Mainstream media have become propaganda machines
The days of Walter Kronkite are long gone
Anyone who has been awake for any part of the last two decades has seen the decline of news reporting replaced by partisan propaganda by mainstream media. CNN was once the “most trusted name in news” and the New York Times used to publish “all the news that’s fit to print”. Today CNN is a left wing shill publishing Democrat talking points and creating its own “news” to line up with its socialist narrative. The relentless attacks on Donald Trump promoting a “fake news” narrative regarding “Russian collusion” and the recent misinformation claiming Kyle Rittenhouser was a “white supremacist” are typical. Anchors like Don Lemmon, recently fired Chris Cuomo and Anderson Cooper are a far cry from the days of David Brinkley, Peter Jennings or Edward R. Murrow.
Just as CNN, CBS and MSNBC have become left wing shills, the popular Fox News has become the voice of conservatism sprinkled with the occasional factual report that is supportive of Democrats and the odd left wing guest commentator, apparently a desperate effort to maintain at least a modicum of balance. The once reliable New York Times has become a source of fiction, almost a creative writing class for the socialist agendas.
Some prominent reporters have resigned from key News media to protest the “woke” ideology and “cancel culture” that seems to have infected America. Bari Weiss did not pull her punches in her resignation letter from the New York Times. The details of Weiss’ disagreement with New York Times “orthodoxy” was covered extensively in an article by Jarrett Stepman in The Daily Signal. Three CNN reporters resigned after CNN was forced to retract articles disparaging a Donald Trump ally and inaccurately reporting information about former FBI director James Comey. Shepard Smith resigned from Fox News apparently after a conflict with Tucker Carlson and a related disagreement about Carlson’s promotion of right wing ideology.
Canada has not been spared from the trend of news media to become partisan propaganda outlets. The Canadian Broadcasting Company has morphed into a Justin Trudeau media agency, with anchor Rosie Barton practically gushing over any item favourable to Trudeau, almost the equivalent of a school girl crush. CBC takes every opportunity to push Trudeau’s climate change agenda without making any effort to look under the hood of the flawed theory that CO2 causes global warming or give any air time to opposing experts like Dr. Tim Ball or Dr. Patrick Moore but swoons over any chance to give climate nutter Katherine Hayhoe air time. Hayhoe is one of the many voices using “climate change” fears to rally support for a socialist new world order and makes no bones about her desire to “upend capitalism”.
Climate change is a perfect platform for Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party to promote their socialist ideology. While CO2 emissions are harmless, atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are global, not local, and Canada can do nothing material that will affect global CO2 emissions so climate change permits “feel good” speeches and “virtue signaling” policies to be enacted without any possibility of accountability for outcomes. History will record Liberal Canada’s climate change obsession as a shibboleth that defines the decay of a party that used to represent open markets, individual freedoms, and equal opportunity for Canadians, but today comprises a divisive, toxic culture attacking Canada’s vital energy industry for political gain.
I used to believe “propaganda” referred to misinformation published by tyrants like Hitler and was never likely to be a term that had any meaning for Canada. As an ex-military officer, I was shocked to learn that the Canadian military saw the COVID pandemic as an opportunity to test “propaganda techniques”, something that could only happen with at least tacit authority from the reigning Liberal government. Canadian media outlets have become corporate welfare cases relying on handouts from government to balance their books, and Trudeau’s pal and Minister Steven Guilbeault has embraced the chance to funnel taxpayer money to select media outlets, undoubtedly to ensure favourable coverage. The bill paid by taxpayers of some $600 million is hardly “pin money”.
In my study of World and Canadian History leading to my History Degree from Royal Military College of Canada, I never dreamed I would be living through a period where the government of Canada was using its financial power to bribe news media to promote partisan talking points or that Canada would appoint a convicted criminal to a portfolio elegantly labeled "Ministry of Canadian Heritage” but whose apparent purpose is to stifle free speech and promote Liberal ideology. The euphemistic title given Guilbeault is similar to Joseph Goebbels title of Reichminister of Public Enlightenment, a cute turn of phrase for the key Nazi propagandist.
Canada’s march towards authoritarian socialism is in its early innings but control of the press and restrictions on free speech are an integral part of that movement. Unless Canadian on both sides of the political aisle wake up and direct their votes towards the election of honest and competent people regardless of their party affiliation, the corruption that stinks up the halls of Parliament will continue and our children and grandchildren will grow up in a Canada I don’t wish them to endure.