We cannot have good government without openness and accountability. For example, how is the public supposed to believe the Campbell government when they won't share the contracts they sign with private interests. We would never had known that the CN deal was for 990 years if that info had not been leaked. We don't even know what type of fines and for what Maximus is paying to us for breaking their services contract. There will continue to be scandals as long as the public is allowed to be in the dark. I wouldn't, like Rafe, hedge my bets on the media and politicians. They have dissapointed us to many times in the past.

Well you got that right Chris H. Although I might have said too many times.

For example take that fine walking conflict of interest in Victoria (three or four days worth of luxury hotel rentals) - Please!

Right on Rafe. Now let's see if Justice Gomery is thinking along the same lines as we the people. My bet is that he is not. And I'm willing to bet that you never get asked to adress another commission. Funny how people in high places don't like to hear the truth.

A.K.A. "Gordo"

Rafe, you are being to kind to a section of the "Establishment" who are the real culperts in all the shenanegans, past and present. The Mandarins who have earned their tenure by being fluently bi-lingual. Potential Canada first "whistle blowers," are almost non-existant in the federal civil service to start with.
The Federalists must be limited to police, defence and foreign affairs. The provinces are carrying the rest of the load anyway.
As far as "Trade" goes, would you be willing to throw a B.Y.O.B. party and have the guests leave sober, and with more than they brought? That's what foreign investment means.
Democracy is a 24/7 exercise.

If politicians were held accountable for lying the system, as it is, would never work. Seems to me it's time to change the system.

Somehow that makes sense.

For confirming what a whistleblower exposed, Justice Gomery, by many, has been accorded God-like status. I just don't see it. I feel that Rafe also kicks at that pedestal as he shares some of that disdain

While the captain didn't go down with the ship, yet, neither did the second-in-command monitoring the country's finances.

And do not believe that the obscene costs of this commission will not put a chill on the public's demand for future such investigations.

Senator Pat Carney was a member of the most corrupt government. So it would be most interesting to hear what rules that government worked under and how they were enforced ?

It would also be interesting to hear what instructions she and Wilson were given by Mulroney when he sent them to Washington DC to sign anything, but sign, when the FTA talks broke down and the Canadian negotiators walked out?

As far BC's Freedom of Information Act is concerned, it isn't worth the paper it is written on. Some years ago I was involved in a case where I suspected corruption in the BC Lands office, so I asked for "all the papers" involved in the case.

When I received them I was astonished how few and how sloppy the papers were, so I called an official in Victoria, who was kind enough to tell me that when I ask for "all the papers" it means "all the papers the department was willing to give me".

He instructed me how to word my new request and I did indeed receive what I wanted. An astonishing package of lies, and misleading the public, where the department's officials were about to give away some valuable Crown land, against public oppopsition, to a developer who was a personal friend of theirs.

The case fell apart and the developer backed out, so I never used the papers, but I still have them. A package of sloppy scraps that would do credit to a packrat.

When I sent copies of the most damaging evidence to our BC Lib MLA, John Wilson, he ignored the whole thing, because he was a friend of the developer and a good Socred/BCLib.

I also sent a 7 page, notarized, registered letter of detailed, well proven complaints to the Minister at the time, by the name of Paul Ramsey, with a copy to the Leader of the Opposition, a certain Gordon Campbell. They both ignored it, there was no investigation, and the officials were promoted later.

Ed Deak, Big Lake.

It is very clear that the Federal Liberal Party of Canada is guilty of corruption. The issues that Party is conronted with likely have existed in most governments in one form or another!

Rafe is correct in saying that indifference is rampant in that we simply do not have effective controls in place. MPs are simply parrots; they do not have any real power. The Canadian Senate is powerless, as is the Govenor General.

The only office which of late seems to have some clout (only if the individual is non-partisan) is the Auditor General.

We need a change. We need to divorce Parliamentary Committes away from the PMO. We need to give MPs more power. We need to reform the Senate and gie it more power. We need to abolish the right of Prime Ministers to appoint. We need to abolish the notion that 'politicos' can be appointed to operational programs.

Paul Martin and his Federal Liberals are corrupt. Jean Chretien must be labeled a criminal. But will justice be brought to bear? Not likely.

The only way under our current system is for the electorate to boot the Federal Liberals out of office, and to demand from MPs that we want real change.

Well said, Rafe, I think you nailed the root of the problem here. And it's getting worse, not better. The resources and profile for stories that really seek to get to the bottom of things have all but vanished in the last decade. Editors and publishers assume audiences with the attention span of a squirrel with ADHD (perhaps because that is their own experience); TV and sports trivia will knock substance off the front page every time.

But even the sponsorship and Doug Walls scandals have only scratched the surface, leaving the much larger and far more serious underlying rot buried intact.

