VIDEO: Senator Housakos Explains How Bill C-11 Takes From Successful Digital Content Creators To Prop Up The Legacy Media

InsightSpencerFernando

The government shouldn’t be picking ‘winners and losers’ in the media and content creation space.

If the Liberal government is good at one thing, it’s defending their own narrow political interests.

They are quick to spot threats to their hold over the country, and they don’t hesitate to use state power to ‘fix’ the situation in their favour.

The problem of course is that the key ‘threats’ they face are features of a free and open society, and they end up making the country less free in order to try and stay in control.

And that is the whole point of legislation like Bill C-11.

Since winning the 2015 election, the Liberals have sought to buy off much of the legacy media.

They’ve done so through wage subsidies and newspaper bailouts, while also dramatically increasing CBC funding.

When it comes to the media, the Liberals understand human nature. They know that if a critical mass of the media (who already largely tilt to the left), come to realize that their ongoing financial viability depends on the Liberals remaining in power and continuing to force taxpayers to fund them, then they will become more biased in favour of the Liberals.

It’s why there is a growing trust gap in Canada, and why many Canadians are turning to independent outlets.

After all, it’s tough to trust the legacy media to accurately report on the government when the legacy media depends on that government staying in power, which means the adversarial relationship that is supposed to exist between the media and the government is increasingly being fulfilled by independent outlets who depend on voluntary support, rather than taxpayer money.

Liberals can’t contain the power of technology

Yet, for all of their attempts to use the vast resources of the state to prop up legacy outlets, the Liberals still lack the control they seek.

Technology is advancing so rapidly, and the human instinct to share information and have our voices heard is so strong, that new and independent voices are proliferating rapidly.

For those like the Trudeau Liberals who want to be able to herd all of the media into a nice little box and co-opt them, this trend towards greater diversity of opinion in the media landscape is ‘problematic.’

So, with Bill C-11, the Liberals are directly seeking to weaken independent digital content creators, while strengthening legacy outlets.

It’s all about picking ‘winners and losers,’ and what makes it so absurd is that the Liberals are weakening those who are winning, while propping up those who are losing.

Senator Leo Housakos, who has been doing great work exposing the Liberals’ true intentions with Bill C-11, recently explained what the government is trying to do, and why it is something Canadians should oppose.

I encourage you to watch the videos below, and help spread the word about why Bill C-11 needs to be rejected:

“One of the most telling parts of the night at #TRCM re #C11 – moments after voting AGAINST amendment to ensure digital creators benefit from $ collected from their success, same Senators, incl Government Leader, adopt amendment to give more $ to struggling legacy broadcasters.”

“All the proof you needthat #C11 is about taking money from those who have found success in the new online world and giving it to the failing legacy media to prop them up, look at the amendments that failed from Senator Manning earlier this hour & the one that passed right after.”

“Senator Manning moved 2 amendments to ensure that $ collected from social media services would be invested in the digital creators that make their living in that sphere. They were defeated. And right after, an amendment to give more $ to struggling legacy media was adopted.”

Spencer Fernando

Photo – Twitter

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