Only a first effort not to discard

Granted there is a lot of gibberish in the original Canwest content in the firt place and that the translated text can be rather painful to read (e.g. commentaries text more so that plain raw news), I would not discard the Canwest effort that easily. Perhaps this article is somewhat bias??? Calling the common Google translation "hieroglyphics" seems overdone.

I doubt Canwest are getting a whole lot of translation clicks at this point. They are nonetheless showing an awareness that there are other languages out there (and money). I notice too that there are more Canwest contributors coming from these multicultural groups (although may not express themselves genuinely yet). The translation framework being in place now (as well as the ability to hear the text), I do expect that it can only get better in the years to come as their clicks stats bring in new advertisers catering to better defined readers preferences.

BTW are the Tyee francophone readers "ethnic" readers??? Sounds very much Canwest'ish to me. I can only imagine how the ROC would treat a Quebec media calling its anglophone readers "ethnic"... I noticed too that the recent francophone fest activities (&la Saint-Baptiste) went totally unnoticed by The Tyee. Pas fort for a media trying to reach into new market segment. Very much Canwest'ish, n'est-ce pas?

At least in this city I

At least in this city I never buy a newspaper whereas the press is very lively in the UK. Still, the internet is having as profound effect on human consciousness as the printing press revolution. We can be far more selective in choice of what constitute news ... without the insult of advertising.

Profit vs Journalism

People read because they're interested in thoughtful information, not because they're consumer widgets buying junk. CanWest will continue to fail until it figures out its not about profit, it's about journalism. CanWest isn't really much different than Canada's other media corps except in the west, their monopoly is particularly oppressive. Great article!

Par for the course

CanWest's feeble attempt at giving customers "what they want" instead of "what they need" is par for the course.

They cannot be trusted when it comes to representing our community.

If I didn't have to read The Sun, or watch Global TV for business reasons I wouldn't even know CanWest existed.

It slipped by most people this week (June 25/07) that CanWest finally and sheepishly announced they are an "official" Olympic booster, and that they know have a sponsorship deal with VANOC to tell the Olympic side of the Olympic story. It is another example of how they tell consumers what they want to hear instead of educating them responsibly.

CanWest knows all too well that playing down to the lowest common denominator will generate the most revenue. Smart people could care less that they sold a million burgers. Junk food is junk food. GIGO

Good article ...

hypersensitive

gaulois, I do believe that everyone has membership in at least one ethnic group. Yes it is unfortunate that white anglos seem to regularly forget this simple fact, and assume that because their cultural practices and interests are currently the most commonplace that their point of view is "normal", and everything else is exotic or ethnic. But tell me, just exactly how should someone refer to a smaller ethnic group within a given population, when attempting to discuss their interests? It seems to me, based on your response, and on some of the others, that even broaching this subject leads to charge of bias and arrogance. I find that kind of hypersensitive political correctness sad. It's the kind of kneejerk reaction that makes it far harder to build bridges between different communities.

Being a BC oriented publication with a focus on the Lower Mainland, the Tyee should concentrate on local stories that take the interests of the local population into account. Does that mean more coverage of local cultural events? Perhaps. But BC isn't Quebec, and Vancouver isn't Montreal. The cultural makeup here is very different. I also seem to recall that Quebec francophone publications, to say nothing of Quebec francophone politicians, can be very blunt and disparaging when discussing anglo or allophone interests. So please get off your high horse.

High horse

Who is on a haut cheval?

1) a media telling an other one to do a better job catering to its "ethnic readers" when it does not do much itself and aggravate bridge building...

2) Blaming Quebec francophone publications and politicians for being "very blunt and disparaging when discussing anglo or allophone interests" when one is rather blunt in the first place: "hypersensitive political correctness sad. It's the kind of kneejerk reaction that makes it far harder to build bridges between different communities". Damn Parizeau bridges!

3) Reacting on a commentary section to being called "ethnic" after having spent most of my life in Western Canada, being as integrated as it possily gets as well as a regular Tyee reader/commenter. Damn ethnic readers!

Touchy and confused...

gaulois on your points:

#1 - Then focus on what you claim is hypocrisy instead manufacturing offense for the lack of ethnically targeted articles, yet being offended at being ethnically targeted. "I can only imagine how the ROC would treat a Quebec media calling its anglophone readers "ethnic"... I noticed too that the recent francophone fest activities (&la Saint-Baptiste) went totally unnoticed by The Tyee." Oh the irony...

#2 - Lol, so my pointing out the falsity of your claim of ethnic moral superiority is somehow at odds with criticizing you for being thin-skinned, politically hyper-correct over ethnic identification, and ironically wanting more ethnically oriented coverage? "Wonder what would happen in Quebec if a media wrote a story in which it eluded that its anglophone readers were "ethnic"." Why wonder? It's not like it's a rare thing there.

#3 - Poor you. Did the fact that an aspect of your ethnic heritage came up in a manner that you weren't comfortable with damage you terribly?

You seem to think that any discussion of ethnicity is automatically a means of marginalization, yet you complain bitterly at the lack of ethnic recognition. I guess then I shouldn't be surprised that you completely ignored my question, as to how someone writing an article about smaller ethnic groups in a population should refer to those groups.

The smaller "ethnic group"

Let's see. How would we describe a group that is fully bilingual and not francophones "pure-laine" by any mean, which is the majority within that group? Should members of that pseudo-group see themselves as forming an "ethnic group"?

How about anglo/franco Metis? But being such Metis certainly seems a one way affair and for efficiency purposes we may as well pretend that they live on planet Zork, which we actually do very well. Under such conditions, can a bridge to planet Zork be realistically built only at the Zorkian end? And should the Zorkians simply stick to planet Zork?

I would think if Canwest or The Tyee can't handle such a Metis group, it may as well give up about handling more fundamental diversity and stick to known ground déjà-vu, i.e. the same old... Hope this answers better Monsieur Burns.

As a former translator and

As a former translator and information analyst in 3 languages, including Hungarian, a language that can only be learned by babies and impossible for adults, I know from experience how verbatim translations can be turned around by propagandist, mind benders.

There was an excellent example we've learned, originally in Latin, but can be used for any other language.

There was once conspiracy by some of the nobility to kill and replace a king. The conspirators asked the Catholic Primate for his blessings and he replied, in Latin, which used only capital letters and where first person can be expressed without the "I":

"IF YOU WANT TO KILL THE KING I DO NOT OBJECT"

When the conspirators were found out and charged the bishop's excuse was: "I wrote
IF YOU WANT TO KILL THE KING I DO NOT I OBJECT"

He got off, because they couldn't prove him
wrong.

Now the same is happening all over the world with the forced introduction of phoney ideologies and economic theories from one language to another.

Ed Deak,

"

Could it lead to legal action

Some translations can lead to statements that are far from the original. I'm wondering if we might see a libel action one day resulting from these mechanical translations.