Take the Walls story for example: our media went ballistic for about a month over what essentially amounted to a bad hire that wasted a million or two in tax dollars--i.e. the fees paid directly to Walls himself. Meanwhile, BC's media establishment has all but ignored the far bigger underlying story, which involves the waste of many tens of millions on the botched restructuring for which Walls was just Premier Campbell's frontman. That restructuring continues to unfold, with all its nightmare littany of flaws, incomptence and waste, putting tens of thousands of vulnerable adults at risk, and without so much as a peep of attention from the media, who find it all "too complicated" to take on.

We are surely doomed if the structures and systems that represent the true workings of our government have become too complicated for the media and/or the common man to understand.

Ed Deek, I can top your story about freedom of information. An associate wanted to know about the cost of SkyTrain cars for the Millennium Line, so he applied to 'Freedom of Information' for a copy of the contract with Bombardier. About 6 months later he had courier'd to him a stack of papers a good 10 inches high, with over 50% 0f the pages mostly blacked out!

He contacted 'Freedom of Information' about the huge, yet useless, folio of papers and was told that many of the pages blacked out contained trade secrets and Bombardier did not want to adversely affect its sale of cars to the Millennium Line.

The upshot of the whole thing is SkyTrain is a proprietary transit system, only Bombardier built cars can operate on it! There was no competitive bidding! No other company has ever bid to supply cars for SkyTrain!

How does this relate to Gomery, just that our entire so called 'democracy' is a fraud. We are a feudalistic autocracy, governed by the most corrupt of despots, who every 3 to 5 years offers Canadians a chance to vote, problem is, with our winner take all game, the autocrars retain power and the damn cycle goes on. Gomery was nothing more than the PM trying to screw the former PM. To say that, as Financre Minister, he did not know anything is pure nonsnese!

God Rafe, I wish you were back on radio, Brand-X is a snivelling bunch of milk-toasts, afraid to offend no one!

Would the PMO be all-powerful if we had some form of proportional representation? Would Gordo's gang have gotten away with half their agenda over the past four and a half years?

Rafe, you are correct to point out that the two groups who should be counted on to keep the rulers in check (parliament and the media) have failed us in this regard.

The media is a sad case, and given the capital intensive nature of the business, I cannot see how we could fix things. Seriously, who thinks they could finance a new broadsheet daily in the Vancouver market? Or any market other than Toronto? I'd love to see it happen, but I wouldn't have the balls to be an investor, that's for sure.

But we could fix the structural shortcomings of our parliamentary system. That much is do-able.

Thank you, Rafe, for putting the sponsorship scandal in its proper context. No doubt a few readers will begin thinking about this issue differently.

Here's one example: Gomery's Report did not, as the media rushed to declare, "exonerate Paul Martin" and IMO Paul Martin cannot be exonerated until the role of Basi and Virk is fully revealed.

This is one case where someone was voted into power improperly, while the free press looked the other way.

i don't get why they asked you, and not me.

maybe my invite got lost.

clearly, this commission will be a failure if steps are not taken to change the system, and punish wrongdoers.

the first problem is the power of the pmo.

is it really true that the pm personally appoints some 2000+ positions of power?
every minister, assistant, deputy, crown corp ceo, ambassadors, advisors etc.

under chretien, the only qualifications for the jobs were loyalty and selective blindness.

considering the govt spending controlled by these loyal appointees, they made lots of private sector types richer and more powerful.

were/are there other kickback schemes we are unaware of?

the second problem we face is the reason we may be unaware of a lot of things that should be public knowledge -

total lack of free press from the msm.

rafe is right when he says too few control too much media.

and they can be bought for as little as an adverising budget.

another currently insurmountable problem is the lack of a viable alternative. for either problem.

stephen harper is a zero.

his party can be seen as a jumble of rednecks mixed with religious zealots, and way far right wingnuts.

worst of all, they worship lyin brian mulroney, which totally diqualifies them from any leadership hopes, real or imagined.

the msm is so entrenched and well backed, it will take enormous coordination and will power to move them.

cancellation of subscription, coupled with letters of complaint to editors and more importantly, advertisers, will get the msm attention.

that will be like getting junkies to give up free dope.

Noam Mair/Rafe Chomsky ?

??? It seems that Mr. Mair has discovered Noam Chomsky and his socio-political views. The above quotes can be culled from almost every Chomsky article ever written. Whether Mr. Mair arrived at this epiphany on his own or via Chomsky's books is something I would be very curious to find out.

