Welcome to the Tyee

Kai, I'm glad you were able to find the Tyee.

What you are saying about "packaged" news and opinions across the different medias reflects my own opinion. I have noticed lately that more and more similar stories are on opposing media, such as CBC and the Globe and Mail reporting the same story, with the same slant. Quebecor must have more influence in English Canada than I thought.

Thankfully we do have outlets like the Tyee, that seem to allow independant thinking, and independant reporting.

Touche, Mr. Nagata

Installment #3 of this much needed expose on Quebecor doesn't disappoint.

Like other exposes which set out the step-by-step methods of how media monopolies hijack democracy, we learn two things. First, dismantling democratic institutions can be done with sufficient resources and basic strategies, perfected the world over by all authoritarian regimes.

Secondly, and more importantly, there IS an antidote to the spread of autocracy: real journalists publishing through independent media. Like...wait for it...the Tyee. And thankfully, there are many more (Rabble.ca, Public Eye, Common Sense Canadian, and internationally, we cannot ever forget Al Jazeera (read Hugh Miles incredible book, History of Al Jazeera).

So Kai Nagata can be proud to join a growing number of courageous journalists in BC who are fed up with producing corporate media's spoon fed pablum which most of us are sick of. Courageous writers such as Andrew Nikiforuk, David Beers, Sean Holman, Rafe Mair, UBC Prof. Chris Shaw and Brigette dePape, among many others.

Nagata's insights must be fully digested by BC citizens, so we can turn away from the monolithic power of idealogical propaganda, and learn how to make our own media, support the majority of citizens, and one day perhaps, regain our democracy.

Anti-Monopoly

It's time for the NDP to make enforcing anti-monopoly legislation a key plank in their national & provincial platforms. Democracy cannot function when the media are dominated by so few major corporations.

Two things

Two things; first; Journalism 101; NEVER use the pronoun "I" at all. One of Mr. Nagata's paragraphs has "I" as every second word. He just repeats this over & over; & where are the editors?

Second, don't write about the complexities of Quebec politics in BC; thousands of miles away, and call it a *Sun* expose article...

Fear of the Other

Great piece, Kai! You hit on some good points:

"The impression I'm left with is that public opinion is being wielded to advance private interests, via a cowed political class."

"Fear of being subsumed by the Other. Fear of terrorism, fear of crime, fear of economic collapse. This is the environment under which media convergence functions best -- where a population is broken up into individual households and kept ignorant, anxious, and entertained by the same company."

This public opinion is something similar to the Lacanian Big Other, a complex structure which becomes larger with fear. Your concern with the picture of public opinion being painted by a few media corporations is rightly so. I believe many Canadians have already fallen under the spell of Sun Media with the dailies being shoved down their throats as they board trains and buses. These papers are full of so called public opinion. For example: a majority of Canadians do not support the postal union strike,etc. This kind of report is never support by evidence because their is no space and the reader has no time or real concern to question or check. Then slowly but surely, a subjective opinion becomes objectified.

Two Things.

First, Journalism 101; NEVER use the pronoun "I". Mr. Nagata just repeats & repeats this solipsism, so where are the editors? Just one of his paragraphs has "I" over & over again in a few sentences, very silly.

Second, don't write about the complexities of Quebec politics in BC, thousands of miles away; under the header of a Sun media expose. It's quite mis-leading to the readers, and one notices that The Tyee does this a lot, an article purportedly about one thing, is really about something else. Truth in advertising, right?

Why Worry?

"Fear of being subsumed by the Other."

"Fear of terrorism"

Apparently, only 10 years ago, *terrorists* staged a first-ever attack on North America, and killed thousands of innocent people. No?

"fear of crime"

Where I live, in Surrey BC, we have the biggest modern crime-wave in our history, gangs rule here, no one is safe, and you may get killed walking @ night. Sure, why worry about crime?

"fear of economic collapse."

So, we've never had the most serious economic disaster here since the Great Depression? Er, there's a few folks without jobs, Mr. Nagata...

poster Blake:

"This public opinion is something similar to the Lacanian Big Other, a complex structure which becomes larger with fear."

Oh yeah, go tell the United Nations Gang about your "Lacanian" po-mo. University course, they'll die laughing...or something...

