The message hre, in its broadest sense is that big media can publish any damn thing they want to publish and still make a hefty profit (which I think is what this article is saying).

That's the dumbing-down content of even a respected newspaper like Toronto Star. In fact, the weekend editions of the Star are about 6 lbs. of fatuous, superficial sections such as Condo Life, Shopping, Fashion, which are thrown into the recycle bin unread. A sheer waste of time and newsprint. What's that all about?

Which, come to think of it, leads to another issue: where's the accountability when big media fails to report important news or puts a mendacious warp onto the news they do publish? And because of their sole claim to the market, their bias seems (to Easterners, for example) to be the whole truth of the situation (in B.C., for example).

It just occurs to me that I, as reader, feel left out of this story by Marc Edge ... which is almost always how I feel after reading headline news or columnists' opinions in CanWest Global newspapers.

So who speaks for the public interest? and what recourse is there for the public needing better information?

Actually, I think that the death spiral of the Newsprint has more to do with the fact that they are so closely wedded to ad dollars that they censor themselves or hire those who won't "offend" and so you only get mealy-mouthed stories and/or Official-sources stories.

this turns off a large part of the popultion who are looking for reality in their newspapers - while the newspapers in their mad rush into the arms of media buyers ( I do work in an ad agency after all) move into a fantastical version of reality - no swear words, no offending religious/ideological loons and pushing that in there are two sides to a story when evidence-based reality shows only one.

I've sdaid it before andI'll say it again - for $30,000 plus living expenses I can start a national weekly that will destroy other so-called news media in this country (and when I say weekly I do not mean an entertainment-thing like the Straight, Now, Mirror).

There's a deep hunger for real news and information in this country - you just have to say no to advertorial control - including no outside institutional control such as unions, churches, biz dev assoc, etc.

Marc - some pretty good insight here. Though, you and I both know this isn't so relevant. The migration from print to digital media has occurred much more rapidly in the United States. Americans are much more likely to own a mobile phone, a blackberry and have powerhouses like Fox, Yahoo! and CNN driving the migration.

In Canada, the evolution has been much slower - in part because of the control Can West has over the media. However, the evolution is occuring and profit margins are coming down. Furthermore, even if margins remain consistent - profits will come down if sales do.

Print media is a dying business. I've even heard that the Washington Post is now giving its newspapers away. Now, this isn't to say that the media companies will die - Canwest has successfully established Canada.com - BCE has successfully established globeinvestor and globeandmail.com....

The transition is there and let's not ignore it. As our world become digital - old school infrastuctural companies will have to adapt. Telus now earns more than 50% of its revenues from its mobility division. Its landline business, while still a cash cow is being eroded.

New media companies like Yahoo! have dominated and will continue to do so as their video business grows. Google recently purchased YouTube and it continues.

MyBrain.........Go for it and I hope you'll succeed. I wouldn't pay a penny for today's dailies'let alone subscribe, or even reading one on the line. They're nothing more than boring, propaganda garbage in the best Goebbelsian tradition.

Ed Deak.

MyBrainIsOnFire:
Please do, and if you don't have the startup capital, perhaps you can advertize in the Can-West Global for donations. LOL - just kidding! I never buy the mainstream stuff, but I pick the odd free one up and I check out their headlines on-line to see what swill they are forcing into the minds of the masses. If you create the paper you say you can, I will buy it. Put together a buiness plan and approach a credit union: maybe they can help.

Excellent article. I will order Marc's book right away. Can't wait to read it. The underlying worry is that monopoly media ownership is particularly bad for democracies. Narrow points of view are bad for public policy. When you consider how much advertising Gordon Campbell does with CanWest Global and David Black's monopoly on BC's weeklies, you begin to see how these narrow interests begin to form a cohisive, narrow message. No wonder the majority views of Canadians are no longer reflected in our daily newspapers!

Lynn, please excuse me for picking up your comments on another thread (about The Legislature Raids) and re-posting them here, as they're so appropos:

Tieleman has got it wrong when it comes to his defense of Baldrey, Palmer and others. They have been pathetic.

In 2004, Joy MacPhail, especially, and Jenny Kwan singlehandedly took on this government over the legislature raids. They deserve credit for what a much larger Opposition has failed to do under their present leadership. Read the hansard from 2004 onwards. There are pages and pages of astute questions and valuable research. Joy was relentless in her questioning...and quite alone in doing so.

All of this largely went unreported and the questions and concerns this Opposition of Two raised were not followed up or investigated...not by Baldrey, not by Palmer and not by anyone in the msm. The legislature simply was not reported on in any kind of depth...in fact hardly at all.

This is about filtering the news rather than questioning it or investigating it. Reporters have too often become complicit in the subterfuge of those they work for. I'm tired of their apologists...as this province has been allowed to be sold from underneath us all. Are journalists to be excluded from the ethical choices all people must make in their place of work? Since when is shilling defensible?

It has been through articles in The Tyee and Vive le Canada over the years and a number of excellent citizen journalist blogs, presently exemplifeid by BC Mary's Legislature Raids blog that this story has remained alive.

