THREAD/ This short video clip brings to a boil a few ideas that have been simmering in my head for the past few months.
I don’t own a tinfoil hat but, boy, what’s happening in Canada right now certainly look familiar. You just have to look south of the border to find corollaries.
There’s always political back and forth on social media, but the attacks from the right on the left remind me of the attacks on Clinton during the 2016 campaign in that they wildly distort positions of left-of-centre politicians and/or try to make them look foolish to nefarious.
These attacks are, from what I’m seeing, effective. People I’ve known for years, who have been historically apolitical, are sharing misleading or fake news memes about these politicians and, more concerning, parroting misinformation.
I’ve asked one: aside from social media, where do you get your facts? And they can’t come up with another news source. These memes, coming from unknown sources, have shaped their thinking.
To be clear: no one should take issue with using facts to criticize the decisions of any political leader. Politicians are not beyond reproach & deserve legitimate oversight by media & electorate. But ’Trudeau is stupid’ and ‘Notley hates Alberta’ are not legitimate arguments.
Benefitting from these memes are politicians who appear much farther right on the political spectrum than the Conservatives of yore. One of them, Jason Kenney, protects his donor list as closely as Trump protects his taxes.
At the same time, we’re seeing more Facebook groups like Putting Canada First that are sowing division and clearly trying to stir up anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim sentiment and promote loosening of Canada’s gun laws.
Of course, most of this is truly fake news. Refugees do not get thousands of dollars every month from the federal government while Canadian seniors and veterans receive pennies. Yet, posts like this from anonymous sources spread like wildfire.
In Canada, we have a federal party with direct links to a Breitbart-like outlet, The Rebel, that also promotes anti-immigrant sentiment and cozied up to neo-Nazis in Charlottesville last summer. CPC amplifies many of the Rebel’s sentiments and, by doing so, legitimizes them.
I've reached out to my MP on several occasions to ask a simple question: Yes or no, will you stop retweeting and/or making yourself available to The Rebel. For months, no answer.
So I wonder: who’s behind these Facebook groups? Who’s behind Scheer, Kenney and Ford? But I also wonder: Is someone pulling the strings of Canada’s biggest newspaper chain?
Postmedia is in financial peril & controlled by quick-buck hedge funds in the U.S., led by GoldenTree Asset Management, which controls 35% of the chain. At one time, Canada wouldn’t have permitted this much foreign ownership of its free press until CPC signed off on deal.
Perhaps it’s coincidental but, since foreign takeover of our free press, the tone & standards of Postmedia papers I follow have changed. Please know I say this as someone who worked in a Sun Media newsroom for 22 years and still know many of the remaining journos at the papers.
When I started, there were no-go zones. Advertisers could not put an ad on Page 1. And it was made clear reporters and columnists shouldn’t appear too close or chummy with a figure you’re covering. Both are now common practices. Newspaper influence appears for sale like ad space
Two columnists in my city, in particular, are boosters of Jason Kenney and their columns often echo the UCP’s talking points. AND THAT'S OK. Columnists are entitled to share their opinions and they shouldn't be silenced. It's about debate and should be about informing people.
But Trudeau is slammed for not attending the opening of the Calgary Stampede; a fact that is presented as evidence that Trudeau hates Alberta. The story omits the fact Trudeau was slated to be in Hamburg that day for the G20.
A restaurant goes out of business and the owner blames the NDP. There were neither stats presented to show this is part of a troubling trend, nor a word to suggest many restaurants are opening under this same government, nor a word the restaurant owner is seeking a UCP nomination
Overall, I don't see a diversity of opinion on the op-ed pages like I used to see. Two decades ago, a Sun Media paper in Conservative-loving Alberta still printed left-of-centre editorial writers. Those voices still had a place.
I bring this up because, with this media landscape, where reporters are an endangered species and some columnists/pundits act more like political operatives, I wonder:
One, is there someone outside of Canada’s borders who is shaping the news and opinion we see? If so, to what end? As you see in the video I shared, about 200 Sinclair Broadcasting stations were ordered to air identical pro-Trump editorials but present them as local viewpoints.
Two, even if there’s nothing nefarious about Postmedia’s synchronized turn to right, does Cdn media have the resources or desire to investigate potential threats to our country’s stability & democracy from a hostile foreign power, or question foreign influence on govt policy?
I love Canada but it isn’t immune to the manipulation of the media & democracy that’s been uncovered by the Mueller investigation and media reporting on Cambridge Analytica. I worry Canada appears headed down same road. What I’m seeing looks too familiar to not be concerned. END
