....find....caps lock key....won't be heard on Tyee forum without it....

Tim: you'll find it at the far left of your keyboard. Oh, the irony.

NOT TO MENTION, THE INELUCTABLE MODALITY OF THE RISIBLE....LOVE THOSE CAPS!!!!

i gave up watching global months ago .. i couldn't stand the endless olympic commercials disguised as the news... im constantly amazed at the bias shown by the media in this province can you imagine the furor if this had been the n.d.p that had closed hospitals fired thousands criminal charges, raid on the leg bc rail... the economy's booming but thousands live on the streets, food banks have never been busier, hospitals have never been dirtier or more needed ... at that time the sun and the province would make sure some heads would have been on pikes on belville st. according to the standards that those outlets once held so high... our news is so carefully filtered for us here, it's all wonderful in the new era isn't it?

Mike Campbell did not resign about any dirty cover for Equity. He soldiered on until the magazine faded and was bought out by BC Business. There was a lawsuit (and counter suit) between Campbell and the publisher, Ronald Stern, that I believe was settled out of court. It had all to to with Campbell's salary (on his side) and Campbell's incompetence (on Stern's side).

The hypocrisy in these posts is very telling. You say you want both sides of the story, yet you support The Tyee which is more one sided than any other news source. I am sorry to say, but just because you don’t agree with something it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. The economy is improving that is not a lie. For every Fraser Institute column there is a column by Jim Sinclair or by the bus riders union on how there fight for lower fares is similar to the blacks fight to end segregation. Last time I checked Jim Sinclair’s views were slightly different than that of the Fraser Institute. You are the left wing extreme, maybe that is why everything seems so tilted towards the right. When you believe that socialism is the way to go and you think that Castro is a humanitarian and runs a great country any news source will seem right biased.

Anybody catch the lasted edition of Fifth Estate? This piece shows how the far right has monopolized American media. If you think things are bad here, just wait. It will get worse. Bill O'Reilly on Fox TV news in a true sign of the times. But one really funny guest he had on is Rachel Marsden (the stalker of men). The fact that he gave her credibility is hilarious. Americans really can be ignorant, but she said what he wanted to hear. Anybody else out there seen this??

I can't see that increased funding for the CBC is a solution to newspaper concentration. CBC reflects a strong liberal-urban bias, not necessarily the pulse of the nation. Which may be why its viewership is falling.

You forgot to include the Sun editorials in your list of Fraser Institute writings Rob. After all, Fazil et al do hail from there. Also, you forgot to include the likes of Jon Ferry and Mike Campbell. The day to day of the Sun and Province is very right-wing, you don't notice it maybe because you agree with it and think that's the centre. The rare guest piece from a leftie does not go far at all to balancing the day to day by right-wing editors and columnists as well as guests like the Fraser Institute.

Once again you don't have to agree with news for it to be news. Every union leader in this province gets ample editorial space. Just because everything is not dedicated to the fringe left doesn’t mean it’s biased, unlike your golden child here. Maybe you don’t notice all the left wing pieces because you agree with them. You are right that interest rates and resource prices are helping our economy, but FLY can you tell me a successful economy in the history of the world that didn’t rely on outside influences. There are just as many negative forces such as the high Canadian dollar and less than stellar US economy. Those are just convenient excuses for you and show that you have very little insight into how economies operate. Sorry a higher percentage of the population is working, let’s try the NDP method of driving investment and jobs out of our province then raise taxes so everyone who isn’t working can mooch of those who do. Entitlement is a wonderful thing.

Thank you thank you for this article. I haven't heard anything about the Senate hearings from any other source I'm sorry to say. Have you noticed how CKNW is practially all news from the U.S. much about things like Michael Jackson like this is really important stuff? But too lazy to report on Canadian important goings on in any depth or independence from the National Post reporting being copied.

