HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2019-07-11, Page 5Other Views
Telling it like it is in the megacorp era
A happy tale has a sad ending Shawn
Loughlin
Shawn’s Sense
In recent weeks, the provincial government
has faced some difficult criticisms thanks
to some less-than-justified appointments
coming to light.
It turns out that staff under Premier Doug
Ford (and possibly Ford himself, though that
remains to be seen) have been treating friends
and family members to some choice positions
within the province’s bureaucratic branches.
Ford said his government would review all
pending appointments after those two were
discovered, however, as his political
opponents have pointed out, that’s not enough.
The NDP, for example, are asking for an
external review of other appointees – that
request was denied by Ford.
That means that it’s on journalists (and real
journalists, not that Ontario News Now
nonsense) to dig into the appointments and
find the connections to current elected officials
or senior staff, to clean out the bureaucratic
appointments that should not have been made
in the first place.
Unfortunately, journalistic work like that is
getting more and more difficult in this world
where news agencies, which should hold no
bias, are owned and run by decidedly left- or
right-leaning organizations.
While the left-leaning organizations would
likely be happy to see Ford further disgraced
with more nepotistic hires being proven, right-
leaning organizations are just as likely to bury
stories, or even fire their authors.
It’s all part of a system that encourages
controlled narratives instead of absolute truth.
I’m fortunate, however, as I work for North
Huron Publishing, an independent
organization, the organization that publishes
The Citizen.
Think I’m being alarmist? Look at the tale
of editorial cartoonist Michael de Adder, a
veteran of the print industry who was let go
from a long-standing gig with Brunswick
News Inc (BNI) when a cartoon he personally
posted online depicted Commander-in-Tweet
Donald Trump in a less-than-glamorous light.
The cartoon depicts Trump asking two corpses
(inspired by a photo of a father and daughter
who died trying to cross the border into the
United States) if he can “play through” and
continue his golf game.
BNI claims the move had nothing to do with
the online cartoon, which, in my opinion, is
just trying to control the narrative.
For his part, de Adder agrees. In a recent
interview with CBC’s As it Happens, de Adder
explained that Donald Trump and the cartoon
were but symptoms of censorship.
“Donald Trump and me being fired is not the
issue here,” he said. “The issue is media
control and media manipulation.”
He compared his time with BNI to the
parable of the frog and scorpion, saying he
knew that eventually, it would end badly for
him because of the nature of BNI.
While working for BNI, de Adder was never
told anything was taboo for the publishers
except Trump, but he learned to read between
the lines.
He would take note of which cartoons he
provided that were cut, prompting him to craft
another, and began to see patterns.
Why should BNI care about a Trump
cartoon? Well it’s owned by the Irving family
who have their fingers in a lot of pies,
including oil and shipbuilding, with ties south
of the border.
As de Adder pointed out, having a family
like that owning a news outlet can be
dangerous.
“Should somebody that cares about the
bottom line own a newspaper?” he asked
during the interview before going on to say
that at least a quarter of the news covered in
some New Brunswick newspapers were
directly connected to the “megacorporation”
that owns the newspapers.
BNI, aside from owning most of the print
publications in the province, including three
daily newspapers, which means that the
message the Irving family wants to get across
will be prevalent and other views may not.
I say I’m lucky to work at The Citizen
because we don’t have those kinds of
pressures, but, in reality, I didn’t run into it
when I worked for other papers in the area as
well, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
The reality is that media manipulation, from
the highest levels of these ‘megacorporations’
is being passed down the chain and enforced
on journalists. Those reporters can choose to
toe the company’s political line or find another
job.
With a government like Ford’s which is so
secretive that it has burned bridges with
reporters across the spectrum and, with tax
dollars, implemented its own news media
wing, we need independent journalists
uncovering these stories.
Ford should be in favour of that as well. He
claims he didn’t know about the nepotistic
postings that recently came to light and some
reports indicate they infuriated him. To
prevent further embarrassment, he should
embrace journalists willing to do the research
that led to this news coming to light.
See, when it comes right down to it, a good
journalist and a good newspaper isn’t right or
left, it’s interested in covering what’s
necessary and that’s tough in this day and age.
Denny
Scott
Denny’s Den
THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 11 2019. PAGE 5.
The kids’ table
Just last week I wrote about Ontario
Premier Doug Ford and his culture of
nepotism in the provincial government.
However, as with just about everything else, he
keeps nipping at the heels of his idol President
Donald Trump, unable to catch him.
Trump coins “fake news” and Ford calls
reporters “the media party”. Trump has
pledged to “make America great again” and
Ford says Ontario is “for the people”. If Trump
is a Rolex, Ford is the “Rolex” you buy on
Canal Street in Manhattan. They look a lot
alike, but one just can’t do the job the other
can – and it’s likely to fall apart a lot sooner.
Anyway, where I’m going with this is that
just when you think Ford had the market
cornered on taking care of his friends and
family, Trump, well, trumps him once again.
This is not news – fake or otherwise. Right
when Trump took office, he entangled his
children in the affairs of the United States.
Both of his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have
been involved in the nation’s affairs, as has his
son-in-law Jared Kushner. And while Donald
Jr. and Eric have distinguished themselves as
exceedingly unintelligent – they are often
compared to MTV’s Beavis and Butthead;
they even look alike – all three have proven to
be useless hangers-on in the government.
Trump has forced them into important
government postings, even strongarming
security clearance at one point after being
denied by his own government.
The shining star though is Ivanka. She has
been thrust into a position of importance
despite having no qualifications. Yet, she is
held up as an example of what an American
woman can achieve if she works hard and
plays her cards right in a world that so often
rewards men ahead of women, despite leading
an extremely privileged life and never having
to have a job or – you know – work.
