Rot In Press, Rot In Politics

Briefly, a healthy press and media environment is judged to be one in which there are strong, competing political positions held by owners. They compete for readers', listeners', viewers' attention and loyalty and as a result all - or nearly all - of the news gets out. When one owner with a single political position dominates the information environment, news and comment can be strangled. And they are in Canada - alarmingly in B.C.

Not only are press and media in B.C. under suspicion of corruption, but they seem to be part of the concerted move to strip British Columbians of democratic choice, to destroy all the population-owned services and deliver them into U.S. hands, to destroy Canadian medicare in favour of private U.S. profiteers, and to strip B.C. wage-earners of decent livelihoods and reasonable social insurance.

Examine one example only. The Gordon Campbell government has conducted a fight with B.C. doctors, something that garners favour with the public. Very little balance has been struck. Dr. John Turner, president of the B.C. Medical Association managed to get a small editorial page comment into the Sun (Mar 3 04 A13). Whatever else we may think of the doctor lobby, we learn (1) the Campbell govt. will not discuss reform with the doctors (2) it broke its word and tore up "binding" panel recommendations, (3) it broke its agreement on lab fees (4) it tried to take over the doctors professional college as it has done with the teachers (5) and it lied in ads about doctors' pay. The medicare question is so huge in Canada press and media have a fundamental responsibility to the public to bring all the facts and arguments forward - and they are not doing so. In B.C. they are apparently going along with false claims by the Campbell government, a government which wants to destroy medicare.

Liberal government scandals in B.C., moreover, have not been opened up by "mainstream" press and media. Terry Glavin, for the Georgia Straight, uncovered some of the unlovely background of David Hahn - from bankrupt (dubious) U.S. corporation to CEO of B.C. Ferries. Sean Holman, a small newsmagazine editor, uncovered the Doug Walls scandal. The Sierra Club researched the more than $2 million in debts and penalties forgiven Liberal fish-farmer political donors. The police opened the drug trade, money-laundering, fraudulent Liberal membership buying in their raid on the legislature offices.

The CanWest press - for the most part - seems to use its journalists, as I read them, to dampen public anger and to displace, downplay, and obscure important news about Campbell government misdeeds. When Ian Mulgrew, CanWest columnist for the Vancouver Sun, calls Mr. Justice Dohm's actions in regard to the raids on the legislative offices "a whitewash" and "rulings that run in the face of Canadian jurisprudence", and when he accuses Dohm of "ignoring the public interest and the deleterious effects these allegations are having on the integrity of the political process", we have to know that the matter is becoming so serious and may have such heavy implications that CanWest has got to be heard, honestly, in some part of the Sun. (Sun Mar 3 04 A3)

As I write, coastal communities have been holding (for weeks) town meetings to protest the privatization of B.C. Ferries – all up and down the coast. Nobody seems to have told the CanWest monopoly newspapers. And though the public action campaign "sounds like Canada" to me, it obviously doesn't to Sheila Rogers or most of the people at CBC (with the honourable exception of radio's Almanack). The serious, several weeks long, public expression of concern has been all but erased, has been suffocated inasmuch as other BCers and Canadians have a right to know about the protest. That's an example of the school-yard-bully face of Canadian press and media.

For an example of press and media sleaze we need only turn to what one may graciously speak of as Gordon Campbell's personal life. Many British Columbians would judge his alleged behaviour unsuitable for a premier of the Province. And so it is hidden by mainstream press and media. Let me be clear. I am not remotely interested in Gordon Campbell's personal life (or that of any other political figure). But I am very interested in the mainstream press and media turning away from its apparently habitual practice of talking about such things, and, instead, providing a wall of silence for Campbell to hide behind.

We need only recall the time when Gordon Wilson was being hounded out of the leadership of the Liberal Party in B.C. so that Gordon Campbell could (probably illegitimately) become leader. Wilson and his present wife declared they were in divorce proceedings, would unite, but would maintain decorum until legally freed from present partners. Nonetheless, a feeding frenzy of journalistic sleaze was undertaken. Gary Collins, present finance minister, went to the press to announce he was resigning as party whip because Gordon Wilson would not rule out a future relationship. (Judi Tyabji, Political Affairs, 1994 184) Collins played up the matter seemingly from deep moral conscience. Vaughn Palmer, veteran CanWest columnist, used the front page of the Sun to discuss Wilson's "personal problems" and his public life. He, too, obviously was moved by the highest moral concern.

During the Tyabji/Wilson furore (1993) the Victoria Times Colonist asked where the line should be drawn on personal matters. The editorial suggested "if what they [public figures] do in their private lives contradicts their public promises or impressions, the voters have every right to know - and the media have a working obligation to deliver that information." (Tyabji 182-3)

According to the underground grapevine, it is alleged that Gordon Campbell is estranged from his wife and is occupied elsewhere. He gives a "public impression" (by appearing on TV etc. with his estranged wife) that they are a normal, married couple. If that is a false impression, manipulated for political reasons, Vaughn Palmer (and the others) "have a working obligation to deliver that information".

