Juno News - February 03, 2023


An outrageous week for the CBC


Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

180.90315

Word count

2,648

Sentence count

9

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode of Fake News Friday, Andrew Lawton and Harrison Faulkner discuss a recent piece from the CBC oped piece that says monopoly capitalism is plundering Canadian newspapers, and that we need to bring in the government to fix the problem.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
00:00:00.000 hey and welcome along to another edition of fake news Friday yes it is Friday February 3rd sifting
00:00:16.360 through the blizzard of lies staying afloat in the whirlpool of deception and dishonesty
00:00:21.600 I am Andrew Lawton here to navigate the week that was through the lens of debunking the fake
00:00:26.980 rejoined as not as always but as usually with Harrison Faulkner Harrison how has the week been
00:00:32.640 good sir the week's been pretty good and I have to say the fake news Friday intro just keeps getting
00:00:37.200 honed in on and it keeps getting better I will say though my week was going well Andrew until I woke
00:00:42.200 up this morning and it was negative 18 in Toronto I could really use some climate change these days
00:00:47.360 I saw someone say that whenever it's cold out it's always the weather whenever it's too hot out it's
00:00:52.620 always climate well seriously this is getting a bit ridiculous at this point I could really use
00:00:57.240 a little bit of climate change this morning yeah I'd actually hoped that the weather forecast was
00:01:02.660 going to be fake news but alas my car this morning had several inches of snow so that was how I started
00:01:08.920 my day but let's get right into the thick of it here one thing you could always rely on is media
00:01:15.920 wanting more government money this is the perennial story of subsidy once you subsidize something it will
00:01:22.060 never have a life for itself outside of that subsidized regime Canadian newspapers are being
00:01:28.880 threatened we hear so what do we have to do bring on the government this is a an op-ed that was in
00:01:34.840 CBC that says monopoly capitalism is plundering Canadian newspapers it's actually about the competition
00:01:42.920 bureau that needs to step in and start breaking up some of these big chains part of this is of course
00:01:48.100 that Post Media the largest newspaper company in Canada just announced it's going to be doing several
00:01:53.400 staff cuts I don't want to understate it here it's actually quite a significant workforce reduction
00:01:59.040 after this company has already had to do this time and time again in recent years they're also going to be
00:02:04.360 selling off properties but the answer to this is that well monopoly capitalism is the problem not an old
00:02:10.620 business model yeah Andrew you can always count on the CBC whenever they discuss stories like the
00:02:15.940 failing local media right the fact that Canadians can no longer get accurate news about where they
00:02:21.660 live wherever it is in the country the answer the antidote to this problem is always more regulation
00:02:27.360 more government it's not just more funding from the government it's actually demanding that the
00:02:31.980 government steps in and engages with these companies and stops them from getting bigger or stops them
00:02:37.380 from monopolizing I think everyone can get behind that message but it is funny Andrew how it always
00:02:42.100 comes back to wanting more money from the taxpayer and wanting more government regulation like that's
00:02:47.920 the problem with Canadian media here the fact that we don't give enough of our money to journalists
00:02:53.100 it's it's laughable especially coming from the CBC yeah and when I mentioned the call for subsidy here I
00:02:58.960 should mention that Patricia Elliott's primary goal here is to break up the so-called monopolies but 1.00
00:03:05.620 the other side of this is that she's talking about the importance of Bill C-18 which is the bill that
00:03:11.120 forces the social media companies to subsidize news a government mandated subsidy she heralds the local
00:03:18.280 journalism initiative again another program where the government bankrolls individual reporters and she 0.88
00:03:24.340 says that yeah all of that's fine we need it but the media concentration problem is there so I think the
00:03:30.760 challenge is that they have a very narrow conception of what media is supposed to be and let's face it
00:03:36.720 you have independent media organizations like rebel like true north even like Canada land it's not
00:03:42.040 exclusively for media that has a more conservative editorial bent are growing it's the traditional
00:03:49.400 business model the legacy media that right now is in such dire straits so I think that the answer to
00:03:56.600 this is not going to come from some government bureaucrat stepping in it's going to come from
00:04:01.380 innovation and I don't know why no one who rings their hands about the state of media actually
00:04:07.020 entertains that discussion and even in this CBC article Andrew Elliott the author of this piece
00:04:13.120 talks about and I think she's a journalism professor she talks about how good independent journalism
00:04:18.580 is actually being done good local stories is they're being done and they're not being done by
00:04:24.140 these large corporate media giants like the national post post media uh toronto star all of these big
