Writers Shaving Content in Perilous Times
Writers Shaving Content in Perilous Times
Journalism is dead in Canada. This is a post mortum
It has become a little too obvious the job of the MSM Western media is to misinform and thoroughly propagandize the populations they are supposed to serve.
“The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are,” he continued. “They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years we won’t even remember we heard them. Trust me, as somebody who participated.”
He claimed that “undeniably big topics, the ones that will define our future, get virtually no discussion at all,” including “war, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power (and) natural resources.”
“Debates like that are not permitted in American media.”—Tucker Carlson on Twitter
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When Tucker Carlson stated the above on Twitter I stood at my desk and gave him a standing ovation. My dog looked up at me as if I had gone nuts. I explained to her that I have been waiting years for a prominent journalist to say such words, so long over due. She wagged her tail and went back to her doze. She is a very empathetic bitch.
Being Canadian, what he said has special significance for me, where the state of journalism here is far worse than in the USA. Our mainstream media has been shot to hell for a long time as we are a colonized country and our national media is a word shavers convention as they dance around issues without going to the heart of the matter. In two many ways our national media is an apologist for the federal government. And indeed one of our major news outlets, the CBC is government owned and operated(more on that later). Our national media does in fact get government subsidies. This came about because Google “stole” the revenues that kept our media barons fat and happy.
The mission of Canada’s national media is to soft pedal political issues and say nothing that might offend our imperial masters next door. Canadian media is really a limpid side show of the American media dominating both sides of the border.
Books have been written on the sad state of Canadian journalism by journalists. They lament empty news rooms but fail to recognize in a colonized country they are headed up a dead end street. In most cases they are saying what has already arrived from south of the border.
We do have a few media outlets claiming to be progressive cutting edge but here again they fall short. Its all shaved content on safe parochial issues. Tucker would be horrified! This is what kowtowing colonialism does to freedom of the press.
Much to its credit the US has a strong independent media prepared to speak truth to power. It deserves a much larger following and this is also happening. As the US MSM becomes less and less credible, and more purely propagandist the independent media has a growing audience starved for the truth. Canada’s independents shave their content writing creme puff journalism, infantilizing its audience.
When I mention the issues of colonization and sovereignty I should make it clear the USA did not steal our sovereignty we just gave it away. In the years following WW II the USA was a juggernaut to be reckoned with. Canada quickly and expediently opted for colonization rather than nationhood. For Canada’s political elites there has never been a “middle way”. Now the colonization is replete, though we like to pretend other wise.
The CBC
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation(CBC) started out as our government owned broadcaster during the 1930’s. Being government owned it has always been an object of contention for right wing politicians constantly threatening to trash its budget. The CBC provided commercial free very high quality news coverage and programming not provided by private sector.
In the 1990’s I was a CBC devotee but like every other Canadian institute it paid the price of colonization with its constantly watered down existence. Where thirty years ago I was a staunch defender of its existence as keystone of our culture, it is no longer.
The compulsive cross border shopper
As our countries change so do we. My identity is now very much hyphenated . I am a Canadian—de facto American — de facto internationalist. Bein purely Canadian these days is a myth given the mighty empire as our next door. Being a de facto American is not adequate as the really big decisions that affect our lives are happening on the international stage, which should be of immense concern to all. The multi-polar now emerging is essential to planetary survival and the intransigent West is on the wrong side of history. The delusional West has only 13% of the world’s and expects to rule over the 87%— little wonder our democracies are on the rocks. We have totally lost perspective on what democracy is all about.
We Canadians are well known for being cross border-shoppers. As a youngster we used to go on vacations to visit my American cousins. We always returned home with a good load of American cotton goods.
Now I shop there to keep in touch with the world thanks to the internet; but even then you have to cross oceans to get the full picture. This is the Age of Information and too much information, along with the truckloads of misinformation that have to be sorted out. Its like a perpetual jigsaw puzzle looking for the missing pieces— lost and too often stolen!
The end game
Journalism has two very demanding standards in this day and age to be credible:
The first so painfully obvious. We have to be true to history as it is the determinate for so much of what happens. To think we can live without it is like walking over a cliff blind folded— we have to see them for what they are. These are the “undeniably big topics” Carlson refers to, that are part of our times and must addressed.
When war comes history is slandered out of existence which is a criminal act. Wars are the the sum of the treachery that spawns them. War is no more than a childish temper tantrum after rationality has failed.
Those who like to blame Russia for the conflict in Ukraine betray their ignorance of history as the war has very deep historical roots. Russian concerns were legitimate and ignored by war mongering NATO.
Similarly China is painted as the evil imperialism when history reveals other wise. It has had it share of wars and revolutions, and been a victim of Western imperialism: but is not by definition imperialist. Do we honestly believe China wants to sacrifice its “economic miracle “ to another war. No it is America that wants war to save itself from its ow strategic blunders and China is the scapegoat. War is the only language Washington speaks.
War is in itself a variant of fascism and where warmongers and propagandists prevail over history wreck and ruin follow.
In this age of information media outlets make the grotesque error of thinking they have the last word when publishing; as if the world is a one newspaper town of sixty years ago. They believe they can write bullshit and get with it. The average news consumer can flip through half a dozen websites over morning coffee and see a cross section of reportage. At the same time news consumers have an obligation to take the time and effort to multi-source their news and opinion. National television news broadcasts are mostly pulp fiction.
The lying and hypocrisy of politicians now is so flagrant; it must be called out. It is not as the MSM is in bed with the status quo. This is why Carlson says in reference to media debates“They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing”. The problem being there are very big elephants in the room moderators, editors and executives don’t want addressed.
Any discussion of Neoliberalism in the media is suppressed when it is an ideology that has ruined the West.
We are in a time when the integrity of the media and freedom of speech have never been more important as our decisions for the future have to be ground in truth and history and not wayward fictions constructed by cretinous troglodytes.
