Doug Ford joins Justin Trudeau as a media sugar daddy - and he'll be keeping an eye out for noncompliant behaviour
Ontario to subsidize desperate publishers and keep them on a short leash linked to content expectations
As T.S. Eliot famously wrote in his haunting poem, The Hollow Men, “This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper."
And so it was that last week we witnessed another cringeworthy step - with a significant twist - towards the end of Canada’s independent journalism world.
The latest footfall in its death march occurred when, succumbing to intense lobbying, Ontario Premier Doug Ford directed that 25 percent of all provincial advertising be spent on Ontario-based media approved as Qualified Canadian Journalism Organizations (QCJO) by Justin Trudeau’s appointees advising the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
In a free enterprise environment, advertising dollars are spent where they get the best return on investment. The fact that so many dollars have shifted away from legacy media to social media in recent years is primarily because the latter is of greater interest to consumers and better at connecting them to products than is the former, which in most cases has failed to provide a sufficiently competitive value proposition.
Premier Ford, though, has decided that at least $25 million of his government’s annual $100 million in advertising are best used as a subsidy for those incapable of attracting advertisers on their own. Precisely how this bonanza will be shared is unclear but suffice to say the Toronto Star and Postmedia expect to be recipients.
And so could the CBC benefit - at least the English part of it, which is headquartered in Toronto. So, while federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is whipping crowds into a frenzy with his “defund the CBC” mantra, Progressive Conservative Premier Ford could be “re-funding” the same.
It gets better.
Flashpoint CBC personalities such as Rosemary Barton and Toronto Star columnists such as Althea Raj and Bruce Arthur, who represent the progressive and hard left segments of the nation’s ideological spectrum respectively, may soon owe at least a portion of their income to the philanthropy - lets call it what it is - of Premier Ford.
The Star is obliged, through its adherence to the Atkinson Principles, to favour political movements on the left of the spectrum. It is now in the awkward position of crediting a conservative for not just its continued existence but - apparently - the very preservation of democracy. As its report (which you may notice is devoid of any critical comment) stated:
“Toronto Star owner and publisher Jordan Bitove, who has called for a similar commitment from Canadian businesses, praised the government decision, saying it comes at a crucial time for the industry, and for democracy.
“‘Premier Ford and his government have shown outstanding leadership in supporting Canadian-owned and operated journalism,” said Bitove. “This support will have a profound impact in ensuring Ontarians are better informed.”
Postmedia, which is not Canadian-owned, was even more excited about what the move means for the salvation of democracy but was similarly unable to find anyone who could object. How better to preserve democracy, after all, than by muting voices that might be critical of a government decision?
Indeed, National Post was so aroused that it featured the news on its front page. That story then continued onto NP2 where it was accompanied by not one, but two columns. One was authored by Paul Deegan of News Media Canada. Having lobbied for this decision, Deegan was unsurprisingly filled with praise for the Ontario premier and the wisdom he had shown by doing what Deegan had asked of him. The other column was written by the Toronto Sun’s Brian Lilley. He also saluted the intellectual prowess of his new benefactor at Queen’s Park and then took it up a notch by calling upon Prime Minister Trudeau to be equally wise in sustaining his employer. Deegan’s column appeared simultaneously in The Star, which is also unusual. Both publications generally only accept commentary when it is offered to them exclusively.
Observers were left to conclude one thing and one thing only. Media are willing to abandon their normal journalism standards in reporting on government decisions when those decisions favour their shareholders’ interests. And, not only will they do it, they will do it enthusiastically and without shame.
And then there are the strings attached to the deal. According to the Government of Ontario news release, the directive to spend 25 percent of advertising on approved Ontario media “will be reviewed on a quarterly basis to ensure it is having the desired effect of promoting local content and culture and supporting Ontario jobs.”
Those may be virtuous goals, but that’s a pretty short leash based on mighty subjective criteria. It would be a significant break with traditional ethics for publishers to accept advertising based on agreeing to meet specific editorial content expectations.
This could also mean that Ontario-based chains will, when contemplating layoffs, prioritize dumping jobs at their non-Ontario properties.
Freedom of the press should always mean that publishers are free to do whatever they want and that includes deciding to meet government content expectations in exchange for revenue. But it’s challenging to see how that fits with the argument that news organizations deserve access to taxpayers’ money because doing so is required to preserve democracy.
Nor is it likely to address plummeting public trust in media.
This is the way it ends.
If there’s no Rewrite next week, it’s because a) it’s Stampede or b) I will be parked on an island somewhere in the Salish Sea. But I will be back. In the meantime, thanks to Andrew Lawton for having me on his show last week. And many, many thanks to all the new subscribers who signed up. Feel free to be one of the popular kids and join them.
Peter Menzies is a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, past vice-chair and AB-NWT Commissioner at the CRTC, former editor-in-chief and publisher of the Calgary Herald and a National Newspaper Award winner. He also worked as executive director of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.
The Press is addicted to government money. It’s like crack cocaine to them. Our idiot PM gave them tax credits, grants, C18, and a C11 fund, but it’s not enough. Now they want a minimum share of government ad spending. Enough already. The Press needs to figure out how to produce content people will pay for instead of producing an endless stream of filler about which celebrity is getting divorced or what stupid dance Trudeau performed.
At least we know the government is buying coverage. Who else is? And not the old fashioned way via ads.
To explain: I was a loyal print media consumer until last year. Daily paper delivery. I got fed up with agitprop in the Edmonton Journal so thought maybe the Sun’s conservative slant would be better (though they are essentially the same paper). Got the Sun instead for a year until the day they reported Laverne Waskahat’s latest arrest and called him a woman. I did not give up! I wrote a polite letter to the editor correcting them, which they did not print.
I gave up. I don’t ask for much. Don’t lie about important facts. Don’t refuse to admit you have lied. That is my whole list of demands.
That they can’t meet it makes me think that they are getting considerable funding under the table not to.