Corporate Media No Longer Controls What We Are All Permitted to Know
We received a message yesterday from a self-identified 'frequent visitor' to our website who asked, "Your story is interesting and clearly supported so why is it not on mainstream?". The answer is simple and two-fold. First, we have been contacted by several corporate network media sources, but we have declined them the ability to steal our story or to misrepresent the facts. One right-wing US network wanted to do a feature piece, but their reputation is abhorrent, and we did not want to sully our reputation through association. Second, we frankly don't trust any of them as they are all corporate, and as we have seen through the morally corrupt actions of the brokers of Verico the Mortgage Station, the management team of Verico Financial Group Inc., and the board of directors of HomeEquity Bank, selfish is as corporate does.
On one side, you have the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan valued at C$241.6 billion, and on the other a small, not-for-profit community media channel.
Regardless of the David and Goliath nature of this story, we have been reporting without interruption for more than two years. No identifiable person has contested our claims or our evidence, and no court action has been served to stop us through the threat of a judgement of costs or by a demand for injunctive relief. We have had some huff, puff, and bluff sent to us through a generic email by somebody hiding behind anonymity, but based on our open and legally supported reply, none of these multi-million and multi-billion-dollar companies have mustered the courage to take legal action against our small, not-for-profit, community media service that donates all services to local charities, not-for-profits, and benevolent community groups. If we were lying, the result in court would be extremely one sided; however, we have the receipts for what we say which is what is causing them to keep their lawyers on a leash for fear of attracting more media coverage. As one potential client wrote in an email to David Flude: (full email)
![Ethical 'people's media is replacing their corrupt corporate counterparts.](images/24-07-08-george-carlin-quote.jpg)
Ethical 'people's media is replacing their corrupt corporate counterparts.
"If he was what you claim he would not be putting his name on his work, and you would have sued him a long time ago as he openly taunts you to do more times than I could count."
Corrupt corporations in Canada used to be able to control media content, both corporate and independent, through abusive Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP) lawsuits through which the mega-wealthy could silence their critics through frivolous outlandish claims of damages that served only to bully journalists, media networks, and other organizations of lessor resources. As journalists, we have faced off with and defeated several corrupt corporations threatening SLAPP litigation, and also abuses of our criminal justice system, as is detailed in a letter we sent to a full partner of a prestigious Toronto law firm who threatened to sue us for exposing a slumlord whose negligence contributed to the death of a disabled man. From that experience, we can say it is a benefit to all that this form of bullying through litigation is now frowned upon by our legal system and is easily dismissed with costs payable to the victim based on recent rulings of the Supreme Court of Canada.
When they can't bully, corporations buy control of the content.
The trend now is for the uber-powerful to simply buy out media companies and control the narrative. That is happening around the world, and especially in North America. This ongoing reign of Trump is the best example. News services like CNN that used to expose the wannabe dictator at every opportunity are now supporting him by omission as are other media services that used to laugh at him. The reason is simply ratings. The more they cover the 34 times convicted felon, the more money they make from advertising. Fortunately, people's media like the Meidas Touch Network, The Young Turks, and Legal AF are maintaining ethical broadcasting through YouTube and Podcasts.
Our narrative has never changed, which makes it hard for those we are exposing to challenge the facts without sitting down for an on-camera interview or filing civil action in court that they cannot support with evidence.
Now, through collaboration with other concerned individuals and groups who have grievances with Verico the Mortgage Station, the management team of Verico Financial Group Inc., the board of directors of HomeEquity Bank, or even the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP), those who feel they have no voice, along with political and social activists, can now spread concerns and add a voice to their strong desire to protect the rights of seniors. The benefit to us is we are growing simply through association. Our stories are being picked up and retold on other websites, through social media, and via mass emails sent out by senior's advocates, the politically and social active, labour movement members, and soon, by the thousands of Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) dissenters who are engraged that their pension plan is profiting from selling weapons to Israel in support of the genocidal slaughter of innocent mothers and children in Palestine. How will they react when they learn through other members of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) that closer to home, their pension investment financed the purchase of a Schedule 1 Canadian Chartered Bank which markets its services exclusively to seniors, and is being used for no viable reason to protect loan sharks who prey on those same especially vulnerable retirees?
Prostitution is the nature of mainstream corporate media, which is why we choose to stick to the facts as we can support them, and due to our integrity, we are doing pretty good as our viewership grows.