I would support any of your suggested fixes and I absolutely agree that FULL FUNDING should be returned to the CBC. They do a wonderful job but have to operate on a shoe string. This is OUR OWN CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORP AND IF REAL CANADIANS HAD AN OUNCE OF SENSE THEY WOULD BE PROUD OF IT AND FIGHTING TO STOP ITS DEMISE AND DESTRUCTION BY THE CANWEST EMPIRE . There is a saying that whoever controls the media controls your mind, and thats exactly what they want. I've heard Norm Spectre say you'll never win an argument with a guy that controls the ink, Thats probably the most honest thing I;ve ever heard him say because you may get to say something once but they can keep chipping away at the truth and if you tell a lie over and over people will soon start to believe its true and the truth is the key to DEMOCRACY which is really in danger here and in the U.S. from the neo-con movement.

ch: The latest Fifth Estate was a great piece. CBC news covered Bill O'Reilly's big rant the day after it aired trashing The Fifth Estate, Canada, and the "communist CBC". Rachel Marsden was truly scary and laughable at the same time but I loved how the CBC reporter cornered Ann Coulter on her misinformation that the Canadian government had sent troops to Vietnam. What a stony, indignant stare she gave back to him as she just could not believe she was wrong. Long live the CBC, the Fifth Estate, and articles like one the above by Donald Gutstein.

Rob states," a higher percentage of the population is working", and this may or may not be true. However the concept of "employment-rates", doesn't accurately reflect how many hours of employment an individual recieves, how much compensation an individual recieves for each hour of operation, or numerous other indicators. There are many shortcomings of this small-picture approach, it is misleading to rely on a single statistic(which may or may not be true) to reflect the state of society, since it completely ignores the big- picture.

Yeah but what is you hate both the tabloid bile we get from the Asper Empire and the self indulgent whining of both the CBC and sites such as this one?

Rob is not telling the truth. A higher percentage of the population is not working. Count the jobs lost that are not being replaced. What is happening is that many people are juggling 2-3 or 4 part-time McJobs and still not making ends meet, but that shows up as 3 jobs in the Fiberals'--and obviously Rob's--ledger. The Tyee is not biased. It's remarkably objective. I am Left, and, alas, The Tyee is NOT Left. You want Left, you have to read The People's Voice and ezines like LabourStart, Green-Left, and others. Rob's been sucking up Black-ASPer's Pro-American Faith-based Marketplace propaganda for so long, he doesn't recognize objectivity when he reads it. The "economy" is not booming, judging by the closed-up stores all over BC. The food banks can't keep up with demand. Wages have gone down hill, NO Benefits and NO PENSIONS! We've lost our precious BC Hydro, BC Rails and our illustrious Premier plans on selling everything else we own before he exits stage right. He's made us ready for the imperialist Bush-American takeover. May he and his supporthosers rot in hell.

I am a former hospital worker. B.C. born and educated! I've raised my 2 wonderful kids by myself. I lost my job without a nickle in severance - because I did not work 10 consecutive pernament years - because I had children! Now I have a mcjob at an American owned big box, and average 30 hours a week with an insane schedual. Because I work more than 20 hours a week I do NOT qualify for retraining via E.I. (How can anyone even pay rent on 20 hours a week at $10 per hour!) I am an intelligent, hard-working, law abiding citizen, but I will have no pension, own nothing, and expect to retire on skid row with a shopping cart. B.C is only good for the wealthy and well connected. It is a whore who bends over and sells out to any foreigner with money. I am so sick of the lying canwest media monopoly! They do not tell the truth about or for the real people of B.C. because they are not!

The situation with the mass media is grotesque. Here in Montreal, the Gazette is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Bushites, yet 90% of the population are opposed to the Iraq war, Bush and the neoconazis. It is rank injustice and undemocratic to have a minority use its financial clout in an attempt to bully us into accepting its line on things. Just a couple of thoughts. Perhaps the mass media ought to be treated as the telephone lines. No one prevents you from saying what you want on the phone. Mass media outlets should be seen in a similar manner, as uncontrolled, open to all opinions. The owners could control the quality of input, but not the content. Another possibility could be to demand that the board of directors of mass media media companies be stake holder boards representing the general populace. This would allow for the democratization of the media.

