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Postmedia shoots more hostages to keep debt payments flowing to New Jersey hedge fund
New Jersey’s largest newspaper chain shot another dozen Canadian hostages last week as the end game of its northern extortion scheme grows ever closer. If the federal government doesn’t allow Postmedia Network and the rest of the country’s press to start taking money from the pockets of Google and Facebook soon, more of the country’s captive newspapers could get whacked.
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Ruling in Rogers-Shaw deal shows reform of Competition Act is badly needed
Does the Competition Bureau have a hope of stopping Rogers from swallowing Shaw and creating a nationwide cable monopoly? Probably not, but that’s just the point, and it’s a point the bureau itself has been trying to make for years. Its enabling Competition Act is not just unfit for purpose, it was seemingly designed to actually prevent competition.
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The myth of Google and Facebook’s online advertising ‘monopoly’
Now that newspapers are moving to online publication, they are crying foul because they are finally having to compete on a level playing field. They have even now prevailed upon Ottawa to pass Bill C-18, the Online News Act, which would force Google and Facebook to pay a portion of their revenues to newspapers. Something just doesn’t smell right here.
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Why did the Ottawa Citizen publish Holocaust revisionism?
On the second night of Hanukkah, the Postmedia-owned Ottawa Citizen published a crude piece of gross Holocaust revisionism from a Ukrainian nationalist academic. This comes during a year that has been a boon for rehabilitating Nazi collaborators and neo-Nazis as a result of Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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How to fund journalism in Canada if Google, Facebook won’t
Canada has been described as “three telcos in a trenchcoat” for the inordinate power they wield. They control all of the private TV networks, as Bell owns CTV, Rogers owns City, and Global is owned by the Shaw Family Living Trust. Giving back some of their monopoly profits to benefit Canadians is the second-last idea they want to hear. The first? Free public wifi.
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Bad journalism, military funded academic produces hit job
In a story based upon the ‘research’ of a Canadian military-funded academic and published in the November 28 edition of Québec’s most widely circulated newspaper, Le Journal de Montréal, Jean-Christophe Boucher smeared prominent Canadian anti-war activist and author Yves Engler, connecting his disruption of politicians on a host of issues to “Russian propaganda.”
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Police control of body camera footage undermines meaningful accountability
As police services continue to adopt and roll-out body-worn cameras, it is inevitable that the public will become more aware of police actions imprinted on the footage they record. What remains unclear is how the police can be held accountable by the use of body-worn cameras when the “official” narrative is manufactured and controlled by police themselves.
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Could a UK-type system of ‘local democracy reporters’ help fill the news gap in Canada?
It’s time to take a step back and re-think the patchwork quilt of newspaper bailouts we have been seeing for the past few years and instead come up with a long-term strategy for journalism in Canada. To that end, writes Marc Edge, it’s worth looking at what other countries are doing to promote local journalism and restore trust in news media.
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When it comes to election interference, the problem isn’t just Russia
Despite endless cries of Russian “interference” and “meddling” in US elections, comparatively little attention is paid to much larger foreign movers and shakers in American political life. In 2018 alone, Israel spent at least $22 million on lobbying and campaign donations during that year’s election cycle. Where are the anxious reports on “Israelgate”? They’re nowhere to be found.
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Canada needs a long-term news strategy to stop undermining trust in journalism, says white paper
Instead of plugging the holes in a sinking newspaper ship with successive bailouts, Ottawa should formulate a long-term national news media strategy that doesn’t undermine public trust in journalism, according to a former senior journalist and media regulator. Ottawa’s latest cash injection and its attempt to shake down the tech platforms will only make matters worse.