1/ THREAD
Mr. Jeff Sandes, a journalist for the Epoch Times, testifying for the National Citizens Inquiry in Vancouver, British Columbia, shares an on the ground perspective on how journalism is corrupted by a polarized readership.
#NCI
@Inquiry_Canada
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Mr. Sandes' bonafides.
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Mr. Sandes cites the experiences of journalist Sean Arthur Joyce as a cautionary tale of why journalists might not wish to take money from the government as those funds may come with strings attached.
Mr. Joyce's website: seanarthurjoyce.ca
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Mr. Sandes concedes that although media outlets provide a biased perspective, sometimes, due to the reluctance of officials to talk to journalists based on their employers, those journalists are forced into writing pieces that present the appearance of bias.
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Mr. Sandes than focuses on the Trusted News Initiative (TNI), claiming that when media outlets collude to put out a particular talking point, they undermine their professionalism.
TNI: bbc.com/mediacentre/20…
Side note: google searches for TNI are supressed
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Without becoming to partisan, Mr. Sandes points out how the trucker convoy, which was picking up tens of thousands of supporters at different stops, would previously have been picked up by the Canadian media, yet many media outlets chose to pretend it didn't exist.
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Mr. Sandes cautions that our government is moving to control our speech, and although all journalists should be paying attention to that, and historically they have been quick to defend free speech, sadly, they are not doing so in the present case.
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Mr. Sandes cites a Vancouver based media outlet which brags about their social activism while also boasting about their journalistic integrity, and he stands firm in his belief that those two are mutually exclusive.
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The commissioner returns to the issue of politicians avoiding journalists, citing Alberta in particularly.
Sandes: "It's happened to me in BC. It's the reality now."
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When asked a question related to Bill C-11 and the Charter, Mr. Sandes pulls no punches in criticizing our once sacred Charter.
Sandes: "I think we've seen in Canada, our Charter doesn't really hold up."
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Mr. Sandes arrives at his ultimate conclusion that, whereas in the old days, the different media outlets would see the same stories as important, but from different angles, now the audience decides what is and is not important, and the outlet must provide that, exclusively.
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As Mr. Sandes is a personal friend of mine, and as I am aware that his mission in life is to always uphold his journalistic integrity, I hope he approves of my representation of his testimony.
Thank you, Jeff, for testifying and for standing up for this nation.
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