The msm press has failed the citizens of this province miserably. The proof is in the pudding...where one privatization after another goes largely un- investigated. "Reported on" to a degree, yes... questioned and investigated, no. Where are the in depth investigative articles about what is presently happening with BC Hydro and the run of river IPP's. This is an enormous story...concerning water, power and our sovereignty. The public is largely unaware of what is happening which, of course, is the plan..reporters becoming simply docile corporate facilitators in this regard.

Anyway, if you read the next part of that interview with Gore Vidal...he suggests these are the end days of newspapers....which perhaps is a good thing if this is what now passes for journalism. As people question more and assume more and more of the responsibility of getting the needed info out there...the press's failure to do so is ironically evolving into the people's strength.
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Wish I'd said that. Thanks, Lynn.

The demography is the message.

That's happening with The National Post... at least at Langara College where students can pick up the rag for free. I suspect they're doing it at many colleges and universities... must help pad the circulation numbers.

*Insert obvious joke about the Post being so bad they have to give it away.*

Marc Edge, you are living up to your last name! Excellent story and topic.

Circulation is dropping for two fold reasons as Marc has pointed out:
- Internet is the next media outlet to take a piece of the media pie.
- Canwest Global is reporting biased news and readers are being forced to look for the truth elsewhere, as Canwest is simply not reporting the most important stories of all. What are British Columbians missing?

Try an empty legislature. Who could let this one pass? Only Canwest.

Try M & A's. The Canadian corporate halls are full of echo's as we are being bought out by the U.S. left, right and center. The numbers are staggering. No stories.

As BC MARY has mentioned, WHAT HAPPENED TO BC's FRAUDs OF THE CENTURY? The cases against Birk, Vasi and Birk over BC rail... the sale of BC Gas to Terasen for David Emersons Terasen directorship... the recent BC Hydro signings to buy power from Campbells private corporate friends... The fish farms going to Campbell's "friends in a climate where the DFO's propaganda and depleted fish stocks are coming home to roost... Global warming... the upcoming congressional elections and their impacts in Canada... the unification of Mexico/USA/Canada in all fronts, including currency, defense, security, media, justice, political institutional structure, all through GAT talks which few have heard of... and perhaps the most important stories of all.

- The entire whitehouse being full of war defense contractors, et. el. Carlyle and Haliburton directors, chairmen and CEO's, with leaders like Tony Blair in the loop, all mongering for war. Needless to say, the Saudi's (Bin Laden family to be precise) and Larry Silverstein (owner of the WTC's) send a message of conspiracy to create 911 for war and WTC insurance fraud. Few know that Silverstein is one of three founders of Carlyle...

- The endless lies that the U.S. has promoted through propaganda from our so called trusted media to make war for U.S. ownership of any resources worth owning or controlling, as they are now in Iraq, Afghanistan and soon, Iran.

- The Republican coup that has been going on in Canada since Harper took over the leadership of the Conservative party since stepping down from his 5 year presidency of the NCC, (National Citizens Coalition) with the NCC's agenda there on their website for all to see... to own and control the markets that the U.S. does not presently have access to, to own and control. At risk? Public healthcare, wheatboard, all crown corporations including the CBC, of which, the fifth estates most recent story of oil companies dictating environmental policies in the whitehouse was pulled... one doesn't need to spell "deregulation" of current banking and insurance laws that limit foriegn ownership of these same essential services, among all others at risk.

We are currently under a Republican run coup in our own country, and the media Canada wide won't touch it from fear of legal lawsuits, political pressure, smears, and being financially run into the ground, among the more obvious motives that Canwest has... to encourage the takeover of Canada's markets by the U.S. Can west is Israeli owned and U.S. controlled, after all. And soon, perhaps the largest story of all is coming. Its not global warming and the whitehouses denial of sound science... again. Its not Harpers plan that coincides with the big three auto makers in america being forced to lower emissions and fuel consumptions through regulation in 3 to 5 years, in other words, Harper and Co. do nothing. Its not the dirty smears of truth and ugly politics on both sides of the border. Its electronic voting and we'll know very soon wether or not the U.S. is still democratic. The last U.S. presidential election showed through its courts deciding who leads, that it is not.

All of these stories no one gets to hear, thanks to CanWest.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0218,gray,34384,6.html

Re: correction, make that David Rubenstein, not Larry Silverstein.

Re Newspapers et al:

The local (free)ones seem to be glorified wrap for the advertisements and flyers contained within .

One day I may pursue a pet project and cut out(i) the ads and (ii) "the news" and weigh them separately . Pretty good idea which way the scales will tip.

First thing my (University degree holding) spouse does is go after the flyers...sales..specials...coupons etc. (Reads the papers later). These are the lifeblood /excuse for the print media, if not all media.

McLuhan said that "The media is the message" , but what message do WE give the media ???...the eternal question of if they, the media, have shaped us or simply react to how we shaped them ? Info overload, short attentions spans, consumerism....?

Personally, I like the serialized "in depth " stories and investigations. However, it often ends up same old same old regardless of the topic and the depth of coverage.

I once talked to a local reporter and he bluntly told me the stories on par with things like "offleash dogs vs on dogs on leashes" when the two clash will run in the paper for weeks , based a lot on local responses ie Letters to the Editor.

