The Niagara Now Online News Act scandal has widened as Chrystia Freeland used her position of power to spread the disinformation campaign.
Throughout the debate of Bill C-18 (now the Online News Act), one of the major criticisms of the legislation is that it guts the credibility of news organizations. Specifically, news organizations become even more dependant on government handouts. Are you really going to criticize the government or hold power to account when they are the ones that write your paycheck? That is the exact question I asked throughout the debate and the disturbing implications of this question have echoed louder and louder ever since.
For anyone who supports democracy, the idea of the media working on lockstep with the government is a disturbing one. Third world dictatorships and non democratic nations have long had systems where the press is little more than government mouthpieces – dictating to the population what the government wants citizens to believe – this with no alternative view point available after government works to stamp out anyone else saying anything outside of their talking points. How far away is Canada from this nightmarish reality? Well, as it turns out, we aren’t as far off as you might think.
Already, mainstream media operating in Canada have a track record of selling out their slanted coverage out to the highest bidder. This was on full display last month when Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, said that he would be showering local media outlets with ad money to help prop them up. In exchange for that, those media outlets began showering Doug Ford with praise while attacking Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau in the process. Ultimately, Ford got his return on investment and the media obediently pandered to the highest bidder. In this case, the highest bidder was Ford. The story sent a message loud and clear: if you want positive press coverage, you have to pay for it.
Of course, this doesn’t just apply to Conservatives in power. Liberals in power also exploit the pandering mainstream media for their own political advantage as well. After the promise of millions being shovelled the medias way was made, mainstream media outlets pushed a propaganda campaign pushing the Online News Act. This included campaigns such as Big Lie 1.0 and Big Lie 2.0. While the lies ultimately didn’t work out in the end after Meta did the obvious and dropped news links in Canada, the fallout to all of this was an accelerated erosion of trust in the media in general.
Indeed, study after study showed that Canadians are increasingly trusting the media even less these days. For the mainstream media, the real mission should have been to do what it takes to restore that trust. However, the mainstream media generally shrugged at this very real problem and seem more content with having that image of collusion between themselves and government be a thing. As for the federal government, they were happy to take the win of pacifying the mainstream media and began issuing bailouts to backstop the losses incurred with Meta dropping news links. With only independent press such as ourselves objecting to this and calling it out as another hit to the credibility of the mainstream media, it seemed that the two main parties found themselves shockingly happy with the arrangement.
Following this close relationship that reeks of corruption, the mainstream media began utilizing their new found revenue from Canadian taxpayers to publish another round of Online News Act disinformation. The “article” in question pushes the standard debunked talking point of Meta not following the law, platforms stealing news content, and Google agreeing to the link tax among other long debunked talking points. We, of course, did our due diligence and fact-checked that piece. What we found was, unsurprisingly, a piece filled with lies and misleading statements. Obviously, we paired up the lies with the actual facts in the matter to show why those statements were either lies or misleading statements.
This was followed up by members of the mainstream media attacking critics of the Online News Act by pushing even more ridiculous lies and defamation against those who would dare criticize the article. Like always, we published a fact-check and found, again unsurprising, that the statements made were false or misleading for the most part. Probably the most ironic part about the whole fact-checking exercise was that the individual pushing that disinformation was accusing others of collusion and spreading lies while… actively partaking in collusion and spreading lies. If the implications weren’t so serious, the scenario would be downright comical.
Today, we are learning that high ranking politicians are also doing what they can to spread the disinformation as well. Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, used the power of her position of being basically second in command in the Canadian government to spread the disinformation of the Online News Act. In a post on X/Twitter, Freeland shared the link to the disinformation to her over 350,000 followers with a message of support:
This is exactly why local journalism matters.
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Et voilà précisément pourquoi le journalisme local est si important.https://t.co/OXtVeOZVXs— Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) August 16, 2024
This is exactly why local journalism matters.
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Et voilà précisément pourquoi le journalisme local est si important.
The post further illustrates the close and comfortable relationship the government has with the media. This despite the fact that the media is supposed to be holding government to account. For those who already have the image in their head that the mainstream media and the government work in lockstep with each other, this is an extremely frightening thing to see.
There is also a practical side effect to all of this as well. As you know, since Meta dropped news links, traffic to news organizations both small and large have seen traffic to their respective websites take a massive hit. Outlets were already struggling to turn a profit and the fact that their audience is taking a massive hit in the process is enough to put several outlets on the edge of failure. Some have already experienced going through massive corporate consolidation or outright bankruptcy altogether as a result. So, media outlets are already struggling to get an audience that will sustain them.
For the Canadian government, this puts them in a rather powerful position. They can use their position of power and influence to reward media outlets for the articles they publish. Even if they aren’t receiving much in the way of subsidies, the message is pretty clear. If you curry favour for the government, government officials will reward those outlets with additional traffic by linking to them on their social media accounts. This, of course, puts an additional incentive for outlets of all shapes and sizes to publish positive coverage of the government with the hopes that they will get their links to appear on government officials feeds afterwards. A 6 figure boost in traffic is incredibly lucrative, after all.
Some traffic starved outlets will likely cave and start publishing content that favours government. After all, the cost of credibility has never been lower for them, so why not just give up on basic journalistic principle to brown nose the nearest politician for a few additional clicks?
We here at Freezenet will continue to refuse to stoop to being yet another outlet clamouring to kiss the governments ring, though. If that means getting fewer clicks in the long run, so be it. At least I can sleep at night. If you want to see journalism outlets with integrity thrive, support them because they won’t be getting support from the government. If you want to support Freezenet, you can subscribe to our Patreon, buy us a Ko-Fi, or allow ads on the site. I know this is a shameless plug, but this also goes for other news organizations that still values basic journalistic integrity. It’s not just Freezenet here that falls within this category of news outlets. As time goes on, there’s fewer and fewer outlets out there that are truly independently run these days. The less support they get, the less firepower they’ll have to fight the flood of disinformation out there regardless of political persuasion.
