The Asper Slam on News Media
'Lazy, dishonest, biased, Marxists' and more accusations from Izzy and son Leonard.
CanWest CEO Leonard Asper.
[Editor's note: This is the last of four excerpts from Marc Edge's new book 'Asper Nation: Canada's Most Dangerous Media Company.']
While not a follower of Judaism, Israel Asper admitted an affinity with his namesake Jewish homeland established in Palestine after World War II, which displaced indigenous Arabs. "I'm what you would call a secular Jew," he told the Toronto Star in 2000. "I do consider myself quite Jewish in cultural terms. Very early on, I became a Zionist. It's been a lifelong pursuit of mine." After the 1973Yom Kippur War, Asper was instrumental in raising money and political support for Israel. He helped found an informal organization that evolved into the Winnipeg Jewish community's lobbying arm, the Canada-Israel Committee. Over the years, he had been a sharp critic of Canada's foreign policy toward Israel. After CanWest acquired the Southam newspapers, he often made his views known in print.
In a June 2001 speech in Jerusalem, Asper described Canada's UN record of voting to condemn Israel's actions against the Palestinians as "shameful." The speech was given on accepting an honorary doctorate after he contributed $5 million to help establish a business school at the Hebrew University. It was excerpted in the National Post and other CanWest newspapers. In it, Asper blamed most of the Western world for allowing the Holocaust that killed millions of Jews. "Britain welching on its word, duplicitously shut down Jewish immigration, and countries like Canada refused to accept fleeing European Jews as immigrants, all combining to trap Europe's Jewish community and leave it intact for Hitler's inferno."
In September of 2002, the Asper Foundation co-hosted a four-city speaking tour in Canada by former hard-line Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After 200 window-smashing protesters disrupted Netanyahu's speech at Montreal's Concordia University, forcing its cancellation, Asper accused them of Nazi tactics. "The minority of a rabble, a rioting group of essentially thugs [and] lawbreakers employed the techniques introduced 70 years ago by Adolf Hitler and his Brown Shirts," he said after five arrests were made. The incident was made into a CanWest Global film the following spring, Confrontation at Concordia, by Middle East correspondent Martin Himel. It compared the window smashing at Concordia to the 1938 Kristallnacht that saw Jewish shop windows smashed across Germany and presaged the Holocaust. Numerous groups, including those representing Muslims and Palestinians, complained to the CRTC and the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council that the film defamed them. Globe and Mail television critic John Doyle described it as "absurdly pointed" and an "outrageously aggressive" point-of-view documentary. The film did not mention the Asper Foundation's role in sponsoring Netanyahu's tour.
'Lazy, biased journalism'
A month after the Concordia incident, Asper made his strongest criticism yet of the news media and those who did not support Israel. In a Montreal speech, he attacked journalists in Canada and around the world for their coverage of the Middle East conflict. The speech was excerpted in the National Post and other Southam newspapers. "Both Israel and the honour of the news media are under grievous assault," he told a dinner hosted by the fundraising group Israel Bonds. "Dishonest reporting is destroying the trust in and credibility of the media and the journalists, and the same dishonest reporting is biased against Israel, thus destroying the world's favourable disposition toward it."
The first and worst lie is what this war is all about. Dishonest reporting tells you that it's about territory, and Jerusalem, and Palestinian statehood, and alleged refugees. Honest reporting would tell you that it is a war to destroy Israel and kill or expel or subjugate all the Jews. That is proved by the words and deeds of all the key Arab Palestinian leaders. But the media has bought and reported dishonestly and relentlessly the big lie. That big lie is that this war could be ended by Israeli land concessions.
Asper named many international media outlets, including CNN, the BBC and the New York Times, in providing examples of alleged bias. He promised he would not mention Canadian media outlets by name because they were competitors to CanWest, with one exception. "That exception is the CBC," he said, "because all Canadians own it and the governments we elect are responsible to us and it for its quality, and integrity." He singled out the CBC's Middle East correspondent, Neil Macdonald, for incorrectly portraying Palestinian suicide bombers. "The CBC, along with . . . other left-wing media, will still not label the Palestinian murderers as terrorists. By any world recognized definition of terrorism, they are terrorists, but the CBC, particularly in the person of Neil Macdonald, simply refers to them as 'militants.'" Reasons for the biased media coverage, according to Asper, ranged from negligence to malice. "Firstly, too many of the journalists are lazy, or sloppy, or stupid. They are ignorant of the history of the subject on which they are writing. Others are, plain and simple, biased, or anti-Semitic, or are taken captive by a simplistic ideology." Asper announced he had a remedy for the problem, however. "The solution starts on the campus, and in the journalism schools, then it goes to the boardrooms of the media owners, and finally, and most importantly, with the public."
