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May 23Liked by Peter Menzies

I know you have to string it out for those less familiar with the On-line Streaming (nee Broadcasting) Act. but once you declare all video and music to be broadcasting and hence programming (terms of art) , then it follows that what were formerly newspapers - which now use video - are programming and thus fully regulatable. This result was foreseen by the broadcasting regulatory crowd and cheered by them. Once Canadian content is made the sole desideratum of communications policy - not freedom, not the vigorous exchange of ideas, but subsidized and regulated content - all else follows. This orders of magnitude expansion of regulated actors was a deliberate consequence of federal communications policy. I wonder if the newspapers were concerned about their freedoms but I think they were mostly concerned by the fur on their manacles.

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May 23Liked by Peter Menzies

"... fur on their manacles." Delicious phrasing and very true because accepting money from the government - ANY government - is immediately addictive and almost irreversible. Ultimately, that fur will wear through and they will be left with, oh, canvas or something much worse.

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