THE DANGERS OF A CORPORATE OWNED MEDIA:
(June 19, 2025)
The Media are very important in a democracy.
According to our friends at A.I....
“Yes, media are critically important in a democracy. The media act as a vital tool for informed public debate, they hold the powerful accountable, and they enable citizens to participate in democratic processes.”
But in Canada and the United States, the media are owned by “the powerful”... so why would the media ever hold them accountable?
In fact, the media constantly hide the misdeeds of the powerful and keep us citizens in the dark about what the powerful are up to. It is very difficult to have informed public debate when the media tell us only the stories that the powerful (the corporations and the 0.01% who own the big media) want us to know about.
We have largely lost our independent media in Canada. And because democracy really does require a free press, our democracy has also become very weak—to the point where one can argue that we barely have a democracy in Canada anymore.
Instead, we are run by politicians and political parties who are very corrupt and undemocratic and who don’t work for us. But the media always tell us our governments do work for us, and we tend to believe that.
And even worse, we Canadians tend to believe that we have a great free press that works for us. That is certainly what I thought for most of my life. But I don’t think that anymore—and I would ask anyone reading this to at least consider the idea that our media do not work for us and should never be trusted to be telling us the truth about the important issues of the day.
Look, for example, at the story of “foreign interference in our democracy and our elections.”
That has been a big story for years now—although virtually always without any evidence or any court cases where a judge or jury (or us) can actually see some evidence.
But the media tell us the foreign interference story over and over, and no doubt a lot of people believe it... And maybe it’s even true. But have we ever seen any evidence besides allegations from CSIS and the RCMP?
And sorry—but neither of those organizations should be trusted.
Meanwhile, the massive corporate influence and control over our political parties and top politicians and governments is never talked about.
To begin with, the corporations own all the big media in Canada—how much influence does that give them? But corporate interference in our democracy and control of our governments is never talked about.
Our governments let big business steal our money, destroy our communities, and poison us, while the media focus our attention on “foreign interference in our democracy”... as if we even had a democracy.
When I talk about media here, I mean The Big Corporate-Owned Media:
the television networks
the daily newspapers
virtually all of the radio stations
the big online media companies including Google, Facebook, MSN, Yahoo News, etc.
And sadly, I have to include the CBC in this gang of corporate-owned and corporate-controlled media. I no longer think the CBC is much different than any of the rest of them.
CBC seems to tell the same stories with the same one-sided points of view. A lot of people think CBC does a good job on a lot of things—and maybe that’s true. But I don’t see it.
We need better. And the only way for us to get better media is for us to work for it and fight for it—because clearly, the corporations that own and control our media have no intention of giving us the free press we need without a fight.
A British organization, the Constitution Unit, says:
“The media are a key route through which the public hears about politics, and (the media) plays an important role in shaping the public agenda and forming public opinion.”
And all that is very true. The media do play an important role in shaping the public agenda and forming public opinion.
And that is exactly why it is so very dangerous when virtually all the big media in Canada are owned by a dozen or so large corporations—tied into Big Business, and all of which seem to put corporate profit above public health and the public good.
I believe that corporate control of our media and our governments is why:
we have a housing disaster in Canada
we have a health care crisis
half of us will get cancer in our lives
the rich keep getting richer
the poor roam the streets and die in the rain and snow
and the banks and Big Oil make record profits
It’s because the corporate rich own and control the media and our governments. They run Canada for their own benefit. And they are doing very well in terms of making money and having all the power.
One of the most important stories the media always tell us is:
“Of course we work for you. You, the Canadian people, are all that we care about.”
Just watch TV or read the papers or listen to the radio or the online corporate media—
All the corporate journalists pretend exactly the same thing: “We work for you.”
But it’s a lie.
They don’t work for us. All the corporate journalists work for large corporations, and they all know that if they dare say the wrong thing... their careers will be over tomorrow.
It is total corporate control of the free press that we think we have. And they do it so well that we all tend to believe them.
I certainly believed it for most of my life. But I had the opportunity for a few years to sort of see it from the inside... and when I did, I came to the realization that both our governments and our media are totally corrupt.
And I’ve seen nothing since then to change my mind. In fact, everything I see these days just confirms what I have come to believe.
(And of course I could be wrong—maybe we do have a free press and democratic governments—but I don’t think so.)
Look at CTV, for example.
It’s owned by Bell Media. The head of the company that owns Bell Media is the former head of RBC—Canada’s largest bank.
So CTV is run by the banksters.
And when the big banks make huge profits year after year, you can be very sure that CTV (and all the rest of the media) will not make a big thing of it—like their massive profits of about $60 billion in 2024 (not including billions hidden offshore).
The role the big banks play in hiding illegal drug profits is seldom talked about.
Nor is the role the banks played in creating the housing disaster.
The banks and the investor class have made fortunes from the housing crisis—which is why they created the shortage behind it. But that too never gets talked about.
Instead, the media always tell us:
“Everybody is doing their best to solve the housing mess, but we just can’t figure it out.”
Yeah, right.
Where does all that money go that people are paying in back-breaking rent and mortgage payments?
That is a question that is never asked by our corporate media.
Housing costs are the biggest part of the cost-of-living crisis. But the role of Corporate Canada in creating the crisis is never talked about—even as they pocket billions every year.
It’s the same with cancer.
Half of us will get cancer because the corporations have poisoned our food, homes, and bodies with thousands of toxic chemicals.
But that story is seldom pushed by the media. The corporations are almost never criticized or held accountable for giving millions of people cancer and other diseases.
And why would the media that they own tell us that their owners are giving us cancer?
Our democratic governments allow it, and that is also largely ignored.
When GMO foods were introduced into Canada in the early 1990s, it wasn’t even mentioned by the media. We didn’t find out until years later. And we were told it was perfectly safe.
I’ve always followed the news, but I didn’t hear about GMOs until years after they were already in our food supply.
And that is how the media operates—on virtually every important issue.
One last thing: Canada is NOT a great democracy.
Our system of politics, governance, and elections is full of flaws. It could be greatly improved to give people a real voice.
But why would the people who run things want more democracy? That would just interfere with their control, power, profits, and wealth.
So their media will never talk about how to improve democracy. They just tell us:
“We ARE a great democracy.”
And that’s that.
Things could be much better in Canada.
There is no need for the high cost of housing
No need for homelessness
No need for millions to lack a family doctor
No need to wait 15 hours in ERs
But billions are being sucked out of the system in corporate profits made by health care corporations.
That is the price we pay for not having the free press we think we have.
It really is time for a change.
But we seem to be a million miles away from any change right now.
Too bad for us.
But please keep in mind the idea that a free press is important,
and maybe one day we can all do something to move in that direction.
And if we can, I think we will immediately see benefits all around us.