He urged his audience to take action to influence not only media coverage, but also the education of journalists. "You, the public, must take action against the media wrongdoers," he said, suggesting the cancellation of subscriptions and the withholding of advertising from media guilty of "dishonest" reporting. He urged the formation of "honest reporting response groups" to call offending media to account. He advocated political activism to influence government policy in favor of Israel, which he called "the only beacon of democracy in a swamp of hate, violence and terrorism." One way of helping to change media coverage of the Middle East, he told his audience, was for them to join the boards of universities. Once in a position of influence, he added, they should "demand that the administrators of higher education retake control of the teaching process."
We must demand that the journalism schools do a better job of teaching integrity more forcibly. Then, we must demand that our media owners invest more money in educating their journalists, and media operators. . . . And we should withhold our financial support from those institutions that fail this obligation of educational integrity.
Asper even issued a warning to the journalists he employed. "If any CanWest media outlets happen to fall within this indictment, then they, too, should take notice that I will always do all in my power to stamp out dishonest reporting, and biased reporting on any subject." Honest reporting, he said, included fulfilling certain responsibilities. "The responsibility to report everything that the public needs to know about a given matter and not just selectively, so that the public may be fully informed; to report everything honestly and not slant the news, biased toward their own point of view. That is, news is news, and should appear as such, and opinion is opinion, and must be clearly designated as such." Dishonest reporting, on the other hand, came in several forms, according to Asper, including the use of misleading terminology. "The term 'terror' has been well defined by major recognized laws," he said. "But many biased media describe the Palestinian perpetrators of clear acts of terror against Israel, merely as 'militants,' 'resistance fighters,' 'gunmen,' 'extremists.'" A blatant example of this type of dishonest reporting, he added, was a report on National Public Radio in the U.S. According to Asper, it described "a group of Arab murderers who crept into an Israeli home, at night, and murdered a mother and her children, as 'commandos!'" Similar terms, such as "cycle of violence," "moderate Arab states," "peace process," "occupied territories," and "illegal settlements," he said, had become tools. They were used by "journalistic propagandists in their desire to create undeserved sympathy for the Palestinians and opprobrium for Israel."
His father's son
Although he was Izzy Asper's youngest child, Leonard showed at an early age the affinity for business that would make him the logical successor to his father as CanWest CEO. According to his sister Gail, Leonard was reading the Wall Street Journal and carrying around the Canadian securities handbook in pre-adolescence. His brazen nature was demonstrated by the story she told about how, when Leonard was three, he picked flowers from a neighbor's front yard and tried to sell them back to the owner. The inclination toward larceny, reported Ric Dolphin of the Calgary Herald, ran in the family. "She and David used to do the same thing with crabapples." One of Leonard's earliest lessons in business, he told another Herald reporter, came after he hurried home with $6 in revenue from a lemonade stand he set up at age four. "Dad said, 'What did the gas cost for your Mom to go to the store to buy lemonade? What did the lemonade cost? What did you pay for the Dixie cups? How much was the wagon and how about that little tray you used for a cash register?'" The realities of entrepreneurship thus sank in at an early age. "By the time he'd finished," Leonard recalled, "I'd lost $600 and was a puddle of tears."
Named CanWest CEO in 1999 at age 35, Leonard's youthful looks and pleasant disposition often led business associates to find him out of place in the cutthroat corporate world. "Leonard lacks the imposing presence, the growl and glare, of his . . . father; in its place is an apparent willingness to please," noted Report on Business magazine in 2000. "A dimpled grin and a boyish enthusiasm gives the young CEO a somewhat merry air that, were he anyone else, might make it difficult for him to gain serious attention in a boardroom." Those who made the mistake of under-estimating him, however, were missing some important traits Leonard inherited from his father, noted Maclean's. "People talk so much about Izzy Asper's smarts that they miss or ignore similar qualities in Leonard, whose polite, soft-spoken manner and enormous devotion to his family belie his toughness."
