CANADIANS ~ INTEGRATE THIS!

SEE NO EVIL, REPORT NO EVIL. WHY THE MEDIA ISN'T TELLING YOU ABOUT DEEP INTEGRATION.

It has become the great North American non-issue.

At the end of 2006, the Canadian Press compiled a list of the year’s major news events. The March meeting in Cancun between Stephen Harper, Vicente Fox and George Bush, where the three leaders furthered the goals of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), did not make the cut.

When it comes to the SPP, the Canadian and American media seem to have adopted a “see no evil, report no evil” strategy. every major Canadian daily newspaper Is the property of a parent owner with interests that extend far beyond publishing.

As the media officer for the Council of Canadians, it’s my job to get journalists interested in social justice issues. I figured that the SPP had all the makings of a great news item. It’s full of what journalists refer to as “news values” – characteristics that would make a story newsworthy. After all, the SPP will have a significant impact on a large number of people. It involves prominent and powerful government and business leaders.

But the public is being left in the dark.

In March, it will be two years since the leaders of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico launched the Security and Prosperity Partnership in Waco, Texas. By now, if the media had done its job, the SPP would be a household name like NAFTA and the WTO. Yet most Canadians remain blissfully unaware of this powerful new agreement.

So, you may ask, why has such a contentious issue drawn so little media attention? And what does this say about the state of the Canadian news industry?

Media convergence

According to Christopher Dornan, “by 2002, with only a handful of exceptions, every major Canadian daily newspaper was the property of a parent owner with interests that extend far beyond publishing.”

Daily newspapers in Canada are owned for the most part by large media conglomerates that also own broadcasting and/or telecommunications outlets. CanWest, for example, owns dailies and television networks across the country. The Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest national daily, is owned by Bell Canada Enterprise, a corporation with both broadcast and telecommunication interests.

Large broadcast and telecommunications corporations in Canada like CanWest have been pushing for the relaxation of foreign ownership rules in order to attract U.S. investors and gain access to U.S. markets. The harmonization of broadcast and telecommunications regulation across North America would help serve this goal.

In fact, both Power Corporation of Canada (owner of La Presse) and Bell Canada Enterprise (owner of The Globe and Mail and CTV) sit on the North American Competitiveness Council, the business advisory body created at the Cancun leaders’ summit to counsel governments on the Security and Prosperity Partnership.

No wonder it’s so hard for groups like the Council of Canadians to get stories critical of the SPP published in the mainstream press. The Council’s opposition to deep integration directly challenges the big media corporations that are fighting for the deregulation of broadcast and telecommunications policies across the continent.

Overstretched newsrooms

But to be fair to the many journalists who are not majority shareholders in companies like CanWest or CTV Globemedia, there are more pragmatic reasons why the SPP does not get the attention it deserves.

The concentration of media has led to the downsizing of newsrooms across Canada.

In a study on how corporate concentration affects the newsroom, James McLean compared the newsgathering capacity of CKCK (CTV) television in Regina, Saskatchewan, in the late 1980s with that of 2004.

One significant change, he noted, was the drop in “enterprise reporting” – research-heavy stories initiated by journalists. According to McLean, the smaller newsroom structure with fewer resources allows for less in-depth investigative reports. The trend observed at the CKCK newsroom is a reflection of a change in newsroom culture across the country.

For an issue like deep integration, where most developments occur at secret meetings behind closed doors, there is very little opportunity for the issues to be summed up in a couple of sound bites. These stories require digging, and digging takes time – and money.

Security chill

Still, a newspaper’s editorial slant can’t only be attributed to its owner’s business interests. Reporters and editors are just as affected by world events as anyone else. And since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, it seems that the media’s characterization of activists has changed in concert with the general public’s anxiety about security issues.

Media analyst Robert Hackett explains that the mainstream media’s concern with objectivity, or presenting both sides of a controversial issue, does not extend to groups that are perceived as “deviant.” If the Council of Canadians received positive coverage during the NAFTA debate, for example, it was because the Council’s opposition to these agreements fit into the media’s notion of “legitimate controversy.”

In its rhetoric, the Security and Prosperity Partnership combines general security concerns with the trade agenda of large corporations. In describing the SPP’s purpose, the Canadian and U.S. governments make a point of reminding citizens of the so-called “terrorist threat.” In post-9/11 North America, it’s difficult to criticize an agreement that begins with the term “security.”

Making inroads

At the Council of Canadians, we have made some major inroads into the media. In 2006, at least 14 letters written by Council of Canadians staff members or chapter activists were published in newspapers across Canada. In addition, newspapers ran several opinion pieces written by Maude Barlow and other progressive Canadians criticizing the SPP.

As Canada prepares to host the next summit of NAFTA leaders, the Canadian media will be forced to pay closer attention to the Security and Prosperity Partnership. More importantly, the public deserves to know that major policy decisions are being made without their consultation.

Meera Karunananthan is The Council of Canadians’ Media Officer.

• For more information about deep integration and the Security and Prosperity Partnership, click here.
• The Council of Canadians' media room

INTEGRATE THIS! Challenging the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. Check out the links below.

• Free Trade’s Big Lie: NAFTA has failed to create quality jobs or close the income gap, by Jean-Yves LeFort
• Way Too Close for Comfort: Canada-U.S. military and security integration endangers all Canadians, by Stuart Trew
• Courting TILMA: U.S. investors eye Alberta and B.C.’s interprovincial trade agreement, by Stuart Trew
• Unlikely Bedfellows: Right-wing U.S. groups oppose deep integration – for the wrong reasons, by Ariel Troster
• “People Would Be Outraged”: An interview with Tom Loudon from the Alliance for Responsible Trade, by Ariel Troster
• See No Evil, Report No Evil: Why the media isn’t telling you about deep integration, by Meera Karunananthan
• The Council of Canadians’ Demands