Is there anything the mainstream media can’t blame Google for? A CTV controversy has led the Toronto Star to point the finger at Google.
These days, it seems that coverage by the mainstream media keeps getting worse and worse. As I’ve referenced many times before, trust in the mainstream media has been eroding for years. Everywhere I look, I see more and more evidence that it’s because of mainstream media having god awful coverage. In fact, it was only yesterday that I covered how mainstream media is platforming right wing extremism while condemning platforms for… platforming right wing extremism. It was a pretty blatant example of “it’s only OK when we do it.” Luckily, only people like myself are willing to hold outlets accountable for such activity because, for the most part, media types give outlets spreading hate a free pass.
If that weren’t enough, a recent controversy surrounding CTV has inadvertently put in the spotlight just how nutso the mainstream media has become. While conservative types have already drawn their conclusions for why I think that at this point, it’s not for the reasons they think it is.
To set the stage, a little background in this controversy. CTV has a political talk show called Question Period. In it, interviews happen with politicians and experts alike, discussing the latest political developments they are willing to cover. In this particular incident, Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, was misquoted as saying that he is going to put a non-confidence motion forward to put a stop to Canada’s recent dental care program. The problem was that he never really said that.
Instead, Poilievre apparently said that he wanted to put forward a non-confidence motion to bring down the government to dismantle climate change policies (ala, the buzz words, “carbon tax election”). How did the mistake happen? Apparently, it was the result of two clips being spliced together. Right wingers went nuts and screamed how this is all proof that the media was out to get them (despite the track record of being biased for right wing politicians). In response, CTV investigated and blamed a misunderstanding in the editing process. When that was, inevitably, not enough for the “Defund the CBC” crowd, CTV caved to the pressure and fired two journalists in the wake of all this.
Were mistakes made? Probably. Was incompetence a factor? That wouldn’t be a surprise. Honestly, I don’t see how splicing together scraps of clips like that should’ve made it through the editorial process. What’s more, mainstream media also has a history of pushing narratives that don’t line up with reality (the Online News Act and Online Streaming Act are both excellent examples of this), so it’s entirely possible that in the quest to push whatever narrative they were wanting to push, they managed to let this screw up slip through the cracks. After all, both can be true: CTV legitimately screwed up and they were excited to push a narrative as well.
Now, ordinarily, this isn’t the type of thing that I would cover. This whole affair would be worthy of little more than an eye roll before I move on to covering other things. Then, the Toronto Star had to open their damned digital yap and say stupid things. As a result, now I’m compelled to cover this as well because the mainstream media really can’t help themselves.
The Toronto Star published an “article” covering this story. They passed off this whole sorry affair as a technical error. Again, not something I would normally cover. Then, they went way off into the deep end and said that this whole incident was, somehow, all Google’s fault. I kid you not. This is not satire or made up. They really said that:
This is an ugly scene from the disastrous, slow-motion collapse of the Canadian news media. It is not, as the Conservatives assert, evidence that CTV is out to get them because they love Justin Trudeau. It is, rather, a sign of the deteriorating editorial standards at CTV because of cost-cutting.
Last June, Bell laid off 1,300 people throughout the company, including many high-profile journalists. There were further cuts in February.
I shared sad drinks with some of those fine journalists when they got the chop, and though I inveighed against Bell for getting rid of them, I can see why they did.
Bell Media advertising fell by $140 million in 2023, and the news division lost $40 million.
What happened years ago in newspapers is now happening in TV. Google and Meta took the ad money, and when the money goes, so do the experienced people. Those individuals sometimes say things like: “Wait a minute. That’s not what Poilievre said. We can’t air that.”
Five or six of the newspapers where I worked over the years are gone now, and some of the remaining ones are no longer worth reading. News deserts are spreading in rural Canada, which has grim implications for our democracy.
The logical and moral gymnastics to contort and twist everything around to wind up concluding that this is all somehow Google and Meta’s fault is absolutely insane. The article completely glosses over the fact that venture capital has been gobbling up news rooms and stripping them to the bone – a process that has been happening well before Google and Meta were even a thing. What’s more, the logical leap to say that an editorial screw up is all Google and Meta’s fault is so divorced from reality, that an explanation why that’s not the case shouldn’t even be required. Google and Meta were not in the room when the fateful decisions were made, nor did they play any role in the events that followed. To say this is all the platforms fault is comically out of touch.
The Toronto Star article demonstrates, at minimum, that Stephen Maher (the author) has no business writing about journalism or technology. The fact that this obvious disinformation attempt was even published should put into question why the Toronto Star let this one through the editorial process.
Another angle to this is the fact that the media technically got what they wanted. The Online News Act has been passed. The Online Streaming Act has been passed. Based on the insane talking points made by mainstream media, we have now “saved” journalism. Yet, wonder dork Maher decided to beat this dead horse yet again. It’s complete insanity.
Once again, I find myself repeating myself. If the mainstream media wonders why no one trusts them anymore and people are leaving them in droves, maybe stop publishing crap like this. At this point, I seriously wonder, “What’s next? A journalist stubs his toe on the door and screams “damned Google!””? I mean, we really aren’t that far removed from that at this point.
Toronto Star, Maher, give your heads a shake. What you published here insults the intelligence of Canadian’s.
