By arthur Weinreb
Tuesday, May 3, 2005The Canadian Senate’s Transportation and Communications Committee is studying the issue of media concentration in Canada. again. Senator Jim Munson complained about the fact that all three main dailies in New Brunswick, as well as many weeklies are owned by the Irving family. as a result, there is a lack of diversity of ideas and opinion in that province’s newspapers. Munson thinks that some type of control; a press council with teeth or an Ombudsman is in order to remedy the situation.
Munson does have a point. The monopolistic ownership of large dailies does inevitably result in a lack of diversity, especially in the area of editorial comment and opinion. But being a good Liberal as Jim Munson is, he didn’t stop there.
Munson then began to purport to tell the Irvings what they should be writing about. He was quoted as saying, "Why not a few French articles? Why not a French editorial in the English language newspapers or vice versa. To me, only can New Brunswickers be served better". So the senator goes from making the observation that there is a virtual monopoly in the English language press to wanting to dictate what the Irvings should be putting in their newspapers. Munson’s government would of course like nothing better than to be able to control the media. So much for freedom of the press.
Munson was also quoted as saying, and here we come to the real issue, that the CBC has been cut too much and the network is important in New Brunswick because they are an alternative source of news to the Irving newspapers. Munson is now comparing apples to oranges. although some strange things go on down there in NB, the CBC is not an English language daily. The CBC is not the only "alternative" media to the Irving newspapers. If the CBC can be put into the equation, the other networks, CTV and Global should be put in as well. and if national networks are included, then so must national newspapers; the Globe and Mail and the National Post are also available in New Brunswick. and let’s not forget the Internet.
The CBC is apparently the answer to everything. Munson and his fellow senators might better spend their time discussing the lack of balance in the taxpayer funded network than dictating to the Irvings that they should put French articles in their newspapers.