An intelligent counter-point

This e-mail was just sent to me to be posted on the blog. I feel it effectively and intelligently counters many of the arguments currently being made in defense of the CanWest deal. This letter is a direct response to an e-mail from Don Peat. Many of the same arguments can be found throughout this blog in the comments section.

Thank you to Prof. Robinson for allowing me to post this on the blog!

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Dear Colleagues,

I'd like to question a couple points raised in Don Peat's email, and
offer, afterwards, some words on the business rationale for the Canwest
donation.

(Don's comments are in quotations; my responses follow.)

"Simon Fraser University has received money from Canwest since 1989. Receiving $200,000 in 2001 alone.Yet their students, and their graduates, still speak out against Canwest and Canwest media outlets (http://www.presscampaign.org/articles_4.html)."

1. Actually, this article, written by James Compton, is about the Seattle -WTO protest of 1999. It doesn't mention Canwest by name and was written, it would seem, well before Canwest acquired Southam and the accompanying controversy.

"This article is interesting because it is one of many articles written by UBC students that is critical of Canwest, yet UBC has received $500,000 from Canwest to establish a chair similar to the one they are proposing at Western(http://www.journalism.ubc.ca/faculty_canwest.html)."

2. The study under question (content analysis of press/tv coverage) was conducted between 6 Oct and 6 Nov. 2001. UBC's press release announcing the journalism school's first Canwest Fellow occurred AFTERWARD, on 13 Nov. 2001.


"Clearly, the UBC journalists have not been bought by the Canwest gift nor has their silence been gained. Previous emails have called forevidence, I submit the above paragraphs as evidence that Canwest has been unable to buy silence in other universities or indoctrinate their students."

3. Respectfully, this is weak evidence. Both cases cited occurred BEFORE the disclosure of Canwest connections with their respective universities.

" Fascinating that in a free and democratic society Canwest seems to keep an entire staff of prisoners. Insulting to many of the journalists that work at these organizations who are proud to work for their media outlet and who willingly go to work daily for Canadians but also for Canwest."

4. UWO journalism students in 2002 heard this first-hand when William Marsden, a National Newspaper Award winning journalist from the Canwest-owned Montreal Gazette, spoke in my class about the severe problems associated with Canwest management of the newsroom. To read similar accounts, type in "Canwest and Zerbisias" or "Canwest and
Kimber/Mills" in Factiva or related databases.

"It doesn't give the faculty themselves the opportunity to join in, to as another professor described it, be pro-journalism, to share our values and fight our fight, to stand with us in a grand vision of journalistic 'solidarity.'"

5. Sarcasm aside, your point about the underfunding of journalism students has some validity. (Bear in mind, though, we are constantly told by UWO officials that the per-student cost of a journalism degree is comparable to that of a dentistry degree -for which UWO charges some $18,000 in tuition annually).

Professional students (MLIS and Journalism) need more funding. The university provides no support for professional degree students, unlike thesis-based graduate students, who in FIMS receive more than $15,000 annually. In the past four years, I've funded, from research grants, 6 MLIS and 4 MA-Journalism students, some of whom (Kath Janson an Jennifer Haynes) now work in research-intensive journalism positions at CTV and CBC. However, generally speaking, officials would prefer that I (and others, presumably) channel the bulk of research funding to thesis-based graduate students, for whom FIMS is obligated to provide minimum funding levels.

And $2,500 for one student per year is, frankly, a pathetically small sum for graduate study. (Note the much larger scholarships offered even by Canwest). I've provided far more than this sum to journalism students over the years and I would encourage others to fund journalism students (and MLIS ones, for that matter) from their research grants as well.

6. Finally, what Don Peat's addendum list of Canwest donations doesn't convey is that many of them are part of the "benefits package" that Canwest assembled in order to secure CRTC approval of its purchase in 2000 of broadcaster WIC Western International Communication. (See http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/eng/Decisions/2000/DB2000-221.htm -
CRTC decision: 6 July 2000)

Generally, when companies buy existing broadcasters they are required by the CRTC to offer a "Benefits Package" of spending totaling about 10% of the purchase price. For Canwest, this package was about $84 million, $13 million of which was slated for "grants, scholarships and endowments to assist studies in communications, new media and other such relatedfields at various Canadian colleges and universities." (Curious, isn't it, that journalism isn't mentioned specifically?) It's really a type of 'media concentration' tax (or tithe?) payable not to the state but to
specified third-party groupings, but which still allows the donor to present the donation as a magnanimous act of public service, rather than merely the costs of doing business in a highly state-regulated sector like broadcasting.

