Welcome to our resource centre

Because some conglomerates' tentacles reach into several countries or continents, media ownership and domination has become a significant issue for those societies concerned about protecting democratic freedoms. For that reason, the resource materials presented here are international in scope.
We welcome your suggestions for additions to this compilation. If you are a pundit or an academic who would like to contribute to this resource material, we'd like to hear from you. Please visit Show & Tell to make a submission or send us a message.

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Canadian Media
Who's Whose

Reports & Studies

Bill Doskoch

Personal Blog

March 2, 2006

Looking back on the great downsizing of 1996
A former Regina Leader-Post staffer marks the 10th anniversary of Black Saturday, when Conrad Black turned his hatchet men loose on two of his recently acquired Saskatchewan dailies. Excerpt:

I rolled out of bed and, still half-asleep, stumbled into the kitchen to answer the phone, wondering what could possibly be so important as to require my attention on a Boxing Day morning.
"Hey Bill, it's Blevs," said my fellow reporter, Kevin Blevins. "I thought you'd want to know: Conrad Black just bought our paper."
HolyJesusFuckingChrist!!! I was awake now! Caffeine should give such a jolt!
My first reaction? There would be carnage at the paper.

Alexis Muellner

Tampa Bay Business Journal

January 3, 2005

Journalists petition FCC to challenge Fox-13 license renewal
Two TV journalists have challenged the broadcast license renewal of WTVT Fox-13 asserting it deliberately broadcast false and distorted news reports. Reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson filed the petition Monday against the Tampa station, a unit of Rupert Murdoch's Fox Television conglomerate.
The 98-page petition to deny the station's pending license renewal presents the Federal Communications Commission with support for the claim that the licensee is not operating in the public interest and "lacks the good character to do so."

Donald Gutstein

Simon Fraser University

October 28, 2004

Who funds the Fraser Institute?
The Fraser Institute's 30th anniversary a good time to review its financing, influence
Aspiring reporters are taught in journalism school to "follow the money" when doing business or government stories. Who's financing the project? Who will benefit from the rezoning or tax break? Who will lose out?
This year the Fraser Institute celebrates its 30th anniversary.
A gala was held in Calgary two weeks ago attended by 1,200 well-fed libertarians, conservatives and reactionaries. Only two numbers were mentioned in the news coverage: 30 and 1,200. Missing in action was the more important number, 100 million: the dollars, more or less, that have been funnelled through the institute over the years.

Bill Carter

The New York Times

October 18, 2004

Risks Seen for TV Chain Showing Film About Kerry
Senator John Kerry could find his presidential hopes damaged this week when the 62 television stations owned or managed by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group carry a documentary about his antiwar activities 30 years ago.
But the Democratic nominee for the White House may not be the only one adversely affected.
Sinclair — the nation's largest owner of television stations, many of them in electoral swing states — is itself running a significant financial and political risk by telling its stations to pre-empt regular programming and carry the film. Already, Sinclair's decision has alienated some advertisers; enraged consumer and media watchdog groups, who are vowing to challenge its station licenses when they come up for renewal; and given pause to some analysts and investors considering the company's financial outlook.

Oct. 20 | The Guardian
TV chain sacks journalist who accused it of propaganda
Sinclair Broadcast Group, a conservative-owned chain of television stations which has provoked an uproar by its plans to broadcast incendiary allegations against John Kerry, has sacked its chief political correspondent for speaking out against the decision.

Truthout.org

October 8, 2004

Police shut down Indymedia websites
The FBI seizes British-based internet servers hosting the independent news network Indymedia, prompting accusations of intimidation. Truthout.org tracks the story and posts updates.

International Federation of Journalists condemns police actions.

FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) spreads an Action Alert.

