On how the media influence Canadian democracy - conclusion

Internet searching for newspaper articles in the Canada.com search engine belonging to CanWest produces more hits - 500 articles from across Canada about bird flu. One of these from the Ottawa Citizen has the most interesting headline: “Pandemic paranoia: Rumsfeld's connection to Tamiflu has conspiracy theorists spinning” “One day Americans were panic-buying Tamiflu, making the influenza remedy the most sought-after drug in the world; the next day, rumours were rampant that the U.S. response to bird-flu was more about profit than public health.” This conglomerate-owned newspaper article acknowledged what was reported in the March 12 London Independent story by Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen entitled “Donald Rumsfeld makes $5m killing on bird flu drug.” The story opens thusly: ”The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease.” Even CNN Money (October 31, 2005), no leftist newspaper, reported on the links between Rumsfeld and Tamiflu. Including in their story that: “former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005”……………………………. “What's more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world's biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase.” According to the Toronto Star avian flu is a problem linked to wild birds and “backyard flocks kept by families” that are the “Province’s Achilles heel” (March 1). Several newspapers neglect to make the distinction, made with all credit to the Toronto Star (March 12), that bird flu has killed or forced the slaughter of millions of chickens and ducks. Several writers only write “killed” or “decimating” (March 11) giving a completely false impression. The Star covered large Ontario poultry farms and their biosecurity protocols (March 20). One other Canadian-focussed story (March 2) was about the quarantined ducks in Quebec which tested negative for the H5N1 virus. Not a word was quoted from those owning the ducks. Nor was there any coverage of the Quebec farmers who now have to keep their flocks indoors and thus risk losing their organic certification and their livelihoods. Quebec shares a provincial border with Ontario and its citizens should be considered newsworthy by The Star. The Star found the following more interesting: Austrian cats with bird flu (March 6), data hoarding by labs (March 12), Roche drug capacity (March 16). This leads me to concur with columnist Molly Ivins who wrote on AlterNet on March 23, “for some reason, publishers assume people will want to buy more newspapers if they have less news in them and are less useful to people.” Meanwhile alternative viewpoints like those of wildlife biologist David Hancock are carried in independent outlets like Vancouver’s Bannerline Communications. Hancock spoke to Dr. George Luterbach, the Director of Veterinary Services CFIA Western Division, who confirmed that wild birds were the vectors of the H7N3 found in BC in 2004 but that wild birds did not carry the lethal form of the virus. Luterbach said the issue boiled down to getting the commercial industry exporting chicken products as soon as possible and that the CFIA had to eliminate the perception that they had not done everything possible. Hancock however linked the spread of avian flu in BC to the dumping of poultry litter including carcasses in fields by commercial farmers, which would be picked up by wild birds when feeding. The venerable BBC reports a similar theory on the spread of avian flu in a report by Dr Leon Bennun (February 17): “countries like Japan and South Korea, which imposed strict controls on the import and movement of domestic poultry after initial outbreaks, have suffered no further infections…………countries which have not yet developed a large-scale intensive poultry industry have also been largely spared. The FAO reports that in Laos, 42 out of 45 outbreaks affected intensive poultry units.” Doesn’t The Star read its own headlines? On March 20 The Star quoted a Belwood poultry farmer who said “bird flu’s always been around.” Given the recent multi-part headline in the Toronto Star (March 23, 2006), “Scientists find bird flu clue - Why virus limited in spread to people - Not easily coughed or sneezed out”; is it not in the public interest to investigate if the Canadian health service is investing taxpayer dollars in a pandemic that may not materialise but has only become important due to extensive media coverage that [who knows] may have been shaped by the extensive political connections of the biotech company with a patent on Tamiflu? Even conspiracy theories need investigation [and could sell newspapers]. An investigative report on avian flu was done by GRAIN, an international non-governmental organisation that promotes the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity. In a post about the GRAIN report to the organic listserve I mentioned earlier, an organic farmer mused on the non-appearance of this report or even the sustainable agriculture viewpoint in the major newspapers. A musing that brings me full circle - the consolidation of the media has had a negative influence on Canadian democracy. Given the definition of democracy as the ability of all, even the little organic guy, or wildlife biologist, to have his/her viewpoint represented in the most read newspaper in Canada. I echo Camp’s call for more “meliorists” which doesn’t mean advocacy journalism, but “optimists who believe something can be done about improving things.” An activist who embodies my interpretation of that oft-quoted Edward Bulwer-Lytton expression, “the pen is mightier than the sword [of neoliberalism].”