Liberals tell lies and TV has been too cosy

A journalism student from Carleton University working with Farmers Forum this summer is now working part-time with CBC radio. She pitched a couple of stories about higher than average off-shore meat imports and the fact that replacement cattle are not being negotiated yet with the U.S.

Journalists at the story meeting were not interested.

At the same time, farmers are asking how their story can get out into the urban press. Urban people believe the border is pretty well wide open, even though only a small amount of beef has left the country. The urgency has passed.

How did we come to this state of affairs? Part of the problem is that investigative reporting has gone the way of the extinct dodo bird, and agricultural issues tend to be too complex. The complexity of agricultural issues is exacerbated by a secretive, blundering government that makes getting information so difficult that pulling teeth with a pair of Canadian Tire pliers would look easy.

What’s more, major media no longer limit ownership to newspapers, and television and radio stations. Among other things, they own telephone companies, movie companies and sports teams. The integration with business along with the media’s cosiness with big government has further enfeebled the investigative instinct.

One consequence of these factors is that the Federal Liberals have no need to give concrete information. They can blunt the media thrust with meaningless platitudes.

Thus while farmers are left in desperate straits, the Liberals in the House of Commons say wonderful progress has been made on opening the borders. The secretary to the minister of agriculture told the House of Commons the border was open, though some work has to be done. There is no problem. The prime minister equates Canada, where one cow was diagnosed with BSE, with Great Britain where 158,882 cattle were diagnosed in 1997. Britain is still having problems, he crowed to the House but the U.S. border was opened to Canada in 100 days.

Don’t look to news media for help. If you follow the money, it’s easy to infer that the television broadcast system in Canada is in bed with the Liberals. Between 1993 and 2000, private Canadian broadcasters have given $3.4 million with most of the money going to the Liberal party. The three largest broadcast companies — BCE, Rogers and Can West Global — placed in the top 20 Canadian political contributors, surpassed only by Canadian banks.

Individual cabinet members come in for a share. The broadcast boys gave house leader Boudria $1,300 and minister Vanclief about $2,900, according to the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting in its report to a Parliamentary Standing Committee.

What do the broadcast companies get in return? They get $100 million annually from Telefilm, which distributes the money for Heritage Canada. They get their licences renewed, and they get protection from foreign competition, something crop farmers never got.

They also got the right to buy up all the newspapers, radio stations, internet companies and television stations they can afford. Sure you get screaming headlines sometimes about corruption. But many of those exposees come through the auditor general, the courts or Parliamentary question period.

And there is favouritism. Newspapers run front page stories of civil servants or political appointees who spend $30,000 or more on expense accounts. These are the small fry. But stories like the Voyageur Colonial Pension Plan which implicated Paul Martin (the prime minister in waiting) and short changed pensioners $2.4 million play less prominently.

Have you ever seen a large Canadian company that screwed its shareholders of millions ever threatened with criminal charges?

Even so, front page headlines are available to those who dare and have media savvy. Twice in the last three years a westerner has driven some kind of vehicle across Canada and ended on Parliament Hill. The westerners gave the media something to photograph or tape. As important, the westerners ended up in the seat of power, the place where most of the media like to get their stories.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no secret why you don’t get press. The media didn’t get permission from the federal government to give you any. And yet, farm leaders haven’t gone after comprehensive media coverage to tell their story since dairy farmers went to the Hill in 1992. That was a day to remember.