First of all, I would thank Don Gutstein and The Tyee for telling the public these hearings are taking place. I did see an ad in the Globe&Mail in the past couple of days, but that really doesn't provide a lot of advance notice to people who don't live in the Lower Mainland. Too bad these senators couldn't simply suffer a privation or two and travel outside Vancouver. I say that because the majority of British Columbians are left to either endure the shallow, immature hometowner attitudes of the freebie weeklies or tri-weeklies or search the net. Unfortunately web surfing doesn't help on local issues, so for people serious about issues it means being your own reporter or hoping your neighbour's version of events isn't filtered through too many lenses.***Rob, your optimism about the economy smells of something Michael Campbell likes to play with.

I'm a UK trained journalist who moved out here in May. Ever since I've felt like I've been beating my head against a brick wall - the media here is so closed and insular, I'm scraping by doing freelance, but I really miss the diversity of the English press. If Vancouver is what happens with a media monopoly, then it should be illegal... I've never felt so ill informed and out of touch from the rest of the world.

Miss M. thankyou for your complimentary words. It hasn't always been easy but, all things considered, the hard work has been worth it.

Try and relax into that feeling of being ill-informed and out of touch. Breathe deeply.

Soon you'll find yourself able to carry out your day believing, as BCer's must, that we are the best informed people in the country. We are the best informed people in the country. We are the best informed people in the country. We are the best informed people in the country. We are the best informed people in the country. We are the best informed people in the country. We are the best informed people in the country. We are the best informed people in the country.

Although the Senate Committee studying Canadian news media will have moved on to Calgary by tomorrow, it is not too late for Vancouverites and others in B.C. to make a written submission (see addresses and phone numbers at end of above article). Nor is it too late to contact people you know in Calgary, Regina and Winnipeg to urge them to appear before the committee that's headed their way. People are not going to learn about the hearings from mainstream media, whose owners have no interest in publicizing the Committee's work, which could, in the end, spell bad news for them. We need more alternative media like The Tyee (and thank goodness for this uncensored public forum — something the CanWest papers are not), but the Senate Committee is probably Canadians' last hope for undoing these media empires and monopolies and restoring democracy and diversity to our mainstream media. As a journalist (editor) of more than 25 years, a CanWest "refugee" and now web editor/master of two sites run by a media union, I urge you to go ahead and post your comments on media ownership here, but then take a few seconds to copy and paste them into email and send them to the Senators. Please. Despite what a previous poster indicated, these hearings are not about competition for advertising dollars. The Committee's mandate is to "Examine and report on the current state of Canadian media industries; emerging trends and developments in these industries; the media's role, rights and responsibilities in Canadian society; and current and appropriate future policies relating thereto." More specifically, "The Committee will be asking what, given changes in the media in recent years — including globalization, technological change, convergence and concentration of ownership — is the appropriate role of public policy in helping to ensure that Canadian news media remain healthy, independent and diverse." While it's true that newspapers, radio and television stations live or die by their ability to attract advertising dollars, the first and most important obligation of a media owner is to serve the public interest. As has been well-documented by the web site YourMedia.ca, the Aspers use all of the media properties within their CanWest Global empire to further their personal and political ideologies and business interests. Their own journalists, who are forbidden by corporate edict from publicly criticizing the hand that feeds them ( http://www.tngcanada.org/EN/news/2004/040226_mng_gag_lifted.shtml ), believe that concentration of ownership and convergence has been nothing but bad for journalism in this country and, consequently, Canadians and democracy. That was the finding of a poll conducted last year by TNG Canada, one of the country's largest media unions, which presented its findings to the Senate Committee (http://www.tngcanada.org/EN/news/2004/040311_tng_survey.shtml ). Further, the Senators heard from the Canadian Media Guild and the Periodical Writers Association of Canada that media concentration was causing economic starvation ( http://www.tngcanada.org/EN/news/2004/040309_cmg_pwac_senate.shtml ) for the country's freelancers and further curtailing diversity of opinion. Despite the fact these representatives of Canada's journalists revealed a deeply disturbing glimpse into the country's newsrooms, their testimony was reported nowhere but on the Guild's web sites. As previous posters noted, the U.S. government last week abandoned (for now) its quest to loosen rules restricting media ownership. The media watchdog web sites that organized public protests against media concentration and cross-media ownership had only to point north of the border to alert people to the dangers. It was an incredibly huge victory for People Power. How sad it would be if Canadians did not take this rare opportunity to tell Parliamentarians what they expect, deserve and demand from their own media, even if it takes government interference to ensure they get it. Sitting around the kitchen table bitching about it just ain't going to cut it, folks.