Other more important issues, unfortunately get a one- shot coverage...NEXT !!!!

It is time for an inquiry.

Because of legal issues (I don't want to be sued), I'm not claiming a case of checkbook journalism, or even one of advertorial impropriety, however, you have to wonder how a news company that purports to be professional, can allow something like the following to happen. Read on and make up your own mind regarding what you think is transpiring here in our Vancouver/Whistler regions.

If B.C.'s Auditor General, Arn van lersel, and NDP Olympic critics, Carol James and Harry Bains, are truly serious about making 2010 work for our community, they would be well advised to investigate immediately, and in an official capacity, how local media manages Olympic information. A good place to start would be the Canadian Association of Journalists.

How many times have you heard VANOC or the government tell us that we have to take ownership of the Games, and that all of Canada must invest in, as well as share the accolades?

According to them, the Canadian public are investors and shareholders in the Olympics. If what they say is true, then as investors we also have rights. If anyone who makes money off the Games, media or otherwise, should infringe or unduly influence these rights, they should be held accountable.

Hypothetically, if the Vancouver Sun or one of their sister publications becomes an official Olympic newspaper sponsor, then the issue of leaving out critical information that Olympic shareholders need in order to make decisions about their investment is similar in many ways to what transpired regarding the promotion of information that Nortel or Enron executives managed in their efforts to manipulate their respective shareholders. And if executives of these infamous public companies go to prison and are fined for artificially boosting sales projections and stock value, I see no reason why Olympic partners are also not held to the same standards when they recommend investments based on misleading information.

In early 2006, the Vancouver Sun reported the same Olympic story twice, using different reporters, but both times they failed to include critical information that was in the public domain.

Now, once more, on September 28, 2006, Vancouver Sun reporter Jeff Lee (one of the reporters involved in the incident described above), falls, or is pushed, or is led, into a common Olympic media conundrum. Although there is no evidence, direct or otherwise, and I am not suggesting that checkbook journalism played a role regarding Lee's work, the accusation is not a foreign term to Lee's parent company, CanWest Global. In mid 2006, reporter Vivian Smith was fired allegedly because she wrote a critical story regarding the Victoria tourist industry. It was a convoluted mess. She was fired by her employer, The Times Colonist, and then rehired five weeks later by her parent company, CanWest Global (who also own the Sun). There was no investigation by the CRTC or local governments, and the news company offered no explanation. The story was also completely buried by local mainstream media.

Read more here . . .
http://www.olyblog.com/06/ShawLeeS09282006.shtml#INQUIRY

I doubt if a letter writing campaign to CRTC for allowing this travesty of our democratic right to the truth!
But it's worth a try.
As we can all see that CanWest with their trivial non news along with Global TV absolutely nothing about organized crime in the B.C. Legislature and going all the way to the federal liberals not a word?
Mark my words we are being sold out as a sovereign country OUR CANADA WE STAND ON GUARD FOR THEE
ALCOHOLIC Gordon Campbell is selling out our PUBLICLY OWNED AND VERY PROFITABLE RESOURCES!
How did Gordon Campbell escape having a criminal record for drunk driving?
He should have lost his premiership and stepped down in disgrace but he has no criminal record WHY?
This site will open at the end of November and should help bring back OUR DEMOCRACY and OUR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS to free and open media, it's time that our investigative reporters took back their right to FREE SPEECH!
http://www.iwtnews.com/home

as far as Harper is concerned he and Gordon Campbell and all their cronies should all be bought up for treason against the people of Canada!
But Canadians are 30 million strong and these dictators are probably only a couple of hundred traitors!
Gordo Campbell by law has no rights to sell off OUR very profitable assets so we must have some very smart lawyers as they say on the left look into these aspects and I would hope that there is a law that protects the people from scum like this.

I also blame the orthodox left for not having a hard-hitting, muck-raking weekly. You would think the "alternate governing party" - the NDP, plus the BC Fed, plus mainstream environmental groups, community groups and the coop movement could have had the wherewithall and organizational ability to do so. Why, all these years, did they leave the population to be mis-informed by the right wing print media? Why did they crush a paper with a circulation of 50,000, like Stan Persky's "Solidarity" which grew out of the 1983 Near General Strike?

anarcho:
Good question.

From Whistler - The Sun & Province, good ridence! They are nothing more than propaganda sheets for the Libs!

Crap papers, liars, deceivers, and flim flam artists.

Just a note: for the Sun's approval of RAV and no nrgative reporting on the $2.5 billion subway, TransLink spent $350 thousand in advertising. When charlie smith of the strait reported negatively on RAV TransLink pulled the Dtrait from SkyTrain stations!

Has anyone noticed that CanWest does not do RSS feeds? I don'think they like this idea one bit of the citizen deciding where they are going to click off their own environment (e.g. craigslist.org for classified). I run my own new media where I pick the RSS feeds from the top provider in the areas that I am personally interested in (e.g. the Tyee being of course my BC feed, ViveLeCanada.ca for its canadian sovereingty coverage, Le Devoir, Le Monde Diplomatique, etc...).