-BuN

Your on the money Rafe about the media, allot of people are fighting to get the message out and dissenting but this issue falls on the media in general. The status quo is protected al all cost and those who dissent are marginalized and forgotten. We had 35,000 people march downtown on the First year
anniversary of the occupation of Iraq and not a word in any paper or radio reporting. The biggest media event of the year for CKNW is the Fireworks, such a shame. We are always being told to that things are great and to be happy, those who make noise are attacked. As we speak the whistle blower who started the Gomery inquiry is without a job and benefits. Their is a huge cost to reporters and
journalist who say or do the wrong thing. (self censorship)

This environment of media concentration and secrecy are breeding grounds for corruption. Laws are being drafted everyday that are never covered and so important, Can anyone tell me what Bill 14 is, the bill now working its way
threw the house in BC.

The worst outcome of Gomery would be a Conservative government, which by the way is where the media is going with this, instead of addressing issues with why this took place we will elect a more corrupt bunch to clean it up.
Remember it was conservative governments in the US(Reagan ) and Canada that deregulated the media and created this problem. Get ready for hard right wing policy if we see a Steven Harper elected.

Come on Rafe, you must be kidding about Gomery, he's Pauls appointment, remember?

Of course Paul is 'innocent' and the main stream media is incompetent at best, and venal at worst respecting their collective reportage concerning Paul Martins corrupt Liberal regime and all their ugly heads.

Gomery will only reinforce Harpers Accountability measures no matter what he writes now, or even when for that matter.

All is lost for Paul.

I have seen the rough draft of it through a true blue vision, it was pretty short and to the point, only one page long. All it said was;

"Throw the bums out!"

File the Gomery Report next to the Kent Commission and all its pointless predecessors on media concentration in Canada.

Rafe's point is apt that whatever democracy is inherent in the system requires a vigilant press and citizenry. Not going to happen.

That said, I especially take exception to the idea that we cure such problems when we "throw the bums out." This is the un-vote option — but we don't un-vote, we vote. We were the ones who threw the bums in.

The charade of representative democracy is that periodically we get to punish the bums. How does this give us control of our lives and our communities? It doesn't. What it does do is foster the illusion that democracy = punishing others. For individuals it is a recipe for alienation. For political communities it is a recipe for repression.

Rafe's distrust of the mainstream media is well-founded. As part of that organization, I wish he had been as vocal about it as he was on behalf of the wild salmon.

Did I miss something? Perhaps what should have had glaring headlines was buried:

US caught with car bomb in Iraq

It’s happened again – coalition troops being caught with bombs. This time, it is the Americans captured in the act of
setting off a car bomb in Baghdad, October 14. Last time, as FMNN reported only weeks ago, two British soldiers, apparently working for British intelligence, were caught near Baghdad similarly equipped.
According to the Mirror-World, “A number of Iraqis apprehended two Americans disguised in Arab dress as they tried to blow up a booby-trapped car in the middle of a residential area in western Baghdad on Tuesday… Residents of western Baghdad’s al-Ghazaliyah district [said] the people had apprehended the Americans as they left their Caprice car near a residential neighborhood in al-Ghazaliyah on Tuesday afternoon. Local people found they looked suspicious, so they detained the men before they could get away. That was when they discovered that they were Americans and called the … police.” Just as in the British incident, the Iraqi police arrived at approximately the same time as coalition forces and the two men were removed from Iraqi custody and whisked away before any questioning could take place.
The incidents are said to be fuelling both puzzlement and animosity among Iraqis. Yet the motivation behind such activities remains formally unknown since in both cases the soldiers involved have been removed with an efficiency that has quashed any attempts at an interrogation.

All may be finished with Paul and good riddance, but who and what will be the next multinational free trader stooge? Deep integrationists Stephen Harper, or John Manley, already counting their silver pieces for selling the country ?

Note to Grumpy on the subject of Freedom of Informnation:

From what I've heard, people, or even the Official Opposition, who have asked for details of the sale of BC Rail to Canadian Nomore, got a big package of empty papers. Nothing. Of course, to protect the competitiveness of a bunch of carpetbaggers, who are more important than the citizens of Canada and BC.

Ed Deak, Big Lake.

The capture of the media -- and the main political parties -- by the corporate elite is the root cause of much of our problem.

Prohibition of cross-media ownership, and prohibiting any ower from having more than one outlet per market (on a wide definition of market), might help on the media front.

On the PMO front, the sooner we can move to some form of proportional representation, the sooner we'll see that the "power" of the PMO depending on the ability to conciliate rather than to dictate.

A little of Topic but we do have a 3rd party in Canada called the NDP, Jack Layton has been very effective in getting his agenda threw the house, because of Jack we directed 4 billion in tax cuts to social housing the environment and lower tuition. Anyway if you want to talk to Jack , he's in town Wed for a free presentation.

At SFU , main campus.
Date: Wednesday, November 9
Time: 12:00-1:00
Location: AQ 3150

Stuart writes:

"It was conservative governments in the US and Canada that deregulated the media..."

