in canada there is a media conglomerate called canwest global which consists of one of the nations two daily newspapers, tens of other local papers across canada via their acquisition of the southam newspaper chain, the arguable top-rated television network, and various other holdings both international and domestic in nature.
cwg is controlled by the asper family. the asper's built their largely ontario based network into a nationwide entity which delivers an inordinate amount of american programming across the nation-basically if you've seen NBC's lineup over the last ten years, you've seen globals-minus ER. cwg has drawn criticism for other misgivings however, most notable of which is the recent decision that all editorials to be printed in papers across canada go through the winnipeg office of the asper family first. this is an almost unheard of process in the paper industry and the asper's have persisted in spite of signifcant criticism.
izzy asper, the father of the family, is a very powerful man and is known to be good friends with the prime minister jean chretien.
given all of this, what is one left to believe when the editor of southam's ottawa paper(which is the nations capital) is relieved of his duties following his Sunday publishing of an un-asper-edited column calling for pm jean chretien?s retirement in the wake of recent, and soundly backed, allegations of frequent favoritism and unethical behavior by members of his own cabinet?
it would appear that asper saw the editorial, perhaps in the paper itself, and fired the editor russ mills promptly. comparatively, similar editorials ran in other papers(outside of the capital) which also were published without prior knowledge of the aspers.
mr asper, in an apparently feeble attempt to quell criticism of his pal, has only thrown fuel on the fire as canadian journalism has been undermined by corporate bigwigs linked to our leader. through all of the recent allegations of ethics infractions on the part of the chretien government I have resisted the desire to have him removed based on his own actions(i would not have been perturbed if he was replaced by another member of his party, say paul martin for example). however today i am of the mind that the liberal party should be forced into calling a general election, rather than simply selecting a new leader. mr chretien and his party should be put through the ringer.
today i am a disappointed canadian because one of the values that i hold to be of the utmost importance, freedom of the press, has been trampled by my own government.
cwg is controlled by the asper family. the asper's built their largely ontario based network into a nationwide entity which delivers an inordinate amount of american programming across the nation-basically if you've seen NBC's lineup over the last ten years, you've seen globals-minus ER. cwg has drawn criticism for other misgivings however, most notable of which is the recent decision that all editorials to be printed in papers across canada go through the winnipeg office of the asper family first. this is an almost unheard of process in the paper industry and the asper's have persisted in spite of signifcant criticism.
izzy asper, the father of the family, is a very powerful man and is known to be good friends with the prime minister jean chretien.
given all of this, what is one left to believe when the editor of southam's ottawa paper(which is the nations capital) is relieved of his duties following his Sunday publishing of an un-asper-edited column calling for pm jean chretien?s retirement in the wake of recent, and soundly backed, allegations of frequent favoritism and unethical behavior by members of his own cabinet?
it would appear that asper saw the editorial, perhaps in the paper itself, and fired the editor russ mills promptly. comparatively, similar editorials ran in other papers(outside of the capital) which also were published without prior knowledge of the aspers.
mr asper, in an apparently feeble attempt to quell criticism of his pal, has only thrown fuel on the fire as canadian journalism has been undermined by corporate bigwigs linked to our leader. through all of the recent allegations of ethics infractions on the part of the chretien government I have resisted the desire to have him removed based on his own actions(i would not have been perturbed if he was replaced by another member of his party, say paul martin for example). however today i am of the mind that the liberal party should be forced into calling a general election, rather than simply selecting a new leader. mr chretien and his party should be put through the ringer.
today i am a disappointed canadian because one of the values that i hold to be of the utmost importance, freedom of the press, has been trampled by my own government.
