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Myopia and the Canadian media establishment.

Article Excerpt
There will be fewer newspapers in Canada tomorrow than there are today. Collusion between the federal government and big media interests has all but sealed the fate of independent voices within Canada.

Right now the Canadian media establishment is in yet another self-righteous tizzy. They're whining, wringing hands and writing lots of boring essays. The current subject of hysteria is CanWest Global, a company that has the audacity to decide that since it owns a bunch of newspapers, it will decide what editorials run in those newspapers.

Get a grip. Owners have been deciding what goes in their newspapers since the beginning of newspapers. In fact, owners have decided what goes into publications since the beginning of print.

CanWest Global is particularly loathed by the myopic Canadian media establishment because the company is--gasp!--headquartered in Winnipeg. The controlling Asper family is--and this is not to be mentioned in politically correct circles--Jewish.

I. H. Asper founded this dynamic company in 1974 when he acquired a licence for a Winnipeg television station. In Canadian corporate culture, 1974 was a nanosecond ago. Like all brilliant entrepreneurs, Asper has charged ahead in multiple directions. A number of his projects stumbled. But he and his sons have scored enough wins that the company is today one of Canada's largest media conglomerates. Love 'em or hate...