I'm not sure what you are referring to. Could you elaborate?

Thank you.

Davey-boy asks,"Would the PMO be all-powerful if we had some form of proportional representation? Would Gordo's gang have gotten away with half their agenda over the past four and a half years?"

Since most MPs are affiliated with political-parties, MPs do not expose someone within their political-party who is engaging in wrongdoing. MPs are only willing to look for evidence of wrongdoing, if the MP is a member of an opposing political-party. Proportional-representation would still encourage political-parties, while an STV type system may benefit independant candidates.

Candidates should also be tested on Math and Science before they are eligible to even run for office. Does anyone believe Mr. Dosanjh(Health Minister), a lawyer, when he starts talking about virus, evolution of viruses, efficacy of antivirals etc.

Davey boy

interesting article and I quote

"The deregulation policies of Ronald Reagan did not just deliver journalism to these massive corporations, but handed virtually every facet of our lives into the hands of this privileged few. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat are all tainted because Reagan battered down every environmental regulation he came across so corporations could improve their bottom line"

Good article, worth the read.

http://www.anti-sheep.com/articles/040607-planet-Reagan.php
What was not mentioned at his stately funeral.

Chris H.:

Isn't it time we got rid of our adversarial approach to government and law?

Yes, but let's not forget that Reagan, as were Thatcher and Malroney, were acting on the advice of neoclassical economists, the priesthood of our age. "Free to choose", stolen from Milton Friedman was one of Reagan's favourite expressions, as were deregulations, the encouragement of mergers to become "more competitive", the free movement of capital, tax cuts to corporations, fraudulent free trade using the power of imaginary capital to colonize, etc. etc..

What Reagan and his successors have been and are doing is being taught in all our universities, with the brainwashed graduates going out into the world and into public offices, spreading this crime wave, called "the competitive equilibrium of the marketplace".

Ed Deak, Big Lake.

Stuart:

Considering that most "ordinary Canadians" have ALWAYS wanted the policies the NDP promotes, why are they (we) scared to death to vote for them? The "traditional" parties don't give two hoots about the citizens of this country, corrupted as they BOTH are by (big) business.

PS I watched the DEBATE on Monday night on West Wing. An intersting point that Jimmy Smits brought up concerning Medicare in the States vs private healthcare, was that the administraton costs of private H.C. ran at about 25%, whereas government Medicare ran at a whole2%. Hmmmm......

"Unlike other statements, my presentation drew no comment."

Mr. Mair,

The reception you describe is the sad precursor of its eventual application, I fear.

I am one of those jaded kind who expect there will be no tangible, beneficial outcome to this Commission's enquiry.

It is good that your presentation to the Commission is reproduced here for us to read - even if it is preaching to the choir - because we can only surmise that any official copies are now waiting for collection from the dustbin. :-/

Jimmy Smits on the legislative channel??? - and they say "reality bites", Hmmmm.....

Why all this to-do about "Freedom of Information Act" There is already a clause #337 in the Criminal Code of Canada which deals with Bureaucrats who refuse to reveal information. (very rigorously!) This act applies to Federal,Provincial and Civic troglodites. According to a recent edition of Nexus magazine it is hardly surprising that we have such a "Tame" media, in general, because 80% of the world's media is controlled by seven corporations.

what a bunch of crap! we surely must know by now that our
Government" is just another word for organised control freaks milking the citizenship for all they are worth....Government will lie, cheat, coerse, and steal everything we own and then throw us all out when we have nothing left to give...what we need is a way to make known all the buiseness of every office in Government, and a full accounting of every dollar forced from the rest of society against our will and against all semblance of Democracy....There are no rules in political office, It is what you can get away with, And there are no real penaltys for getting cought with the "Goods"...The Gomery commision will come to nothing....As usual for political investigations...Canada is second only to the US for pure Bull Shit production.

Let's talk about the media being actually part of the addscam for a moment. Some of you may remember Normand Lester at Radio-Canada actually uncovering the first anomalies in the sponsorship scam with teh Bronfman fondation. He was gag ordered by Rabinovitch and every reporters in Quebec kept themselves quiet once the party line was set. Gomery never called in Rabinovitch during the inquiry. Neither did he ever look to the medias for a solution on accountability and transparency during these roundtables. They in fact originally claimed they would have "media" experts during these roundtables. They actually went as far as removing references to "media experts" in these roundtables. I was originally very hopeful about this Gomery inquiry but it turned out to be yet an other scam costing us many more $. I was told that it would be so and I did not listen... Aaaargh.

So what. The Liberals are corrupt. No kidding. Are we going to vote them out? Of ourse not because all the seasonal workers in Ontario and all the lads on pogey in the eastern maritimes are brainwashed into believing that any new government will cut off their welfare and they will be left for dead.

