Paul Godfrey is What’s Wrong With Capitalism

For a decade while Stephen Harper pulled the strings on the nation’s advertising budget, PostMedia and other major media conglomerates in Canada were major beneficiaries of endless propaganda campaigns for the Conservatives, against Canadians.

When they were not getting billions of dollars of Canadian tax money in advertising, they would take positions that supported the Conservatives so that they eventually would get more money as a thank you.  They even altered their publications (possibly illegally?) to look like ballot cards in the 2015 election, again, in support of all of their Conservatives buddies.

The circle was perfect.  The Cons spend our dollars on PostMedia, they throw a lifeline to publications that Canadians on average really didn’t find useful and the publications did everything they could to keep the Cons in control.

They talk about the merits of the free market and supporting Harper’s thinly veiled religious fanaticism.  They blasted public <anything> and they derided and destroyed many quality opposition candidates because they dared to question the Conservative ‘machine’.

After Trudeau’s win and a win for all of Canada, that ‘gravy train’ came to an abrupt end.

Now Paul Godfrey sits whining saying that he needs a handout.

“Come back and advertise in our newspapers and on our websites,” Godfrey pleaded, noting that government cuts to advertising in recent years have disproportionately affected newspapers.

“We’re asking the government to be an ally, not for a bailout of the Canadian newspaper industry.”

Godfrey pointed to federal statistics showing government advertising in newspapers was halved, while online advertising nearly doubled, between 2010 and 2015. The bulk of the money went to foreign-owned behemoths like Google and Facebook, which produce no original Canadian news content.

What a joke.

PostMedia is owned by a foreign company and it’s content is basically written by the people that we love to hate.  Claiming that the government should stop spending on Google or Facebook – both of which employ hundreds of people with good paying jobs – is absolutely absurd.

Any good media buyer will tell you that you spend money where people are, not where they were.

I would argue that cuts to media companies in Canada don’t go far enough.  We spend billions every year on subsidies that go directly into the pocket of folks like Godfrey, whether it’s for magazine funds, TV production or ‘Can Con’.

These subsidies must come to an end or at least be better spent on the ‘mom and pop’ content creators in Canada.  And the hypocrisy of the business community must come to an end as well.

Here’s a message to Paul Godfrey:  stop standing with your hand out.

You’re what’s wrong with capitalism.

You’re giving capitalism a bad name.