Marc Edge on 'Asper Nation'
His new book traces 'dangerous' rise of CanWest Global.
Edge: Diversity vital.
CanWest Global's slogan is "Inform, Enlighten, Entertain." Marc Edge frames it differently. "Canada's Most Dangerous Media Company" is the subtitle to Asper Nation, Edge's comprehensive, fast-paced, indispensable new book on CanWest Global and its founding family.
Beginning today, The Tyee is publishing four substantial excerpts from Asper Nation, tracing the Asper family's political agenda, their media empire's rise, and the power it wields as the biggest of just a few Big Media owners in Canada.
Edge, who worked as a reporter and editor for the Vancouver Province and Calgary Herald before earning a PhD in Mass Communication at Ohio University, carved out his reputation as an historian of Canadian media with his first book, Pacific Press: The Unauthorized Story of Vancouver's Newspaper Monopoly. He is today an associate professor of journalism at Sam Houston University in Huntvsille, Texas, and has spent five years researching and writing Asper Nation.
'End of the world'
When did it become clear to Edge that CanWest Global, founded by the late Izzy Asper and now run by his sons Leonard and David, is "dangerous" to Canada's democracy? He points to the end of 2001, when the Aspers, having recently bought the Southam newspaper chain from Conrad Black, ordered 13 of its 14 major dailies to march lockstep in publishing editorials emanating from headquarters. In the aftermath, Ottawa Citizen publisher Russell Mills and others were fired for daring to put their own, contrary opinions in CanWest Global pages.
When reporters at the Asper-owned Montreal Gazette protested the top-down meddling by pulling bylines, David Asper famously told "the bleeding hearts of the journalist community that it's the end of the world as they know it, and I feel fine."
But even if CanWest owns dozens of newspaper across the nation along with Global TV and other television stations reaching 94 per cent of all Canadians, and even if CEO Leonard Asper has said he aims to make his company one of the top five media companies on the planet, how much torque can the Aspers really put on our democratic process?
In responding, Edge touches on several media theories. One is "agenda setting." Research has shown again and again that "those election issues covered prominently in the news media tend to be perceived by the public as the most important election issues. Items buried tend not to make it on the agenda for public discussion." Edge says the message is clear: "While the media can not tell us what to think, they are very influential in telling us what to think about. The way these stories are covered not only tell us what to think about, but how we think about it."
'The Fox effect'
Other research shows that media instills cultural values within us. "People who watch more television tend to see the world the way it is portrayed on TV. But the violent content doesn't make them more violent. It makes them more fearful of violence. This has profound social and political implications, because people who are more fearful tend to be more accepting of repressive political measures to fight crime and terrorism."
Edge points to the so-called "Fox effect," which he says "is instilling a culture of fear in Americans." The popularity of Fox news jingoism jerked coverage from CNN and other competitors to the right. Edge notes that Conrad Black launched the National Post two years after Rupert Murdoch created Fox news. The Post, now owned by the Aspers, is "a similar attempt to influence the national political agenda in Canada."
Is it working?
"According to Izzy Asper it is working," says Edge. He cites the last interview Asper gave. To the Jerusalem Post, Asper bragged of the sway his media empire exerts over the Canadian government, and beyond.
Time for action
Edge believes it's time for the CRTC to step in and "look at regional media diversity, and act to increase it where necessary." The first place he'd recommend intervening: the Vancouver region, dominated by CanWest Global newspaper and television entities.
And he suggests that journalism schools, including UBC's, stop taking millions of dollars in funding from CanWest and other big media corporations. "The Aspers, in talking about their educational initiative, have been clear in saying they want to change Canadian minds not just through their news media, but by educating journalists the 'right' way," says Edge.
Edge finds hope in the U.S., where a vibrant media reform movement is mobilizing against yet another attempt by the Bush administration to allow more media mergers and cross ownership.