Oct. 12: Truthout interviews Indymedia's legal consultant, Devin Theriot-Orr
Quicktime | Windows Media

Dorothy Woodend

The Tyee.ca

September 24, 2004

Fox Hunting and Bush Whacking
Political documentaries are influencing public debate as never before, with a little help from the 'net.
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism is a new documentary from Robert Greenwald (the director of Uncovered: The War on Iraq). It's a meticulous dissection of the Fox News network, its politics, methods and overall ambitions, which seem to be not only to spread disinformation but also to keep its audience in a state of perpetual fear and hostility towards just about anyone who isn't white, heterosexual and Republican.
If mainstream media won't address the big issues, documentarians and filmmakers have leapt in with both feet to kick some ass ... Fahrenheit 9/11 may have made the opening charge, but plenty of other films are coming swiftly behind Michael Moore's juggernaut. These include The Hunting of the President, Control Room, Orwell Rolls in His Grave, Hijacking Catastrophe, Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry, The Yes Men, Bush's Brain, and This Ain't No Heartland.

Mazen Chouaib

Executive director, National Council on Canada-Arab Relations

September 23, 2004

CanWest's 'terrorist' policy demonizes Arab-Canadians
When the late Israel Asper's CanWest Global Communications acquired a significant share of the Canadian media, many of us feared the worst — particularly on the issue of Middle East coverage. In the past week, CanWest's editorial practices have shown we were right to worry.
Recent news reports have highlighted CanWest publications' use of emotive qualifiers in wire news stories pertaining to Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Editors at the National Post and The Ottawa Citizen have been instructed to change the word "militant" to "terrorist" in Reuters copy. This editing standard, however, is generally not being used when referring to other conflict areas.

Globe and Mail

September 15, 2004

Adbusters suing networks for not airing its TV spots
Adbusters, the Vancouver-based alternative media organization, is suing Canada's major television networks for refusing to broadcast advertisements that criticize consumerism.

Antonia Zerbisias

The Toronto Star

August 31, 2004

Fruits of the CHUM deal should land in public's lap
Despite all the stock market hype and business-press hoopla, there really wasn't much good news in all the media mergers that marked the last decade.
Whether we're talking south of the border with the series of takeovers that created AOL Time Warner, or north of the 49th when CanWest Global swallowed both the Southam newspaper chain and WIC Western International Communications, the net result has been, in general, a net loss of journalistic jobs and a diminished diversity of voices in the mainstream media.
The public interest has rarely, if ever, benefited, even as the public airwaves have rendered rich returns to those who exploit them.
Next week in Ottawa, when Toronto's CHUM Ltd. seeks to get the federal broadcast regulator's rubber stamp on its $265 million takeover of Alberta-based Craig Media Inc., there's a chance, perhaps the last significant chance, for some real public good to come out of the deal.

Shannon Reichley

Creative Loafing Charlotte

August 18, 2004

Black Monday
Layoffs gut News 14 Carolina
The rumors had been flying at News 14 Carolina, and many of the employees I'd spoken with in the last few days feared the worst. Monday, it happened. In an afternoon staff meeting, Time Warner Cable managers told newsroom staff that of the 90 employees, only 26 were still employed, and the rest were let go. Charlotte's local cable news operation, owned by Time Warner Cable, is effectively being gutted, and a skeleton crew of reporters, videographers, weather personnel, and news director Jim Newman, will stay aboard.

Jack Shafer

Slate

August 18, 2004

Ghost Readers
Is everybody in the newspaper business inflating circulation?
Publishers love to brag about their drinking and lie about their circulation, says the old newspaper industry cliché. I don't know how much the publishers of Hollinger's Chicago Sun-Times, Belo's Dallas Morning News, or the Tribune's Newsday and Spanish-language daily Hoy have been drinking, but the cooked circulation numbers they passed off to the Audit Bureau of Circulations should produce numerous candidates for admission into the Liars' Hall of Fame.

Ad Dix

The Tyee.ca

July 12, 2004

New VI Massacre All Too Familiar
Sihota, Spector and a lot of other local content just got killed by CHUM in Victoria. It's the pattern in Canada, where promises melt into U.S.-made schlock.
It is the dance of broadcasting in Canada. A corporation makes promises to get a broadcasting license. The CRTC awards the lucrative license. The broadcaster breaks its promises to present a healthy amount of local and Canadian programming. The CRTC nevertheless renews the license.

Ted Turner

Washington Monthly

July/August 2004

My Beef with Big Media
How government protects big media — and shuts out upstarts like me.

Pete Schulberg

Portland Tribune

June 29, 2004

No fans of media mergers in sight
If you want a good example of how media conglomerates mutating into even bigger media conglomerates can affect a community, look no farther than Portland.