00:04:30.380 outlets that we know are failing so she admits that that is happening from independent small outlets
00:04:35.660 yet the yet the of course the the antidote is of is just having the government step in and force
00:04:40.960 social media giants to pay these smaller companies uh there's no recognition in this article of course as
00:04:47.140 you mentioned Andrew about the success of independent outlets like us at true north we rely on donors to
00:04:51.680 fund our journalism and that journalism is getting better and better we're breaking exclusive stories
00:04:55.920 it feels like all the time now like always Andrew the antidote from the CBC is more government more
00:05:02.640 regulation who could have guessed yeah I mean there is this weird impulse and sometimes people on the
00:05:08.540 right are all okay with going in and busting up so-called monopolies but I think the big challenge here
00:05:13.800 is that post media is not a monopoly there is actually a quite diverse media landscape in this country
00:05:20.180 and sure it's consolidated into a few different players but there's no barrier to entry apart from
00:05:26.640 capital of someone else saying we are going to start a newspaper chain we are going to buy off a title
00:05:31.760 and again taking aim at a monopoly or a so-called pseudo monopoly whatever they're calling post media
00:05:38.260 here doesn't actually make sense when that company is not being successful like so it's not like you're
00:05:44.540 going after standard oil which is just so giant it's raking in all the profits it's like it's not working
00:05:49.760 so right now I think that's proof that the problem is not monopoly capitalism so in any case we will move on
00:05:56.400 from there for now but let's talk about why media needs to innovate and we look no further of course than our old
00:06:03.140 friends at the CBC the paramount public broadcaster so significant so integral to our lives deserving of 1.4 billion
00:06:11.220 dollars a year in taxpayer money and without whom we would never know about the dietary habits of New York
00:06:17.340 vegans yes a fridge too far living sustainably in New York City by unplugging appliances a CBC
00:06:25.060 pickup of an Associated Press story about a Manhattan vegan named Josh Spodek who has decided to get rid of
00:06:34.040 his refrigerator in his Greenwich Village apartment and go packaging free and living virtually grid free
00:06:41.140 and all of this is well and good you may be wondering why is this of interest to Canadian
00:06:45.460 Canadian consumers and why should Canadian taxpayers have to pay for this and I still after reading this
00:06:51.800 do not know anything apart from how Josh Spodek decides to eat his vegetables 1.4 billion dollars Andrew it's
00:06:59.580 like the number keeps going up almost monthly last I swear almost last episode we were talking 1.2
00:07:05.220 but the reason CBC gets the money is because they have a mandate they have a mandate given to them by
00:07:10.540 parliament for this money and let me just read what that mandate says and then we can see how this story
00:07:15.520 about New York City sustainable living from one hipster in New York City matches up with this mandate the
00:07:21.600 mandate for the CBC the reason why they get 1.4 billion dollars from us is to inform enlighten and entertain
00:07:28.800 to contribute to the development of a shared national consciousness and identity to reflect the
00:07:34.880 regional and cultural diversity of Canada and to contribute to the development of Canadian talent
00:07:39.480 and culture this story has absolutely nothing to do with the CBC mandate and yet it just gets put
00:07:47.260 out there and it's like oh you know we're just we're just trying to reach our daily quota of articles
00:07:51.140 Andrew we're just going to talk about this New York City hipster without a fridge because that is
00:07:56.000 exactly what Canadians pay us to do it's it's it's hilarious really I mean I'm not even getting I'm
00:08:02.900 not even gonna get upset about this it's just funny at this point I pointed this out on Twitter a few
00:08:08.220 days ago and I was like you know why would we at all care about this was basically the subtext of
00:08:13.420 my tweet and a few people pointed out something that I had missed initially which is that keeping
00:08:18.140 up on all the latest trends in New York is probably tremendously relevant to the CEO of CBC
00:08:23.520 Catherine Tate who you may recall lives in New York she has a 5.4 million dollar home in Brooklyn
00:08:30.520 a little bit of a ways from Greenwich Village but not too far if you take the metro so perhaps the
00:08:36.040 New York City coverage is just to keep Catherine Tate happy over in the remote head office in New 1.00
00:08:42.000 York City there yeah that's great just a little bit of top-down editorial control by Catherine Tate
00:08:48.060 saying you know we're not we're not covering my local stories enough guys we're covering all of your
00:08:52.080 local stories what about my local journalism this is my local journalism initiative that's what
00:08:56.940 Catherine Tate is saying we need to get these hipsters in New York City more coverage for their 0.63
00:09:00.680 refrigerator-less sustainable living incredible you know and for those who wanted to know I guess
00:09:07.220 we have to do the story justice here and bring it to completion what appliances does he have if not
00:09:12.380 a fridge I know all Canadian news consumers care about this he cooks with an electric pressure
