Nobody believed them anyway.

CNN had repeatedly insisted that senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen and the network maintained “full editorial control” about what they reported when the former was in inside Iran. But, in an interview with the U.K.-based newspaper The Guardian, which was less of an interview and more just answering prompts, Pleitgen asserted that he and his cameraman didn’t have a “minder” lurking over them. Yet, when he described who guided him around and what he was allowed to see, it very much sounded like a minder.

Peter Menzies- “The soft, silent takeover of the nation’s press” rolls on relentlessly

It will be a process – a series of nips and tucks to legislation and fund regulations that will continually tighten the bureaucratic grip on the throats of the nation’s once free press. Unless you follow the Canada Gazette or subscribe to The Rewrite, you’ll probably never hear about it. But trust that what Rudyard Griffiths, publisher of The Hub, calls “the soft, silent takeover of the nation’s press” is underway.

Peter Menzies- Traditions thrown overboard as media leave unexplained Carney’s redefinition of acceptable conduct during an election

He’s able to do so because at the dawn of this campaign, he got the authority to do pretty much whatever he wants when fresh guidelines for appropriate behaviour were posted. Either no one within our media noticed, or there was a collective decision the changes didn’t amount to a big enough deal to let people know about them.

But I repeat myself.

Peter Menzies- Life moves too fast for media who happily credit only one guy for plunge in prices at the pump

CBC most professional while Global went full blown Carney fan when it came to carbon tax reduction coverage

Peter Menzies- This is the first election in which media have a direct financial stake in the outcome: does it show?

Welcome to the first Canadian election in which reporters covering it have the incumbent government to thank for showering their bosses with hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies.

Peter Menzies- Gloves are off, elbows are up, media cross swords and accusations of shilling for the Liberals fly

Grits grabbing Globe and CBC content for attack ads supporting Carney’s “positive” campaign while CTV Ottawa drops all pretence of journalism as anything other than a circus sideshow

The (checks notes) “independent” media.

The Woodbridge Company- Woodbridge is the principal and controlling shareholder (67.8%) of Thomson Reuters, a multinational media conglomerate.[3] Thomson Reuters was formed in 2008, when the Thomson Corporation acquired Reuters.[4]

In late 2010, Woodbridge sold its 40% interest in CTVglobemedia (a Canadian media company with ownership of the CTV Television Network) to BCE Inc. Woodbridge held an 85% interest in The Globe and Mail newspaper before acquiring the remaining 15% owned by BCE in August 2015.[5]

From earlier today…

Blacklock’s- Rogers Petitions For Subsidies

One of the nation’s largest telecom companies is petitioning MPs for the same newsroom subsidies paid to newspapers. Rogers Communications Inc. said excluding TV and radio employees was unfair.

Blacklock’s- Lib Senator Edits Press Article

A Liberal-appointed senator says the government has a duty to correct media thinking.

Moncion, a former credit union CEO from North Bay, Ont., said she edited the press item as chair of the Senate committee on internal economy. The Senate was told she instructed staff to revise an August 21 commentary in the Ottawa weekly Hill Times that complained of Senate overspending. The Hill Times complied.