I also noticed the Globe recently screwing up the de facto output format of RSS feeds by adding the IBM logo to it; I had to take them out from my feed list. Le Devoir no longer allows you (since last week major "upgrade") to click to the individual story but to the welcome page. Yep there is big battle going on.

gaulois, please talk some more about this ... it's new to me, so it answers a lot of mysterious questions.

Do you see any connection between this (RSS feeds) and the regular (almot weekly) malfunctioning of blogspots ??

Knowing that the breakdowns are occurring to other blogs, I have never allowed "The Big Conspiracy" concept to enter my mind ... I can't enjoy living that way ... but now and then, even I can see the outlines of a critter that walks like a duck, talks like a duck ...

Anarcho:

Very insightful

Your comment has much to be gleaned from.

In a democracy, and in the free speech debate, one cannot blame one side if the other sides aren't actively performing their roles, .....or claim to yet are disorganized or slacking off ....or are getting continually tuned out.

They simply get "you -know -what" kicked.

Maestro wrote "In a democracy, and in the free speech debate, one cannot blame one side if the other sides aren't actively performing their roles, .....or claim to yet are disorganized or slacking off ....or are getting continually tuned out."

Exactly. Sweden, Germany, Mexico, Italy, Spain and France all have large circulation progressive weeklies and dailies. Although France and Italy have press distribution regulations whereby all publications meeting certain minimal criteria have to be distributed, as far as I know the others do not have this advantage. I have never understood why we fall down in this area so badly, just like I could never understand why the left waited until now to begin discussions on getting rid of the undemocratic first-past-the-post electoral system, something European social democracy did generations ago. I do not understand, and I have rarely got a coherent answer as to why these things have occurred.

I gave up reasding our two socalled dailies a couple years ago. Although if I am out having coffee and one is laying around I will glance through it. I won't buy them.

I just hate all the ads and really the lack of news.

I enjoy the local freebies though like the Surrey Leader and the Now. But I really just read the newspapers and other online news services from around the world that do not reqire a subscription online.

The Toronto Star, CBC, Peoples Online, Kamloops Daily News, Bellingham Herald, Reuters,BBC, Vive, The Tyeee etc. I do watch BBC World a lot.

I can see print media fading away in the next ten years and would not doubt if the Vancouver Sun and Province merge to become one paper down the road either.

The National Post and Globe and Mail are just a waste of good trees.

The problem in Vancouver is so much of the newspapers (Post, Sun, Province) are owned by one group.

We need some fresh blood that is not controlled by Global.

For anyone interested, Times Select (NYTimes) online is free this week and next.

I read the flyers more than the papers. At least I know that the information will be somewhat reliable.

It is predictable that the MSM papers are right-of-centre. I don't think that there's much hope of bringing out direct competition that has a different editorial focus. But this here Internet does make it hard for the right-wingers to suppress information, which is the main thing. The news will always get out to those who look for it.

Anarcho:

Further to the discussion;

The countries you quote have huge populations hence customer/readership bases.

It is easy to forget our own country is vast and sparsely populated.

Inherent within a large population base is more fiscally supportable differences of opinion.

Also, perhaps think "evolution", and that the voice of perceived balance has perhaps served its purpose, OR too stagnant, OR cannot keep up with the times. Perhaps like Elvis in his latter years , certain voices can still perhaps attract a crowd, but it ends up becoming an UNintentional auto-parody of itself.

Pure and simple , fearmongering and demonizing sans a course of action tends to tune people out and turn them off. The old fans die out, no one replaces them...again evolution.

Just imagine all the trees that will be spared once the papers are gone. Someone needs to do a study to see if the energy used to read online causes less environemental damage than endless tabloid print on Mad dona, Michael Jackson, hockey and so on.

But by fostering the image that it is, newspapers can justify not only increased political influence through cross-media ownership, but staff cuts and reduced coverage as well in order to increase profits even more, and nobody will be any the wiser.

Well, you know, I think that's very interesting and probably very true. It's following the same corrupt procedure behind the shady conversions of public services into privatized ones...you know, the recent privatization schemes taking place in BC where Holy Profit in the name of monopoly comes replete with blinders. Privatization's real interest is to control and monopolize...so yeah, maybe that's it.... make it look like the newspapers are in crisis, "going down the drain", hide the financial records from public scrutiny, make the necesssary cruel cuts in service, reporters and wages. And....haul in the profits. Whatta you got? A newspaper without real news. But who cares?! You got more profit.

Falls under the general category of profit-only centered logic...well, illogic, actually...because eventually it will take us all down, including those who believe in it. Firehalls with fewer firemen. Hospitals with fewer services, fewer doctors, fewer RN's, fewer lab technicians, fewer health care workers. Teachers with fewer teachers, fewer librarians, fewer special services. A social welfare system where its getting harder and harder to find a social worker in it. Fewer and fewer public services for the many....more and more profits for the privileged few privateers.

Anyway, who cares if nothing adequately serves the public interest anymore, including the news? Who cares if nothing actually works as well. You got Profit. Well...actually, to be truthful... THEY got Profit.