Of all the Asper offspring, Leonard took after his father most of all in the public arena, proving to be almost as prodigious and pugnacious. "He has his father's quick tongue and love of a good fight," noted Gordon Pitts in Kings of Convergence. According to business writer David Olive, Leonard also had "his litigious father's intolerance for dissenters, both in and outside the camp." His verbal fractiousness was evidenced by the insults he often dispensed toward critics of CanWest. He seemed to love the public pulpit as much as his father did, and he used it often to dispense his opinions. In appearing before the Lincoln Committee hearings on broadcasting policy in 2002, for example, he ridiculed critics of media concentration. "Canadian media are more fragmented and less concentrated than ever before," he testified. "I submit that people who believe otherwise are not looking at the facts and they also probably believe Elvis is still alive." In 2003, while announcing changes at the National Post, he derided the Post's competition as an "axis of snivel."
In his father's mold
Like his father, Leonard Asper reserved his strongest attacks for the CBC. He echoed his father's argument that the CBC should not be competing with private networks by airing popular programming such as news and sports. "Because private broadcasters can now afford to, and are showing a willingness to, invest in news and information programming, the CBC should produce only that kind of programming that is not commercial," he said in 2003. "That's why we say they shouldn't carry Hockey Night in Canada using your money, my money, taxpayers' money to outbid private broadcasters for something that private broadcasters would do just as well." Hockey Night in Canada was one of the few programmes that actually earned a profit for the CBC. Asper argued, however, that the public broadcaster should instead spend taxpayer dollars on unpopular programming. "Where it's uneconomic to invest is [in] what they call indigenous drama: kinds of things that don't unfortunately get the ratings but are deemed to contribute to Canadian culture or help Canadian artists," he said. "That's what the CBC should do though, is try new programs, try the drama, the variety programming and the arts programming that doesn't make it on an unsubsidized broadcaster."
Leonard Asper also saved his harshest criticism of the CBC for its coverage of the Middle East, in particular correspondent Neil Macdonald. In a speech in September of 2003, Asper reprised his father's attack on the world media, accusing them of bias against Israel. He went one step farther, however, and attributed the bias to racism. "Racism is very difficult to prove, particularly when the accused do not openly state the reason for their attacks or their bias," he told an audience at the Gray Academy of Jewish Education in Winnipeg. "No reporter screams: 'I hate Jews.'" The racism of news media was instead an "institutionalized" bias against Israel, according to Asper. "Knowingly or not, the media who cover Israel do not recognize it as either a homeland or a fortress for the protection of Jews both within Israel and for Jews living everywhere." He saw the reporting as resistance to making Israel a Jewish homeland. "Therefore to them Zionism is racism," noted Asper, "and some reporters condemn all Jews for the existence of what they deem to be a racist state." Terrorism in support of displaced Palestinians, he pointed out, had resulted in wild conspiracy theories.
The reversion to the "blame the Jews" solution for terrorism everywhere is prevalent among the intelligentsia, including journalists. The Jews and therefore Israel are to blame for 9/11; they are to blame for the attacks on the United States and UN installations; they are to blame for the war in Iraq, and even economic decline.
Attacking the media
Asper's speech, which was excerpted in the National Post and other CanWest newspapers, echoed his father's attack on lazy, stupid, ignorant journalists for dishonest reporting. Part of the problem, he said, was that unlike its early underdog years, Israel had come to be seen as the aggressor in the conflict. "Many news journalists are either doctrinaire socialists or hold political views left of center," he said. "They are generally supportive of anyone who they deem to be oppressed, victimized or otherwise aggrieved by a stronger party." The problem was made worse, he added, by the fact that Israel was "unprepared for propaganda wars." It was thus losing the battle for hearts and minds in the television age. "Journalists, some of whom are even Jewish, complain openly that they generally receive only an official government statement from Israel, often post-deadline, while from the Arabs they are granted interviews with whomever they want -- Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Aqsa or Islamic Jihad."
They get instant access to wild funerals, replete with bug-eyed youths chanting "death to Israel and America" and they are given packaged home videos from Arabs. These home video shots are either fabricated or edited to paint Israelis in the worst possible light. Professional ethics have fallen by the wayside in the interests of good raw video and deadlines.
