He who pays the piper calls the tune. In Canada, the government is paying the media piper with tax dollars and is calling the tune through regulations..The CBC has nearly completed its transformation into a true state media outlet. Newscasts, pundits, and stories on CBC sound more like communications for the governing Liberal party than news. Legacy media outlets aren’t far behind as they become increasingly dependent upon federal subsidies to keep the lights on..Subsidies stunt innovation. The older media outlets should have been changing their business models to adapt to the digital world. Instead, they honed their skills in lobbying for and accepting handouts. I was embarrassed on behalf of the National Post as they released an editorial trying to justify being subsidized. Now they are beholden to the government and it shows..The controls can be subtle but they are there..Since 2019, the government has been paying out payroll subsidies to outlets they consider “qualified news organizations.” The money comes with strings attached of course. In order to be qualified, applicants must prove “a consistent practice of providing rebuttal opportunity for those being criticized” including the Government of Canada, according to the Guidance document..What that's led to is government agencies making demands on media outlets. The federal department of health issued hundreds of what they call “corrections” to media outlets. Critical discourse on health issues has been gagged since the beginning of the pandemic. Government agencies have an agenda, particularly the health department and they have been empowered to muscle in on media if they don’t like the media messaging..This trained legacy media outlets to avoid any reporting or commentary that may run afoul of the health department or other government agencies. If an outlet garners too many “corrections,” they may find themselves bumped from the subsidy train..Bill C-18 is even more bold and sneaky as a means of controlling media..With that bill, the government wants to force social media platforms to pay certain media outlets when they are linked. The outlets that will qualify for the payment will be determined by a government committee of course. This way, the government keeps its thumb on media and forces somebody else to pay the bill for them. Stalin would have blushed..Independent media outlets are springing up and expanding despite the government. These outlets shunned government subsidies and have tapped into the private market to pay their bills whether through subscriptions, or advertising or both as the Western Standard does. This allows the outlets to maintain full independence..Independent outlets are dependent upon social media platforms to aid with their distribution, however. Independent outlets don’t have mandatory carriage on cable channels as legacy outlets do and they don’t have the means for broader advertising to draw readers and viewers. They need Twitter, YouTube, Meta and Google. The government recognized this and sees a new way to shut down independent media outlets with C-18. Not only will the media outlets committed to sharing the government messaging be able to drain the social media providers, but independent outlets will find themselves shut out from linking..Meta and Google are threatening to stop posting links to all news sites whether independent or legacy as a response to the Trudeau government’s heavy handed approach..Can you blame them?.This response will harm everybody as it becomes tougher than ever to access a broad spectrum of news coverage and analysis..Hope is on the horizon in some ways..Elon Musk has proven to be a disruptor, indifferent to the establishment. He is willing to go against the grain and stir up the social media world. Musk has the means to take a financial beating in order to do it as well..Whether one likes Tucker Carlson or not, the unfolding story of his firing from Fox News and his streaming on Twitter is remarkable. Carlson’s first episode of “Tucker on Twitter” garnered 114.8 million views between June 6 and June 12. In comparison, the average CNN show draws about 500,000 viewers..A whole new broadcast medium is exploding on the scene and it is already leaving conventional media behind. If a show can garner tens of millions of viewers, it can draw millions in advertising revenue. The show needs no tax dollars. If the platform is owned by somebody as intransigent as Elon Musk, it won’t capitulate to government control easily, if ever..The battle for free media versus government-controlled media is just heating up in Canada. It will take some time, but legacy media outlets will collapse for lack of viewership despite government subsidies. We will see independent media outlets come and go, but they will eventually establish the new order of media provision..The only question is how long it will take and how much damage the government will cause in trying to maintain an obsolete status quo.
