I have a friend here in Toronto who is always getting angry at the anti-Indian and anti-Hindu articles in the Toronto Star and New York Times. He is always sending letters contradicting those articles to the Star and they are not publishing them.
I tell him why worry, the Toronto Star is dying, the New York Times is dying, all the traditional media are dying, because people don’t trust them any more. They have been exposed as no more than stooges for their owners.
I will give the same advice to Trinidadians who are appalled at the open subservience of the three daily papers and most of the radio and television media to the ruling black party the People’s National Movement. PNM people own those media and they have to carry out the PNM agenda.
Those stooges have an agenda and nothing you can do will cause them to change. Because ALL of the media carry the agenda of their owners, and pretty much all the media are owned by corporations or governments.
All you have to find out is who owns the media, meaning who owns the majority of the shares, and that is your answer.
If it’s a corporation that that media carries that corporation’s point of view or the general corporation view.
If it’s a government like the CBC or BBC or Russia today then that media will reflect the views of the Canadian government, the British government or the Russian government. Advertisers have some influence too, but not as direct as the influence of the owners.
There are no media seeking the truth and informing the people fearlessly about what is happening. That is a fantasy that has never existed for the last century or more.
I worked for two newspapers in Trinidad and several here in Canada and like the other reporters I knew there were topics we would not touch, and the editors would never allow into the papers. But when I owned my own paper Indo Caribbean Times, well you guessed it, the policies and the view of the paper were mine!
So should we worry about the influence of the New York Times on public opinion? Not really. The Times has a circulation of only 5 million, and you know something? Greta Thunberg has 5 million followers! A Swedish teenage vegan with no money has as much influence at the New York Times, and way more than the Toronto Star.
Tim Pool whom you never heard of, has 1.25 million subscribers on Youtube and he gets, hold on to your shorts, 300 million views on Youtube every month!
The media have been exposed as nothing more than messengers for their bosses, are widely distrusted by the public, their influence waning by the day.
Social media now has more important influencers. Check out https://www.amraandelma.com/100-top-social-media-influencers/. Who’s their top pick? A Swedish comedian named Pewdiepie! Don’t laugh, he has 108 million followers and his videos have collected 26 BILLION views!
CNN in comparison has viewership of just over 900,000 people and its primetime presenters like Anderson Cooper get just about five million views a month while Tim Pool gets 300 million a month.
So what’s the answer to these bigoted, biased and bootlicking traditional media? Get on social media yourself, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, internet discussion groups where the PNM gang in Trinidad and the establishment gang in North America cannot censor what you say, cannot cut you out.
I see quite a few people doing that in Trinidad and plenty more here in Canada, including your humble servant. I write what I want on icdn.today and Facebook and plenty other sites, I have over 54 videos on Youtube on topics that I choose. I don’t buy the Toronto Star or read it online because that costs money or subscriptions and why should I buy that trash? I hear the new owners of the Toronto Star are Nordstar Capital LP, controlled by Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett. Never heard of them before, don’t want to swallow their trash.
Nor do I read the Trinidad Express or Trinidad Guardian online because they want money too and I’m not spending my money on them. I don’t need most of the radio or television media in Trinidad. You don’t either, my friends.
Truth is, the internet and social media have killed the media beast of old and opened up the information and entertainment channels to anybody with a computer and internet connection. And that’s most people, in Trinidad and in here in Canada.