Some reporters covering the Middle East, he added, were "fooled by the openness of Israeli society" and the debate in that country over treatment of the Palestinians. Disagreement between politicians from the Labour and Likud parties, he said, as well as by journalists from Israeli newspapers, led many journalists to an incorrect conclusion. "The raging debate," he said, "confirms in many journalists' minds that Israel does bear at least some blame for the deaths that occur on both sides of the conflict." The biggest problem, he added, was that many journalists covering the Middle East simply lacked the background to do so competently. "Many reporters sent to the Middle East are unqualified for complex war coverage," he said. "They know nothing about the history but worse, they do not bother to make their own inquiries." Most journalists, he said, did not know that "the terrorist and weapons-infested Jenin refugee camp is run by the United Nations and has been for more than 50 years." Sympathy for Palestinian refugees seemed to Asper undeserved and mostly due to the ignorance of journalists. "Most do not have any clue that the so-called Arab refugees became refugees because they were urged to leave by Arab leaders when they were attacking Israel in 1948." Asper singled out only one media outlet and one journalist by name in charging "hints of anti-Semitism" in the Canadian media.
When Hezbollah, the well-known terrorist group, was finally banned in Canada, Neil Macdonald of the CBC pompously, but dangerously, suggested Hezbollah was a "national liberation movement victimized by unfair smears cast around by supporters of the Jewish state." No reference to Israel, just "the Jewish state."
Pointing out that while some journalists were "neither Marxists nor anti-Semites," Asper lamented that "they have little help." Fortunately, he told his audience, CanWest had been working toward a solution. "There is some hope, as we have found in observing the results of various programs to educate journalists," Asper continued. "With fair-minded journalists, who actually do care more about the truth than their own ideologies, there has been a positive response once the hard facts are known. But for some, their work must be done for them." In addition to training programs, proper media hiring practices were important to ensure the correct coverage of news, he added. "Media proprietors and managers must ensure that the people they hire do not bring their ideology into their newsrooms, and that journalists do proper research before filing stories." He echoed his father's call to action by urging his audience to hold the media's feet to the fire and point out anti-Israel bias where they detected it. "The media must be held accountable, just as they purport to hold others accountable. Respond to bias when you see it. Demand informed, objective and accurate reporting."
Some in the media were outraged that Asper had spoken out on such contentious issues. Christopher Dornan, then director of Carleton University's journalism school, thought it was entirely appropriate for Asper to give his opinion on an issue of concern to journalists, however. After all, he was the CEO of Canada's largest private-sector news media company. "No, the problem is not that he spoke out," wrote Dornan in the Globe and Mail. "It is what he said." The CanWest leader's criticism of Canadian journalists, according to Dornan, was not only ill-advised and ill-founded, but worse. "Here's what's wrong with Mr. Asper's position: It's dumb as all get out." While Asper had prefaced his remarks by stressing they were his personal views and not CanWest editorial policy, Dornan found his disclaimer "either disingenuous or naive." The resulting influence on CanWest journalists was unavoidable, he noted. "When the person in charge of a national media corporation offers his deep-down opinion on what he hopes for in news coverage, the people who work for him cannot help but take notice." The extreme nature of Asper's comments betrayed his own ideology, noted Dornan.
Journalists are all too often constitutionally Jew-hating Marxists who are intellectually dishonest and therefore morally bankrupt? Pardon? Mr. Asper takes a complicated matter that merits serious attention and reduces it to baiting and name-calling. He should know better, but apparently, he doesn't. This guy hasn't the foggiest idea how journalism works, but for the moment, much of Canadian journalism works for him.
Izzy Asper died of a heart attack a week later, leaving Leonard as "Canada's most important media magnate," according to the Globe and Mail. Gordon Pitts had already deemed him the country's most important media executive because "unlike his rivals at BCE and Bell Globemedia, Leonard actually owns the shop." The CanWest founder's funeral in Winnipeg drew a crowd of 1,600 mourners, including Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, and Stephen Harper. Leonard Asper, his voice breaking with emotion, eulogized his father. "Thank you for what you gave to the world and to your family," he said. "We have your checklist. We know what's left to be done. We will not let you down."
Related Tyee stories:
- The rest of this Asper Nation series.
- Big Media is Hungry!