When the RCMP raided legislative offices, if Gordon Campbell was not in Victoria (as he probably should have been as premier) because of a "personal interest" in Hawaii, and if - as quietly alleged - someone was with him in his car when he was picked up by police in Hawaii for being drunk as a skunk, Vaughn Palmer (and the others) "have a working obligation to deliver that information". And, as a mere footnote, if the allegations about Gordon Campbell's personal life are true, then surely Gary Collins - acting from the high moral concern that moved him to resign as party whip and to attack Gordon Wilson - will have to resign from Cabinet to show his disapproval.

I am saying that the present journalistic hypocrisy is enormous. But more important: British Columbia is not a province of cut-throat journalists who feed on any news fodder that comes to them. No. It is a province with many journalistic hirelings who work for the growing thug aristocracy. They will tear apart for the thug aristocracy good, serious, caring, responsive politicians over their personal lives. And there are those who ask: are they willing to protect lame-brained, political liars and opportunists in regard to their personal lives if that is the wish of the thug aristocracy? On the "personal lives" question, journalists in B.C. make their political position starkly visible.

Amusing (?) then to read in a Vancouver community newspaper about, perhaps, one of the biggest British Columbia stories ever - a huge story - the scandalous attempt by the Gordon Campbell government to shred and sell off B.C. Hydro to private U.S. interests. Part of that story is the organized resistance by B.C. Citizens for Public Power, moving to a class action suit against the government. The story is written by Geoff Olson in the Vancouver Courier (Feb.29 04 11) The Courier, incidentally, is a CanWest paper too! (We may expect Olson to be closed down quite soon or to turn his attention elsewhere.)

Discussing the dirty attempt by the Campbell cabinet to hand B.C. Hydro to U.S. interests, Olson introduces a key statement, which he puts in brackets. "(Not that you'd be able to tell there's much going on from the media attention. In one of those interesting lacunae that seems to infect elite opinion when anything really interesting is going on behind the scenes, British Columbia's chattering classes have apparently turned into deaf-mutes on the Hydro debacle.)"

Perhaps Geoff Olson is as innocent as he seems. B.C.'s "chattering classes" (its press and media) have not turned into deaf-mutes. They are, mostly, fully aware of what is going on in B.C. Hydro and elsewhere. But because of political loyalties and because of CanWest's political position - because of the monopoly hold by reactionaries on B.C. news - they choose neither to report nor to discuss in "columns" the most important "news", the most important matters of concern to British Columbians. It is called unfair concentration of power in the press and media - to serve the interests of greed and opportunism.

The people to whom I refer - many of our journalists - not only try to avoid reporting the dots. They never connect the dots. The B.C. cabinet appointed a man with reactionary ideas, an anti-Canadian medicare, brother-in-law of Gordon Campbell to the Roy Romanow-suggested Health Council of Canada. CanWest buried the brief announcement of his appointment. It also buried (Province Feb 27 04 A14) the news that, coincidentally, Ralph Klein just appointed an anti-Canadian medicare person as chief of staff. A new democrat in Alberta said the appointment "means two-tiered medicare is on the way". The Alberta appointee, Steve West, is known as the "privatization king".

Wouldn't you think Vaughn Palmer (or one of the other clever CanWest columnists) would put those two appointments together in a column? Don't you think it is possible Klein and Campbell are working together to destroy medicare and that the possibility should be talked about by responsible journalists? Don't be silly. Their jobs - it would seem - are, mostly, to turn attention away from the thug aristocracy and its intention to hand all possible wealth-gathering activities to private U.S. operations.

I could take you back to the unbelievable, destructive mainstream press and media in B.C. when the thug aristocracy was out to destroy Glen Clark. As I have said, a major operative in that work was RCMP officer, Peter Montague (alleged to have been wooed to be a Gordon Campbell candidate). Almost ignoring the call by former premiers Bill Vander Zalm and Dave Barrett for an investigation into RCMP behaviour in the Glen Clark scandal, members of the mainstream press and media went to a retirement party for Peter Montague and some of them gave him a special farewell gift, openly and publicly praising him for his work.

That open, warm connection between a highly dubious RCMP officer and visibly significant members of the press and media tells us more than we want to know about the honesty, independence, and objectivity of the press and media in B.C.

(Next column: Part Two of "Right Politics and the Decay of Canada".)

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Robin Mathews publishes on culture, politics, the arts, and Canadian Intellectual history. He lives in Vancouver with his wife, a potter. His column appears regularly on Vive le Canada.

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