We need a housecleaning from top to bottom. Not a la BC 2001 because that led to a different kind of corruption.

Maybe Ujjal will run the newly morphed Liberal/NDP party? Perhaps call them the Old Democratic Party of Canada?

The libs are in trouble. Time to start the fearmongering again. Get on it guys, you're wasting valuable time!!!

"Democracy cannot exist behind closed doors."
Quote from: Worse than Watergate, by Nixon former Aide, John Dean.

What he might well have gone on to say is that, with an apathetic public, we will continue to get the governments that public deserves....and that's a real problem for those of us who give a damn.

e.g. -

On fuel prices...all we'd need to do is boycott the convenience store at every single gas station...and then watch the prices tumble

On BC Ferries elimination of seasonal discount fares.....all we'd need to do is stop using the ferries during the off-season - except for those who absolutely have to get back & forth from homes on the islands

On salmon farms....all we'd need to do is boycott Save-On Foods and use Safeway, Thrifty Foods, etc. until Pattison gets the message.

On the media....all we'd need to do is organize a mass cancellation of subscriptions to Sun and Province.......

On RAV....all we'd need to do is stand 10,000 strong on Cambie and tell T-Link we will not stand for a $2.2 billion bill.

On raised bus fares.....all we'd need to do is organize a mass boycott of the transit system.

You get it by now I'm sure....Does the public have the guts? No. So on we go - paying the bills. How stupid can we get?

A few big points:

LACK OF INDEPENDENT MEDIA: Vancouver, last week, lost about the only paper that had ever provided balanced yet equally critical municipal politics coverage. Terminal City is no more. There boxes were all yanked from around town when nationals came out with the commuter papers, and not we have a whack of junk mail.

ETHICS / RCMP / JUDGES / APPOINTMENTS: As much as I hate the senate, at least give those old farts something to do and have them in charge of watchdogs. While is our house of sober second thought not actually providing second thought. And why aren't they sober?

MINORITY GOVERNMENT: Best things ever. I mean, our dollar has actually gone up substantially, the chances of an AdScam or AirBus going through are almost nil, and parliament can actually reject bad legislation. But we lucked out. We need a pro-rep system, either a Province Proportional Senate with teeth. (Open List) Or STV en masse. Doesn't matter who has the purse, as long as it takes two to open.

Bravo Mr. Mair. You have spoken most eloquently for all of us. Your time was not wasted at all.

What is to be done? The reality is that our nation is awash in a sea of corruption. Name a Canadian institution that has not already been discredited. I cannot.

If there is any hope for the mainstream (or “alternative”) media, I cannot see it.

My last hope is that we will find some way to reclaim our legislatures. If we do not, this country is lost.

On the other hand Ranbir, what does a virus expert know about writing a bill? Look at the old BC Socreds, a bunch of used car salesmen who simply got their people to write the laws they wanted. It works the other way around too, Dosanjh doesn't have to know much about viruses, he just has to listen to those that do.

"First, the fact that the concentration and convergence of media ownership has, to all intents and purposes, eliminated the muckraker..."

An easy test of this is to do a Google 'news' search on any current issue (US or Canadian, it doesn't matter). As you scroll down the long list of hit returns, notice the repetition. News item script summaries are identical at almost all newsrooms across the country.

It's almost as if there's only one reporter assigned to covering our entire government, and all the newsrooms simply repeat the exact same story.

Of course there is more than one reporter working. But the stories are cherry-picked, distributed through the chain, and commonly picked up by the two other media giants.

What a great deal for both government and media moguls - a consolidation of resources, and effective control of media at the same time!

Besides, don't you get just get tired of seeing 'Canoe' banners all the time?

Another example. As impressive as some CBC documentaries can be at uncovering scandals (i.e. Fifth Estate & Passionate Eye - they did a great one recently on the White House building a case for war), when was the last time you saw an expose from them on the Canadian government? Especially for the party in power? Did we ever see a special on Shawinigate while the CBC was under Jean Chretien? Will we ever see a Fifth Estate investigative report on the Sponsorship scandal under Paul Martin?

On Freedom Of Information:

Governments have quickly learned that private companies are protected under FOI. That is why (and the Gordon Campbell liberals are particularly good at this) they try to incorporate private-sector components into their projects. Good examples are RAV, BC Ferries, 2010, and Maximus/EDS.

Don't be tricked by generous and theatrical changes to the FOI act. Or cosmetic changes like reducing response times.

As long as there's private-sector involvement to government programs, the result will be the same: blacked-out documents.

And we won't be able to effectively monitor government activities, and spending.

