My dissident phase

In which, uncharacteristically, I sign a manifesto

I see the Macdonald-Laurier Institute has generated almost no perceptible controversy by publishing The Ottawa Declaration on Canadian Journalism, whose signatories declare they “will not accept the per employee subsidies currently on offer from government and industry.”

I’m one of the signatories.

I’m not usually a signer of things besides my own journalism. But the so-called Ottawa Declaration says several things that strike me as true, obvious and worth saying. Again, you can read it for yourself here. But to me the main points are: (1) that the fact of government subsidies to news organizations will lead reasonable people to suspect it puts those organizations in a conflict of interest in their coverage of politics; (2) that the design of the subsidies amounts to a life raft for organizations that continue to organize themselves along old models that no longer work, stifling initiative and innovation.

This is pretty much what I wrote, during a brief stint at the Toronto Star, in two columns more than seven years ago, as soon as I realized the Trudeau government was getting ready to prop up newsgathering. (I should point out that The Star was then in the early stages of lobbying for what became the current subsidy regime, but they ran my columns without question or hesitation and the paper’s management didn’t so much as grumble to me.) Since I believed this stuff from the outset, I might as well put my name to it now.

The Ottawa Declaration, whose grandiose title makes me want to make air-quotes every time I write it, follows a one-day conference of independent news organizations three weeks ago. Some of the organizations that attended didn’t sign the resulting declaration. The declaration contains language about media outlets that serve minority communities that, I think, was designed to address some of those shops’ concerns. I’m surprised, in a couple of cases, by whose names I don’t see on this declaration, but I’m not in a mood to call anyone out. Some people just aren’t joiners. I dithered before signing myself.

By now subscribers to this newsletter have had plenty of time to figure out where I fit in the media landscape. I don’t make a show of slagging Teh MaiNStreAM MedIAZ as though having a different business model — quite frankly, after having been forced into a different business model by the collapse of an industry around me — made me morally superior. I still accept payment for my appearances on the CBC and Radio-Canada, as I do for my occasional appearances on CTV. And I’m well aware that government programs to prop up magazine publishing had the effect of subsidizing the journalism we did at Maclean’s, right through the 19 years I was there — through the governments of Paul Martin, Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau.

But I’ve had profound misgivings about extending government subsidies to private news organizations for as long as some colleagues have been working hard to expand those subsidies. I have no problem saying so, again. The Trudeau government has been utterly disdainful of the concerns raised here and elsewhere. They’re content to prop up Potemkin newspapers that can’t afford to do proper reporting, have collapsing audiences even when they give their material away, and face bland-faced stonewalling and a Kafkaesque access-to-information regime from the government that claims to be their friend.

The list of signatories to this declaration is, to some extent, a list of strange bedfellows. There are some people on it with whom I agree on very little. I won’t lose sleep over it. We agree on this. That’s all we claim today and all I need.

I recognize that for many of my subscribers, the fact that I’m less dependent on Ottawa for my work is an important reason to support me. I’ve never marketed myself as a lone defender of truth against the encroaching state, and I don’t plan to start. But do I appreciate your support? Absolutely. Whatever it is I’m doing here, I could never have done it without you.

I’ve been in Edmonton this week working on an ambitious story about the opioid crisis. You’ll have noticed that it’s kept me from writing much this week. I’ll land something soon that will, I hope, have been worth the wait. Thanks, as always, for your patience and support.