Why the Canadian Media Sucks
something that has been bothered me for the last little while has been the limited oligarchy of canadian media. the west coast especially has been hard hit by the monopolization of one single media source that has crowded out the decent competition of media sources in bc.

canwest, quebecor and CP basically own the entire canadian media outlets. these three media moguls are the only sources of information in canada according to any google.ca search.

alternative media like the georgia strait or Westender etc simply do not have the resources to offer any real competition. that, and 90% of the content is editorial....and in the georgia strait's case, very poor political content. their assertion that the government was attempting to put them out of business because they were audited is ridiculous. i can't say too much because of confidentiality, etc, but i know for a fact this is a lie.

a blatant lie...but i'm off topic here.

the main thing is that the US and britain have a huge variety of sources. britain especially has the best variety of well written, sensationalist, crass, political, tabloid papers on earth. the guardian, telegraph, independent, sun, mirror....multiple editions in a day, any one viewpoint represented, any city with a printing press has a paper and they all argue.

this is a good system. what the hell does canada have for competition on the west coast? two papers,the sun and province. each of these as inconsequential as anything. the last time the sun won an award for national excellence was ....i can't remeber. the province is simply a police report in bold print.

vaughn palmer and gordon gibson are the only worthwhile commentators and they say little....gibson barely registers out here because he is infrequent. the rest of the reporters (hume, et al) are basically leftist hacks who don't get any play in the eastern establishment and they're resentment shows.

we need to shake the system on the westcoast. we have a growing community here, that is expanding exponentially and will only grow in relative economic relevance when compared to the rest of the country. important decisions need to be made and intelligent, well informed media is needed. not the crap the sun cranks out. why can't they put together one coherent message or editorial on the basi affair? or at least give it a name? can they even come up with a scoop outside what the police tell them? no analysis, no digging, no scoops. nothing.

and no one to criticize their efforts in the national media, either. that is not good. we need real competition out here. we're dying.