Asked what he hopes his book might achieve, Edge laughs and says: "A second printing." Then he turns a bit more serious. "Canadians should know what the facts are with their news media. They're certainly not going to get the facts about the news media from their news media."
Today's excerpt from Asper Nation will be followed by another Friday, and two more next Tuesday and Friday.
Find out more about Asper Nation.
Related Tyee stories:
- How Black and Asper Plotted to Control Canadian News Biz
Lusting for 'awesome and infinite' deals with Thomson, Rogers, Shaw. - Newsroom Staff Cut at Vancouver's Big Papers
Ahead: Fewer news jobs, more news 'platforms.' - The Tyee and Independent Media: Join Us!
And watch an amusing video while you're at it.
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
Jeffrey J.
13-11-2007
Democracy Alive and Well in BC
Congratulations Tyee on this incredible scoop. Edge's Pacific Press is an excellent read and I have no doubt his latest book will be even more relevant. The number of staff fleeing CanWestGlobal and other media monopolies pretty well says it all. Because no matter how strident the Aspers and Ted Rogers and other dynastic empire builders are, citizens want real news. Not fake, biased, massaged ideology. But real stories with "truth" in them. Hard to define but its easy to recognize. The infotainment component of these publications is particularly cloying. So people everywhere are resorting to the only tool of the powerless: boycott. And when these media monopolies wonder why, it will be easy to look into a mirror to find the answer.
Working Memory
13-11-2007
Vancouver News Subpar
Without doubt news reporting in Vancouver is biased and the worst I've seen anywhere in a large city in North America.
Residents have to start treating this issue more seriously and find other sources that reflect more accurately how we, on the West coast fit into the global landscape.
Insularity is an anchor, not a badge of honor.
murdock
13-11-2007
Support Structure.
The 'support structure' behind the newspaper biz is advertising and sales.
Stop paying for their fishwrappers.
Ignore the birdcage liners.
They are best used as firelighters or packing materials.
Once the advertisers give up on these press then something can be done, until that happens then I expect the command and control levers to beat ever harder on the staff in all of their 'controlled' media.
redunk
13-11-2007
educational initiatives
I went to a school funded by Asper money. At the school in response to some of their conservative constructs, I learned how to be innovative and radical. Also with any institution, there were a diversity of perspectives and mentors, the ones who were there to inspire, I learned from and those that were there for a check, I learned what not to do, which is arguably just as useful. (Of course while learning what not to do, I was also missing out on real education from qualified instructors and that still pisses me off. GRRRR!)
BC Mary
13-11-2007
Marc Edge's book might shame CanWest into doing its job
Marc Edge, David Beers, The Tyee, a great, important topic.
I've always thought that CanWest's newsrooms in B.C., at least, must be in campaign mode all the time. They elect specific governments, specific premiers; they destroy others. Easy.
Does Marc Edge's book discuss the virtual media silence on the Basi Virk Basi / B.C. Rail trial? It should.
There's a tragedy unfolding on the West Coast of Canada -- the Basi-Virk trial is only the canary in the mineshaft -- with a province-wide revelation needing to be told. And isn't being told. We know that CanWest is OK with that. But I often wonder why The Globe and Mail or CBC can't investigate this massive story.
They can't say the BC Rail trial isn't important, involving a provincial government, a prime minister, Canada's 3rd largest railway, and a few major U.S. corporations, all under suspicion. No, CanWest just looks the other way. They opt out. "When there's news, we'll report it," a CanWest editor-in-chief told me, the day after sending a reporter to a pre-trial hearing and deciding "nothing happened" so no report.
My blog at http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/ has been trying to fill part of that vaccum. And yes, I've had Real Journalists (i.e., who get paid) tell me they read my blog regularly and say "Keep going, it's important." But I would be one of the happiest citizens if the media would step up and do their own work.
I hope Marc Edge's book helps to push CanWest or CRTC or legislators to do the job expected of a democratic news media. One of the commentors above really nailed it by saying that Canada provided these Aspers with refuge from oppressive regimes and it's fair now to ask: is this how they repay us?