Watch the short, funny video. - CanWest's Clumsy Vendetta against CBC
The more the National Post cries bias, the more oddly obsessed it appears
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
rjm
23-11-2007
asper loyalty
a few days after 9/11, i saw charles adler interview john manley on canwest bctv. i believe manley was, at the time, minister of foreign affairs representing the government of canada. adler, of course, was representing canwest.
adler made a clear and glaring demand that canada immediately surrender its sovereignty to the government of the united states. the demand was devoid of ambiguity, but formed such as to be possibly and quite loosely interpreted as a question, though it certainly (with the help of adler slamming his fist on his desk) came across as a demand.
i have written numerous letters the make reference to what,i believe, is an act of sedition or outright treason on adler and canwests part, including letters sent to adler personally as well the winnipeg sun newspaper.
i have also highlighted the fact that adler was not reprimanded in any visible way by canwest, in fact, his participation seemed to be expanded subsequent to his demand that the canadian government immediately surrender to foreign authorities.
many of the letters have been printed.
i have never be sued.
tks,
rjm
BC Mary
23-11-2007
Good on you, rjm. And
Good on you, rjm.
And this:
"The responsibility to report everything that the public needs to know about a given matter and not just selectively, so that the public may be fully informed; to report everything honestly and not slant the news, biased toward their own point of view."
For anyone with respect for the meaning of words, this is a ghastly shriek from a very deep dark hole in the earth. It's damwell not about British Columbians and their need to know what happened to B.C. Rail, for starters.
Just one question for the charming, boyish Asper: have you heard about the raid on the B.C. Legislature and the charges against three former government employees?
I searched in vain and found -0- in the 3 big CanWest (converged) B.C. dailies about Justice Bennett "blowing her top" in B.C. Supreme Court last Friday. And yet this whole case is about Canada's 3rd largest railway, publicly owned until 2003. And we, the previous owners, aren't sure what happened after that.
Jeez, and you pontificate about "everything the public needs to know". Like, in CanWest newsrooms, who's deciding what we need to know?
Asper Question: why isn't the Basi-Virk-BCRail Case given the same daily drum-beat as the Pickton trial? Please explain that.
Gary
23-11-2007
My take on...
..the Asper Canwest Media is: lazy, sloppy,stupid journalism, biased reporting and any thing else you can think of.
Witness the lack of facts and the prevalence of innuendo in almost every column in their papers or reports on their TV stations. And the biggest crime this company is perpetrating is right here in BC. The almost total lack of reporting on the Legislature Raids. And when a reporter does report on it they spin the outcome to so the Governing party here doesn't look so bad compared to the previous government.
The one saving grace is that we have places like The Tyee or IWT or Blogs to get the real scoop or any scoop at all for that matter.
Grumpy
23-11-2007
George Orwell had it right
"Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper."
I have now found the Vancouver sun so incompetent in its reporting, so biased in its outlook that I have cancelled my subscription. The Seattle PI has more news and a lot more interesting articles.
I urge everyone to cancel their subscription to the Sun!
Jeffrey J.
23-11-2007
Jewish Peace Movement Strong
The Asper's efforts to equate criticism of Isreal's neoconservative regime with anti-semitism is a well developed ploy south of the border. Such logic however is patently fallacious, inspite of its power as a political tool. First, Israel peace movements (such as Gush Shalom) are strong voices in Israel, condemning the right wing government just as Canadians and American condemn similar policies in the West.
It is not about semitism, but about rejecting aggressive foreign policy and resisting tyranny.Unfortunately, like hard liners around the world, neo-con Israelis can be as strident and imperioius and ideological as neo-con Westerners like Bush, Cheney and our own Steve Harper. The former cloak their criticism of free speech with allegations of anti-semitism; the latter stifle free speech with allegations of unpatriotism or proterrorism. Its the old "you're either with us or with the terrorists" in different language. A patent fallacy itself.
The existence of the "Israeli Lobby" in US policy is well researched by two progressive Jewish writers and is well worth considering:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Israel_Lobby_and_U.S._Foreign_Policy.
Cogent criticism of Israeli neocon policies abound, beginning with Einstein's grave concerns over violence by Israel, and continuing with critiques by Noam Chomsky (Princeton University) Uri Avnery (former publisher and Knesset member),and Canada's own Naomi Klein (No Logo, Shock Doctine).
Thoughtful people everywhere must reject the logic that forbids criticism of a military regime, whether that regime be Israel, the US or Canada.
Excellent series Tyee and Marc Edge. This great book is officially on my Christmas list. Can't wait to read the full version.
G West
23-11-2007
Jeffrey J
Without taking issue with your general thesis I would like to clarify one point.
I do not believe that Mearsheimer and Walt are Jews - progressive or otherwise.
The other individuals you mention, Einstein, Chomsky, Avnery and Klein certainly are.
