Kathleen’s varied background, working in media, non-profit organizations, government, and a political party, has given her a unique, well-rounded perspective on various issues.  Her media work has included print, radio, and television.  For several years, she wrote opinion columns for The Issues Network, a journalist-run syndication service, which appeared in papers across the country.  Her columns have also been published in the Toronto Star and rabble.ca.  On a voluntary level, Kathleen helped found Transition Kingston, which supports the international Transition Town movement, dealing with peak oil and climate change.  She was also active in the Save Our Prison Farms campaign, which attempted to prevent the Harper government from closing Canada’s six internationally respected prison farms.

“I believe in the work of Elizabeth May and have long been an admirer of her determination and dedication to Canada and to the planet.  I am very happy to lend my skills in liaising with Press Gallery media, with the goal of increasing exposure for Elizabeth’s amazing work in Parliament,” said O’Hara.

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As far back as the Davey Commission in the 1960s, Canadians have been warned about Canada’s concentration and vertical integration of corporate media ownership. By the 1980s, the Kent Commission report described the fact that so much of the Canadian news media ownership was in so few hands as ‘monstrous.’

When giant CanWest’s empire broke apart in 2009, the Green Party suggested CanWest’s bankruptcy was the perfect time to expand the number of owners of Canadian media and sell the newspapers (or at least offer the papers for sale) to the highest bidder. No media covered our press release.

Although CanWest’s television and newspaper holdings were sold separately that’s as far as it went. The 46 CanWest daily papers, including flagship and famously unprofitable National Post, should have been open to any bidder to break-up the unhealthy degree of corporate control. But the trustees in bankruptcy only accepted bidding for all 46 papers (including all BC’s dailies). Paul Godfrey, ideologically aligned with the National Post’s historical editorial stance, bought all 46 for over $1 billion.

Another giant in Canada, Quebecor, controls Sun Media as a wholly owned subsidiary. That conglomerate is the largest newspaper publisher in Canada, including 43 paid and free dailies (including the once great London Free Press, Kingston Whig-Standard and Peterborough Examiner), as well as 200 community papers (they boughtup Osprey), as well as the new channel SUN-TV, and TVA, the largest commercial TV station in Quebec.

Quebecor also runs Canoe providing English and French internet properties, online servers, and a host of other companies, now known as media properties. BellGlobe Media is another huge player, owning 28 TV stations, including CTV, 15% of the Globe and Mail, 29 specialty channels, 33 radio stations, including big players in Toronto and Ottawa CFRA and CFRB, as well as dozens of online products and internet networks (such as Sympatico).

If this were a board game, it would be called Monopoly. We do have CBC and Radio-Canada, but, as former CTV bureau chief Kai Nagata (who worked at CBC before CTV) points out, CBC brass have made all reporters terrified of expressing what could be construed as a ‘left-wing’ opinion.

Looking for an independent newspaper in Canada? We have two large dailies that fall outside the Bell, Shaw and Quebecor conglomerates—the Chronicle Herald in Halifax (owned by the Dennis family) and the Toronto Star, owned by a trust, Torstar. On the coast we have the small, but mighty, Island Tides and brave independent online journalism in The Tyee.

Calling For A Media Policy Debate

We need a serious policy debate in this country. With eyes opened by the Murdoch empire scandal, maybe we are ready to look at our own news media and see if new tools are needed.

Current competition laws only operate to hold in check the price of papers. CRTC only looks at Canadian content.

Bottom line: we need anti-trust laws to break up the excessive media concentration, in only five or six hands, Canada-wide.

The post Who owns what in Canada’s press – an opportunity missed appeared first on Elizabeth May.

The “hacking scandal” consumed the legendary News of the World.  It was shut down in a desperate attempt by Murdoch to protect his efforts to take over yet another network, SkyTV. 

Murdoch’s empire is enormous — the second largest in the world.  It includes the Wall Street Journal and Fox News. In additional to extensive holdings in the UK, US, Australia he owns TV holdings in Hong Kong, and beyond.

So while the US FBI begins to investigate potential hacking of phone records in the US, does any of this hold lessons for Canada?

Murdoch has been influential in Canadian politics.  Over lunch at Davos with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his then communications director Kory Teneycke, Murdoch is alleged to have persuaded them of the benefits of having a hard right TV network in Canada.  Teneycke left PMO and went to Quebecor to head up the embryonic SUN-TV.   

Whether Murdoch had a hand in the creation of SUN TV or not, there is no doubt of the influence of his model.  The point was made powerfully on July 8 in an unrelated event. A relatively unknown young CTV bureau chief, Kai Nagata, posted a blog headed “Why I quit my job.”  The posting went viral on the internet and became an immediate topic on most news networks.  (You can find it posted, with follow up in The Tyee. http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2011/07/11/KaiNagata/)

It is all worth reading, but I found this comment particularly compelling:

“Consider Fox News. What the Murdoch model demonstrated was that facts and truth could be replaced by ideology, with viewership and revenue going up. Simply put, you can tell less truth and make more money. When you have to balance the interests of your shareholders against the interests of the viewers you supposedly serve, the firewall between the boardroom and the newsroom becomes a very important bulwark indeed.”

How strong is the Canadian firewall?   How much freedom is felt by our press? How much truth gets told?

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