Newspapering is a rich man's game though. And the pipers still play their tune.
Birch
13-11-2007
Thanks, BC Mary
...whoever you are...
I've given up getting anything like remotely objective news coverage from Global. And I think, had the NDP or some other party tried some of the bold but objectionable ploys the Liberals have gotten away with, there would have been plenty of ink spilled at Pacific Press and a change of government.
I look forward to the rest of this four-part series.
IAMC
13-11-2007
Rupert Murdoch
Just released news today that he is waiving the online subscription fee of $50.00 and making the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) free to online subscribers.
This has the New York Times (NYT) shaking in their boots.
The WSJ, was one of the few online offerings that made a success of online subscription fees bring in 50 million a year ( one million subscribers )
The theory is that if they can fetch 20 or 35 million readers per day, that advertisers will flock to advertise on his website.
Oh, how I admire brilliant people.
This will mean of course that millions of people will now get exposure to the WSJ editorials, which are very pro capitalist, pro American, pro conservative economic policies being exposed to more people than the NYT can get to listen to their BS.
It's a beautiful thing.
Meanwhile, here at this website, there seems to be an obsession against Canwest Media that has been going on for years.
I don't get it.
Are you starved of sources of information?
Are you elitist? Thinking that the common man cannot sort out the information available to him?
That the average guy is dumber than you and needs protection from evil corporations?
It's definitely weird how this argument keeps coming up over and over.
There is no problem. If you don't like Canwest, then don't support them, but this constant attack is so stupid, I have never seen anything like it.
slim
14-11-2007
Prime Minister Stephen "Fox" Harper
I notice a similarity between CanWest's centralized control of its newspaper editorial content and Prime Minster Harper's centralized control of everything in Ottawa. I won't say that Harper was the first leader to centralize control. Bloc Québécois MPs need Gilles Duceppe's permission to say anything to the media.
I do remember when Harper first tried to run his own press briefing that I think he chose a CanWest Global reporter first. Hmm.
I think I'll boycott Global News. I'll get my political e!ntertainment from E! instead. "Is Stéphane Dion sinking like the Titanic while Céline Dion's voice wails/whales in the background?"
G West
14-11-2007
I thought you might Maurice
Even the inflection and timbre of the voice - without understanding a word of what he had to say aurally - was hilarious.
I have a friend who sends me stuff like that – I’d never find it myself – but he understands my sense of humour.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Antonia Zerbisias
14-11-2007
Giving to universities
And he suggests that journalism schools, including UBC's, stop taking millions of dollars in funding from CanWest and other big media corporations. "The Aspers, in talking about their educational initiative, have been clear in saying they want to change Canadian minds not just through their news media, but by educating journalists the 'right' way," says Edge.
All very nice but here's the thing.
To take over other media companies, the buyer must present the CRTC with a package of ''social benefits'' equal to 10 per cent of the deal.
Giving to journalism schools is standard and, to my mind, a perfectly appropriate use of the benefits.
It's a one-shot deal, by fiat. It's not as if the deans have to make nice to get renewal or ongoing funding.
My guess is, the Aspers would rather fund some building or cause in Winnipeg but that wouldn't impress the CRTC much.
In any case, I don't think they micromanage j-school admissions or hiring practices. It's been my experience that journalism profs have been very outspoken against media concentration.
The trouble is, the media don't publish their comments.
G West
14-11-2007
Ay, there's the rub, Antonia
There aren't enough places where the critics can capture a sufficiently large audience to make much of a splash and there’s the traditional Canadian suspicion of pretty much anything that comes out of a university of any kind.
Surely though, the concentration levels are already so high that any further mergers and acquisitions can't possibly get a thumbs up if the CRTC is going to remain at all relevant as a regulator.
That's why, I think, Edge used Vancouver (although it would be equally true to say the same thing about everything west of Winnipeg) as the place most appropriate for some kind of symbolic move toward meaningful diversity.
