How did CanWest get its scoop? By going on PM's list

[tuvor]

The PM gave exclusive interviews to news agencies that agreed to go on his news conference list last week

Any faint hope that the summer break might have cooled tensions between the press gallery and the Harper PMO was dashed after a hastily scheduled press conference on the softwood lumber agreement on Tuesday last week.

After showing up at the appointed time and place–the House of Commons foyer, not the National Press Theatre, which the PM has eschewed since the opening of the last session of Parliament–journalists found themselves waiting around for nearly 45 minutes. Eventually, Prime Minister Stephen Harper showed up to deliver a terse statement on the fate of the softwood agreement itself. Short version? It's going to the House for a vote, and yes, it's a confidence motion, so start planning your election coverage.

He then departed without taking a single question, despite the two microphones that had been set up by ever-optimistic gallery officials, and much to the non-surprise of the assembled media, who have come to expect little more when the PM meets with the press on the Hill.

The next day, however, CanWest newspaper coverage of the deal featured not one but two interviews with the Prime Minister, courtesy of the Vancouver Sun's Peter O'Neil and the Ottawa Citizen's Mark Kennedy–an enviable advantage over the CanWest chain's competitors, which had been forced to make do with the prepared statement.


http://www.thehilltimes.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2006/august/28/hoh/&c=1

[Spazito]

1. Translation: CanWest/Global is Canada's equivalent of Fox...

both propaganda vehicles for government and not news outlets.

[MrPrax]

2. Yup and most watched...

Too bad the liberals didn't sink that battleship when they had the opportunity -- a few minor changes to the CRTC would have mandated balanced coverage...but no...instead we got a 'fake' debate led by Izzy Asper attacking the CBC for pure self-interest.

I always wanted to see the counter-attack on Asper's less than Canadian content networks, but that never happened -- what happened was that Canwest was allowed to expand and gobble up more and more services leaving Canadians with less media and diversity than they did 20 years ago inspite of all the de-regulation.

[IntravenousDemilo]

3. I thought the Aspers were Liberals. What gives? n/m

[daleo]

4. Liberals if necessary, but not necessarily Liberals.

That's how I see it with the Aspers, anyway.

[Spazito]

5. Corporatists with a liberal label, that is the Aspers, imo

They drool over the idea of privatization of everything. Izzy was a personal friend of Chretien's, I believe, and so contributed to his campaign hence the fallacy that he was a Liberal.

[IntravenousDemilo]

6. And now he's sucking off the Con tit?

Yum...