00:09:17.240 cooker occasionally a toaster oven but fear not he powers them with a portable solar panel and a
00:09:24.080 battery pack although he has to bring it up and down 11 flights of stairs to recharge it on the roof of
00:09:30.580 his building every day because the sun don't shine on whatever floor he's on so now you know this is
00:09:36.180 we can all go about our days there uh you know what we have kind of a good CBC theme going on here so
00:09:41.340 let's bring it back to Canada but keep the CBC commentary running here there was a bit of an
00:09:47.380 interesting exchange in the House of Commons foyer this morning when Pierre Polyevre the leader of the
00:09:54.300 Conservatives was commenting on the uh withdrawal by the Liberals of their amendment banning hunting and
00:10:01.380 uh farming rifles and shotguns and Pierre Polyevre was commenting on this and he had this rather unique
00:10:08.180 exchange with a CBC reporter I'll let it speak for itself
00:10:11.580 because we know his agenda he said it right here there are some guns yes that we're going to have to
00:10:21.260 take away from people who are using them to hunt
00:10:24.380 oh yes he'll he'll reintroduce this either in this parliament or he'll dream
00:10:31.260 that god forbid if he ever got a majority he would ram it through
00:10:34.980 that's why the only way law-abiding hunters and farmers will be able to protect their way of life
00:10:42.420 is to elect a conservative majority government led by Pierre Polyevre
00:10:46.580 good faith good faith you are definitely with the CBC you think that anything about
00:10:56.900 this process has been good faith so no like like me you gotta ask obviously you're from the CBC you're
00:11:03.860 trying to help them out of a bad situation but the reality is this he introduced he introduced this
00:11:09.220 amendment he and no it's it's CBC is trying to carry Trudeau's water again I'll give an answer to the
00:11:14.660 question he introduced this amendment with hundreds and hundreds of firearms owned by law-abiding lawful
00:11:23.700 licensed people he then attacked anyone who disagreed he tried to use fear and divide and conquer as he
00:11:30.980 always does and he reiterated his plan in December to ban hunting rifles the only reason Trudeau has put
00:11:38.340 his tail between his legs and pause this plan is because my team and I forced him to do it but if
00:11:46.100 he ever got the chance make no mistake he will ban hunting rifles and that the only way to prevent that
00:11:50.740 is with a conservative majority guy so Andrew it's good to see that we have some politicians now calling
00:11:55.460 out the CBC especially on the conservative benches because for a while they were just kind of going out
00:12:01.220 there uh berating conservatives clearly doing the government's bidding and never really getting
00:12:07.060 called out for it and it is really refreshing to hear Pierre Polyev take a CBC journalist to task
00:12:12.420 and he's right too the idea that this whole that any part of this process was conducted in good faith
00:12:18.180 by the government is it is an absurdity it's a joke there's no way that they can possibly claim that
00:12:23.860 unless of course you're on the take from the government unless of course you receive 1.4 billion dollars
00:12:29.140 from the government and the opposition are now saying they want to defund you that then would
00:12:34.020 make sense for the journalists like this to be talking this way but really it's an absurdity for
00:12:38.500 them to be saying that this was conducted in good faith and thankfully Pierre Polyev put this journalist
00:12:44.580 in his place yeah and I've long said that the politicians in Canada in general certainly
00:12:50.260 conservative politicians need to stop accepting the premises of bad questions and I literally said on my
00:12:56.500 show many months ago that Pierre Polyev should be available to the media but he should take a page
00:13:00.900 out of Ron DeSantis's book and actually flip the script and I'm not saying he was taking my advice
00:13:06.020 because I think he has a bit of that instinct on his own but I was glad he did that and brazenly
00:13:11.300 blatantly said yeah they're carrying water for the liberals right now well it's exactly what Pierre
00:13:15.060 Polyev I think needs to do as the year goes on as as we get closer to 2025 the journalists inside
00:13:22.500 the house of commons the parliamentary press bureau are going to continue to get sharper and sharper with
00:13:27.860 Polyev and until such time as conservatives have a leader that are going to that is going to actually
00:13:32.820 fight them on these issues then it's going to be it's going to be a bloodbath for conservatives the
00:13:37.940 journalists are never going to give them an inch they're certainly not going to treat them the way
00:13:41.540 they treat the liberals right now so it's good to see it it's good to see that the leader of the
00:13:46.900 opposition isn't isn't hiding away from the parliamentary press but instead is taking the fight right to
00:13:52.100 them it's uh it's a good thing to see yes very well said uh let us know what you think in the comments
00:13:58.260 make sure to subscribe and if you support the work that true north does not just on Fridays where we
00:14:03.620 let our well metaphorical hair down uh but throughout the week as well please do head on over to donate.tnc.news
00:14:11.140 I'm Andrew Lawton my thanks to Harrison Faulkner have a wonderful weekend everyone and we will see it next time
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