So it fits.. because the other night on the late news, Keith Baldrey was championing the idea that Gordon Campbell "was giving things" to the public that as Baldrey says "if he keeps this up" he will win the next election and be center stage for the 2010 Olympics. These so-called significant things included no smoking areas and bans on junk food. But geez.... isn't the real news really about the selling off of our public power to IPP's that will eventually be able to flip them to foreign companies... and where potentially we will lose control of our water, of over 500 of our rivers... lose our ability to control our own power, to reap our own profits from it and to regulate our own prices for power. This BC Hydro 700 million surplus jewel, the public power we have owned for so long, will not be in our hands to control.

Think if that got out, think if that were news? Would Mr Campbell be standing on the stage in 2010?

But why worry over such trivial matters as our power, water, and sovereignty? Why worry if you and your children will freeze in the dark? Everything will be alright...'said so just the other night on something they call "the news".

Mr. Campbell is offering you no smoking areas and less junk food machines in hopes that you won't notice how cold and dark it will eventually become in BC.

...should read "schools with fewer teachers"

Moreover it’ll be smoky and the rivers will be poisoned too Lynn. Now that we are harmonizing our laws, regulations and business practices with the folks next door in Alberta we also have to look forward to a lot of other great things from a Premier who prefers to ensure cabinet secrecy by meeting in Maui.

The giveaway to CN has been accomplished; the handoff to Accenture is a done deal.

Who do you think will get the next great deal for British Columbians?

While Keith Baldrey and Vaughn Palmer clap each other on the back and tell each other what great reporters they are.

Where the hell is Jack Webster and Dave Barrett when we need them?

FYI

Jack's dead/Haggis overdose.

Dave is counting his gold -plated duoble-pension. Probably gorging as we speak on imported agricultural products from 3rd world countries

Where has our justice system gone?
As far as I'm concerned all those involved in the B.C. Legislature Scandal should also be charged as an accessory in the deaths of the two Ex BC rail workers!
http://www.utubc.com/services_july2006/index.htm
CN rail is just another American owned and operated Corporation and Canadians still subsidizes them?
Wonder how many stops CN makes going through the rugged BC back country? CN corridor.

Corporation = Corruption enough said.

I think the province is garbage and so is the sun. I think so because of lack covering the real news. I myself don't think issues like street racing are important topics as seen on today's cover of the province. What else i have seen is how can-west helps our minority government in gaining public approval on bills they are trying to pass like the crime and punishment bill that didnt pass now ever since then i have noticed that the TV and newspapers have been talking about is how people are getting off easy on the crimes they committed. I hate the idea of our news being owned buy a small number of companies.

Man, oh man Lynn...your post above is awesome! I wish we could shout it from the roof tops, take out full page ads in every newspaper, run ads on TV, organize a huge rally, whatever it takes to wake up the citizens of this province. What will it take to motivate people to rise up and put a stop to the rape of our country for the benefit of a few. Thanks for expressing it so perfectly, as usual.

walrusmagazine.com/print/politics-stephen-harper-and-the-theocons/

If these papers who are owned by the media giant(AsperInk)are the progaganda machine they are refuted to be then profit would not be its primary motivation and it would be benefical to stay in business pumping out the progaganda at all costs as there is so much to gain$$$ I just have to looook at the front cover to know whats up on the progaganda machine today!!! There is no need to go farther. I would say on the whole it has done its job tooo well.

thanks, OhmyGawd.... and I much agree that we need to make some real noise about the truly BIG stories happening in our province...while the msm seems caught up in the small trinkets Campbell is using to sway public opinion... and to ultimately deflect from the outright sale of this province...of our most valuable resources and our rights as citizens... and our rights as communities.

Just listened to the political panel on CBC radio just before six o'clock and they, too, (most disappointedly) seemed utterly bewitched by these small trinkets Campbell is trying to buy public opinion with. (Where is the tough-edged, not-so-easily-fooled, critical eye of the old CBC?) Smoking bans, no junk food in government offices, and an education credit that only those children who can afford a post-secondary education will be able to take advantage of are deflections from what Campbell is doing with his other hand...the hand that taketh away.

As G West alludes to above...there's another Big story evolving that BC Mary first alerted me to that involves our rights as citizens and as communities. It was written by Murray Dobbin (who thank God is not dazzled by premier's bearing superficial gifts). It was published a few days ago in the Winnipeg Free Press:

"WHAT if a provincial government signed an agreement forcing it to make most of its regulations identical to those of another province? What if this government voluntarily made itself, and every municipality within its borders, open to lawsuits over virtually anything it did that restricted investment? What if it tied its own hands so that, no matter how much a region was suffering economically, it could not provide assistance that might "distort investment decisions?"

Well, there are no "what ifs" about it. This past spring, B.C.'s Gordon Campbell and Alberta's Ralph Klein signed an agreement with exactly these sweeping constraints on the ability to govern. It is called the Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement. B.C. and Alberta trade officials are now shopping it around to other provinces to get them to sign on. The agreement comes into effect next April."

Amazing stats, how many people lived in BC in 1957? Was it even a whole million? Yet they bought more papers than today with probably close to three times the population. Of course the papers were A LOT BETTER.

By the way - speaking of Can-West's other corporate mouthpiece - the first fifteen minutes of "Gemini" winning Kevin Newman's Global Garbage at 5:30 should have been paid for by the ReThuglican Party of the USA, with a small donation from the HarpoCons.

