Roundup: Suggested cures for journalism

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After six months of study and deliberation, Public Policy Forum came out with its report and recommendations on the state of media and democracy, and came up with a handful of recommendations for things like a tax credits, creative commons licensing, clear mandates for the CBC, the creation of a particular extension of The Canadian Press to cover local news like city halls and court cases in smaller communities, and most controversially, a $100 million fund to help legacy media, well, cope with the new digital environment. Many journalists pooh-poohed much of this, and turned up their noses at the notion of the fund, particularly if it were to be administered by government. Paul Wells summed everything up pretty well with this fairly brilliant column here. And Chris Selley made a few trenchant observations over the Twitter Machine.

(Note that for years, the GLBT Xtra chain – that I used to write for – subsidized their operations by running a phone dating service, and they more recently replaced that by running a hookup site).

I’m not going to pretend that I have any answers here, but I will express a bit of frustration with people who insist that if we just produce better journalism that people will want to pay for it again. Given the way that we have acclimatised people to getting it online for free (remember, newspapers used to do that as “advertising” their paper subscriptions) and this pervasive (and wrong) notion that “information wants to be free,” I think it’s more than just producing better journalism that people will want to pay for. It’s especially insulting when I see people like Paul Godfrey showing up on TV to say that when he’s one of the people who is hollowing out the very papers that he owns as he collects millions of dollars in bonuses. It’s hard to produce good journalism when you have no one to produce it, and those who are left are overloaded trying to do the work of three or four people.

The other thing that bothers me is when people say “look at how subscriptions went up in the States recently!” it’s also because they went through a batshit crazy election and are in the middle of an utter meltdown of their democratic institutions. That’s not happening here (though Trudeau’s popularity has prompted a few outlets, like the BBC, to hire a couple of journalists in Canada given the new interest here), and we are constantly dealing with the false notion that Canadian politics is boring, and that there’s no real stories here. Not to mention, we have a tenth of their population, so we’re dealing with an order of magnitude of difference when it comes to market as well.

So while I’m not sure I have any answers, “just do better” is more of a slap in the face than it is a solution to what is ailing the industry.

Good reads:

  • When hecklers wouldn’t stop at Trudeau’s Winnipeg town hall, an Indigenous elder stepped in to quiet them down.
  • Meanwhile, First Nations leaders in Saskatchewan didn’t think much of Trudeau’s comments during his town hall there.
  • From the Conservative caucus retreat, Rona Ambrose said Trudeau hasn’t been “serious” in dealing with the Trumpocalypse, while some took shots at O’Leary.
  • The provinces are talking about ratifying an internal free trade deal within weeks. Much of it is motivated by CETA, but we’ll see what exemptions are on the list.
  • Justin Trudeau shuffled up the parliamentary secretaries yesterday.
  • Ralph Goodale is going to unveil a new firearms advisory panel, led by a former judge.
  • The NDP want the Ethics Commissioner to have more powers, but every time this issues comes up at committee, MPs back down. Every. Time.
  • The government says they stand by aid for Afghanistan as the World Bank investigates possible embezzlement with educational funding.
  • TransCanada says it has resubmitted its application for Keystone XL in the States.
  • With Trump talking waterboarding, Canadian military operating in Iraq remind us that we don’t torture.
  • Maverick Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith says the government should decriminalise all drugs and focus on a healthcare approach to addictions.
  • The Canadian Press’ Baloney Meter™ checked Kevin O’Leary’s statement about Ontario being less competitive than Michigan. (Spoiler: Full of baloney).
  • Kellie Leitch is trying to create wedges between her campaign and Kevin O’Leary’s on things like marijuana.
  • The National Post has a long read about Kellie Leitch.
  • Kevin O’Leary says he’s not a capitalist, and he’s “in favour of jobs.” Okay then. Arlene Dickinson calls bullshit (and O’Leary on his sexism).
  • Chris Selley wants an end to the Trump-O’Leary comparisons.
  • Andrew Potter writes about the declining value of truth just as everyone is willing to start engaging in fisticuffs.

Odds and ends:

Katimivik says they’re in danger of shutting down without federal funds. Trudeau used to chair the organization before becoming an MP.