Good presntation Mr. Mairwell worth the time and effort.
Only now is it beginnig to resonate in public, with the internet carrying the message.
Adscam was able to exist for ten years mainly because of the enabling of Canada's mainstream corporate media.
No barking of these media dogs despite the known corruption of the Liberal government.
Shame!

Yesterday I thought I had died and gone to media heaven. First, Rafe's article. Then Denny Boyd hit out with his version of The Damned CanWest media.

How sweet it is, when old journalists throw open their windows and shout "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any longer ... !"

wildfish,

An excellent and informative post. Do you really believe that Google, with its awesome power, would be permitted a totally unfettered operation in disseminating information - giving regard to privacy concerns, of course?

I would like to believe that it does enjoy such power, but searches I've made suggest otherwise, particularly in searches regarding the gambling industry.

In "wimpy media", Rafe is right on the button.

Lets not forget the Gun-Registry either... or does a a Billion Dollar fiasco not register today? That was more than a $100 out of every household in Canada!

The sad part of all this is the fact that the Progressive (oxymoron alert) Conservatives set a standard for corruption under Brian Mulroney that the Chretien/Martin Liberals can only fantasize attaining. It's not like changing the government changes anything other than the degree or style of sleaze. I am still dumbfounded that anyone thought Lyin' Brian had a reputation or good name that was able to be damaged as he claimed in his suit against the Government of Canada. Instead of winning a settlement he should have been deported or beheaded.

.

When I read this thread it makes me disappointed and yeah, mad.

Why is everyone pretending like this is "new" news?

First of all, this is not groundbreaking news. For the last two years a large number of commentators have been saying the very same thing, day after day after day on this very site.

To me this article is like monday morning quarterbacking. It's easy ... the actual damage has already been done. This is a media finally wisening up when it is too late....to make themselves look good ...and to appear as if they are on the cutting edge of investigative journalism.

It's already just about over, this province, this country sold out...Rafe deserves praise over his fish farm stance. The rest of this praise is pure poppycock..

I really don't give a damn if Denny Boyd or Rafe finally have had an epiphany and finally realized ths state of the media.. that epiphany came too late... the media did not investigate, did not speak up, did not follow through when it counted. They largely played along.

We have a media that always turns up too late to the party...it's a comfortable investigative journalism...no risk...they speak out when its entirely safe and way too late.

That's what The Gomery Commission represents...a policy of addresssing issues too late.

For my money, I think Isabella2, has a better article ...use the power that we, as people have...that is in our own hands...the media cannot be counted on...if this article that contains so much that has been said so many times before on this site is now considered groundbreaking news...then the alternative press is indeed in a lot of trouble.

We are using the power we have, Lynn. We're using it every which way we can. Right here, right now. Elsewhere, all over. We do what we can. OK?

Nobody's saying that this is "new" news about the wimpy, Campbell-serving media. Hey, you think we didn't know? Of course we knew; and you know that we knew. Are you funnin' us?

What's being remarked upon here is that two of the old journalists are finally willing to (a) admit the truth, and (b) to publish the truth: that the CanWest media has failed its duty toward the public. That's a brave beginning. That's new. It wasn't always so.

And let it be said: they're not risking their reputations by saying this. What they're doing is forecasting the future. So don't be depressed.

In my mind, journalism has always been a proud profession. What I did find totally depressing was that journalists seemed so willing to be part of the scam. They never spoke up, never looked for the other sides of the stories, they trumpeted causes which deserved a decent burial, ignored most news of the Un-capitalists.

Me, I'm totally fed up with journalists telling me that they dare not write a thing about David Basi or Robert Virk for fear of being sued. The day any one of them -- including Rafe Mair or Denny Boyd -- do an Op. Ed. piece on Basi or Virk who go to trial in Feb. 2007 (and surely, their previous work experience was valued by the B.C. Liberals?), that's the day I'll say that the media has awakened to its duty as a free press.

lynn,

What you say might be compared to safely blowing the whistle when one is retired - using as an excuse the rules, even though criminal matters may be involved.
I agree, also with Isabella2 - we appear a supine lot.
About 27 posts back I quoted an article containing accusations of greatest enormity against the Allied military in Iraq. It received no comment..no question on source or imagined motive. Off topic? I don't think so, since it questions the media that Rafe, and most of us, are critical of.

I should have said, the 21st post from the top.

Rev_E_Jones,

Re: gun registry. I support the registration of firearms but not the monumental boondoggle that cheated all Canadians.

Can you say S-A-B-O-T-A-G-E ?

If this is a progressive article, then I say our expectations are too low. This has been said many, many times before by many other posters to this site.

Nope, I know everyone already "knew" ...that's why I didn't understand the over the top praise.