They just gushed and gushed about how George Duhbya could pull elections out of the fire at the last minute. Kevin, there's a difference between last minute electoral miracles and election fraud. Anybody can win an election they apparently were losing if they cheat. The dems have actually won every national election since 1992 (with the possible exception of the '94 midterms)- American democracy is being jobbed, with the compliant media abetting in the crime!

Then they went on and on about how terrible a Democratic Congress would be for Canada. Why is that Kevin? Won't Stephen roll over and take it like a girl unless it's a Republican? By the way Canada is doing really well with the US these days, Softwood Robbery, Republican campaign ads accusing Canada of not carrying their weight in the GWOT, a border becoming almost too much trouble to cross unless absolutely necessary, imposed trade conditions even Mexico won't tolerate - yep, going well there Stevie!

Then they discussed the Liberals problems dealing with the guy who should be deported back to the states and his Quebec "nation" mis-statements" and then produced polls which would indicate a massive HarpoCon majority, unless they were suggesting Smilin' Jack was gonna be PM, and I don't think so.

I admit I watch it (Can 'O Crock West) often, otherwise I wouldn't be able to understand why most people I run into are so clueless about what is actually happening in BC, Canada and the World.

For an excellent piece discussing the issues that lynn is referring to go to Coyote's blog at:
http://coyote-thepeoplesvoice.blogspot.com/

and check out the piece by Peter Dimitrov namely:
Tricked and Treated: The Case of Modern Day Piracy involving British Columbia hydroelectricity and water

If this seems right to anyone, I would really love to hear an explanation - not just stupidity repeated - but any justification for this kind of sell off of our assets. Not that this is the only one happening, they're stealing so many things it's hard to even keep track.

Where are the NDP press releases in all of this? Why aren't they kicking up a fuss and printing handbills and buying full-page ads if nothing else? If the mainstream media is so corrupt, why isn't the CBC interviewing the NDP about BC Hydro, the CNN scandal, the fish farms, the lack of a sitting of The Legislature, BC Ferries being built by Germans in Germany, those same ferries being run by a US crook, etc. etc. Who's in charg of the CBC now anyway. Did Harper turn that over to an American to run? Enough is enough!

Lynn, if this agreement between the provinces goes through, how are they going to sell it to the public? I'll try read Dobbin's article quickly to get up to speed. Once again I am shocked at how we dumbed-down voters no longer have control. Things are bound to get very uncomfortable for a lot of people in the near future -on a lot of fronts! I suppose we will be almost fully integrated with the USA very soon without really knowing it either. Boy, they have big plans for us behind our backs - won't we be surprised! I'm heartsick at the betrayals of our trust, excuse my babble.

SIG, all good questions. My emails go unanswered.

OhmyGawd - I think it's a done deal. I'll see if I can find a copy of Dobbins article.

(Well, I can think of quite a few reporters and the media they work for who will do their utmost best to help Gordon Campbell promote this as "a good thing." ;-))

It always amazes me, OhmyGawd. Do these same members of the msm not have children? What a legacy to leave them...this total sell-out of such a resource rich, beautiful province. Our children should have been set for life..power, water, bounteous land. Instead the control has largely been placed in foreign hands... they will have to settle for a small education credit for the privileged few. Meanwhile their future has been sold from them. As rkewen writes "they're stealing so many things it's hard to even keep track."

You're not babbling at all, OhmyGawd...you're right on with your assertion that this is tied in with US integration.

Good to read you again, SharingIsGood.

OMG
here's the link:
I hope it'll work - it was dead in my email program
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/westview/story/3758460p-4345834c.html

And a hat tip to Lynn and BC Mary of course.

The agreement has been signed...if it went through the legislative process, I don't know.

This is what reveals the grand failure of the press. Too busy reporting car accidents as headline news... Or junk food as a major issue.

This is what Dobbin writes about the constitutionality of it. I'm not a lawyer, perhaps someone could help us here:

"To sum up, the agreement pretty much bans new regulation and government assistance for economic development. Perhaps in anticipation of the pact, the B.C. legislature's fall sitting was cancelled with the government claiming there was not enough to do. When asked about the constitutionality of the agreement, Steven Shrybman, a partner in the law firm of Sack, Goldblatt, and Mitchell, commented that "a basic principle of constitutional law is that a government cannot fetter its own legislative prerogatives by abandoning its authority to govern."

Last week, when John Kerry, didn't blow a joke, and actually said what he really meant to say, that the uneducated and poor are the ones in Iraq, fighting for the US against terrorism. There was a very telling display of MSM. It broke on FOX early in the morning, it broke on CNN hours later. A group of indignant soldiers, made up a large sign that mocked Kerry by misspelling all of the words on their sign. The sign was immediately posted on Drudge. The next day the story and sign was front page news in many newspapers.
Meanwhile back at the NYT, the story of Kerry's gaff, was buried in the paper, page 340 (kidding) and they never published the picture from the soldiers.
Meanwhile readership is slipping at some of these newspapers. It appears they don't recognise news anymore. They are more interested in promoting a political agenda ( liberal ).
Well we all know we just don't need them anymore.
We have many other ways to get information. Not enough in Canada, but plenty more than most people have. Try living in China.
My point is that we all feel that the press is biased, and they are.
A survey of journalists in the US a few years ago, found that the vast majority were Democrats. Who advance the ideas that gay marriage, global warming are the main concerns for us, not surviving a clash of civilizations, that could destroy our way of life. Real hard news about people with guns that hate us.
That's my bias, I am sure we all have some.

