I saw this article in the Vancouver Metro News and I found it somewhat interesting. It talked about how Harper lucked out because the National Post, a Conservative leaning newspaper, was up for sale and for a moment it looked like the only buyer was Liberally-inclined Torstar.
The article submitted that at present the National Post and Canwest newspaper line was supportive of a Conservative government. If the ownership of the news chain was to change to a liberal leaning owner, Harper could drop in the popularity polls. Instead, a surprise bid from by a group led by National Post chairman Paul Godfrey saved the day.
Did you catch that? It basically came right out and admitted that the political leanings of the owner of a news chain will be reflected in the news that chain reports and the editorials it writes. I used to think news was news and was totally unbiased. Then I found out about Conrad Black.
I remember getting in a big pissing match with the editor of the Vancouver Province about this once. They had reprinted a bizarre article from the National Post about 9/11 dismissing Truthers concerns as nonsense without citing a single fact. I objected to the article and made some snide comment about the time when Conrad Black was buying up all the news outlets and firing anyone who printed a labour friendly story.
The editor denied it passionately and we kept going back and forth via e-mail. I thought the discussion was going nowhere. Finally I said we can argue about it until the cows come home but the bottom line is that you are only printing one side and that is biased.
Then he completely shocked me and said OK. Write a response and I'll print it. I'll give you equal time. I was amazed. No mainstream newspaper that I know of has ever dared to print Truthers concerns about 9/11. (Except the Deseret News article about Professor Stephen Jones finding thermite in the 9/11 rubble.)
We spoke on the phone and he said that if a reader really feels they are being biased they will try their best to present both sides of an issue. He also finally admitted that the National Post does have a political leaning. I guess he just took offense to my comments about censorship under Conrad Blacks ownership.
However, the article in the Metro News pretty much admits some newspapers have political biases and those biases depend on who owns the newspaper or media outlet. I think that is very important to remember. Fox news in the states has a very bad reputation of being so biased it's sometimes not even news. Dan Rather was fired for breaking the news about George Bush's bogus military record. Media biases clearly does exist and it's important for us to remember that.
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