Memo to Keith Baldrey: democracy is already imperilled
Last night, Global TV's Keith Baldrey fired off a provocative tweet, which he's accustomed to doing from time to time.
It's one reason why he has attracted far more followers than his press-gallery colleagues.
Here's what he declared: "Without so/called 'mainstream media' Democracy would be imperilled. Idiot bloggers and 'citizen journalists' Have no standards."
Some retweeted, others tagged Baldrey's tweet as one of their favourites, and still others condemned Global B.C.'s Victoria bureau chief.
I have a different take on all of this.
Democracy has already been imperilled by the confluence of big money flowing into a small number of parties, a lack of donation limits at the provincial and municipal levels, the power of incumbency, ruthless politicking supplemented with sophisticated p.r. machinery, the rise of data mining, and a mainstream media that, in many cases, is fighting for its financial survival.
In addition to that, there are few checks and balances on leaders of majority governments in a parliamentary democracy. They often become leaders of their parties with enormous assistance of corporate and union lobbyists, who then try to extract better treatment for their clients and organizations after elections.
Big money ensures that the Greens and B.C. Conservatives are thoroughly marginalized provincially. Only at the federal level have we seen a cap on donations from unions and corporations.
Keep in mind that big money determined the outcomes of recent municipal elections in the Lower Mainland's three biggest cities—Vancouver, Surrey, and Burnaby—where the winning parties outspent their chief rivals by hundreds of thousands of dollars. There are not even tax credits for donations to municipal parties, ensuring that those with a vested interest in the outcome are more likely to cough up contributions before the election. There are no donation limits and no expenditure limits. It's incredibly antidemocratic, especially when you layer on the fact that there's no ward system, unlike in other provinces across the country.
The three winning parties in these cities—Vision Vancouver, Surrey First, and the Burnaby Citizens Association—also enjoyed the benefit of incumbency at the council level. Many of their candidates had higher name recognition, which is crucial in municipal politics.
Ruthless politicking has also imperilled democracy. The B.C. Liberals made former NDP leader Adrian Dix look like a gangster and a waffler in well-crafted ads modelled on American political messages. A nasty, wordless, televised image of the leader of the Opposition looking like a weathervane right before the election can hardly be characterized as democratic discourse.
Here in Vancouver, NPA mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe claimed that his opponents were corrupt, resulting in a libel suit.
At the federal level, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had no compunction about calling former Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion's proposed revenue-neutral green shift a "gas tax", leaving the false impression that it would pick the pockets of taxpayers. The Conservatives' vicious U.S.-style attack ads on Dion's successor, former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, again made a mockery of democracy.
The truth is that political advertisers and marketers have hijacked democracy. And this is all being financed by deep-pocketed contributors. It's why two Princeton University professors published a study last year arguing that America is no longer a democracy—it's an oligarchy where the rich control the levers of power.
Meanwhile, the rise of data mining, in which wealthy political parties can create sophisticated profiles of voters, has only made this situation worse.
Compounding the problem is the media itself. Newspapers have become dependent on governments and government-owned corporations for revenue in an increasingly shrinking advertising pool. Broadcasters' last avenue of appeal for licences is the federal cabinet; the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is reliant on the government for a big chunk of funding.
Journalists like Baldrey think of themselves as crusading voices of truth and reason. The blogosphere doesn't always agree with that viewpoint, arguing instead that there are institutional pressures forcing mainstream outlets to go easy on the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Kinder Morgan, the big banks, and other major corporate entities, not to mention powerful politicians.
Here's another thing to consider: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has, over the years, gotten rid of various government watchdogs, ignored the recommendations of others, and restricted the number of questions that he has to answer from the media. His government has introduced legislation, Bill C-51, which would create a secret police force in Canada and give authorities greater powers to detain people without being charged. The bill also gives judges authorization to allow policing agencies to override the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in advance of enforcement actions. Are these signs that we're still living in a democracy?
Baldrey thinks democracy would be imperilled without a mainstream media. I suggest that it's already in critical condition in this country.
Comments
11 Comments
Cathy
Mar 20, 2015 at 11:49am
Baldrey is certainly not doing the people of our province any favours by his constant sugar coating of the continual Liberal blunders.