FIMS should not, in principle, refuse 'benefits package' donations. (Indeed, our BCE chair, I think, is cut from the same cloth.) But we need to know how and why such donations occur "in the real world", to use a popular phrase of late, in order to understand their significance and any possible shortcomings.

best,
Daniel

The time is upon us...

Wow...what a ride these past couple days have been.

First and foremost, the FreeMIT team would like to thank EVERYONE who has come to this blog and participated in the discussion. It is really good to see that people have taken such an interest in such an important issue. The only way to find our way through this complicated issue is to discuss it and we have definitely had the opportunity to do that. None of this could have been possible without all of your support.

As the townhall is tomorrow, we request that anyone who is against this CanWest purchase to please wear as much red as possible tomorrow. Although we will not all be given the opportunity to vocally express our opinions, by wearing red we will be able to give an extremely visual representation of our opinions.

As it has been said before by many people, this resistance to CanWest is not an attack on Journalists. This resistance is to send a message to CanWest that we do not agree with their policies that inhibit journalistic freedoms. This resistance is also to the corporate purchasing of public education. We understand that our programs require money to run; however, we are concerned that by allowing another corporation to begin funding these programs we could find ourselves completely dependent on corporate financing of programs, putting the corporations in a position of power over academia.

It is important that you come out tomorrow to the Townhall to hear all sides of the argument and ensure that our opinions are heard by our faculty. After all, you are a part of this community and have every right to have your voice heard.

In Solidarity, In Mobilization,

The FreeMIT Team

Keeping CanWest out of FIMS is pro-journalist

This letter was recently sent to Francisco and it makes some incredible points. Professor Burston has graciously given FreeMIT permission to publish this letter to the public.

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Dear Francisco,

Thanks for asking me to send along this email, which was recently posted to the FIMS faculty list as part of an ongoing debate we’re having there on the CanWest purchase. For the sake of clarity, we enter the email a little ways in, where I respond to a recent posting by my cherished colleague in Journalism, Mary Doyle. Mary favours a CanWest-FIMS affiliation, and had noted in support of her position the impressive number of National Newspaper Award nominations
recently garnered by journalists working for CanWest papers.

Cheers,

JB

***

…Which brings me to Mary's important email, and an absolutely vital point that somehow keeps getting buried. The various journalists, editors and others at CanWest-owned papers who have recently garnered National Newspaper Award nominations deserve our vigorous applause. The impressive number of said nominations is a testament to the high quality of journalistic endeavour boasted by CanWest employees across the country. It is a level of quality to which many of our own journalism students rightly aspire.

The point is, however, that these same individuals deserve our sustained applause precisely because they have been labouring under conditions so exceptionally threatening to their integrity for so long. Our quarrel is not with CanWest *journalists*, in other words. It is with the CanWest *owners* and the higher-ups in CanWest management who do not hesitate to do their egregious bidding. And if, as some suggest, CanWest is 'not as bad as it used to be' in this regard, it is certainly far, far too early to let CanWest owners off the hook for past abuses, given the still-very-recent status of some of them and the singularly lengthy and preposterous overall record boasted by this particular company.

Keeping CanWest from appropriating our institutional integrity by way of an extremely cynical symbolic purchase -- a purchase that CanWest owners would make, not CanWest employees -- in fact constitutes a heartfelt show of support for working journalists who continue to battle the forces of press degredation with such inspiring elan. It will say to them: We share your values, we fight your fight.

In solidarity,

Jonathan Burston

New message board

In the interest of an open and neutral discussion on these issues, a message board has been created that all can begin posting on and discussing. This was not made because we at FreeMIT do not want opposing viewpoints (because we feel discussion is EXTREMELY important); however, as you can tell from the blog's description, this blog was created for students who oppose the agreement to get together and form a unifed front.

