Potential investors including Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. want the Asper family to give up control of the Winnipeg, Manitoba-based company in return for a cash infusion, the newspaper said today, citing unidentified people.
At least one investor said that Chief Executive Officer Leonard Asper must step aside and that he and his siblings must eliminate a dual-class share structure that allows them to control the company, the Globe said.
Certainly, under the direction of the Aspers, CanWest has stripped the former flagships of the Southam newspaper chain of any editorial freedom. The result being a group of newspapers that spout what ever the neoCon talking point of the day is. Writers capable of being intelligent and engaging like Naomi Lakritz have become mouthpieces for right-wing drivel that might as well be written by Gwen Landolt. When the Quebecor controlled Sun Media newspapers have to come to represent a more balanced approach to journalism in comparison, one must conclude that thoughtful, intelligent journalism has truly withered under the Aspers.
I can only hope that whatever rises from the ashes of the Asper family's mismanagement of a media empire is capable of more intelligent and independent thought in its editorial boards than has been permitted from Winnipeg lately.
2 comments:
Well, cry me a river, Aspers!
I haven't bought a single CanWest newspaper ever since journalistic independence has been "aspirated" and spewn into the sewers.
When papers like the Ottawa Citizen allow loud-mouths like David Warren to attack anyone who speaks out against hate propaganda, and uses their unfettered media power to
retaliate against such an individual, well, they can just go bugger themselves.
And by the way, my complaint to the Ottawa Citizen has never been acknowledged or answered. And the tired and lazy old toothless neutered Ontario Press Council won't adjudicate the complaint.
It's time that our "FREE PRESS" became a "RESPONSIBLE PRESS".
Please, please let this be true. The Montreal Gazette has been a dreadful rag since being taken over by CanWest. I only take it for the local news, obits and puzzles!
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