If this were just a nudge nudge deal it wouldn't contemplate penalties for its violation - seems to me it's a business deal to accommodate cronies of each government. And, despite Shrybman's claim it does seem to restrict the legislative prerogative. It should be challenged in the courts.

If only we had an opposition and a press than weren't both in a deep coma. It also purports to regulate extra-provincial trade and I think that’s a Federal area.

Ron, Ron, snap out of it, you're on the wrong thread, wake up!!
Your right wing apologetics belong in another place.

By the way, I read a conservative commentator the other day who saw Kerry's notes. He completely disagrees with you.

By the way, Ann Coulter surrendered to the law yet?

Thanks Lynn, BCMary and Alcibiades. You are too right SharingIsGood - enough is enough!
The link to the Winnipeg Free Press and Dobbins article worked fine. I'd like to know HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING? Why do these politicians believe they can do whatever they please without impunity? Do they believe sovereignty and democracy are no longer relevant?

Actually, that is very true. The rich do not fight wars, Ron, and that is what there is no draft in the USA.

By the way, Ron, are any of your kids in the military? If none are, why so?

Sharing, that is a good question. They are a joke as an opposition. But you might want to do a litte research about the NDP and fall sitting when they were in power or what happened to BC shipyards after the fast ferries debacle.

Naw, that would cut into rhetoric time.

Working man.
If you stayed around here a while instead of dropping a couple of lamebon mots and leaving you'd see that there's all kinds of criticism here of the oposition.

But, as usual, he who laughs last seldom gets the point anyway.

should be opposition, sorry!

At this rate of decline the very last Vancouver Sun subscriber will receive his solitary copy on August 12, 2036. And it'll cost him $43,789.37.

I don't really have a lot of time to surf the net. Too busy with work, family, school events, etc.

Can you take a hint?

Everytime money moves a commission is made. In this case Royalities from advertizing. So the upside is more then the down side. Profits are large and that is why they love to print. Stop and think if I give you 1 dollar and you give me 1000 dollars omg have I made money. Money is always the issue.

working man
You have to surf the net to find Tyee.

That really is funny.

Alcho; if you page up, you will see that the start of this trail of BS started out with an article about the declining readership of newspapers. So my comments are actually more relevant than your trolling for contacts on the internets.

Ron, who's alcho? I thought that was what you were drinking?

Anyway, here's your mail from the thread where you belong. If you won't go there to read it, I'll bring it here for you:

Here you go dude:
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_frie...,227707,00.html

Remember where to come when it's time to eat a little crow.

Sounds like Daniel Ortega is doing pretty well despite Bush's attempts to fox the election, eh?

Now how about a big thank you?

One-third of American voters will use voting machines that have never before served in a general election.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2006/11/one_man_one_vote_one_big_mess.html

http://www.electionline.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1099

Legal challenges to paperless DRE (direct-recording electronic) voting technologies are proliferating across the country, and as computer scientists demonstrated earlier this year, hacking challenges to many of these machines can bear fruit even faster than demands for recounts.

The second link provided lists the states that have gone paperless DRE. Since most polls have their own tell's in terms of where these states are leaning with congress and senate seats and where they have voted in the past, it won't be hard to spot "The Fix" if there is one. We'll know by super Tuesday night how nutty or calm things could get for the world from there. The Democrats are leading across the nation in both houses in the polls, according to the Washington Post.

Lynn:

Right again. And that's exactly, as you've underlined, what these crooks are going to do. I remember G reminding me of what happened to Grant Divines Conservatives after they were defeated in the second election...

Majority governments have power to no end until they are gone, and we have one in BC now. There is no disclosure, no discussion, no transparency, no shining light on the Liberals next moves, and media isn't lifting a finger to report why.

On the overall, Lynn, I believe it will become a federal issue. Outside of the obvious federal RCMP investigations after these Campbell and Co. sell and steal criminals are gone from office, its a national issue that can supercede provincial laws with national legislation to fix foreign ownership of media corporations (and their sisters and daughters) to no more than 10% of market share in any province or major city.

And the one Conservative (some say, including myself, the "only" Conservative left) mentioning a need for such a change is 'Garth Turner'.

It seems that the Board of Directors is a diverse bunch, with the Chair having been vacated by a man from Quebec who had some clout, but said something that was abrasive to the Lebanese people. Now, we have an Acting Chair who is also the President and CEO, Robert Rabinovitch: a PhD Economist and financial expert. That combo of credentials for the person holding the top three posts at CBC will make sure you get good programming and unbiased reporting - for sure (wink, wink)!

http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/about/smc/index.shtml

http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/annualreports/2005-2006/index.shtml

A former chair (2003) is Carole Taylor, our very own Carole Talor. Following are some of her words in a October 22, 2003 speech:

Public Broadcasting: Why Bother?
Talking points by Carole Taylor, Chair, CBC/Radio-Canada, CBC/Radio-Canada to the the Canadian Club Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario

"...At home, the future of health care, the ramifications of the Kyoto Accord… the fall out from the war on Iraq… On all these important social debates, our society needs a place for discussion and analysis… a sharing of ideas and positions about options and solutions.

