News

Toronto Market gradually losing only alternative to liberal newspapers

MONTREAL, December 12, 2001 (LSN.ca) – CanWest Global Communications Corp. which purchased the Southam newspaper chain including the National Post from Conrad Black has ordered its 17 Southam papers to run one company-made editorial per week. CBC reports that the CanWest editorials to be written at headquarters in Winnipeg will soon increase to three per week.

CBC reports that the Montreal Newspaper Guild said the decision will seriously hamper the newspaper’s freedom of speech, and limit the number of voices it can offer readers. Montreal Gazette reporter Alexander Norris, one of the reporters spearheading the protest, says the national editorial policy puts too much media power in too few hands. “We want to draw Canadians’ attention to the fact that a very powerful family that controls a big chunk of the news media is abusing its power,” he said.

CBC notes that the Gazette’s former publisher resigned over differences he had with CanWest executives, and the paper’s editorial page editor asked to be and was re-assigned.

Israel Asper, the head of the Asper family, which controls CanWest, is a known as a Liberal party supporter and strong social liberal and was, last summer, reported to be a “best” friend of abortionist Jack Fainman. The Globe and Mail reported that “Izzy is the biggest media magnate in Canadian history” and suggested that that is “very bad news for Stockwell Day” since “Mr. Day is obsessed with abortion; one of Izzy’s best River Heights friends is Dr. Jack Faiman (sic), who has been threatened and shot at for performing abortions.” The Globe also noted “Izzy is fervently opposed to public funding of religious schools.”

So far, prior to this latest development, Southam’s flagship paper, The National Post, has provided the market with a major news alternative, especially in the influential Ontario market. While Conrad Black owned the paper it published a range of views and depth not seen for ages, especially in the Toronto region where the Toronto Star reigns supreme. The Post has often been a stunning and revealing contrast to The Star, called the Red Star by some of its critics because of its pervasive left-wing bias and propensity to publish propaganda under the guise of “news”. After the takeover by Asper the Post has gradually lost much of its distinctive news balance and depth but has, so far, retained a degree of balance that still surpasses the Toronto Star’s all-pervasive liberalism.

Unfortunately, the Post has not been able to reach profitability and Izzy Asper’s radical changes after taking over as publisher have only worsened the situation. The paper has taken some market numbers from the Globe and Mail but has not made significant inroads into the Toronto Star’s habitual readership that is likely not even aware that it is consuming very skillfully done news manipulation and creation of news.

See the CBC coverage:  https://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/12/11/canwest011211