Juno News - Get ready for government ＂approved＂ media outlets

00:00:00.000 He who pays the piper calls the tune.

00:00:04.240 That's perhaps one of the most accurate and effective ways of summing up the problems

00:00:08.720 with governments subsidizing various industries.

00:00:11.440 It's especially concerning when we're talking about the media.

00:00:15.280 But yes, between the $600 million government bailout that Justin Trudeau is giving to the

00:00:20.720 journalism industry and a tax credit program that lets Canadians write off digital news subscriptions,

00:00:27.680 the federal government is basically making itself the benefactor of the press.

00:00:32.640 And we are now faced with one of the most predictable and dangerous consequences of that.

00:00:38.080 The federal government has revealed that it will be putting together a list of qualifying

00:00:43.600 journalism outlets as far as who can be eligible for this tax credit fund that lets Canadians

00:00:49.120 write off subscriptions. But the problem is that now the government has to come up with a list

00:00:54.080 directed by cabinet which is a partisan entity to determine which journalism outlets are effectively

00:01:00.480 real outlets. Here was how Blacklock's reporter described it when it broke the story.

00:01:06.560 Federal agencies will publish an A-list of newspapers and websites deemed reliable

00:01:11.760 under a multi-million dollar subsidy program. Now quoted in this story and also in a story in the

00:01:18.480 post-millennial is a spokesperson for Finance Canada who says the rules allow for publication

00:01:26.160 of a list of qualifying journalism organizations. It would allow for the Canada Revenue Agency to have

00:01:32.080 a list saying here are the organizations that qualify for the digital tax credits. And you could

00:01:38.560 go to that list and determine these are the media outlets that government decides are reliable,

00:01:43.840 effective or qualified. But the problem with this is that it means that government is faced with making

00:01:49.440 a judgment call about which is real news and which is fake news. Who is on the right side of them and

00:01:55.600 who is on the wrong side of them. And this means that for media outlets they're no longer accountable

00:02:01.680 simply to their readers or even to their subscribers and advertisers but they now have to balance this

00:02:07.600 with their new sugar daddy, the government. And they have to all of a sudden find out

00:02:12.720 what their content restrictions are if any. And of course the government's going to say that

00:02:17.040 the media will always remain independent. But let's take a look at the Globe and Mail. Justin Trudeau

00:02:22.320 after that infamous bombshell story about Jody Wilson-Raybould came out said that the story was not

00:02:27.760 accurate. Karina Gould, the democratic institutions minister, has spoken about taking aim at fake news and

00:02:34.000 regulating anyone that doesn't comply with the government's position on fake news. Even as a daily example,

00:02:41.440 journalism outlets are oftentimes issuing corrections for mistakes they've made small or large.

00:02:47.040 CBC issued one about Air Canada's exploration of purchasing Air Transat. Originally CBC said Air

00:02:53.920 Canada was going to purchase Air Transat then an hour later corrected it to say they were just in talks to.

00:02:58.720 Does that mean CBC is no longer reliable? Are their government funds going to be taken away

00:03:04.240 because of that? What about advocacy journalism outlets? People like True North say or on the left side

00:03:10.320 the National Observer or Rabble or Rebel. Are these going to be deemed reliable? No. Why? Why not?

00:03:18.320 The government will now have to decide who it supports having a voice in journalism and who it doesn't.

00:03:24.240 And before you say that it's not about censorship, I agree the government is not taking away anyone's voice.

00:03:29.600 But if a Canadian consumer is wanting to subscribe to a media platform and the government says these are

00:03:34.960 the ones we recognize, they're going to form a judgment call as a consumer and say,

00:03:39.200 oh well I guess this one is real and this one isn't. Or they'll simply make it as an economic decision.

00:03:44.880 If the government will give me a tax break for signing up for this outlet but not this one,

00:03:48.960 I'm going to go with the one where I get a bit of my money back.

00:03:51.600 So now government is picking winners and losers and it's impossible for this to not have editorial oversight.

00:03:57.440 What happens if a column is written that the government doesn't like? Does that threaten an

00:04:01.600 outlet's reliability? Now the backdrop of this is that in just two months time Canada will be co-hosting

00:04:08.240 a press freedom summit in the United Kingdom which I'm planning to cover and True North is actually

00:04:13.600 crowdfunding it because we don't get a government subsidy and I need your help to get there.

00:04:18.080 There's a link in the description box where you can donate a few dollars or a few hundred dollars to

00:04:22.640 help this cause. We're almost at our goal. But the point of this is that Canada will be teaming

00:04:27.200 up with the United Kingdom which will one week before the conference be prosecuting Tommy Robinson

00:04:32.800 to say that these two countries have something to offer the world insofar as press freedom is

00:04:37.600 concerned. That Canada and the UK can export their mentality of a free speech and a free press approach

00:04:43.840 to other countries. And the whole point of this idea of a government approved list of journalism

00:04:49.440 outlets and list of journalists proves that Canada is in the game of not allowing free speech and

00:04:55.040 allowing consumers and readers to make up their own minds, but effectively telling Canadians these

00:05:00.320 are the real ones and these are not. And when the government makes that call we're in dangerous

00:05:05.360 territory. For True North, I'm Andrew Lawton.

Juno News - May 18, 2019

Get ready for government ＂approved＂ media outlets

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