Giamb Upshot: Govt Regulation of Media Needed

In the wake of SCC ruling on defamation, establishing “responsible communication” defence when journalism is practiced in "public interest", journalists were all congratulating each other on what fine chaps they were, and in this mature society, this was all to the good, etc.. But as media behaviour in Giambrone case has made clear, our media are still too immature to handle the responsibility, and there is no sign they will mature any time soon - nothing has changed since CTV assassination of Dion, and if anything, the Giambrone case signals a new low (and we speak here of a self-congratulatory profession already so low that it has been morally complicit in the detainment and torture of innocent Canadians, from Arar to Khadr and all the others). In other societies, whose media are more heterogeneous, numerous, mature and just plain better, they have recognised that their media needs oversight to restrain and correct its faults, however superior it is compared to our own. Hence there are bodies like OFCOM with real teeth, to make sure the punishment fits the crime. And though the British PCC is far superior to our own milquetoast equivalents, even editors of major newspapers and former Press Council Heads recognise it isn't tough enough and stricter government regulation may be necessary.

The media's "Black Ink Wall" resembles the police in its corporatist self-congratulation and protection of their own interests. Since they are seemingly incapable of self-control & meaningful self-regulation, since their irresponsibility can have devastating lasting consequences - once spoken or written, bad journalism can never be undone - the media need the same sort of outside regulation as the police have, with the same sort of powers and penalties at the regulators' disposal so as to discourage trash journalism of the Diebel-Star/Duffy-CTV type.

If the Canadian media are as fairminded as they claim, they will doubtless be enthusiastic to endorse this well-founded, neutral proposal.

Consider, otherwise, how few of our great statesmen, men like Trudeau and Lévesque, would have had political careers given the current baseness. When a paper like the Star has become so unhinged as to employ reporters to engage in condom-sniffing, confuses public and private matters, and is so intent on destroying some foolish horndog`s career, with no substantive public interest justification whatsoever, as to seek not just to end his political campaign but deny him any role in public life, it is clearly time to rein in these discombobulated sods.