Someone told me that this website has been created by those very neo-cons with the diabolical intent of flushing out any opposition voices by tracing their email addresses. THIS WEBSITE IS A TRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (website - trap, get it gna,gnaa (family guy laff)) Has anyone noticed how generous the liberals have suddenly become? I can hardly wait to see how canwest grovels and mewls re the fibs latest cynical attempts to purchase the may election. New school funding two days ago and then today some paltry legal aid funding. ooooooooooooooo thanks gordo!!! WAC Bennett said (i think) "put a rock in their shoe and by the time you pull it out they'll have forgotten where it came from in the first place!" ANYONE WHO FALLS FOR THESE PLOYS DESERVES TO HAVE GORDO BACK. By the way I think that Surrey-Panorama byelection really scared the sh*t out of the fibs because they are really bending over backwards to buy the election. I think they're running a bit scared right now. To Carencam who's yet another victim of the real new era, as opposed to that propaganda crap canwest slung at us ad infinitum, I hope you get everyone you know to vote. As much as I wish to be green I think we need to be realistic and practical and make getting rid of nixon and his bush-league crooks our number one priority. VOTE NDP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (And if they betray us I'll start my own fu#$in' party)

For anyone who wants to contribute to the Senate Committee's ruminations emails may be sent to

You folks are a tad silly.

This is where prorep,stv or any other system of electing politicians WILL NOT WORK to change ANYTHING!!!

Unless you find a way to put a leash on the folks you elect (or participate in an election), nothing changes in the way elected officials are corrupted.

Easy recall, BINDING initiative legislation, and referenda are the ONLY way that you can control politics issue by issue.

If the general population can look at individual items of provincial policy, the collective wisdom of good initiative will win out with the people.

This senate committee thing ain't gonna do nuthin' to change the status quo.

By the way...you may want to vote no to BC-STV too. This will only make a bad thing worse.

So Marysue you say I’m not telling the truth then back that up with rhetoric. Yes the Tyee is remarkably biased, and everyone else seems to know that but you. It’s funny being lectured on economic issues from people who think raising taxes increases investment in our province. Yes your rhetoric is good it is to bad it’s based on fallacies. Actually Sue disposable income per capita linked to 1997 dollars has increased every year the Liberals have been in power. During the NDP’s first 8 years there was no increase or a decrease in disposable income for British Columbians. You can look at these stats however you like, but I’m proving my point with something other than Jim Sinclair fed rhetoric. What are you going to say? I’m a bad person, I should rot in hell. Those are typical responses from someone who doesn’t have anything intelligent to say and has to resort to personal attacks. Since all of you out there seem to think that the economy is doing so terrible, back those statements up with FACT. Not some I was born, I deserve a high wages and gold plated benefits rant that always happens.

Rob,I will speak from my personal experience. I am a mid-low income earner and I can tell you that my net tax/user fee burden has increased substantially since your pals took over. I dont mind paying taxes if they are spent to take care of people and the environment. But when i drive down the sea to sky highway, where hundreds of millions are being spent to line the pockets of already wealthy people, so they can party in a place where i'll never go, while people eat rethermalized mush, IF they're lucky enough to get a hospital bed in the first place, I have to say something. And that something is: "SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!!"

ROB: Vancouver Sun, December 7, 2004. Canwest used TWO INCH HEADlinres in a deliberate and pathetic attempt to bury the fact that BC lost 22,600 fulltime jobs last year. The two inch headline also proclaimed "BC's Unemployment Rate Lowest Since 1981." BUT, when the article is actually READ, what do you know, it turns out that the umemployment rate is STILL UNCHANGED AT 6.9%, the bc liars have simply STOPPED Counting those who have given up looking for work. ADD in BC's eligibilty for equalization payments for 2001 to 2003, given only to failed economies, (and please don't even bother arguing that it means something else!) and you have irrefutable PROOF that the BC liars are an economic failure. We should also be ALL wondering why given the BC Rail scandal and THE MULTIPLE connections between the federal and the provincial liberals, why PAUL MARTIN is so anxious to prop up the BC liars. If people have a strong enough stomach, I highly reccomend today's David Schreck article, in which he outlines how the BC liars are keeping TWO SETS OF BOOKS FOR EDUCATION, and how they continue to not even fund heating for BC schools, or programs for disabled children. Just imagine the Canwest reaction if the NDP was doing this!!