Although we will never censor/delete opposing viewpoints that are posted on the site, really, it is here for people to come and read about actions and resistance that is/will be happening to try and preserve what is left of our faculty's autonomy from corporate control.

Finally, blogs are just not a great place for discussion. They are really made for sender-receiver communication with the added feature of comments. As a result, the message board is far more conducive to a discussion of the issues.

I apologize for the drab/boring appearance of the message board in advance; it's pretty basic. The good news is it should load extremely fast as there are few graphics to be loaded.

Enjoy: Open Discussion on CanWest/Fims Agreement Message Board

Thought from www.heknowswords.blogspot.com

For those who don't know, I am currently approaching my final month of a four year BA in Media, Information, and Technoculture at the University of Western Ontario. A young but incredibly diverse degree in cultural and media theory which gives its students critical and broad knowledge of how media is consumed in the world, what the pros, the cons, and the hopes for the future are in the media industries today. The program has developed the person who is writting this for you today, and I credit the program for who I have become and for giving me the opportunity to meet the most intelligent and promising minds this country has to offer in terms of media literate citizens who can make an active contribution and change to how the world works in the age of information and spectacle.As I approach my final exams a recent debate has been stirred on the administrative level of my faculty to which I have been devoted to for four years.

To best sum up the current issue I will quote a letter by Professor Nick Dyer Witherford from www.freemit.blogspot.com which is a blog created by students who are concerned over the following issue. Be aware that all the details of the deal are not included in the below quote, but I trust Nick to have pretty much summed up what the CanWest FIMS deal will be:

"You recently informed some of us that discussions are underway to institute a FIMS CanWest Fellowship. As I understand it, this endowment would be for approximately $1 million, funding the annual appointment for one semester of a visiting Fellow who would lecture and research on media, journalism or cultural studies; there would be ‘no strings attached’ to the Fellow’s research agenda; and the endowment would provide additional moneys for scholarships."

Now, the major critique that has been driven out of this potential business deal is that by selling a seat on our administrative board we are compromising the integrity of what our program has founded its roots upon, which is the critical awareness of the concentration of media ownership, the inherent bias in media reporting, and a degree which prides itself on producing aware students who may in the future change how media is consumed. By teaming up with one of Canada's most notorious media conglomerates and an overall shady media entity that tries to portray objectivity in its very subjective programming and reporting we are basically slapping the face of our program's mandate and furthering the gap between where the theory we are taught conflicts with the reality of the world.
It should be noted that Rogers and Bell Communications already do have endowments into our programs.

Though I completely agree that the selling of our program's power seats to major media conglomerates is endagering the integrity of that which we as students are being taught, I would like to add this insight into the debate in defense of the merger, solely with respect to the strength of the minds that I have come to know of the students in this program.If this deal were to go down, in my eyes this would provide an ideal democratic public sphere for the education of media industries at Western. In one corner we would have the current professor's who have produced in my mind an aware and active citizen whom wants to and believes can effect change as to how information is consumed by the public, if the opportunity to do so arises in my future. Now if today, I were to sit in a CanWest taught class, I would not sit there as a amoeba soaking in the schlock that a conglomerate tries to feed me as the truth (that's what college is for). I would sit there, listen, and then raise my hand and my concerns for that which I am being taught.

For instance, if I was being taught objective journalism writting by CanWest, I would raise my hand and say :" Excuse me sir or madame, but isn't it improper to try and write objectively when inherent subjective opinions will always naturally bleed through any language I try and robotically spew out? Wouldn't it be better for me to introduce an article with my name and opinion, followed by the facts which have led me to my beliefs so that my readers could derive their own opinion from my work, and possibly write me back engaging them in the discursive opportunities the public sphere allows?" (and then I would smile, get an F, and probably not be in MIT anymore cause if I fail a half course, I get the boot! but whatever.)My point here is that just because CanWest wants to jump aboard the Rogers and Bell train, (which has proven Ryerson's programs very beneficial in that their students resources are top notch) does not mean that I am going to shift my beliefs as to how the mediated world operates and how it needs to be changed.