In my opinion:
It MUST be public broadcasting.
It MUST be an independent voice, with no other political or financial or personal agenda.

Trusted. Connected. Canadian. That's CBC/Radio-Canada.

In recent years, Canada's media industries have been going through a rapid transformation. Today the media industry is clearly dominated by fewer, but larger conglomerates.

How can we help but be concerned?

Without choice, people lose trust in what they are told… citizens lose faith in their institutions.

Only with access to the widest range of stories and issues, covered from different points of view, will Canadians be in a position to judge for themselves what is important to them and what they think about the issues that affect their lives.

Choice also helps keep journalism honest. It ensures news organizations do everything they can to obtain the most up-to-date and accurate account of the day's news.

In CBC/Radio-Canada, Canadians have a news and information source that is accountable to them… through Parliament, a Board of Directors and the CBC/Radio-Canada Ombudsmen.

In us, Canadians have a choice for news that is free of commercial and ownership pressures and remains arms-length from the government."

http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/speeches/20031022.shtml

Incredible that she is now working for the BC Liberals. It just goes to show: politicians will say anything, they don't have to believe it. It just has to sell. ...or, maybe she just needed more money to buy a new pair of shoes.

Lynn, Thanks for the kudos ...SIG

And more kudos to you too SharingIsGood.

Think of Carole as a product of the Imelda Marcos School of Public Management. Say whatever's necessary at the time but remember to invest in shoes.

Excellent comment, The Brain, especially in regard to the need for strong federal oversight over our sovereignty...which first must be backed by laws forged to truly represent and protect the interests of the people of this country..that empower our Canadian citizenry.

I read your comment on power on another thread. As you say, power can corrupt the best of us...that's why a strong Opposition is vital and an investigative, "critical" in-the-best-sense-of-the-word, media, is soooo important. Enough of the co-opted complicity that disguises itself as journalism today. This is not a left/right issue. It's a very human one:

No one is fit to be trusted with power....No one.... Any man who has lived
at all knows the follies and wickedness he's capable of. ... And if he does
know it, he knows also that neither he nor any man ought to be allowed to
decide a single human fate.

- C. P. Snow, The Light and the Dark

WE DO PEOPLE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA AND CANADA MUST STAND UP NOW AND TAKE THESE TRAITORS OF OUR SOVEREIGN NATION CANADA AND CHARGE THEM WITH TREASON!

So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men: Voltaire. François Marie Arouet (1694-1778)

correction WE THE PEOPLE

Maestro wrote: "The countries you quote have huge populations hence customer/readership bases. It is easy to forget our own country is vast and sparsely populated."

Thats true. We certainly couldn't have the vast circulation national left wing dailies like in Europe. But we could have a number of decent provincial weeklies. If only 10% of the total NDP, Green, BC Fed etc support read such a weekly it would have what, close to half the circulation of the Scum or the Provincial? "Solidarity", even with the half-hearted support of the BC Fed had a circulation of around 50,000 if memory serves me well. I think the refusal to create a mass circulation progressive paper in BC (And elsewhere in this country) must have some other source.

Just a little off in my figures. I went and checked the 2005 election results. Say a circulation of 90,000. Not half of the Scum, by any stretch, but still a respectable circulation and thus an ability to make an impact.

rkewan said:

"Amazing stats, how many people lived in BC in 1957? Was it even a whole million? Yet they bought more papers than today with probably close to three times the population."

They were probably using the paper to insulate their walls!

The converegence theory is always promoted, but I think the hard copy is here to stay....the computer screen is effectively a one page view "limiting factor". One often has to print off a multi page story or document to avoid the frustration of scrolling to adequately digest the contents.

The possibly "shredded hubris" of the Vancouver papers may be due to the fact that since 1957, BC has grown in population, but the increasing diversity of the ever-increasing population base has created a large market for multi -ethnic media, ie Asian newspapers, as well as Indo -Canadian, Filipino, etc.

Thus,the gross readership has risen, but the Anglo niche has competition.

Personally, not a big believer in the perceived political slant ....simply people don't have the time to read the given media like they may have in the past....too many other options and encroachments on one's time...and thus can't get overly-prostelytized.

You're dating yourself dude!

Huh????????

You won't catch younger people (25 and less, say) making that kind of statement. Scrolling is second nature and they're not big printer users either. They're totally down with hyperlinked text too.

Therefore, you're dating yourself,

Not really Alci;

The death of hard copy was predicted years ago,.....but that theory died.

However, for those(young, or....old ...and in - between) that choose to live their lives in one page "on -line" bites, no wonder the short attention spans and glazed - look are unfortunately more the norm,.... and especially in the younger generations .

It inevitably trickles down in many facets of society, many of them negative.

Considering it took you 4 days to get back here, I know where I'm filing your resume.

Alci:

Do some minimal detective work and guess why the response was delayed...

You misplaced your hard copy?