I really don't think we should measure our progress by when Denny Boyd or Rafe finally gets it. Now if we have to wait until Keith Baldrey or Michael Smyth gets it we are in really deep doo doo. :-)

I very much appreciate and agree with the strong stance that you have continually taken on the Tyee over the investigation (or lack thereof) of the raid on our legislature, BC Mary...that's why I think we need more probing of the issues... and less covering of what is now safe and well-worn ground. As you say:

And that is the point... they are not risking anything.

I agree, skeptikool...of late it's all about how to blow the whistle safely...without really disturbing anything.

'We are using the power we have, Lynn. We're using it every which way we can. Right here, right now. Elsewhere, all over. We do what we can. OK?'
BC Mary; are you suggesting that blathering away on the tyee will make a difference? if so i have some swampland in florida...

Darn right we need more probing of the issues. And if, by some lucky chance, Rafe & Denny are actually leading a parade of awakening journalists, we may end up seeing somebody in the MSM probing those issues.

It's too much to ask that a journalist (a worker, after all) should risk everything day by day, even for the greater good. Fact is, he/she would never last out the week before being jettisoned into the ranks of the unemployed.

God knows, I wish the majority of voters read Tyee each day. But they mostly receive doorstep deliveries of one of the big dailies only to be confronted by the wimp media and the pimp journalists ... without time to note the differences.

If those MSM sources of information became fairer and more truthful, then British Columbia would stand a chance. Last week, I wouldn't have dreamt it possible. But what Rafe & Denny did, actually, is to suggest that there's hope within the toxic system itself.

So I'm going to try to keep that little spark alive, while doing the other important risky stuff. I hope you will, too.

I am so glad that all Socialist polticians are not only Holier than Thou, but free from any corruption. BINGO, Rafe!

Well, I certainly agree, BCMary, in keeping the spark alive wherever it twinkles in life. :-)

What I think is interesting is that the media by its inability to be courageous enough is discrediting itself.

For instance in the US it is not the media bringing down the Bush administration but the actions of single individuals like Cindy Sheehan and Patrick Fitzgerald. It is their own courage and their honesty ...and most of all their refusal to be bought that is leaving Bush et al defenceless....unable to win via their usual smear campaigns.

A growing number of people are now more informed than the so-called "news" the existing media chooses to present...and more courageous in their ability to say what needs to be said....just as with the union movement where the members are displaying the courage and the will to fight on while some of their leaders have already conceded the fight. ( So well said by Robin Mathews on the Vive le Canada site.)

So it is an interesting time, because the media and our elected officials (those members of them that haven't been bought) are so reticent and timid to oppose the powers that be that the people have simply lost faith in them...and they are both badly faltering as institutions...to the point where a whole other dynamic is coming into play...

Like Bradbury's science fiction novel, "Fahrenheit 451" where it is the people themselves that in the end keep the words and the stories of the banned books alive...containing it safe within themselves...communicating their messages from one to the other...

sorry...should read "containing them safely within themselves"...that's why Bradbury is a writer and I'm not. :-)

Did you mean "by its inability"? Or by its refusal to be courageous?? CanWest simply refuses to trust the people with the truth. But they're bold enough to lie for the Oligarchy.

Today Beland Honderich died in Toronto, the man who built the Toronto Star into Canada's largest and most progressive newspaper. Way, way back in time, he had even organized the union at Toronto Star.

Only a few months ago, his son John Honderich resigned. He had replaced his father and carried on the tradition of "the Atkinson principle" of publishing what the public needed to know. True, they didn't always live up to it -- but Toronto Star is the newspaper which tried its best to do so. I have 3 friends who are proud to say that they once worked in the Star newsroom.

It's strange, isn't it, that Bob Edwards is still remembered and respected in Calgary for publishing "everything that's fit to print" in the Calgary Eye-Opener of long ago. Calgary, of all places!

And Winnipeg, home of the great old Winnipeg Free Press, is now the headquarters of CanWest.

How things change ... and we don't seem to have found a wholly satisfactory way of finding the news sources which could help us through that. Do we all have to go back to university, maybe?

.

oooo.... I'd say, "refusal" is definitely a better word choice over "inability"...although the old credo "use it or lose it" may come into play here as well and hamper ability over time. :-)

I just watched a short piece on Honderich on CBC...certainly of a time of a grittier, more courageous press...hopefully there are still a few like him out there.

I do think though that the internet is playing a very interesting part in the one on one exchange of information between people.

Skeptikool: Thanks.

Lynn:

I think the media might deserve some credit this time.

I think we're seeing a new trend developing with a much more agressive media, starting quite unexpectedly on the U.S. side.

The Bush administration, quite deservedly, has been taking a fierce hammering from the media.

I can't say exactly where things really got rolling - Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 perhaps?