Working Memory
23-11-2007
Better than SEX !!
This series is better than sex.
Nice foreplay David & Marc.
I had a feeling a couple of days ago that the climax today was going to be great ... and you guys delivered. My wife is jealous.
I made a public plea to Carole James for a news media inquiry regarding British Columbia and the 2010 Olympics in September of 2006.
It fell on deaf ears.
CanWest has interviewed me a number of times, but they never publish my views. I assume it is because I always, at some point during the course of the interview, implicate them in deceiving the public.
CanWest seems to like my perspective regarding the 2010 Olympics enough to call for interviews, but apparently they don't like what I say about them, so as expected, they pan me.
Who knew they would be so persistently biased?
Here's what I wrote about CanWest in 2006;
Working Memory
23-11-2007
Action
Quote:
I urge everyone to cancel their subscription to the Sun!
Right on Grumpy!
Passive action speaks louder than words.
You might also want to let a few of their advertisers know of your dissatisfaction.
Start with the smaller companies and work your way up. They all have email. Send them a link to the story here in The Tyee.
Individuals cancelling subscriptions certainly does hurt, but losing one large account impacts their revenue stream in a big way and sends CEOs scurrying to the boardroom in a heartbeat.
Skywalker
23-11-2007
This won't help.
I really do not need to know any more about the Asper's opinions. I doesn't seem to help their cause if they have one beyond making their fortunes with propaganda instead of news. If I made generalization about a race of people based on the Asper's attitude then I I would be just as bad. All this is more than I ever wanted to know about them as individuals. I still object to their manipulation of the news people get to read and hear. In that respect they are just as bad as any other group trying to deny the truth.
Working Memory
23-11-2007
It will help
Actually, Skywalker, it will help, if for no other reason than to encourage people not to be so apathetic.
With not a hint of sarcasm and all due respect for your opinion, not everyone is as astute as you, nor do they read The Tyee as often. For some people this could be the first time they've seen tangible evidence that what they've suspected is true.
I do agree with you however that repeating the same mantra over and over gets boring, but sometimes that's what it takes to drill down to a crowd that needs more inspiration to get them off their hands.
Also, I'm not sure what everyone else does here, but when I find a jewel like this I blast links of it around the world to other news media, and especially a company's national competition.
Dan Rather didn't show up here last month by accident. The request came from UBC students who asked him to investigate our homeless situation. Articles like this give international media an opportunity exert pressure we can not possibly do on our own.
News media is a business. Publishers have to be concerned with their customers as well as their competition. No one wants to be next on the list to be targeted.
Leverage the momentum.
Think local act global.
Birch
23-11-2007
Life's blinkers
This series of articles on the Asper media empire reveal clearly why it is important to have a diverse media rather than a concentrated few magnates in control.
One can understand the Asper's preoccupation with Israel; it's not unique within the larger Jewish community. There were terrible things done with respect to the holocaust and its victims, and as is pointed out above, not all of them were done by Hitler and his cohorts. It seems very difficult to be anything but paranoid and combative when huge swaths of history have shown that many people were, and are, out to get you.
That being said, I fail to see much difference between an ideology devoted to social justice (or the dreaded "socialism", if you prefer) and an ideology devoted to promoting capitalism and Israel (not necessarily in that order) AS IDEOLOGIES. They can both be hidebound and blinkered, prone to see only the advantages and benefits of their own side and overlooking their own failings and evils.
I fail to see the logic in demanding that the employees (the journalists) do original research (something Asper deplores the lack of according to this article) and THEN COME UP WITH THE POLITICALLY CORRECT ANALYSIS as defined by the editor or publisher. The journalists might as well just phone him and say, "What would you like me to write today?"
Asper's papers do have some good writing in them, particularly the parts of the paper to do with culture, the arts, and business. But their tedious lack of originality with respect to international and national issues makes them just another right wing mouthpiece. I'd as soon listen to Rush Limbaugh, which is pretty much as crappy as you can get.
Bobb999
23-11-2007
"Truthiness" in Journalism, Canwest style
To hear Aspers ranting about dishonest, ideologically driven journalism is hilarious, as Canwest itself is the most culpable purveyor of dishonest, ideological journalism of any media group in Canada. And in the western world, Canwest may be second only to Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp which includes his infamous FAUX News TV, for such questionable "journalism".
