The campaign and election of President Donald Trump has
exposed the constant bias of the Liberal media. Unfortunately for the media,
technology has now created a means of a quick response to their opinions.
Social media has become the favorite outlet for the President as he ignores the
main stream media. As a result we may see new laws to revive a dying form of
information as advertising dollars dwindle. The danger lurks in government
interference in the media market.
In 2001, Mount Royal Professor David Taras published a book,
in which he argued that the Canadian media was in the midst of a cataclysmic
change. At the time his premise was that there was conservative media
concentration. Today this is far from the truth as most media is under Liberal
and progressive ownership or management. The media over the past sixteen years
has seen a shift from investigative reporters to opinion columnists. More often
than not printed and broadcasted news is delivered through liberal rose-
colored lenses, destined to vilify any conservative point of view.
The use of a completely bias lexicon creates an antagonistic
environment. The left constantly use words like: Islamophopia, racism, bigotry,
xenophobia, homophobia and other epithets to describe any event that does not
fit into their progressive beliefs. Conservative leaders are vilified and are
often called authoritarian and even tyrants, but progressive leaders on the
other hand are always called intellectuals and compassionate. Compare these two
statements by MSNBC’s Dave Mathews on Trump’s and Obama’s inaugural speeches:
For Obama he said that ‘I felt this thrill going up my leg’; for Trump he said it
was ‘Hitlerian’ instead of ‘Jacksonian’. These nuances in the media create a
constant rift among conservatives and progressives. Political correctness
smothers debate and has created an environment where people are afraid to
express their opinions for fear of being attacked for their views. Freedom of
speech seemingly only belongs to the left.
Acts of terrorism by Islamist Jihadists are very seldom
initially reported as acts of terrorism. Instead a description of ‘mentally
disturbed persons’, ‘self-radicalized’ or lone wolf’ is used to report these
attacks. However the Quebec attack on a Mosque was immediately reported and
acknowledged in Parliament by the PM as an act of ‘terror’. It seems that the
media and politicians have a different standard for reporting similar events.
The narrative of the mass media is definitely more
progressive. Too often the media fawns over pronouncements made by Hollywood
types about serious issues of which these sycophants have no experience or
understanding. As long as the point of view is progressive the media will
publish and cover it as news. The backlash against this growing trend of
adulterated news is the unfortunate rise of fake news on the web. Too often
fake news, by both right and left, has been taken as real news and has created
many distorted view points and reaction.
There is a growing lack of credibility in the main stream
media, so much so that an increasing majority are now consumers of news through
social media. As a result mass media outlets are losing advertising dollars and
are accumulating debt. Problem is that publishers and some Canadian
broadcasters are seeking government intervention; which unfortunately seems to
be supported by the Canadian Liberal government of Justin Trudeau who
commissioned a new report by Public Policy Forum.
The report recommends among other things that the government
change tax laws to favour Canadian news publishers and use the new revenues
($300m/$400m) to create a publicly subsidized journalism fund. As if public
funded media like the CBC is not controversial enough in its overt support for
the Liberal government, now we may have government funding the media which is already progressive in nature.
Furthermore, there are politicians who want to legislate
free speech. Liberal MP Iqra Khalid introduced a motion against ‘Islamophobia’.
With the Trump’s decision to put a temporary ban on immigration from 7 Muslim
countries which draws protest by the
left, and the shooting at a Quebec Mosque, this motion is sure to pass. But
make no mistake this motion is an attempt to silence rational criticism of
political and radical Islam. Despite attacks on other religions there has never
been legislation similar to M-103.Why now?
Most Canadians do not take notice of Government legislation
unless reported and debated widely in the media. Interference in the media
advertising market and legislation to manage freedom of speech is in my view a
very dangerous slope. Intentions that may seem to be insignificant at first
could later morph into more drastic legislation that could result in Orwell’s Nineteen
Eighty-Four prediction of a socialist regime of new mass media abuses.
