The point was never about making the industry better......it was about Trudeau's gang of miscreants stopping the sharing of negative stories......it is about information control.....it is about a dictatorial cabal holding on with its fingernails.
Would that there were a ten-lash penalty for the blend of arrogance, incompetence and intellectual complacency which gave rise to this legislation. Who wouldn't take grim satisfaction in seeing the normally invulnerable lobbyists and bureaucrats who conceived and helped push it over the finish line tied to the mast and receiving their richly deserved punishment?
Canada's mainstream media wouldn't cover the event, of course, but the video would go viral.
I think that it speaks volumes that here we are on Substack; politely commenting on articles, when we could be lowering our IQ’s watching the MSM news. No amount of money will save the MSM. Whether the MSM lies to us with malice or they are just wrong, they remind me of a Nietzsche quote: I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.
As predicted in the article, the PM and his supporters are taking a victory lap. Count among those supporters CBC and CTV, as I read their reports about the agreement. Comments in CBC's heavily moderated forum are also largely congratulatory, though the thirteen 'Content deactivated' notices I scrolled past before I stopped bothering suggest the surviving comments may not constitute a representative sampling of public opinion. I'd hoped to submit a comment myself; but the opportunity to comment had already "closed" mere hours after the report was published, which is fairly typical for CBC, a reluctant host to guests who imagine real input into The Narrative is wanted.
As exercises in dishonest spin, both the government's and these mainstream outlets' 'reports' are all too representative, making me wonder again how much of value we'd actually be missing if Google joined Meta in pulling the plug on 'Canadian content' that takes this form. None of the issues and concerns raised in Mr. Menzis' article were thought worth mentioning by CTV or CBC. And how can you respect a Prime Minister who pretends the burning issue is "journalists getting paid for their work?" No one on the planet contests the proposition that journalists should be paid for their work. The real head-scratcher remains why a journalist who's on, say, the Toronto Star's or The Globe and Mail's payroll (or the CBC's) should be paid anything at all by Google.
The fact that the government has 'won' an agreement doesn't imply there's a satisfactory answer to that question. Google execs have apparently decided it's worth paying what amounts to loose change for them to get people with an overly developed sense of self-entitlement off their backs.
Honestly, I would’ve been fine if they countered Meta’s action by just blocking Facebook from Canada entirely. That flaming trash bag of a site has outlived its utility.
I don't understand why Bell, Rogers should get any of this Google loot. I thought that part of the deal to have a government protected oligopoly was that they provide Canadian content -- such as news!!! I also don't understand why a taxpayer funded CBC would get any of the fund either. Hell, I don't understand why Google bothered giving any money. None of this makes any sense to me. But not much the governments have done this entire decade makes sense to me...
I still don't understand how the liberals have been so blind to the ripple effects of this that they don't have the strength or fortitude to change course. IF we had leadership in Ottawa, then a leader would go "oh, this really didn't go as planned, and we passed another bad piece of legislation - maybe we should repeal it." But of course Trudeau et al can't get over their egos enough to see the effects of their bad legislation. It's rather sad actually.
This was an important policy file at an important juncture to drop the ball on. Too important.
So, we are where we are. Traditional models for investigative and local journalism -- which are cost intensive and hard to do at a distance -- are breaking or broken.
I am not worried about the end of the business model that supports Postmedia or Torstar, particularly as they've already vacated a lot of important coverage. I am worried that we don't yet have a sustainable replacement for the kind of coverage that really drives accountability and civic engagement. We're creating a media environment with endless opinion (because opinion is inexpensive to produce) but less and less reliable reporting, which is not great for civil society.
I would sincerely request The Line to follow and report on this topic and all future developments in great detail. This is the only place where we get perspectives that we know are unbiased - especially on this topic.
So sad. So true. The zealots have once again demonstrated a total lack of reality as to either the news business or how the platforms function. Canadian news consumers and news producers are the big losers.
The funniest thing is now seeing Trudeau and inept ministers taking a photo op and a victory lap at this total failure. Another nail in the coffin. God help free journalism.
This legislation is a mess, and the industry is a mess. Money isn't going to fix the mess though. Technology is causing upheaval and it's changing the model. napster/spotify/siriusxm did it to the music industry. Uber did it to the taxi industry, Airbnb put the hotels on notice. A billion dollars doesn't save the industry, just lets it fight a little longer. This isn't the END of an industry, it's the birth of a new model.
But that's not the government's interest here. They want an industry beholden to them. So they're meting out the crumbs knowing that it won't "fix" the industry's woes, it will just stretch out the pain a little and make sure that for their last, miserable years, they won't go too hard at the PM, because his is the only hand continuing to feed them.
The point was never about making the industry better......it was about Trudeau's gang of miscreants stopping the sharing of negative stories......it is about information control.....it is about a dictatorial cabal holding on with its fingernails.