Also hilarious is Izzy's call to boycott
media outlets and publishers that are guilty of dishonest journalism!
Because I'm fairly certain Canwest is on the receiving end of significantly more boycotting by angered Canadians than is any other media org. in Canada.
I'm sure I'm but one of many who contentedly boycotts Canwest, at least as far as paying any $. I do read some online Canwest articles, including from their disgraceful flagship Post, just to keep track a bit of who they're sliming, and their latest misleading propaganda campaigns.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations which, twice yearly, gathers independent stats on paid newspaper readership seems to confirm this.
The latest stats released this month show, of the 3 Toronto majors, Globe, Nat. Post, and Star, The Post saw, as it typically does, the largest paid circulation decline at -3.7%, compared to the Globe's small decline of -0.3%.
Nationally, The Globe leads the Post in paid circulation in all major Cdn. cities except Edmonton. The Globe's circulation has outperformed the Post for years, with The Post deteriorating at a rapid rate.
Last year, The Globe was the only Toronto-based newspaper to buck a trend of declining circulation, and actually grew circulation.
http://tinyurl.com/2vg9jo
http://tinyurl.com/2gnfev
So who's getting boycotted? It looks like Canwest is!
Just one example: According to Norman Spector, The National Post, way back in 2001, had an exclusive scoop on news of the mysterious 6 digit cash payouts from Mr. Schreiber to Mr. Mulroney, but instead of informing the public, chose to not carry, but bury the story nationwide. Aside from a few small-mention exceptions that got past the Canwest censor, Canwest outlets sat on the story for years.
It's true other media outlets were slow to pick up on the Schreiber story, but while others came around to covering it in the last few years, including last year's fine CBC TV doc., Canwest continued to kill the story right up until very recently when Schreiber's affidavit and the spillover from it finally made it impossible for even Canwest to ignore any longer.
Honest journalism, Aspers? Ho ho ha ha hee hee.
Skywalker
23-11-2007
Working Memory
I found Asper's comments so close to insane that I found myself wondering how anyone from a group of people so ill treated by lies in the past would suggest that journalists, many of who have a family history similar, need to have their heads filled with Asper opinions. As though they can't recognize truth without Asper explaining and defining it for them. The arrogance of the man.
I didn't think much of the Aspers and the Asper media before and that was the reason I said that I really didn't need to know more. Most people whose ancestors had gone through something like what I assume the Asper's ancestors did would be obsessed with facts, truth and freedom. Proposing to send journalists to an Asper approved reeducation camp is hardly a way to a better world or a better image for that matter.
BC Mary
24-11-2007
Don't cancel your CanWest subscriptions ...
Grumpy, Working Memory:
I share your general disillusionment with the CanWest media. They mock the notion of intelligent reporting as a public duty.
Worse, they campaign for -- and elect -- their own selfish policies with their own selfish candidates. They don't seem to care much about the best agendas for the greatest number of citizens.
But CanWest won't even notice if you cancel your subscription. They're just too big, too rich, too headstrong to be put off by a lost customer or two.
As for you? You're left out in the cold, not knowing what they're scheming to do next.
Keep your subscriptions and study the damn things for weak spots. Then write or telephone to make your PoV known to the journalist and/or to the Newsroom.
Explain the facts o'life to them. Be brief, be polite, be persistent. Give substance to "the public interest" so the journalists and editors can actually begin to feel that people care. How else will they know?
They can't publish most letters but they do pay attention to them. So I think that's the best tactic for improvement.
Right now, Judith Lavoie is doing a decent job, within space restructions, on the disturbing land giveaway of Tree Farm Licences which were intended to preserve and protect the forests for employment.
For that kind of writing, I think a journalist and the newsroom deserve praise.
Truman Green
25-11-2007
Very strange, BC Mary.
Would you buy a car from a dealer for whom you had no respect?
I can't understand why you would counsel people not to cancel their subscriptions if they believe that the CanWest papers do not act in the best interest of their readers and the general population.
G West
25-11-2007
Sadly Mary
Sadly, Mary, for the odd exemplary 'Judith Lavoie', there are dozens of front page exposes of opulent excess like that on display above the fold of today's Times-Colonist.
Luxury's high end: Region's priciest homes by assessed values
At least they got the apostrophe right.
SharingIsGood
25-11-2007
CanWest still expanding
Reported in The Daily Planet, Nov. 25, 2007.
