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What if the nativist/white nationalist op-ed that appeared in @VancouverSun & @theprovince today is no oversight, as claimed, but consistent with @postmedianet's recent explicit turn to the right? Regardless of how it happened, let's look at @postmedianet context. 1/x #bcpoli
@VancouverSun @theprovince @postmedianet It happened in August when many were away but Postmedia, the NY hedge-fund owned conservative owner of the Sun, Province & a majority of major Canadian papers, recently made an explicit turn further to the right canadalandshow.com/the-conservati… and nationalobserver.com/2019/08/27/opi… #cdnpoli #bcpoli
@VancouverSun @theprovince @postmedianet Right-wing media & Big Money interests have always used racism to advance their agenda but I'd argue that Postmedia's agenda specifically relates to a strategy to push resource extraction, & there's plenty of evidence of this, even beyond its contract with CAPP @OilGasCanada 3/x
@VancouverSun @theprovince @postmedianet @OilGasCanada To back up a bit, recall that BC's two major dailies, Sun & Province, upon which a large chunk of broadcast news is founded, eliminated an environment beat or any pretence of really monitoring resource extraction or megaprojects like #SiteC long ago. 4/x
Stephen Hume's departure from the Sun marked the tragic end of thoroughgoing resource extraction reporting, ie not from a business angle. Larry Pynn tried to carry on enviro beat but was forced to spread himself thin (true of what's happening to most Postmedia journos) 5/x
Over the past decade, BC's major sector (all resource extraction combined) has gone increasingly unopposed in BC mainstream media. Meanwhile many former enviro reporters for MSM moved to smaller indie outlets like @thenarwhalca, @NatObserver @TheTyee &c which kept up this beat.
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee If you want to see what the Sun's "environment" reporting looks like now, look at the recent "Environment" tag stories. It's eerily lacking a single story on fracking, pipelines, LNG, #SiteC, fish farms, mining, anything. vancouversun.com/tag/environment
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@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee On top of that, Postmedia signed an agreement with CAPP, Canadian Assn of Petroleum Producers. Google it for many sources on this but do read the late Rafe Mair's lament on what this means for journalism and democracy: thetyee.ca/Opinion/2017/1… #cdnpoli #bcpoli
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee So what does the collusion of mainstream media/Postmedia with oil & gas & resource extraction, and its vacating of the duty to report on environmental and community & First Nations impacts, have to do with right-wing nativist populism? I'm sure the answer is quite obvious.
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee Before I get into a really frightening example of how right-wing nativist populism gets whipped up to support the agenda of oil & resource extraction, including how Postmedia reporting colluded in that, I just want to bookmark a few relevant threads here:
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee And thanks for making this point about the rightward lurch of Postmedia papers like Sun and Province, Justin:
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee Example: forest companies & @jjhorgan's appointed liaison locally whipped up right-wing populism & an online racist frenzy against First Nations in opposition to forest lands being saved in a FN initiative to protect caribou herds from extinction: #bcpoli
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee @jjhorgan I wrote that Twitter thread (apologies for length) because this major & dangerously toxic BC issue was not being accurately or fully reported in either of BC's main papers. See how Vaughn Palmer's coverage in the Sun differs from my account? vancouversun.com/opinion/column… #bcpoli
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee @jjhorgan In short, Blair Lekstrom & forest companies whipped up anti-First Nations racism over a negligible percentage of forest being removed from Canfor & WestFraser's allowed cut. These raw log exporters aren't closing mills due to FN/caribou but due to their own profit-seeking M.O.
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee @jjhorgan This isn't some eccentric example. It is representative of something that's happening all over Canada - resource extraction forces, including media, using & raising populist/racist sentiment to distract from policies affecting workers & communities & supplying an easy scapegoat
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee @jjhorgan For whatever reason, the NYC hedge funds that own Postmedia aggressively push resource extraction. Nativist populism is appearing more frequently in their papers. It all dovetails with the rise of movements like the Yellow Vests & the general unholy marriage of oil & racism.
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee @jjhorgan So I'd say to @haroldmunro, the Editor-in-Chief of both @theprovince and the @VancouverSun: it's pretty evident what Postmedia is doing here, and it will be held responsible for its role in spreading hatred to the benefit of Big Money and Big Oil. #bcpoli #cdnpoli
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee @jjhorgan @haroldmunro @theprovince @VancouverSun And a final word to the journalists at the Sun, Province & other Postmedia papers across Canada who hate Postmedia's new direction & its political interference in their work via removing beats, strapping them for time etc: it's not your fault. But I hope you somehow fight this.
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee @jjhorgan @haroldmunro @theprovince @VancouverSun Lastly, @GordonClarkEd, what do you have to say about all this? Did you play a role in publishing Mark Hecht's misinformation-filled op-ed? Who passed it, who wrote the headline, who wrote the disgraceful tweets?
@thenarwhalca @NatObserver @TheTyee @jjhorgan @haroldmunro @theprovince @VancouverSun @GordonClarkEd Finally, what can we do about this? Demand Postmedia knock off their scapegoating of First Nations & all BIPOC groups as a means of distracting from the activities of industries that are whipping it up. Demand real enviro reporting. And report them here:
@haroldmunro @theprovince @VancouverSun Has anyone asked for a meeting to discuss policy with Sun & Province's publisher? What about asking Sun's & Province's advertisers if they want to be associated with this kind of stuff? What ads are next to this racist Mark Hecht op-ed in the print papers today? #vanpoli #bcpoli
@haroldmunro @theprovince @VancouverSun Going out now to buy print copies of the Sun and Province to see which ads show up next to this misinformation-filled Islamophobic/xenophobic op-ed, in order to ask those advertisers how they feel about this.
It’s nearly a full page article, P. 2 of the Weekend Review Section, with a really divisive - and incorrect - pull quote 
..PS Recall this? "The #VancouverSun Op-ed Denying a Climate Crisis a Symbol of Wider Journalistic Malpractice - A journalist’s role is to seek truth, esp. in the face of an emergency. But the media is not doing its job" by @seanholman thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/201… #bcpoli #cdnpoli
@seanholman In other words, this week wasn't the first time the @VancouverSun, one of our local Postmedia papers, has published a far-right op-ed that also defies facts and science. And this habit is likely to get worse, given that Postmedia is badgering all its papers to veer further right.
