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June 22, 2010
Harper tightens his grip on media message control
National Report by Lawrence Martin
METRO CANADA
Anyone who has worked with
Stephen Harper will tell you his top priority is message control.
Control the message and you control outcomes.
That’s why, upon becoming prime
minister in 2006, he put in place the most all-encompassing vetting
system Ottawa had ever seen. Nothing could go out, not even the most
minor of communications, without approval from head office.
But to control the message, you
have to have influence in the media. So how’s this for a coup? Harper
now has one of his former directors of communications, Kory Teynecke,
as de facto boss of Sun Media coverage. The same Teynecke is also
leading the bid from the same organization to create a new conservative
television network.
On the newspaper side, Teynecke
has already overhauled Sun Media’s Ottawa bureau. Several good
reporters have been moved out. The replacements are good reporters as
well. But anyone who doesn’t think they will be under pressure to
provide a lot of Conservative spin is deluding themselves. The changes
were made for a purpose, and the purpose was hardly to have the new
hires rushing out to hold the government’s feet to the fire.
On the TV side, the new network
needs regulatory approval to get up and running. The CRTC will be under
tremendous pressure to provide it. As has been demonstrated, Harper
does not take kindly to tribunals or commissions that go against his
wishes. Those who sit on them can be replaced or have their decisions
overturned. Chances of the PM standly idly by and watching this network
proposal get shelved are next to nil.
The new network won’t be as
biased as Fox News in the United States, its promoters claim. But in
attacking the work of the CBC’s Don Newman, they showed their true
colours. If they had one-half the experience, the depth and the
erudition of Newman, they should consider themselves lucky.
Having one of his former
promoters running Sun Media is just one of two great media turns for
the prime minister. The other was the recent auction of the Canwest
newspapers. Just when it looked like the conservative flagship, The
National Post, and the chain’s other big-city newspapers were about to
be taken over by liberally inclined buyers, Canwest’s Paul Godfrey came
to the rescue with an 11th-hour bid that will keep the papers in the
conservative stable.
The prime minister stood on the
verge of losing the media balance of power in the country. Not only has
he maintained it, he has now increased it.
*******
Lawrence Martin is a journalist and author of 10 books who writes about national affairs from Ottawa.
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Original Link Metro News: http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/comment/article/558667--harper-tightens-his-grip-on-media-message-control
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