Village Media CEO Jeff Elgin, pictured here from a Broadcast Dialogue story and podcast, appears before the Senate this week on Bill C-18.
May 28, 2023
Bullies aren’t likeable and US trade bullies even less so.
This week MediaPolicy posted in response to an American trade hawk goading the Biden administration to ‘fire-all-phasers’ at Canada and Bill C-11.
***
It was a busy week for news about social media giants and the possibility of government regulation.
McGill University’s Taylor Owen and Facebook-whistleblower Frances Haugen published an op ed opposing government bans on TikTok but also imploring the Liberals to table their Online Safety Act.
In the US there is consternation that Meta is following Twitter in laying off content moderation staff. Meta just got hit with a multi-billion euro fine for ignoring EU laws on data transfers to its North American servers. The data is not just from Europeans’ Facebook activity, but the third party web data it collects from its users.
***
Senate Committee hearings on federal legislation are more thoughtful than comparable proceedings in the House of Commons and this will be proven again this upcoming Tuesday on SenVu when we get another episode in the ongoing study of the Online News Act Bill C-18.
For those of you who, like MediaPolicy, aren’t pinned down by a day job, the Senators kick off at 9 a.m. with a pitch from Newsmedia Canada and also publishers Brian Myles from Le Devoir and Phillip Crawley of the Globe & Mail. As national newspapers, the Globe and Le Devoir may end up as the ‘last man standing’ in mainstream print news so it will be interesting to see how they position themselves in relation to C-18.
They are followed by Canadaland’s Jesse Brown (who will perform Jesse Brown); The Line’s Jen Gerson (who calls the Bill ‘a lie); and then, most intriguingly, Jeff Elgie of Village Media.
Elgie is publisher of a growing chain of digital community and local news outlets and offers himself as proof that the free market can provide a general news service without government aid or Big Tech licensing fees.
***
Occasionally I drone on about my favourite political columnists who for years have been Chantal Hebert and John Ibbitson. Their disciplined and insightful political analysis is what I admire even though they tamp down the stylism in favour of spare prose.
Paul Wells is the third member of the MediaPolicy political commentary pantheon. He combines political acumen, hard digging, and elegant prose. Judging from his Substack subscription numbers (multiplied by my $5 monthly sub), he’s wildly successful. It’s encouraging that at least for niche journalism the Canadian news market can reward great work.
Today I am adding the Globe’s Shannon Proudfoot to this august group. Like Wells, she offers pith with a rhetorical lilt. Her latest on Laurentian elites had me in tears.
***
If you would like regular notifications of future posts from MediaPolicy.ca you can follow this site by signing up under the Follow button in the bottom right corner of the home page;
or e-mail howard.law@bell.net to be added to the weekly update;
or follow @howardalaw on Twitter.
MediaPolicy.ca 