Danny Schechter

Dissector,
MediaChannel.org

June 26, 2004

With Michael Moore, The Multiplex Goes Political
With new film, Moore turns the American cineplex into a political organizing tool. Meanwhile, Fahrenheit's critics align their forces for a counter attack.

Bill Carter

The New York Times

June 25, 2004

Ruling on Media Only Irritates Big Owners
Frustration was the dominant emotion among media company executives yesterday as they digested a federal appeals court ruling that largely reversed the Federal Communications Commission's efforts to loosen limits on media ownership.
Although no big media company will be forced immediately to divest itself of television or radio stations because of the ruling, they will be stymied for some time in trying to take advantage of the relaxed F.C.C. rules.
Last year, as part of a contentious package of deregulatory measures, the F.C.C. rolled back restrictions on media companies' owning both newspapers and television stations in a single market as well as on the number of local television and radio stations they can own in the same market.

Antonia Zerbisias

Toronto Star

June 6, 2004

Campaign silent on media issues
Maybe the folks at CanWest Global were hedging their bets last Thursday when they lent Conservative leader Stephen Harper their helicopter to avoid the GTA traffic on his way to a campaign stop in Hamilton.
After all, during the last federal election, the late Izzy Asper, owner of CanWest, personally penned a 1,132-word endorsement of the Chrétien Liberals, and poured at least $100,000 into the party's coffers and Paul Martin's leadership campaign.

AdAge.com

April 5, 2004

New Online Advertising Model Riles Journalists [Subscription]
IntelliTXT Links Commercial Messages to Individual Words of Editorial Content
CINCINNATI — Backers of a new model hope to tap one of the last ad-free frontiers of the Internet – the text of articles and message boards – in what they bill as the ultimate contextual advertising play.
But the IntelliTXT system, which rolls out today, is drawing the ire of journalists and others who say it not only blurs the line between advertising and editorial, it erases it.

Russell Mills

Former publisher
Ottawa Citizen

March 6, 2004

Advocating limits on media ownership
In this speech to a conference at Carleton University, the man who was fired by the Aspers for taking an editorial position they opposed, argues that government should put limits on media ownership: "... owners have the constitutional right to control content. Because they have this right, however, there is a public interest in limiting how much of the news media large companies should be permitted to own."

Antonia Zerbisias

Media critic,
Toronto Star

March 28, 2004

Watering down the news you get
If you want to see newspaper publishers cry, ask them about so-called "younger" readers.
They're panicking over how, in the midst of overall circulation declines, attracting and keeping any readers under the age of 65 is tough. One U.S.-based expert recently predicted that, at the rate readership is dying, we toner-stained wretches will all be out of jobs by the mid-century.

Arthur Lewis

Executive Director,
Our Public Airwaves

February 2004

Pressing the issue
There’s a new American Revolution under way, but hardly anyone knows. Ironically, that’s what the insurrection is all about – the selective suppression of news by an increasingly concentrated media.

Mark Glaser

Online Journalism Review

Oct. 30, 2003

CanWest Takes Tiered Approach to Pay Content at Canada.com
Canadian media powerhouse will offer the most content online to print newspaper subscribers, with plans for a paid digital edition and multimedia service. But by giving up local exclusivity, one expert questions whether they can break the "Albuquerque Journal Rule" and get away with it.

Herschel Hardin

NDP candidate,
Vancouver South-Burnaby

November 2000

The big taboo
It's the issue the other parties dare not talk about! It's the media, silly – the growing concentration of mass-media ownership in just a few hands, almost all of the same narrow political stripe.
Conrad Black's gobbling up of newspapers in Canada, and moulding them to his own ideological bias, was bad enough – more extreme concentration than anywhere else in the western world. Now Black has sold most of his major dailies here to Izzy Asper and his company CanWest, the owner of BCTV, CHEK and the Global television network. This takes concentration to an even more destructive level: massive "cross-ownership." BCE, meanwhile, has bought the CTV television network and the Globe and Mail.
In the end it's these media owners who have the power, not the Liberals or any other political party. The media "set the frame" – the perspective through which issues are examined and the news is filtered – and this influences in turn how people vote and what political parties say, or don't say, as they try to be elected.