Another viewpoint.

• Author: Mildon, Marsha

In the early 70s, I lived for a year in Oslo, Norway. In the city of Oslo, there were five newspapers: the two biggest were Aftenposten owned by the Hoyre party, roughly the equivalent of our Progressive Conservatives; Dagbladet owned by the Social Democrats, roughly the equivalent of our New Democratic Party; and three others owned by more minor parties in the national legislature. To get a balanced idea of Norwegian news, we had to read Aftenposten, Dagbladet, perhaps one of the others, and check out the daily newscast on the national television network. To get a balanced idea of world news, we had to turn on our short-wave radio, through which we listened to BBC, CBC World Service, Voice of America, Voice of South Africa, and the international broadcasts from Russia. It was a remarkable education in the way that the point of view of the media owner gently or sometimes overtly shaped both the news that was chosen to be presented, and the way that that news was presented.

So it does not come as a surprise to me to hear that the liberal-leaning Asper family has suggested that all of its papers across the nation should run the editorials the Asper family wishes--at least three times a week. Nor was I surprised when during the first year of Asper--CanWest Global--control of the Southam chain of newspapers and The National Post, political cartoons were rejected; columns were required to be rewritten or killed; columnists resigned or went on by-line strikes to protest. I was surprised at the apparent political naivete in the recent firing of Russel Mills as publisher of the Ottawa Citizen. But my surprise there was about the political naivete and ineptness of that firing, not that they would remove a publisher who didn't toe their line.

My general lack of surprise, however, does not suggest that I think the current state of media in Canada should receive a Grade A rating; indeed, I believe our mass media generally merit a failing grade. There are three major problems that I see:

First, there is what I will call the business case problem. In the business case argument, people state -- rather as I have implied above -- that he who owns the ball, decides the rules. The Canadian Newspaper Association has a Statement of Principles, and one of those principles, "Community Responsibility", suggests that while owners certainly will have an affect on editorial direction, there are other responsibilities:

"The newspaper has responsibilities to its...