Rob, why are you calling what you write "facts" and then using the word "rhetoric" for anyone who disagrees with you? What you are writing is right-wing nonsense. This really is a fact.

Rob says “Actually Sue disposable income per capita linked to 1997 dollars has increased every year the Liberals have been in power.” Where is your proof rob that the liberals have done anything to increase per capita income, unless you are earning more then 60k a year you lose to user fees from what I have read! Do the increased user fees folks are paying to the government get factored into your data? If people are doing so well why do I see so many people on the streets in Victoria? Why are so many Northerners losing everything they have worked all their lives for? With the exception of the developers, realtors and contractors building, and selling, all these retirement houses to rich Albertans easterners and americans coming here to retire with full B.C. Medical benefits I don’t see much happening in the way of job growth, maybe you would like to enlighten us! The northeast oil and gas sector is manned by Albertans in fact if you want a job there you pretty much have to go to Alberta to get hired! So again where is your proof?

Now that I have more time, I should explain why I feel there is nonsense in Rob's comments.

Average disposable income does not count for anything. You have to look at the median disposable income at the very least. The median disposable income in BC has gone down with all of the BC Liberal tax increases and user fees.

Just because the rich have skewed the average way up, does not mean a thing. They have pushed the disposable income average up, but they represent a small number of votes. The wealthy with actual increased disposable incomes do not all vote for the BC Liberals. Some of them are actually preferring the NDP.

The same thing applies to all of the polls which assume a $10,000 increase in median BC annual family income since the last census. The pollsters are gathering data on the assumption that there is a certain number of families have an income above $60,000. If this assumption is incorrect, then the statistical "tie" that the polls have been reporting is actually a projected NDP victory. The polls attempt to balance the number of subjects taken from each income category based on what they believe is representative of the population. If the pollsters are actually over-representing the higher income BC Liberal voters, the poll results are invalid.

Rob, when it's your turn to line up in the hospital emerg hallway, let us know what it's like...

rob, still waiting for you to back up your rhetoric with researchable data from a non-biased source!

Today I was walking down the street and Gordon Campbell walked up, punched me in the face (actually the liquor on his breath was almost enough to knock me out by itself) and then took all the money out of my wallet! BUT HE GAVE ME BACK A WHOLE 5 dollars!!!. AND BOY, WAS I GRATEFULL! I don't care if BC is now a federal welfare case eligible for equalization payments at least 3 years out of 4, because I got MY TINY, TAINTED, MULTIPULLY SNATCHED BACK TAXCUT AND AFTER USER FEES, NEW HIDDEN TAXES, INCREASED MEDICAL PREMIUMS, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, my taxcut came to nearly $3.50. I'm proud to support a government that MANUFACTURES ARTIFICIAL CRISES with unaffordable ideologically driven taxcuts that have turned BC into a federal welfare BASKET CASE, and it really thrills me to see women, children, the disabled and the poor assaulted while jimmy pattison beams about how wonderful his tainted money is at taxpayer expense. (pattison's company's actually hired LESS PEOPLE LAST YEAR than the year before) In short: DDDDDDUUUUUUUHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Big guy, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to avoid using CAPS when I write scurrilous nonsense.

