Who controls Canadian media?
Posted: Dec 4th, 2011
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On the left, Friday's Vancouver Sun cover page the day after 131 First Nations announced they will not allow the Enbridge pipeline through their territories. On the right, Saturday's Vancouver Sun cover page the day after one First Nation individual erroneously announced that his nation would take a bribe and support the pipeline. Screenshot provided by Jens Wieting.
On Friday, the day after 70 BC Indigenous nations added their signatures to the Fraser River Declaration, bringing the total number of indigenous nations to 131 BC nations declaring "No Tar Sands development on our traditional territories" -- with a public ceremony at Vancouver's Public Library, with public presentations by chiefs, from nations who had completed in-depth research, due process, legal analysis, and after conferring with their people and councils, the Vancouver Sun ran two front page stories about ..
"Dog Rescuers" and "Problem Gamblers"
Then, on Saturday, when one lone member of the Gitxsan Nation allowed his name to be associated with a story promoted by Enbridge that the Gitxsan Nation would take the Enbridge bribe of $7 million to
support the pipeline -- a story that turns out to be completely false according to a statement from the Gitxsan people later that day (see below), who say no such deal has been completed, that the community had not been consulted, and that they are "outraged" by this premature and false announcement -- the Vancouver Sun ran a full, 5-column banner headline declaring: "Gitxsan support Enbridge pipeline"
Without checking its sources, without confirming the story with the Gitxsan community, the Vancouver Sun apparently accepted this piece of Enbridge public relations hype as "news" and blasted out a front page headline, ignoring the 171 BC First Nations who had just declared: "No tar sands development on our traditional territory," and who stated unequivocally: "These pipelines will not be built."
Adios, once great newspaper of BC.
(10) Comments
Rex Weyler
As media corporations grow and gobble up other businesses, such as book publishers, these problems only grow worse. I find it disturbing how newspapers can breed hate for whatever group they wish to target.
I jumped to read "Who controls Canadian media?" I was pleased to see the obvious corporate bias of the Vancouver Sun proven again. It was also evident in the last federal election as the Sun and all the other major media endorsed Stephen Harper because, as a neo-con, "he can best manage the economy."
What I want to know, however, is "who owns" the Canadian media? I know most of the media is owned by a few very, very wealthy corporations and famlies, some in the US. But I would really like to know the names of the owners and their share of the media - including internet providers like Shaw, Rogers and Bell.
I would also like to know who serves on the Boards of Directors of these mega "entertianment" corporations that are supposed to be idependent and a check against arbitrary power. I have heard that our once esteemed foremer Prime Minister (before he was caught accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars, accepting the money and keeping it in a vault fancy hotel in New York) is a present Director of Quebecor. But who else servers and what share of the market do they control and, further, when newspaper writers are enjoy trust, there is no over-sight or the concentration of ownership and no over-sight of the supposed or alleged independence of the 'news'.
But maybe its all a moot point as the 'news' papers loose readers as does TV looses watchers.
What worries me is how the citizens of Oz will get the information necessary to decide who to elect to govern them. So far we have not done all that well, choosing jets, jails, destroyers and war over jobs, children, health care, education and housing.
They say that we are a nation in decline and so I guess what goes first is education and information.
Keep up the good work!
If the Sun's report is in error, why is it on the Observer's website?
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/sustainability/2011/12/02/gitxsan-first-nation-accepts-enbridge-northern-gateway-deal
I jumped to read "Who controls Canadian media?" I was pleased to see the obvious corporate bias of the Vancouver Sun proven again. It was also evident in the last federal election as the Sun and all the other major media endorsed Stephen Harper because, as a neo-con, "he can best manage the economy."
What I want to know, however, is "who owns" the Canadian media? I know most of the media is owned by a few very, very wealthy corporations and famlies, some in the US. But I would really like to know the names of the owners and their share of the media - including internet providers like Shaw, Rogers and Bell.
I would also like to know who serves on the Boards of Directors of these mega "entertianment" corporations that are supposed to be idependent and a check against arbitrary power. I have heard that our once esteemed foremer Prime Minister (before he was caught accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars, accepting the money and keeping it in a vault fancy hotel in New York) is a present Director of Quebecor. But who else servers and what share of the market do they control and, further, when newspaper writers are enjoy trust, there is no over-sight or the concentration of ownership and no over-sight of the supposed or alleged independence of the 'news'.
But maybe its all a moot point as the 'news' papers loose readers as does TV looses watchers.
What worries me is how the citizens of Oz will get the information necessary to decide who to elect to govern them. So far we have not done all that well, choosing jets, jails, destroyers and war over jobs, children, health care, education and housing.
They say that we are a nation in decline and so I guess what goes first is education and information.
Keep up the good work!
The vancouver Sun hasn't been a newspaper worth reading for a long time....I can't remember the last time it didn't side with the BC Liberals..The Federal CONservatives or the Fraser Institute...
It is mostly worthy of being puppy pads or birdcage liner.
It escapes my memory as to when it may have been a once great newspaper.
The same Saturday this story ran in the Vancouver Sun, the Globe & Mail also reported this story. However, their news report was more cautious. The Globe did not report it as a 'slam,dunk' done deal. They at least quallified it, placed it deeper inside the paper and gave it smaller space. The Vancouver Sun's report was a 'promotional piece' for Enbridge, accompanied as it was with a photo of the triumphal CEO of Enbridge. Additionally, without any second source confirmation, the V.Sun continues to run articles re-iterating Enbridge's unsubstantiated statements that lots of other aboriginal groups have already signed on to their program. They never say who, but the V.Sun still reports these rumours as fact. They take the Enbridge spokesperson at his word, no matter what words come out of his mouth. It's all about building momentum. As for fact checking, well, it just gets in the way. How could anyone with any journalistic cred. take at face value any story from Enbridge, who at this very moment is running a promotion "to end cancer" while simutaneuosly distributing cancer causing BENZENE far and wide in every drop of petroleum they transport? Pause. Think. Journalism has a sketchy history, but oh my, the V.Sun lost credibility on Saturday past. I prefer my journalists to maintain an arm's length objectivity, ask questions and like a good carpenter, think twice, write once. - Len Laycock
The Sun has been a Fraser Institute Parrot and corporate minion tabloid for as long as i remember.
This is great piece
i'm emailing it to 400 people
As media corporations grow and gobble up other businesses, such as book publishers, these problems only grow worse. I find it disturbing how newspapers can breed hate for whatever group they wish to target.
This clearly illustrates media control and complicity with big business and it is only the tip of the iceberg. Our group of 1600 professional engineers and architects have massive evidence of controlled demolition of the three World Trade Centre buildings on 9/11 but the media is silent.
Truthful information is more valuable than gold and should be treated as such. Yet the media are allowed to lie, concoct stories and mislead us with impunity. We are not allowed in small business to collude and conspire to control markets. How is it that the media has been allowed to consolidate vast enterprises which we are to trust and believe. The House of Rothschild bought Reuters in the 1800's and AP a few years ago. I wonder if their vast financial interests ensure no one in the mainstream press complains about central bankers, the Federal Reserve's paper money machine, or Rockefeller or Rothschilds.
Our politicians live in abject fear of the media and so are controlled both directly and indirectly by Rothschilds. You would think that the men and women we elect because they purport to be "leaders" would have the cojones to simply break up the media enterprises. Bring back the anti-combines act.
We elect puppets to be controlled by international bankers. It's time our politicians freed themselves of these creatures.
Then we will see what free journalists have to say. In ancient Greece, the Media was a massive uncontrollable monster. Well, the banksters have him shackled, muzzled and chained. Leaders; where are you?