Québec Solidaire

I have to object to the characterization of Québec Solidaire as "quasi-Marxist." On the party's website you'll find a section called "Myths," the first of which is "We are communists." Québec Solidaire describes explicitly describes itself as social democratic and leftist.

reply to firefox007

Your cornflakes smell a little suspicious pal. You seem to stand alone in criticism of the Tyee and its contributors. This is the best jouralism available in Canada. I am curious about the motives for your negativity. The use of "I," while non-traditional is far less pretencious than, "this writer." You obviously missed the point Kai is trying to make. His familiarity with Quebec politics enables him to present a scenario with which he is familiar. It is a wake up call for all Canadians, including us west-coasters. I'm sorry that you live in Surrey but give us a break or at least explain what qualifications you have as a journalism critic and/or editor.

Thanks

Thanks for this article. I found reference to it on Facebook and I look forward to more analysis and reports on bias in the media, media concentration, ownership and the practices that result in media bias.

I am particularly interested in media ownership in Canada, including not just the companies that own the major news media, but the individuals and families that own the media and the people who sit on the various Boards of Directors that supposedly govern the media. I understand, for example, that former PM Mulroney is installed at Quebecor.

I am concerned, of course, with the recent right wing drift of the CBC and the absolute right wing bias of most of the corporate media. Your experience and research is appreciated.

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the Trolls (and the companies and political parties that run them) that deface social media since many are paid to disrupt constructive dialogue. But of course, you already know about 'sock puppets' and the US military contractors that developed the software to run them.

With respect to canned 'news', the danger as you say is that companies and right-wing 'think tanks' are able to deliver biased reports and have been able to have them published as fact because we no longer have, if we ever did, objective news agencies. The incestuous nature of the media has been exposed most recently with respect to right wing reporting of Islam and Muslims in America and the companies that pay those 'think tanks' and 'journalists' to spread their word.

I sure like Sun News...

on YouTube, where it belongs. Hot women, hot opinions, flamin' Ezra... the whole show is great for YouTube.

I don't mind Sun "News" participating either and nobody should. But their ceaseless attacks on the CBC are increasingly transparent and grating. Their usage of mostly male pundits versus Tasha Kheiriddin, Alise Mills, Sandra Pupatello and some of the other great female pundits of our times for evening talk is also not exactly jolly good.

But for real news and not G*D damn infotainment... I want Sean Holman of http://publiceyeonline.com and his students telling me the facts. Save the partisan stuff for twitter & http://ezralevant.com !

So why are so many listening?

Clearly the people have lost the propaganda war. The mainstream media controlling the spin, the message and even what is presentable is as old as the hills.

Nobody can pour sense into another person's head. The best anyone can do is to present an alternative idea but, even then, considering the complexity of the human mind and things like the Backfire Effect, if there is no interest to expand one's world understanding, there will be no change.

We have been mentally bludgeoned since birth with their message, and learning an alternative view is verging on 'national blasphemy'. We can no longer see what is right before us and, even worse, we seem to have no desire to do so.

TV is filled with 'programming'. Ever figure out why it's called programming? It could not be more self-stated but we are most content in self delusion.

TV is entertainment. In the main it is there to amuse you, to divert your attention, to keep you in a cognitive slumber.

TV is not there to inform a person, and certainly its operators do not attempt to fully or comprehensively inform. Hell, we turn a guy or gal who reads the propaganda rag to the masses into a national celebrity. It's a shameful joke on us all.

And BCOrder, if you do not see the propagandized message and format behind the CBC, you are only fooling yourself. The effectiveness of propaganda is increased by mixing in some truth. The CBC routinely does this but, on the whole, it is the state rag.

Try this. Simply go participate on its hokey news forum by putting out some alternative views regarding the untouchable issues of state like the righteousness of our military, or the unimpeachable efforts of the police who serve and protect us. Quickly its cover will be blown.

The forum is laced with political stooges who are clearly employed to reinforce the state message on these matters. The proof is simple: there are 'paid members' who respond repeatedly and aggressively on only single issue matters: the CPC, the RCMP or the military.

Further, watch your comments not get posted, or perhaps posted so long after the fact that the discourse you were involved in and, specifically your alternative side of the story, is rendered moot. Admittedly this analysis is anecdotal but that alone does not render it void.

I want more

I should like to read an opinion article by you about Postmedia content in British Columbia.

For the benefit of young would-be journalists, I should like to read your career advice. Journalist students ask George Monbiot for advice so often that he had to post an article on his web site at Monbiot.com Let's have your advice!

firefox007, do you comprehend ...

that this article is an OPINION piece and the use of "I" is appropriate?