I keep wishing you'd come out here for a few months Antonia. Even someone as acutely aware of the media markets across the country would find the situation here to be utterly bizarre.
Drinks are on me! Standing offer.
G West
14-11-2007
And by the way
As a kind of primer on what's going on out here, in case you do decide to visit, here's an excellent place to start:
http://corkyevans.kootenayactivist.ca/blog/
I think he makes the point very effectively that this isn't a battle against specific people so much as it is a question of combating an ideology.
Moreover, I think that's equally true of the Aspers and the media.
Working Memory
14-11-2007
University funding ...
Quote:
"The trouble is, the media don't publish their comments."
True ... but university "students" will.
I spent the latter part of the 90's developing online strategies that "indirectly" encouraged students to undermine major record labels.
At the time, universities tried to prevent students from using school servers to trade music online, but to little avail. The more they tried, the more the indie music industry developed and encouraged students to pursue workarounds.
Trading music through university servers eventually became less of an issue because servers funded by the independent music industry started popping up everywhere. A few years later the entire world gravitated to trading music through generic p2p networks.
Today, universities won't be able to gag students regarding journalism any more than they did yesterday regarding music.
Granted, and I fully agree that students don't have the collective and hypnotic draw of music to keep them focused on the news dilemma, but once they have a reason they'll attack it with similar vigor. First though, they need to feel a personal connection, and have a vested interest.
Unfortunately, average young adults start to develop a more serious interest in the news in their late 20's, which I also agree makes my university/music analogy weak, but the point is, all it takes is one event to get the ball rolling.
Social media is a powerful tool that we barely understand.
Advertising is out. Promotion is in.
It will be interesting to see what happens at UBC when the class of 2010 realizes the Olympics will negatively impact their plans to graduate on time and budget. It happens in other Olympics regions and there is no reason to believe it won't happen here too.
Students will become incensed when they also realize that local mainstream news media has been spreading misinformation, and that media is on the Olympic payroll.
I think that qualifies as "vested interest."
If you thought Cambie businesses created a ruckus, wait until you see how quickly UBC students voice their Olympics displeasure through the next FaceBook du jour.
Don't underestimate youth. They shoot from the hip and are quick to the draw. Shawn Fanning, Napster, is a good example. At first, and from a legal context, he didn't have a clue what he was doing, and when his attorney told him ... he didn't care, so the RIAA had to take him to court to stop him. As soon as they did, KaZZa popped up, then Grokster, then another and another.
Here's what I wrote about this issue in early 2006 in my blog and book.
Media Tells Students Half Truths
http://www.olyblog.com/f/06/SchoolsCloseF10192006.shtml#UNIVERSITY
Students Take a Hit
http://www.olyblog.com/f/06/UniversitiesF10162006.shtml
SharingIsGood
15-11-2007
google news asper v. tyee
Im curious, whenever I check google.ca/news, I never see a Tyee article listed in the headlines; why is that? I see articles posted by MSM (CanWest rags, CTV, T-Star, Globe and Mail, etc.) but no articles from the Tyee. What keeps the Tyee out of the loop?
SharingIsGood
15-11-2007
Here's the Google.ca news
This is the page; shouldn't many of the topics the Tyee writes about reach here. Isn't the online readership enough for the tags to catch? I know that the Tyee doesn't often break news, but certainly investigative reports break new ground on older topics, essentially breaking/destroying the old news reports.
http://news.google.ca/nwshp?oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=
SharingIsGood
15-11-2007
I found an answer
I think this source probably gives a true description of how Google, googles its news. Perhaps The Tyee can find a way to make its articles seem more "newsworthy" for Google etc. without jumping aboard the Paris Hilton boat. Come to think of it, perhaps that is part of why The Tyee has begun publishing the periodic MSM media review article, thereby tossing about phrases that online engines could find to their liking. If that is part of the reasoning, I hope it works.
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2160891