Today, Meta (better known through its Facebook and Instagram identities) announced that when the Liberal government’s Bill C-18 comes into force — probably this fall — it will no longer carry links to Canadian newspaper content. In other words, it will stop delivering 'the news' to Canadians for legacy media.It is an unwelcome development. But it was not unexpected.Meta has been threatening to do exactly that since Canada's failing mainstream media — legacy newspapers and the major radio and television stations — began demanding Meta pay a royalty when readers connect to media websites through Facebook.One could call Facebook a news aggregator and that is how the mainstream media saw it. They said they were getting ripped off.And so, their Liberal friends brought in Bill C-18 — the Online News Act which passed the House of Commons on Wednesday June 21st. Royal assent was pending at the time of writing.Meta responded with its announcement on the 22nd, putting Canadians on notice that soon they would get their news the way they did 15 years ago — on paper, or by searching a title-specific website. Inevitably, news readership and the speed of distribution will plummet. Desperate greed is the driver. And indisputably, democracy will suffer. What the legacy media seriously underestimated was the degree to which Facebook had also become their paper boy.Canadians today watch television less than they ever did and hardly a person under 50 buys a newspaper. One might regret these changing cultural habits. But the truth is that for publishers, the most efficient way of reaching a mass market has for some years been through the conduit provided by Google and Facebook. If relevancy is connected to readership, the legacy media needed Facebook more than Facebook needed them.This of course, is equally true of The Western Standard.However, there is one significant difference. The Western Standard does not accept government subsidies to do its job of reporting and commenting upon the news. The mainstream media does. (Under the funding legislation, we qualify. But we will not accept the money or the dependency that must inevitably follow its habitual receipt.)Thus, the MSM attempt to make Facebook 'pay for content' was not merely greed; it was also foolish. It is as though an old style newspaper publisher tried to charge his paper boy for the privilege of distributing his product. For that is effectively what big media tried to do with Meta. All this, while receiving $139 million bailout through Heritage Canada.A double-ender, then. Nice try.Our sympathies are not by any means all with Meta.In its consideration of Bill C-18, the Senate accepted The Western Standard's case that as we did not receive government funding, we should be able to opt out of the bill's terms. Meta has drawn no such distinction and as with the legacy media, distribution of our news feed is affected accordingly. But, what was Meta’s quarrel with us? We weren’t about to charge them for distributing our product.Luckily, we have a loyal reader base that knows where to find us and continues to seek us out. (See below.)Nevertheless, these will be difficult days for online media such as ours that are about to lose Facebook distribution, and with no compensatory mainlining on government funds.In a democracy, an unfettered press is foundational to freedom. Now however, in the absence of Facebook pushing its readership, the mainstream media is less free and more dependent than ever for its survival upon Government of Canada funding.No doubt publishers and broadcasters mean to maintain their editorial independence. Yet, the incentives push in the opposite direction. Canadians should be concerned.Meanwhile legacy media publishers and broadcasters got what they wanted. And actually for them, things could be worse.Fewer people will read their words perhaps... obliged to a Liberal government they may be... and it’s unlikely they will see a single extra nickel. But a Liberal government that prizes conformity of thought, speech and action has done this much for them at least: It gives them money. And in what looks like a wink, a nod and a corridor handshake, it has also made life difficult for their most attractive alternatives — The Western Standard and similar online publications.So perverse as it is, for government and mainstream media alike, it really is a return to a happier time — the government gets more influence on a captive media and in return the media can watch its upstart competition struggle.This we promise our readers. What has happened is unjust but we have long recognized that we do not live in a just world. And we knew it was likely. So, the fight to fix it continues. The Western Standard is Canada's freest news outlet and you should have no fear that we shall roll over, walk away or play dead.We are not discouraged.We are just more determined.Do not let Meta and Big Media cut you off from your Western Standard feed! Download our app to your phone, and just in case our site ever becomes unsearchable through Google, put Western Standard in your favourites bar, now! And don't forget: If you're not already a member, sign up!
