Rebel Media and other right-wing figures dominated the discourse around the two leadership debates this election. After disproportionately representing their perspective in the French-language scrum, their behaviour completely disrupted and stopped the scrum after the English-language debate. It's not a one-off occurrence, this is only going to get worse. This week on The North State, Scott walks through the effect of the Online News Act on Canadian's news habits, how the broader right-wing shift has deteriorated the average Canadian's news diet, what implications this has for our politics and how there is no plan to fix this from any party. Fun stuff!

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Intro Music: Vigilante - Cross Dog

Artwork by Zo at Studio Bonjourhi

Sources and further reading:

https://readthecatch.ca/our-decaying-news-ecosystem-is-a-political-problem-the-north-state-podcast

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Federal elections are the equivalent of sports championships for politics/journalism nerds the world over. But this election felt different. Journalism covering the federal parties has been... not great. The decaying state of media, mounting attacks from the right-wing and a complete lack of imagination have all coalesced into a complete garbage fire. Average Canadians are not being served by our legacy media, leaving independent outlets to pick up some of the slack. But independent outlets can't carry the burden of decaying material conditions, reactionary social movements and indifferent rhetorical support. Nora Loreto, freelance journalist, author and host of the Sandy and Nora and the Daily News podcast joins Scott to review the quality of news media reporting on the electoral campaign.

Check out Nora Loreto's work

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Canada In Decline Book Two: Corporate Control

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Intro Music: Vigilante - Cross Dog

Artwork by Zo at Studio Bonjourhi

Sources and further reading:

https://readthecatch.ca/grading-journalisms-election-performance-ft-nora-loreto-the-north-state-podcast

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Election fever has taken over Canada, so it's understandable that politically engaged Canadians would be focused on the country’s federal election. The shadow of the US, housing, tariffs– all are playing huge roles in who Canada chooses as the party that will lead the country. But we aren't alone. Australia’s going through all the same problems with a federal election just five days after Canada’s. So what problems do Canadians and Australians share? How can we learn from each other? What makes our situations different? Mitch Alexander, co-host of the Australian Radical Online Leftist Pipeline Podcast, PhD candidate and vocalist of metal band Eye Of The Enemy, joins Scott to discuss the situation both countries find themselves in. From the difference between our voting systems to the similar approaches electoral parties are taking towards capital gains taxes, it turns out going down under can be a good thing for perspective.

Check out ROLP on YouTube:

Mitch’s Blog: Philisophica

Only Equals Negotiate by Eye of the Enemy

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Intro Music: Vigilante - Cross Dog

Artwork by Zo at Studio Bonjourhi

Sources and further reading:

https://readthecatch.ca/the-down-under-state-ft-mitch-alexander-the-north-state-podcast/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.