My only critique to the critics of this proposed deal is that, just because it is selling out the values that our program is based upon, moreso it is providing a realist opportunity for change. Let me paint you a picture:

Deal goes down, CanWest head hunts a mind that has been taught by the active network of professors that have driven the way in which I think, which is to be critical of all messages, practices, and understand that messages we consume are not the truth but merely taglines looking to be sold to the public. That headhunted mind takes his critical knowledge into CanWest and works his way to a highlevel position within the company. That MIT student thanks to the CanWest head hunting creates a new privately funded public broadcasting station because he or she was able to pitch it to the big wigs as a profitable and yet socially beneficial venture. Canada's public sphere grows, CanWest sees the ere to their ways, and the world lives happily ever after.Yes the above was a fairy tale, but so is the critique that Fox News and Macdonald's are the next to invest in the program (but thats more of a brother's Grimm fairy tale than mine was).

So to conclude this creator of a very tiny scroll bar square (meaning really long post), all I want to ad is that if this deal goes down, FIMS gets a million bucks, please don't any of the critics think that this will somehow shift the mindset of the students who are graduating from this program. Professors like Nick Dyer-Witherford have taught me too much to be weened away by the flashy lights and fancy spliced names like CanWest Global. If anything I see this potential deal has an opportunity for the mold to be broken, our faces to be introduced to the power structures of the world, and the potential beginning of an MIT program with national awareness and avenues for which our next generation new age, hippy minds to get out there and make a difference

.endrant.thankyou.

A simple request

First and foremost, we would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to swing by the blog, read some of the posts and comment. It is extremely heartwarming to know that members of our community care so much about this issue. We would encourage everyone to continue checking out this site as we will be posting information about our unified plan of resistance to the CanWest Agreement in the next few days.

Having said that, we have a very simple (but important) request of all viewers to this blog. Please refrain from senseless name calling and other personal attacks. This blog was not created so that people from both sides of the argument can come together and call each other mean names. Rather, this blog was created to be a location for individuals interested in rallying against the CanWest Agreement. It is for this reason that we request that everyone stop the personal attacks and act civil.

This is not to say you cannot have a differing opinion. We would once again like to thank Don Peat (and the anonymous individual who posted his letter) for contributing to this dialogue. It is important to hear all sides of the debate. As we've said before, this blog is attempting to rally students who oppose the CanWest deal to go out to the Forum on Monday to voice their own opinion and hear the opinions of the other side. However, there is no need to begin a flamewar. As a result, we respectfully request that all viewers of this site "be bigger people" and disregard all personal attacks and childish name calling.

On a personal note, the team running this blog will continue to reply to comments, concerns and arguments against or for the CanWest deal; however, we will ignore ALL posts that include personal attacks or name calling.

SPEAK OUT!

Thank You to David Jackson who has informed us that the Townhall Meeting will be on Monday at high noon in room 295, North Campus Building.

again,
TOWNHALL MEETING RE: CANWEST AGREEMENT
12:00PM
NORTH CAMPUS BUILDING, ROOM 295

COME AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD

A message from the future

I was sitting here writing my final paper for MIT231 when a robot from the future contacted me. She is from the year 2015, a time where the CanWest agreement was signed. To help urge the student body to prevent the horrible future she now lives on she has sent me this artist rendition of what our collective futures look like if this agreement goes ahead.

Thank you Cybernetic Ghost of MIT Past from the Future

A passionate plea from an MIT Professor

I have just gotten my hands on a passionate letter written by Professor Nick Dyer-Witheford to MIT's Dean regarding this agreement. Thank you so much to Professor Dyer-Witheford for allowing me to post this letter. I hope it will hit as closely to home for all of you as it did for me.

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“The hand that gives, rules.”
Bantu proverb

Dear Catherine,
I am writing to you about the current negotiations between our Faculty and the media corporation CanWest Global. You recently informed some of us that discussions are underway to institute a FIMS CanWest Fellowship. As I understand it, this endowment would be for approximately $1 million, funding the annual appointment for one semester of a visiting Fellow who would lecture and research on media, journalism or cultural studies; there would be ‘no strings attached’ to the Fellow’s research agenda; and the endowment would provide additional moneys for scholarships.

