Trudeau government has 'fetish for media control,' influential publisher argues
The publisher of one of Canada’s most influential news organizations has accused the Trudeau government of having a “fetish for media control.”
Holly Doan, who worked for CTV and CBC before helping to create Blacklock’s Reporter in 2012, said Ottawa has made a “disastrous intervention” in the news sector over the last five years.
That includes “picking winners and losers” by subsidizing certain outlets – at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayers’ cash – as well as battling Blacklock’s in court, she said.
“What you're seeing is an industry in full-on depression,” she told NowMedia video host Jim Csek during an interview on Friday.
“Capital ‘D.’ It is collapsing. All the good ideas are gone. It's every man for himself.”
Explaining the lack of solidarity among outlets, and the eagerness with which so many have seized on subsidies, she added: “When the boat is going down, if you can get into a lifeboat, get into it.”
But Doan’s outlet – which frequently dictates the national news agenda with its investigations into what she calls government “waste, mediocrity, cronyism” – does not accept any subsidies. She said if the platform availed itself of such “corporate welfare,” its subscribers “would reject us.”
She does want something from the government, however: an end to password-sharing.
Blacklock’s has been warring with Ottawa over subscriptions – which fund the platform – for years now. That’s because, she said, “upwards of 15 or more federal government departments purchased one subscription [to Blacklock’s] and then shotgunned the passwords.”
As a consequence, Doan is denied what she considers rightful income by the federal government. She told Csek that Blacklock’s has spent $536,000 on litigation, which is still ongoing.
We asked @JustinTrudeau whether he'd compromise with @Meta so Canadians could once again post news on Facebook.
He told us Meta was failing to 'support the work of maintaining democracies' and stressed that governments must 'stand up for journalism and the profession.'… pic.twitter.com/M04NaIwxeV
She added: “Had we not had that monkey on our back, would we have expanded? Yes. Would we have had another reporter or two? Maybe we would have opened a bureau somewhere.”
Law professor Michael Geist said a recent court loss for Blacklock’s represents a “huge win for copyright users in Canada,” but Doan vehemently disagrees.
“Canada, by the way, is the first G7 country to have a court ruling that says you can share passwords,” she said. “They are commonly accepted as a technological protection measure across the G7 and every signatory to the World Intellectual Property Organization.
“Our government… we have become the Zimbabwe of copyright.”
The federal government, for its part, has argued it is striving to protect news outlets in a dangerous age of misinformation and irresponsible American social media giants. Speaking to NowMedia earlier this year, Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said she wants Canada to have “as many professional journalists” as possible, adding: "My preference would be that the government doesn't have to support journalism."
In a wide-ranging interview, Doan also discussed Bill C-18, which she believes should be repealed, as well as:
Pierre Poilievre’s attitude towards the media
Her hopes of winning in court against the federal government
The NDP’s willingness to indulge “corporate welfare” for the media
The government-appointed panel of “experts” who decide which outlets are and are not real journalists
How Ottawa thought it was “going to win” against Facebook over Bill C-18
That every newsroom in Canada is “miserable right now”
How pleased she is that her sons didn’t choose to become journalists
Despite what she sees as the government’s failed intervention in media, however, Doan said she was optimistic for the future.
“All I can say is, and this is a positive bit of news for people in your area who count on their local news and hope to see it grow and thrive and for your business and ours, is that I think a better day is coming,” she said.
“But it's going to be rough. Unfortunately, all we've done is delay the final product and sorting ourselves out by about five years’ worth of subsidies.”
