It’s a trifecta of moral corruption! Rex Murphy shills for Big Oil and Gas. Postmedia consigns its editorial control to the Oil and Gas Lobby[TM]. Postmedia, naturally, fires one of the best energy/environment reporters in the nation. Film at 11. Ok, it’s 11. Let’s drill down. Journalists should declare when
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Politics, Re-Spun: How to Spot a Good Journalist
It’s getting harder and harder, what with constant corporate media concentration, and corporatist convergence of messaging from right wing governments and their informal corporate media PR departments. But everyone once in a while we see evidence that there is a growing number of journalists who exist with integrity and can
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: What Does Post-Corporate Media Look Like?
I know you’re wondering. But it’s hard to imagine. Kind of like a fish imagining life without water. We’ve known corporate media for generations. Since the advent of psychology and marketing, the influence/manipulation of corporate media is ubiquitous. And not in a good way. But let’s take a few moments
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Real Reason We Need to Get Rid of Corporate Media
Goodbye. While I’m also sad that the Kamloops Daily News is closing, I think Warren Kinsella is over-simplifying a few things [see below] with respect to how the media climate will be affected by the closing of this for-profit business, earning shareholder value by producing mass media content, while sometimes
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: You Aren’t Sufficiently Critical of the #Media
You need to trust the media less. Almost a year ago, and before the last US presidential election, Gallup determined that there has been a stunning decline in citizens’ mistrust of the media [see below]. It crossed over from mostly trust to not so much trust around 2004-2005. If you
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Corporate Hypocrites Gone Wild: Syncrude Edition
Let’s say that you’re one of the world’s largest producers of synthetic crude and also Canada’s largest single-source producer of crude derived from oil sands. Imagine that you are also the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in Alberta! (“Psst, we’re working on being the biggest in all of the nation, baby. Don’t count
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Re: Huffington Post & the Quebec Spring (Again!)
I had previously been under the impression that the Huffington Post was a generally a left-liberal sort of enterprise. However, it appears that one does not win a Pulitzer these days without some token “dissent.” After all, we know how difficult it is for right-wing perspectives to be heard in
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Encouraging Early Political Engagement: CitizenNext.ca
It is not an accident that I am a political junkie. Even as a toddler, I was fed a steady diet of left-of-centre ideology, pro-union sentiments and anti-monarchist dogma. My mother, who was not overtly political, ensured I could recognize political leaders from around the world by sight before I could read, that I understood […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: On Riots & Anarchists: the Media’s Reactionary Propaganda
Good afternoon Vancouver, how’s your head? The hand-wringing and spinning has commenced in full force now in the wake of the riot which gripped the downtown core after the Canucks Game 7 loss. The narrative which emerged, both in the media and thanks to public statements by the Vancouver Police, is that—are you ready for […]
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: The Perils of Postmedia: News staff out, managing editor in, at Edmonton Journal
“The Press” … back in the day when the Edmonton Journal was a great newspaper. Below: soon-to-be Journal managing editor Stephanie Coombs, former Journal publisher Linda Hughes, Colonist founder Amor de Cosmos.Just when it didn’t seem like anot…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How I Expect Journalists to Behave During #Elxn41
The short answer is: just as they are. I think they’re doing a great job, especially with the kind of contempt Harper has shown them for years. By the way, #Elxn41 is the Twitter hashtag for Canada’s 41st general election. It is an exciting time as Twitter is redefining the relationships between estates. Candidates, citizens […]
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Part 1: Canwest latest ‘media giant’ to exploit news operation
This is the first of a seven-part series that will address the need to develop independent media — print, broadcast and Internet-based — in Canada.The long-anticipated collapse of the Asper family’s Canwest Global media empire — which included 11 da…
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