Would that there were a ten-lash penalty for the blend of arrogance, incompetence and intellectual complacency which gave rise to this legislation. Who wouldn't take grim satisfaction in seeing the normally invulnerable lobbyists and bureaucrats who conceived and helped push it over the finish line tied to the mast and receiving their richly deserved punishment?
Canada's mainstream media wouldn't cover the event, of course, but the video would go viral.
I think that it speaks volumes that here we are on Substack; politely commenting on articles, when we could be lowering our IQ’s watching the MSM news. No amount of money will save the MSM. Whether the MSM lies to us with malice or they are just wrong, they remind me of a Nietzsche quote: I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.
As predicted in the article, the PM and his supporters are taking a victory lap. Count among those supporters CBC and CTV, as I read their reports about the agreement. Comments in CBC's heavily moderated forum are also largely congratulatory, though the thirteen 'Content deactivated' notices I scrolled past before I stopped bothering suggest the surviving comments may not constitute a representative sampling of public opinion. I'd hoped to submit a comment myself; but the opportunity to comment had already "closed" mere hours after the report was published, which is fairly typical for CBC, a reluctant host to guests who imagine real input into The Narrative is wanted.
As exercises in dishonest spin, both the government's and these mainstream outlets' 'reports' are all too representative, making me wonder again how much of value we'd actually be missing if Google joined Meta in pulling the plug on 'Canadian content' that takes this form. None of the issues and concerns raised in Mr. Menzis' article were thought worth mentioning by CTV or CBC. And how can you respect a Prime Minister who pretends the burning issue is "journalists getting paid for their work?" No one on the planet contests the proposition that journalists should be paid for their work. The real head-scratcher remains why a journalist who's on, say, the Toronto Star's or The Globe and Mail's payroll (or the CBC's) should be paid anything at all by Google.
The fact that the government has 'won' an agreement doesn't imply there's a satisfactory answer to that question. Google execs have apparently decided it's worth paying what amounts to loose change for them to get people with an overly developed sense of self-entitlement off their backs.
Honestly, I would’ve been fine if they countered Meta’s action by just blocking Facebook from Canada entirely. That flaming trash bag of a site has outlived its utility.
Buddy nailed it.
We somehow just have to "get the message out there" before Pascal starts doing more victory laps!
That opening paragraph was letter-perfect.
But, you obviously took the time to "make it perfect" ... so, you already know. :)
I don't understand why Bell, Rogers should get any of this Google loot. I thought that part of the deal to have a government protected oligopoly was that they provide Canadian content -- such as news!!! I also don't understand why a taxpayer funded CBC would get any of the fund either. Hell, I don't understand why Google bothered giving any money. None of this makes any sense to me. But not much the governments have done this entire decade makes sense to me...
I still don't understand how the liberals have been so blind to the ripple effects of this that they don't have the strength or fortitude to change course. IF we had leadership in Ottawa, then a leader would go "oh, this really didn't go as planned, and we passed another bad piece of legislation - maybe we should repeal it." But of course Trudeau et al can't get over their egos enough to see the effects of their bad legislation. It's rather sad actually.
CBC today (PnP) " Can this clear up the mess created by Pablo Rodriguez?"
You go CBC!!!!!
This was an important policy file at an important juncture to drop the ball on. Too important.
So, we are where we are. Traditional models for investigative and local journalism -- which are cost intensive and hard to do at a distance -- are breaking or broken.
I am not worried about the end of the business model that supports Postmedia or Torstar, particularly as they've already vacated a lot of important coverage. I am worried that we don't yet have a sustainable replacement for the kind of coverage that really drives accountability and civic engagement. We're creating a media environment with endless opinion (because opinion is inexpensive to produce) but less and less reliable reporting, which is not great for civil society.
I would sincerely request The Line to follow and report on this topic and all future developments in great detail. This is the only place where we get perspectives that we know are unbiased - especially on this topic.
So sad. So true. The zealots have once again demonstrated a total lack of reality as to either the news business or how the platforms function. Canadian news consumers and news producers are the big losers.
The funniest thing is now seeing Trudeau and inept ministers taking a photo op and a victory lap at this total failure. Another nail in the coffin. God help free journalism.
This legislation is a mess, and the industry is a mess. Money isn't going to fix the mess though. Technology is causing upheaval and it's changing the model. napster/spotify/siriusxm did it to the music industry. Uber did it to the taxi industry, Airbnb put the hotels on notice. A billion dollars doesn't save the industry, just lets it fight a little longer. This isn't the END of an industry, it's the birth of a new model.
But that's not the government's interest here. They want an industry beholden to them. So they're meting out the crumbs knowing that it won't "fix" the industry's woes, it will just stretch out the pain a little and make sure that for their last, miserable years, they won't go too hard at the PM, because his is the only hand continuing to feed them.