Does he not realize that most people simply want the truth - the good and the bad? I find it hard to believe he is still employed at Global given his biased attitude. My husband and I used to watch at five but simply cannot stomach him anymore. We are lucky to have some great bloggers that really tell it like is - Norm Farrell - northerninsights.blogspot.ca , Bob Mackin - bobmackin.ca - two of my favourites. Baldrey might be wise to check them out more often………he might learn something. Unfortunately his arrogance will probably stop him from doing just that.
Arthur Vandelay
Mar 20, 2015 at 2:14pm
What sunk the NDP in 2013 was the BC Liberal ads? I seriously doubt that even Adrian Dix holds that opinion.
People listen to opinions that enforce the ones that they already hold. Adrian Dix and the NDP lost because they stood for and conveyed nothing but 'We're not the current government in power'. Sometimes that's enough to win. This time it wasn't.
Grant
Mar 20, 2015 at 4:27pm
For years Baldrey has been one of the voices of the Mainstream Media. I stopped watching outlets like Global or reading the major newspapers long ago. Even the community newspapers like Black Press which print Fletcher's stuff won't get my attention for longer than it takes to read the front page headline to laugh at what they consider important.
If Baldrey is honest he will blaze a new journalism trail which has long been overgrown with corporate undergrowth to prevent any truth from being exposed.
Paul Johnston
Mar 21, 2015 at 8:53am
Well said, Charlie, I agree entirely. Unfortunately what we find is that Baldrey's work is sometimes a head scratcher and seems more like thoughts from a Press Gallery conversation inside of the bubble of the legislature. There are several excellent bloggers who produce better researched pieces that incorporate real life experiences. In any event, it can hardly be said that columnists like Tom Fletcher are "bulwarks of democracy".
Jdwhsw
Mar 21, 2015 at 9:44am
thAts pretty laughable , it's been our thought for quite awhile that democracyrather than being protected by mainstream media m has been seriously imperilled BY MAINSTREAM MEDIA . They seem to be the talking piece of the government and invent ,selectively report and massage the news. I am not sure if journalists are given their marching orders at election time to avoid topics that would be damaging to the current government. In victoria , but they always do. The damaging stories only get reported safely between elections. . They definitely helped win the last several elections for the liberals. It's notable how real concerns run of river projects, budget issues, spending do boggles are never mentioned at election time by the " mainstream media" instead these are carefully hidden away and we are " advised " how to vote by full page editioials in the main stream press. Re the mainstream press being the upholders of democracy, please that is so totally laughable I can't believe anyone actually thinks this is true.
DCroft
Mar 21, 2015 at 12:59pm
Oh is that what is happening in BC and Canada; gosh we must have all been sleeping under a rock; actually its "Governments Gone Wild" for a lack of a better description. What might help would be some transparent, non-baised reporting. It's difficult finding the truth within the media as they so often tend to colour a story one way or another according to who they as communications companies back. To say freedom of speech is anything but.
Kim
Mar 21, 2015 at 1:40pm
I like it Keith, appears some of our PC'ers are a bit miffed.
Harper limited questions from National Press to 5 / day
Mar 21, 2015 at 7:08pm
And yet some of the national press (i.e. Globe & Mail) endorsed him.
To reiterate: he told them he would specifically prevent them from doing their (supposed) jobs properly; they said, "Ok, whatever, it's cool, we think you're the best choice."
I cannot think of a bigger indictment of the "mainstream media" than that single thing.
It makes me think the "MSM" is more concerned with something else besides reporting news as their primary function. Selling advertisements maybe, I don't know.
Scott From Nanaimo
Mar 22, 2015 at 9:57am
The MSM pretty much failed to even mention that BC has a Conservative party! I don't remember which station I was listening to last election but they were discussing "BC's two party election".
Jim Lawrence
Mar 23, 2015 at 1:40pm
You were trolled by Baldrey's straw man, Charlie. No one with half a brain would dispute that a good mainstream media acts as a good check on governments. No one with the ability to comprehend basic English would argue that there are not a plethora of raving idiots writing blogs. Neither of those is the issue.
The issue is that we have a mainstream media that is half-baking a cake. There's precious little investigatory journalism anymore, precious little truth-telling-to-power. We get a lot of he-said, she-said claptrap (with an over-emphasis on people who have power and an under-emphasis on the rest of us), a lot of gotcha nonsense and a lot of opinion (often based on what the writer wishes to believe rather than that what the writer can prove) masquerading as news.
Baldrey is about the worst example of all of this. When's the last time he investigated anything? I mean, asking for information from someone other than official sources? My guess is you'd have to go back a long way to find anything resembling that.