Fake News vs Traditional Media

This article by the CBC is excellent. It walks through a number of scenarios, definitions and instructions on how to spot ‘fake news’.

Just one problem: they forgot to point the spotlight at themselves and friends in traditional media.

It’s a good article, but of course, doesn’t mention how traditional media may place ‘news reports’ that are PR or how they may censor certain aspects of a story in order to protect ad dollars. Even the CBC reprints a lot of stories from the for-profit American company (Visionknown as Canada Newswire here).

It also doesn’t point the finger at ‘traditional’ pundits and other so-called objective advisors that are either paid or supported indirectly by third-parties, including international influencers. They hint at this somewhat in the article, but there is a very clear opportunity to deconstruct the influence that can be attributed to foreigners and conservative think tanks.

An example would be the Fraser Institute. While the aforementioned article by the CBC is excellent, this one by Canadian Dimension is even better, as they strip back the layers created by the Koch Brothers and their paid influence over Canadian media.

Fortifying the big lies in think-tank gown is the Fraser Institute, forever cited by the media and bullying public policy formation in the guise of an independent professional source of economic knowledge and information. None points out that according to Canada’s tax records the Fraser Institute has received over $750,000 from just one of the Koch foundations.

When Canadian Dimension speaks of media citation, they need to directly remind the public that the CBC reports from the Fraser Institute OFTEN.

As we enter the federal election – possibly the most important one that Canada is facing in its short history as a nation – we ALL need to know how to smell out the rats. Unfortunately, most of the rats are in plain site, being treated as reliable sources and pundits.