Misfiring and Misinformed

Quote: "Apparently, only 10 years ago, *terrorists* staged a first-ever attack on North America, and killed thousands of innocent people. No?"~ firefox007

The attack was not on North America. It was on the US. One is a country and one is a continent. There is a difference. And while tragically there were three thousand victims of 9/11 - hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed in response by the US ( the actual number now close to one million killed over the course of the war)..... infra-structure destroyed, historical antiquities destroyed, women and children killed, thousands upon thousands of women left as widows...and yet.... Iraq had nothing to with 9/11. Who's your terrorist now?

"Where I live, in Surrey BC, we have the biggest modern crime-wave in our history, gangs rule here, no one is safe, and you may get killed walking @ night. Sure, why worry about crime?" ~ firefox007

Sorry, but Surrey is not Canada...and Canada's crime rate has been declining for many years...and is now the lowest it has been in forty years.

Quote: "So, we've never had the most serious economic disaster here since the Great Depression? Er, there's a few folks without jobs, Mr. Nagata..." ~firefox007

No kidding, firefox007. Gee, Stevie and Flaherty told us in the last election everything was hunky-dory in Canada. But they do seem a little worried lately. Oh well, there will be jobs, jobs, jobs in all those prisons they plan to build, spending lots of 'our' money to do so despite a 'declining' crime rate. Wonder who they plan to fill them with?.....The jobless? The homeless? The mentally ill? People who tell the truth?

Makes you wonder though, doesn't it?... when the only thing not being outsourced but still actually built in Canada.....specifically 'for' Canadians....is prisons.

Now that's scary stuff.

Good article Kai! Enjoyed it all.

A damn good article. The corruption of the media started a few decades ago with corporate concentration. It is almost like a bunch of corporate interests got together with the purpose of preventing any honest dialogue about issues that effect the average person. They decided that the only way to do this was to buy every news outlet because he who pays the piper calls the tune. The CBC has been so gutted that as Nagata says there is no one left to push the envelope for fear of getting made redundant.

The problem is that not many people are prepared to spend a little time getting reliable information. We live in a world where lies are becoming the norm.

I never even noticed the pronoun "I'. But then I was interested in content.

Rightward ho!!!

Yup, CBC has shifted to the right lately, as evidenced by comparison when they play some of their 50+ year old archival footage in which some Conservatives sound like downright lefties in todays Tea Bagger media world. N. America has surely been propelled rightward since Reagan and 9/11.

Funding is surely at the heart of the CBC shift, as is so many of the Harper government manipulations to shrink or silence opposing views. Similarly, U.S. public broadcasting was nearly wiped out recently. (Got to give the BBC credit for airing here without ads.)

But that's not enough for the Sun/Fox elite that Stevie met and collaborated with. After all, Fox was the only U.S. station he ever did interviews for. It surely seems that he is pushing for a similar set of stations here.

Along with the other big media corps that would like to see state funding of the CBC terminated so as to increase their own audiences (something unlikely to happen to much extent, given market saturation and a segment that rejects most of those corps frames and associated viewpoints), like Harpo, these guys are ideologically bent on using their diatribes and frequent falsehoods to turn Canada into a no brain, unknowingly obedient or cowed, totalitarian state.

Many of the best architects and scientists blindly worked for Adolph. Will we be Austria to Hitler's Germany? It seems we are already "America's hat".

Unfortunately that makes all these guys very dangerous. No free speech or song, with only one tune.

Keep it up, Kai. As you can

Keep it up, Kai.

As you can see, most of us here are members of the choir. How do we get this discussion beyond here and into the mainstream? The CBC is lost to us, and we'll never get a voice in the other elite-controlled media. And it seems the net isn't powerful enough yet for getting into people's heads. And if it ever does, I don't doubt they'll take it away from us. Where to?

Skywalker ...

"The corruption of the media started a few decades ago..."

The corruption started long before then, Skywalker. It's just taken us a very long, long time to see and accept what others, like IF Stone, have been saying:

You've really got to wear a chastity belt in Washington to preserve your journalistic virginity. Once the secretary of state invites you to lunch and asks your opinion, you're sunk.