However, despite all of those non-
qualifications, the president treats every day as
if it’s Take Your Kid to Work Day, dragging his
daughter to events reserved for world leaders
and the world’s best and brightest minds.
Granted, she frequently appeared on The
Apprentice and she’s not accused of multiple
counts of rape, so perhaps she’s even more
qualified than her father, but many of the
questions being asked are justified. Why is she
attending events like the G20 Summit? Did all
of the world leaders bring their children for a
big model United Nations field trip?
Like everything else Donald Trump does,
it’s with complete disregard for the rules. He’ll
show up with his uninvited daughter and
parade her around as if she’s important.
However, the truth always comes out. (For
anyone who’s seen the video of Ivanka trying
to hold her own with other world leaders, you
know how embarrassing it is watching her try
to tread water with leaders of nations.)
At the heart of the populist movement is a
feeling that politicians are connected to the
common man/woman. That people still think
of people like Trump and Ford as being that
kind of leader blows my mind. I haven’t seen
this level of cronyism in my lifetime.
We have yet to see Ford’s daughter Krista
emerge in his government (being the former
captain of Toronto’s Lingerie Football League
franchise means she’s about as qualified as her
father for any political position), but maybe
that’ll be one of his second-term surprises.
In a democracy, you vote for the candidate
you think will do the best job. Nations
shouldn’t inherit leaders’ family members as
accepted baggage, embarrassing us all along
the way through their utter incompetence.
After many, many years of following
sports (I’m old enough to remember
the last time the Maple Leafs last won
the Stanley Cup, for heaven’s sake), I don’t
think I’ve seen anything like the Toronto
Raptors/Kwhai Leonard phenomenon.
This column won’t mean anything to you if
you don’t know by now that Leonard broke
Raptors’ fans hearts this weekend by deciding
to sign a contract to play for Los Angeles
Clippers instead of returning to Toronto, but
his year with the Raptors left a lifetime of
memories to savour as he led his team to a
National Basketball Association (NBA)
championship.
I knew something strange was going on
when my wife, who is totally disinterested in
sports, began to ask for updates as the Raptors
progressed through the four rounds of the NBA
playoffs. She even came to know who Leonard
was without explanation.
The depth of the country’s immersion in the
Raptors’ story was impressed on me at my
cousin’s funeral. She was 82 years old and
seemed unlikely to be a basketball fan but I
learned that the last thing she did was sit up to
watch the Raptors win the championship
before she went to bed and had a fatal heart
attack during the night.
What makes this whole story so
extraordinary is that when Leonard was traded
to Toronto about this time last year, I’ll bet
there were few people among those who are
now disappointed he’s not returning to Toronto
who knew much about him. There was a fuss at
the time, not because he was coming, but
because a fan favourite, DeMar DeRozan, had
been sent to San Antonio in exchange. I,
myself, though I’d been a basketball fan since
the Raptors first game in 1995, knew Leonard
was a good player but not much more than that.
He came to Toronto with a bruised
reputation after he’d missed all but nine games
the previous season because of an injured leg.
There’d been whispers that he’d made the
injury seem worse than it was to force his old
team to trade him. There were rumours that
he’d already decided to play in Los Angeles
and he mightn’t even come to Toronto.
He came, but he didn’t immediately
conquer. The Raptors’ medical team set out a
plan to make sure he would not re-injure his
recovering leg, so he was regularly given
games off. A new term came into the sport
lexicon when they called these regular rests
“load management”.
With Leonard, or even on nights he didn’t
play, the Raptors were good, yet won fewer
games than the previous year and finished
second in their division instead of first as in
2018.
When the playoffs began and Toronto lost
the first game against the seventh-place team, it
seemed it was the same old Raptors who had
regularly made the playoffs in recent years but
underperformed. Then they roared back and
won the next four games.
But the beginning of Raptors-mania, the
start of the phenomenon, was probably “the
shot”. It was the seventh and deciding game in
the second-round series against the
Philadelphia 76ers. The score was tied near the
end of the game. Toronto had the ball as time
was running out. Philadelphia’s tough defence
prevented the Raptors’ first option for a shot so
Leonard dribbled to the corner and let go a
desperation shot just before time ran out. The
ball bounced off the rim, bounced again, and
again and again before it fell through the
netting for the win.
“The shot” was played over and over and
over, not only on sportscasts but on the regular
news. Even Canadians who didn’t follow
basketball got excited. The following grew as
the Raptors beat Milwaukee, led by the
league’s Most Valuable Player, when all the
experts said they’d lose. Excitement exploded
when they dethroned the three-time champion
Golden State Warriors to win the NBA title.
All that time there was Kwhai, always
seeming to make the right play. In a league full
of boastful, gloating players, he was quiet and
workmanlike – very Canadian. His emotions
were on view only after “the shot” and after the
championship was sealed.
The country went wild. There are estimates
as many as two million people crowded
Toronto’s streets to celebrate the
championship.
Then last week, as fans waited to see which
team Leonard would choose to play for, came
the bizarre scene of news cameramen hovering
over a private jet as a tall man, rumoured to be
Leonard, got out. The helicopters followed the
car he got into all the way to a downtown hotel
where by then a crowd had gathered.
Despite offers of free condominiums to live
in and free meals for life at restaurants, in the
long run, Leonard decided, late Friday night, to
go home to play for Los Angeles. But
Torontonians and Canadians are left with
memories of a championship – and one of the
most bizarre and joyous months in Canadians
sports history.
Keith
Roulston
From the
cluttered desk