Neil MacDonald (CBC): "Newsrooms are corporate cultures. Does anyone seriously expect the news industry to begin behaving in a fashion that would cause it to lose money?"
Jim Travers (Toronto Star): "[Media] Concentration works well for the mainstream political parties and makes it so much easier for owners, who rely on government for broadcast licences, to exhibit their fidelity. In the last election, CanWest writers spoke about "go-easy" pressures from head office ... Stephen Harper was ferried from Toronto to Hamilton in a CanWest helicopter ... in mature places ... these things would surely be less likely ... and more immediately punished."
Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail) spoke of the absolute lack of anywhere in Canadian universities where media policy as it affects the public interest, could be either discussed or taught. He saw this as the first best step toward creating a fairer media.
The Public Policy Forum seemed to touch upon all the things I most hate about CanWest in British Columbia, including the way in which CanWest portrays the news entirely as god-given truths making its face to shine only upon their annointed premier.
www.ppforum.ca also said "News matters. Journalism matters. No real democracy can function without healthy and independent news media to inform people about the way their society works."
Amen to that.
Note: www.ppforum.ca
www.ppforum.ca
Newsrooms Are Corporate Cultures
Posted on Monday, October 24 at 10:02 by BC MaryContributed By
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Irving-owned media reporting on a strike of Irving Oil Refinery <br />
workers in New Brunswick. I find it disturbing to read:<br />
<br />
<br />
Ms Erin Steuter: In New Brunswick, all English newspapers are <br />
owned by one company, with very little variety in what's available <br />
... the Irving Empire owns over 300 companies and employs 8% of <br />
the N.B. labour force so is not subjected to investigative enquiry.<br />
<br />
"For example, when the 27-month strike at Irving Oil concluded in <br />
1996 with a humiliating defeat for the Communications, Energy & <br />
Paper-workers Union, the company required a process of <br />
ideological re-education which was essentially a means for the <br />
company to control the hearts and minds of its now-broken labour <br />
force. Returning workers at the refinery said that in reality the <br />
reorientation program was a combination "bitterness test" and <br />
"attitude alteration" exercise. Labour observers at the time noted <br />
that the Irvings were blacklisting the striking workers and the <br />
"back-to-work" protocol was identified as a "brainwashing" <br />
exercise. The strike at the Refinery was identified as a significant <br />
sign of the changing labour relations climate in North America and <br />
globally. <br />
<br />
"The strike began as Irving Oil's attempt to mimic the flexibility and <br />
restructuring of labour seen in southern U.S. and elsewhere as <br />
part of the changing face of global commerce. Its conclusion was <br />
seen as an example of rollback whereby one scheme in social, <br />
political, and economic progress was being rolled back as <br />
economic instability and recession allowed for a climate in which <br />
corporate and government power could more directly be <br />
exercised.<br />
<br />
"Not surprisingly, the words "brainwashing" and "blacklisting" of <br />
strikers never appeared in the Irving papers' coverage of the strike. <br />
Instead, the New Brunswick papers published the names of the 37 <br />
strikers who were fired by the company under the headline "Not <br />
welcome at the Refinery". The reorientation was described as a <br />
"back-to-work" program for men who had "failed" and were told to <br />
go home. <br />
<br />
"The Irvings' coverage of the issue was paralleled in the only <br />
national newspaper at the time, the Globe and Mail. The Globe <br />
and Mail allowed the Irving-owned media to set the agenda on the <br />
tone and coverage of the strike and its unorthodox back-to-work <br />
protocol, and presented virtually identical coverage to the national <br />
audience.<br />
<br />
"Globe and Mail even avoided covering the traditionally <br />
newsworthy elements of the story when they followed the Irvings' <br />
lead and avoided covering the New Brunswick NDP leader, <br />
Elizabeth Weir's attention-getting press conference in which she <br />
suggested that the N.B. government should call in Irving <br />
companies' loans if they did not agree to settle the strike. Thus, <br />
when the national news media fell into line with the Irving-owned <br />
media's account of their own controversies, no one is provided <br />
with the range of opinion and perspective that is the heart of <br />
independent and informative journalism in a democratic society." <br />
<br />
The conference concluded with the moderator's statement: "News <br />
matters. Journalism matters. No real democracy can function <br />
without healthy and independent news media to inform people <br />
about the way their society works."<br />
<br />
<br />
For the full discussion: <a href="http://www.ppforum.ca">www.ppforum.ca</a><br />
<br />
<br />