And the reality is that most Canadians think they are getting pretty much fully informed by reading the Globe & Mail, listening to something like CKNW during the day, and then watching CBC before bed. But the majority of Canadians also think there is a pretty big difference between the NDP and CPC as well.

Both of these, I would argue, erroneous conclusions are a direct result of the propaganda used against us.

So unfortunately, Cynic, your thinking that if we could just get this message into the mainstream so others can learn is akin to thinking that your election day vote can change the politics. At best you are begging for leniency from a self-serving sadist.

The government we deserve?

Kai Nagata's story adds to the depression. As a relative newcomer to Canada (BC) I'm staggered at the free ride the public gives to its politicians and their business buddies. (In the last year or so Britain has jailed half a dozen of its members of Parliament -- including a couple of their lordships -- for fiddling their petty parliamentary expenses).
That's surely the point: as long as the public is apathetic about corruption and lousy ethics and fails to protest in numbers at the ballot-box, politicians will continue the charade, with big business harvesting the results in its wake.
Canada is a wealthy country. Perhaps far too many wealthier Canadians are loath to disturb their little patch of sunshine, thus getting the government -- and the press -- they deserve?
A few courageous activists -- like the Dogwood Initiative on Vancouver Island in this week's Juan de Fuca trail victory -- supply proof that authorities can be made to listen.

Hey Lynn, ditto but a step further

"The attack was not on North America. It was on the US. One is a country and one is a continent."

Correct, except that it really wasn't an attack on Americans except in a strictly political sense. Farmers, fisherfolk, dentists, restauranteurs, hydro workers, or even traders were not the targets.

It was the specific world trade system, most dominated by the U.S.A. and the big corporations based within, up to that time, represented by the twin towers, and the military which supported this system.

The prevailing western rhetoric of the time was that this globally expanding corporate system was a fait accompli and had no alternatives. The "Great Satan" to those who disagreed with this McWorld model..

Their homelands were being economically occupied by those corporations, and very important to their various cultures, uninvited by the indigenous people, only some of the tyrants who ruled over them.

A small activist group used one of very few tools, as they perceived it, to go up against this overwhelming power. I can never condone the murder of innocent people as necessary casualties.

But militaries have forever used and continue to use this tactic, more recently obfuscated by the foul and misleading language of "collateral damage". Iraq is a very good example, amongst others.

The media problem is that it serves those same corporate interests that these guys attacked, to continue pushing the false view that it was an attack on all of us.

Stephen Harper recently espoused this same propaganda and the mainstream media echoed it a few days ago Repeat it often enough... FF007 seems to have bought that spin.

Yet the systemic corruption that these guys tried to highlight (they knew that 9/11 would not bring it down, like they did the towers) is still touted by that same media, despite the sub prime and other wall street and Enron style corruption and associated global bailouts, as the only viable system, and therefore we can't tinker with or alter those companies that were "too big to fail".

After all, honest regulation would stifle the creativity that makes this system first among all others. Red tape and all would slow us down. "Fool the people..."

firefox007, Ezra and 9/11...

As much as I don't consider Sun "News" worthy of striking the quotation marks, how can one disagree w/ Ezra Levant on 9/11?

After all Canadians were killed that day.

After all terrorism came from Canadian shores and was thankfully stopped in Port Angeles instead of cooking off under the Space Needle in Seattle.

After all a terrorist plot to wage gurellia warfare in Ottawa & Toronto was stopped.

Terrorism is real. Sadly instead of going after corporate hegemony & crony capitalism, we have to discuss this. Sigh.

Guys, lads... you need to pick and choose your battles. Besides, it was the far leftist Alberta Human Rights Commission that made a newsmagazine about to hit the shoals captained by a former cheerleader for... wait for it... Stockwell Day into a YouTube sensation, a world-class blogger, a highly paid opinion spewer and of course a future Order of Canada nominee.

Perhaps instead of crying over a Prime Minister who sees thru the UN, getting irate over a just war in Afghanistan & winning fossil awards for having oil sands; you guys should be crying over a nation's law & order system that lets child sex predators draw breath...

I hope you don't mind...

I thought this is a highly important piece you just publish. I hope you don't mind I used my blog to give it some more publicity. I added my own short comment on top as a sort of preface, and then linked to your blog. If you are curious about what I have to say:
http://licollider.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/kai-nagata-on-media-convergence-in-quebec-and-canada/

Oh and also, thanks so much for making this available both in french and english. I know how much work that can be.