And let's not leave out the wisdom to inform Tyee posters WHY they're being censored, what's libellious, and what is not. And why the Tyee appears scared stiff of legimate criticism of BC's judiciary. An explanation of why "Too Many Georges," shutting out (deliberately??) all other fiction submisions would ALSO be nice, and sorry sometimes I just have bust a few caps in people, especially pretentious individuals who insist on preserving the continuing OLYMPIAN DIVIDE, between Tyee editors and posters, (MEDIA REFORM -REMEMBER???...try EXPLAINING YOUR REASONS FOR CENSORING POSTS SOMETIMES. WHY NOT WRITE AN ARTICLE ON WHAT CONSTITUTES A LEGALLY LIABLE POST AND WHAT DOESN'T?? YES, the Tyee is a BIG improvement on other media, but Tyee posters have built the Tyee as well, often with their own hard work. I have sen PLENTY of rightwing posts get by here that were MORALLY indefensible. Some say, "don't roll around with pigs, you'll only get dirty." Personally I always LIKED THE SMELL OF ROAST PORK! Nor will I tolerate mindless rightwing assaults on the disadvantaged. Try treating Tyee posters like ADULTS, rather than mere recipients of your Olympian decrees, define what constitutes libel, and what doesn't and you may be surprised at the maturity of our posts. An ANSWER from the editor, rather than a deafening silence to THIS POST, would be an excellent start....

Oh Rob?? Where are you? Had your heart attack yet? (and I mean the the actual myocardial infarction, as we we all know you have no 'heart')??

"......," = foaming at the finger tips

make that: frothing...

Only cowards refuse to identify themselves...

Cowards, and people who think attacking the disabled is funny, which are you, "ed.??" Speak up, and don't be afraid to use capitals, from Olympus, or elsewhere...no heuvos rancheros, these days, that's why we may well lose the next election, eddie, ever face any thugs eddie, with nothing but your own courage? No, I didn't think so...that calm enough for ya?

you'll probably be wanting to use the ol' deletin' key ed, you know, it's an even WORSE habit than the caps key...adios.

Can west is dominate in lower B.C. ,yes, but it must profit because people view it,or the advertisers wouldn't pay to finance the screeds /tvads and thus lays the crux of the reality. If there is profit in another view/leftist paper par exemple it would appear because a smart entrepreneur would see the profit.At least that is how i am told the invisible hand of Adam Smith works.The greed of the individual creates the venues stimulated by the profit motive.The CBC is not worried about profit only faning at the feet of manadrins in Ottawa. Without the CBC an adavntage would disappear,some say an unfair advantage being that the taxpayers are forced to support it whether they want to or not.I feel violated being forced to pay for the CBC,the supporters seem so entrenched that an adversarial feel emerged in the last30 years and distain and disrespect for the taxpayers asif they have a choice. The taxpayers have no choice but pay taxes or not,simple.How the Ottawa denziens give away money is not a taxpayer's choice.So corruption like this happens when the CBC has no market forces "to fawn at the feet of mammon". THE CBC should be sold off and the assests refunded to the taxpayer,its job is done,but the senate of course is in cahoots with these CBCers a great place to get huge paychecks with no possiblity of open competition,all cronies need apply,espec. relatives of MP's And GST Senators.Corruption indeed gains inertia inCanada ,my heart weeps for Canada ,I thinks it's done for.

As opposed to all the wonderfull "news shows" on Canwest Global about how stephen harper will be the next prime ministrer of Canada, pee-yew? I don't think so, the CBC has seen better days but compared to CTV and Canwest global, ESPECIALLY Canwest Global, the CBC is like the Italian Renaissance. I DEFY you to name one QUALITY CANWEST CANADIAN PRODUCTION. There are none. Personally I love Airfarce, Da Vinci's Inquest, and other QUALITY CANADIAN PROGRAMMING. CBC could be more critical of the feds though, especially harper and Martin.

CBC, especially CBC radio is a national railway of sorts. It may run off the tracks once in awhile but it connects this vast country in ways that would otherwise be impossible. Programs like As it Happens, Ideas, The Fifth Estate, Passionate Eye, Hot Air...are in a league of their own. Where else can you find politics, the arts, jazz, Finkleman venting on the demise of certain flavours of Lifesavers, Enright, Marylou, Tremonte et al...hell, I even like Mary Walsh's book review show on CBC TV, though Mary chats far too much.

Diversity is worth fighting for, Canwest loves convergence because it guarantees sameness, control, and minimum risk. It's very safe and bland and similar from outlet to outlet, like the ubiquitous shopping mall. Gutstein has some great suggestions - starting with restoring CBC'c core funding to it's historical levels.

I suppose you could always land a job writing spam. You're free to add this site to your portfolio.