Whatever, the media has been chipping away from all sides, including low international support for the war, WMDs, coverage of Cindy Sheehan, the indictment of Scooter Libby, and the Meirs appointment.

Certainly a recent turning point was CNN's Anderson Cooper live BroadBlast of Senator Landrieu on the governments' slow response to Hurricane Katrina.

Huh?...CNN?

The same cable network that spends more time on their hollywood-style 'Situation Room' graphics, and trying to convice us how they're the most trusted news source, than delivering news of any substance?

(Don't worry, I haven't moved over from BBC yet)

One of the most effective weapons that governments and big business still have to defend themselves is access. Without access, the 'scoop' is all but impossible. Just watch a White House scrum to get a sense of the control.

The Freedom of Dis-Information act is another weapon.

Maybe Bush bashing is a short-lived anomoly. A media dog-pile, where so many have joined in, that its hard for the White House to figure out who to go after.

Maybe we should just sit back and enjoy it while we can, and hope that some of it will rub off on the paralyzed Canadian media.

Okay, wildfish, I think the american media might deserve some credit :-) ...their progressive radio eg. Ray Tellafero...great.

Seymour Hersh...great.
Jon Stewart, Bill Maher...great.(though certainly not members of the media as Stewart made very clear in his confrontation with Crossfire's Tucker Carlson).

Still, I think the MSM is largely being led by the courage of single human beings in the form of Fitzpatrick, Sheehan and even Cooper...Cooper gained enormous popularity by saying what everyone at home was thinking...Where is FEMA, where is the aid for New Orleans? If he had wavered in the slightest I doubt if he would still be working at CNN. But his steadfast refusal to stop asking questions made him a media star... and america... and CNN loves a star. It's big money.

Iraq...The american MSM has a long way to go here...all doors conveniently closed...though Fitzpatrick is rattling them.

Hurricane Katrina emerged, I think, as the greatest reporter of all... all on her own. She revealed Bush's America in ways impossible to deny...and impossible to hide. She left a devastating roll of pictures in the minds of all that watched...that are impossible to erase.

Lynn:

"Hurricane Katrina emerged, I think, as the greatest reporter of all... all on her own. She revealed Bush's America in ways impossible to deny...and impossible to hide."

Right on.

Hurricane Katrina?

She showed us Reagan's America too.

Those were powerful images. The hurricane became a secondary story.

Sufferin' Pete, it's British Columbia's wimp media that's our problem. Nothing to do with U.S.A. news which, in fact, doesn't even know we're here. And that's not a healthy scene for us to get into.

No matter how much Canadians gaze (as cows at a passing train) at U.S. news, it means nothing to the reality of our own affairs. We gotta see our news in our media.

That's the whole point.

Two jokes, one mine and a second from likely new Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
1 Paul Martin and J. Chretien behave like pianist in a brothel who says that he does not know what ladies are doing upstairs.

2 To some people who are frustrated with Liberals and would rather vote NDP, I say:
"If you do not like organ grinder, do not vote for his monkey!"

latarnik,

If Jack Layton was at that piano he would have known the ladies upstairs were engaging in social work with a dedication, no doubt, foreign to those Conservative and Liberal louts at the bar.

I am sure that he would derive lots of pleasure from converting them from capitalist enterpreneurs, which they are, to nationalized obedient civil servants. According to [color red] Marx [/color]— women and children are suppose to be a property of the state, available to all, but those more equal in a first place.

"BC's wimp media" has a lot to do with the corporate interests that drive it...corporate interests that have no respect for international borders.

It's "our" media in name only, like all things in BC of late....from BC Rail to BC Ferries and on and on...

The media monopolies that were allowed to bloom under Mulroney's deceptively-named "Competition Act" must be addressed if "the paralyzed Canadian media" wildfish refers to is ever going to break free of its own stasis.

Thanks Rafe! While you mention the Prime Minister's Office having all the control and power, and others mention the same is true in Victoria with Premier Campbell (just look where the budget of Public Affairs comes out of), one also has to be alarmed at the increasing power that has been created in the City of Vancouver's Mayor's Office! The budget for this office more than doubled!

[QUOTE I said "We gotta see our news in our media".

That's a truth I hold dear.

A healthy, informed society absolutely has gotta see our news in our own media, whether that's in The Tyee, in a new daily newspaper, whatever. But it obviously cannot be in any of the CanWest newspapers as they are now. They're not "ours", nor are they especially international. IMO, their primal function is to serve and support the local Oligarchy.

Kevin Potvin publisher of "TheRepublic" -

is running as a indepentant member for Vancouver City Council in the coming civic election. His little newspaper speaks of many of the things we all talk about on The Tyee. You all want to change the system - well here's a chance to do something. Email all your friends and relatives to go into his website.