While I appreciate the care with which this arrangement has been crafted, I believe it should be rejected because it compromises the integrity of our Faculty. The issue is the branding of academic activity by a corporation with an exceptional record of abusing media power.

Can West stands out amongst Canadian media for its unremitting assertion of proprietorial rights to control media content, control that it consistently exercises against contending claims of journalistic responsibility and the public interest. Since 2000, many CanWest employees, including some of the most deeply respected Canadian journalists, have been fired, forced into resignation, disciplined or marginalized in the workplace for contesting directives to follow a managerial ‘line’ reporting on a number of issues. In 2002, the Brussels based International Federation of Journalists, one of the largest journalists organizations in the world, condemned Can West for “corporate censorship and the victimization of journalists who are trying to defend professional standards.” The events leading up to this are numerous, well known, and well documented; a useful archive can be found at http://www.montrealnewspaperguild.com/canwestlinks2.htm.

I will, however, detail one recent event indicative of the standards informing Can West Global news management. In September 2004 one of the world's leading news agencies, Reuters, complained that CanWest newspaper editors had been altering words and phrases in its stories dealing with the Middle East, inserting the word ‘terrorist’ as a descriptor for various-- mainly Arab--political organization. This was done without the knowledge or consent of Reuters, and without informing readers. There are at least three dimensions to this incident that warrant attention: a) insertion in wire reports of a term that is, in the age of ‘war on terror’, propagandistically loaded; b) deceit of the public, who were not made aware of the stealth editing; c) endangering Reuters workers, whose safety in conflict zones depends on perceived impartiality. The net effect is Orwellian.

Can West has for some years had a well-earned public relations crisis, attracting widespread criticism from both working journalists, public intellectuals and media scholars. Now the company is on a charm offensive to rehabilitate its image as a ‘good corporate citizen’ –without (as the date of the episode described above shows)-- any real change to its corporate practices. The CanWest Fellowship makes our Faculty a partner in this legitimization effort.

It is, of course, tempting to imagine we might ‘have our cake and eat it too,’ hiring Can West Fellows who, with exquisite academic irony, incisively expose CanWest practice. There is, however, no guarantee at all that this will happen. Even if it did, such critique is undercut by its dependence on corporate largesse. Indeed, the administrative approval given our corporate sponsor implicitly repudiates the work of all faculty members critical of CanWest and other media behemoths.

It might be argued that, since we already have Chairs endowed by Rogers and Bell, why not CanWest? This argument—if we take one, we’ve got to take ‘em all—seems to me precisely an argument against any relations with corporate sponsorships. If, however, such relations are to have integrity, we must be able to make continuing ethical discriminations. After all, if not CanWest, why not Fox News, or the Pentagon Channel?

Finally, the compelling appeal of the Fellowship is that —what else—we need the money. But the endowment, substantial as it is, will not alone solve any economic problems FIMS faces. The entire picture of university funding is, at this post-Rae Report moment, uncertain. This is not the moment to sell out on FIMS founding principles of critical media practice in the public interest, thereby following the logic of ‘to save the village, we had to destroy it.’

No critical media intellectual in the contemporary university practices with clean hands; all of us compromise on a daily basis. Nonetheless, the Can West Fellowship presents a significant choice to those who speak of protecting public space from corporate enclosure, and fostering a communication commons. Walking the talk means rejecting the offer-with all the inconvenience, difficulty, and, yes, even ‘struggle,’ that this entails. Accepting it, however, just gives our students, our corporate masters, and us, another cynical lesson about the gap between our theory and our practice. This is a deal whose price is too high; I urge you to reconsider it.

Yours sincerely,

Nick Dyer-Witheford

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the "Free mit" campaign. This blog will be the base of operations for all action concerning the agreement currently being negotiated between the Faculty of Information and Media studies and CanWest.

Please check out the links along the side bar as they articulate many of the concerns that people have with affiliating the faculty with a media conglomerate that has betrayed many of the founding principles of 'the free press'.

This agreement is a direct corporate encroachment into a public academic space and it is our responsibility, as both members of the academic and London community, to resist this attack at all cost. Our faculty is NOT for sale and now is the time to raise our voices and prove it.

Stay tuned for details as they become available.

In Solidarity, In Mobilization...

Jeff Preston
Honours MPI III