Another devastating rebuttal from eddie...

The Conservatives want to spend billions of dollars on military, enriching corporations and themselves while destroying the incomes of union households. They also want to get rid of any oppositon by destroying the CBC. The Senate should take action against the Nazi-style CanWest propaganda machine operating in BC. Why are we, in BC, allowing a Winnipeg-based corporation feed us all of this simplistic pap?

your voice is valid - they're just hard to hear when you try to be so LOUD and bitchy, that's all

Senate take action? Will someone please explain to Sue how Parliament works--or, as the case may be, doesn't work?

The trouble with rightwingers is that they continually confuse witticisms with...twitticisms.

Why don't you explain it yourself, bud carlos? I get the humour, but do you have any idea what you are talking about?

Allan: You said "Are they (young jounalists) told there is no such thing as independance in journaliam or are they too learning that money talks?"

From past experience working at theUbyssey (aka: "the official sutdent papaer of ubc") I can tell you that the brain washing starts early. Even before you're ever paid for your work. On more than one occasion I remember having to fight tooth and nail with the news editor to run a piece without first changing some critical aspect of it. The thing is, this wasn't that long ago (6 yrs. ago). I had balls to stand up for my stories but what about those other little guys who just did what they were told? It's true, with the change of editor came a change in opinion on what was acceptable but the bottom line is that the brainwashing starts there. All those young journalists may have great intentions but they were beatten down and out of them in the first few months of school, never mind work.

Marina: that's not necessarily brainwashing. Remember, the strongest human urge is not to eat, not to procreate, but to change someone else's writing...

You oughta know Tim, heh, heh...

Why would I want to change any of your writing, hombre? You do a perfect job of making an ass of yourself without any help.

Fer crying out loud, Tim, stop baiting the poor sap! It's painful enough to read him without provocation...

I did call it brainwashing and that was probably not the best word but, there's a problem when students can't have their own views printed on a campus paper that they swet their blood into (and trust me, that's we did, every day - weekends included). You're not getting paid to work yet and they're already trying to control what you write. As far as I'm concerned, if that's not brainwashing, at the very least it's control of the media. Either way you look at it, it's still not a good thing.

Agreed - but I guess I'm a little mystified by the idea of gatekeepers in campus media. My university paper days of only a few years ago were very much anything goes -- as long as you could back it up as a news story and as long as you were able to fill the newshole in the opinion section. I'm sorry to hear your experience wasn't as good.

Marina, whether it's called brainwashing or unwarrented censureship, I don't believe it's the duty of journalism profs, or any professors to condition you to the shortcoming of corporate expectations.

You have every right to be bitter about your experience. As I stated earlier, when a reporter with the required skills is granted a degree from a university, that young professional should not be hobbled by expectations that she will have to toe a certain corporate agenda.

Students should be made aware of the realities of the profession, but writing to please your editor, publisher or newspaper chain owner isn't a given and any teacher who would push that perspective ought to get out of the business.

We don't need recorders, we need reporters, independant reporter who write honestly for their audience.

As long as you keep an open mind, strive for fairness and objectivity you shouldn't have to be watching your back lest you upset the publisher's golfing partner.

Well said guys. I'm still bitter of the experience but it has by no means scared me away. If anything else, I'm just more encouraged to try to make a difference.

Go independent media! GO!

Marina, just keep fighting for what you believe in. We need more gutsy girls like you out there pushing the suits out of their comfort spots in the news media.

You're fighting out of your weight class, Timmy, and you come across as a conceited know-it-all, in any case. I believe I'll just ignore the ping-pong ball of your tiny opinion for now. What a sad pass when someone believes condescension is a substitute for substance...mentored any suicides lately?

Hey Bud Carlos, do you think that the announcement of expanded local CBC news has anything to do with the work that the Senate did? I listened for CKNW's response this morning and Frosty Forst (however it is spelled) just referred to it as more spending of our taxing paying dollars and he actually refered to it as billions and billions in spending. Hyperbole from the pit of biased reporting at CKNW. I know that he meant it in a humorous way, but everything is fraudulent right-wing reporting at CKNW and the expansion of local CBC news is a welcome source of respectable local coverage.