WINDSOR, ON, Nov. 19 /CNW/
"CanWest MediaWorks buys six community papers in Essex County. 'Through these acquisitions, CanWest has established a community newspaper network in the Windsor market. We look forward to exploring the potential for growth of these publications in this region,' said Rob Leuschner, President of the CanWest Community Publishing division, which now includes 30 community publications throughout Canada. 'This is yet another example of CanWest's commitment to developing strong community voices across this country.' "
http://www.the-daily-planet.ca/content.php?id=907
BC Mary
25-11-2007
I guess I didn't say it clearly enough.
I didn't suggest that people maintain their subscriptions in order to swallow all the wrong-headed bits.
Quite the opposite.
And I'm assuming you actually WANT to do something to change CanWest's point of view.
So I ask you, how can you begin to reason with CanWest if you have no idea what they're saying?
If you want to actively try to change CanWest, you have to look at them, think their stuff through, and then -- didn't I say this? -- write or telephone the journalist and the newsroom. Tell them where they went wrong. And tell them when, occasionally, they get things right: as with Judith Lavoie.
Sure I said it. I said "Be brief. Be polite. Be persistent." And I said those CanWest guys might not publish, but they'll read what you say and slowly (sure, like water dripping on granite) they'll begin to change.
Try what Maurice Cardinal suggests: adopt a journalist. I seem to be stuck with Gary Mason but I note that lately he's gone missing from The Globe and Mail so I guess the Old Reliable figured him out for themselves.
Truman, that's a silly question. Buying a car ain't subscribing to a newspaper. And that dubious car ain't gonna change. Who you kiddin'.
SharingIsGood
25-11-2007
Cancelling subscriptions
I've cancelled my subscription, but I've found ways of getting copy for free. When I write to them, they don't know that I don't buy their stuff. Except for groceries, I really try to avoid buying from the companies that advertise in CanWest. In this way I don't support CanWest nor their advertisers, but I do find a way to monitor them.
Bobb999
25-11-2007
Boycotting Canwest is working!
It's apparent from The Audit Bureau of Circulations stats stretching back years that there is an ever growing contingent of EX- subscribers to Canwest. It's true most major newspapers in North America, and probably worldwide are suffering from net competition, but in Canada, Canwest, and certainly their flagship Post is losing paid readers at a faster rate than other Cdn. papers. There's only one explanation for this: Readers are fleeing from Canwest,
ceasing to buy or subscribe.
I'm with those here who totally support the notion of canceling subscriptions. Ultimately, the financial bottom line is something the Aspers, as businessmen, MUST
pay attention to. And, as Canwest is a publicly traded co., not a private one, the Aspers must take into account the best interests of shareholders.
There's enough freely available Canwest content online, that one can still keep track of what they are up without having to reward them by contributing $ to help reduce their growing red ink river.
Btw, I notice that more, and maybe all Vanc. Sun articles are free online now. For instance, Vaughn Palmer's column, one of the best things about the Sun, imo, is no longer behind a subscriber wall. It's free online.
I often end up reading Canwest stuff via Norman Spector's excellent site, which is essentially a very good news aggregator.
The pressure Canwest must feel from its declining mkt. share is arguably having some effect already at moderating their
positions, or showing a bit more tolerance
of thought.
I see this trend occurring in the Vancouver Sun a bit, for instance. That CanWest recently turned over "editorship for a day" to Dr. David Suzuki,at least a few times, surprised me. To allow a larger degree of environmental coverage is something I wouldn't have expected from Canwest before.
Some people on previous Tyee threads have opined that even their flagship hardline Post appears to be mellowing ever so slightly. I can't vouch for this myself, as I still seem to find lots of Post articles that make my blood boil, and I don't scrutinize the Post thoroughly enough to be able to say for sure, but it's conceivable.
I've received calls from Canwest's subscriptions sales call centers a few times in the past year. I always explain exactly why I won't subscribe: that I view Canwest as purveyors of dishonest, ideologically driven propagandist "journalism". It's quite possible they keep track of decliners' reasons to aid their marketing research, so it may be a useful idea to not just say no, but to tell them why.
So, I say DO boycott Canwest, DO cancel subscriptions, 'cause it seems to be
starting to have the hoped for effect: Canwest may be beginning to mellow ever so slightly, to be a bit more open and honest, instead of stifling debate to the same degree as before. They still have an awful long way to go though, so till then, I say,
"Just say NO" to Canwest-Global!