Global News Koch Brothers Exposé Cancelled

[tay]

An investigative report into the billionaire Koch brothers' connections to Canada was pulled from Global's newsmagazine show 16x9 shortly before broadcast, and an article published on the same topic was scrubbed from GlobalNews.ca, CANADALAND has learned.


Last Thursday at 11:06am, an article titled "The Koch Stake in Canada" ran on GlobalNews.ca. The piece, by veteran investigative reporter Bruce Livesey summarized an upcoming investigative report titled "The Koch Connection," which, the article promised, was set to air two days later, on Saturday January 31 at 7pm. Global News promoted the item with a post on 16x9's Facebook page and a tweet from an official account, which was retweeted by Global's Washington correspondent Jackson Proskow.


By Thursday night, the article had disappeared from GlobalNews.ca, the Facebook post and official tweet were deleted, as was Proskow's retweet.




The article was preserved by Google Cache and brought to CANADALAND's attention by a reader. It can be read here.
The videos embedded in the article have disappeared, and no clips from the promised broadcast can be found online.


The article presents a series of verifiable facts about Charles and David Koch, the extraodinarily wealthy American brothers who funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into the U.S. political system, who are the biggest foreign lease-holders in the Canadian Oil Sands, and who fund the climate-change denying Fraser Institute think tank here in Canada.


Global News is owned by Calagry-based Shaw Communications, who advertise their services to the oil & gas industries here.
CANADALAND contacted Ron Waksman, Global News' Senior Director of Online News, Current Affairs, Editorial Standards & Practices, and conducted the following interview by phone:


Why did The Koch Connection not run?

Look, it wasn't killed, it was set aside. It was not up to scratch. Had the producer (Bruce Livesey) done better work, then.... It was not cancelled or dropped.


But why was it pulled so late? Didn't (16x9 Executive Producer) Laurie Few sign off on it?


What do you mean "sign off?"


Had she seen it?

Let's just say that Laurie acknowledged that due diligence was required on the script. More due diligence should have been done.


So did Laurie pull it or did you?

I read the web story, I had some concerns. It had some holes in it. I went back and watched the piece. It needs more work. Likely we won't revisit it until next season.


Livesey is well-regarded in the Canadian journalistic community. He has been investigating corporate abuse and corruption in Canada for over 30 years, and has contributed to CBC's fifth estate and PBS' Frontline.




more




Global News Disappeared a Koch Brothers Exposé | CANADALAND

 

[Walter]

Maybe Soros will give Global the money it wants to air the drivel.

 

[waldo]

Maybe Soros will give Global the money it wants to air the drivel.

you haven't seen it Walter... but you just know it's, as you say, "drivel". Howzat possible? What makes you think/say Global wants money to air... your declared "drivel"?

​

 

[petros]

And GE runs the Whitehouse.

 

[Dixie Cup]

So, you have (supposedly) the Koch brothers on one hand who support oil and George Soros on the other who funds many so called "foundations" (Tides, et al) that support anti oil and eco terrorists here and abroad...huh - who knew?


Could both of these groups be the ta da...the Illuminati that is often spoken about? Hmmmm conspiracies galore.


Just wondering.....

 

[tay]

Jesse Brown' Canadaland (link is external), the investigative website whose work allowed The Toronto Star to develop its series uncovering the Jian Ghomeshi scandal, is once again proving its worth in a landscape littered with corporate news media. This time it has discovered, thanks to a tip from a reader, the mysterious removal (link is external) by Global News of an investigative report into that right-wing cabal known as the Koch brothers and their connections to Canada.

Last Thursday at 11:06am, an article titled "The Koch Stake in Canada" ran on GlobalNews.ca. The piece, by veteran investigative reporter Bruce Livesey summarized an upcoming investigative report titled "The Koch Connection," which, the article promised, was set to air two days later, on Saturday January 31 at 7pm. Global News promoted the item with a post on 16x9's Facebook page and a tweet from an official account, which was retweeted by Global's Washington correspondent Jackson Proskow.


By Thursday night, the article had disappeared from GlobalNews.ca, the Facebook post and official tweet were deleted, as was Proskow's retweet.Fortunately, the original article, but not the promotion video, can be found on Google Cache (link is external), and it certainly makes for some interesting reading.

It explains how the Koch brothers have a vested interest in seeing the Keystone XL pipeline become a reality, given their extensive holdings in the Canada's tarsands. It also discusses well-known facts about the brothers, including the vast sums of money they direct to conservative politicians and climate-change denial groups.

As well, and this is perhaps where the investigation might have earned unwanted attention, they fund the climate-change denying Fraser Institute think tank here in Canada. The cached document also observes the following:


Multiple generations of Fraser Institute staffers and donors and board members have had links to the federal Conservative Party,” says Rick Smith, executive director of the Broadbent Institute, a liberal think tank. “And you know there’s no doubt that the Fraser Institute’saggressive denial of climate change, the Fraser Institute’s views on tax policy and on immigration – you can see resonating in Harper government policy.”

Yet the Kochs don’t seem to need to spend much money in Canada: after all, the policies of the Harper government on energy, pipelines, climate change and the oil sands dovetailwith their own. In fact, the Harper government has taken measures against the environmental movement that benefit the Kochs directly or indirectly.So what is the official reason for pulling the exposé?

Canadaland conducted a telephone interview with Ron Waksman, Global News' Senior Director of Online News, Current Affairs, Editorial Standards & Practices, to try to get some answers. According to Waksman, it "was not up to scratch" and "had some holes in it."

I'll take BS for a Thousand Alex.............

 

[taxslave]

Great source that Broadbent Institute. If you want extreme left bias. Makes the Tyee snooze look almost moderate.

 

[tay]

Great source that Broadbent Institute. If you want extreme left bias. Makes the Tyee snooze look almost moderate.

What would be a better source for you ?


Jonathan Sas, former editor of The Mark News and now director of research at the Broadbent Institute, attended the 2012 seminar and wrote about it in The Tyee.








Ever wonder why so many journalists see the Fraser as credible?




Well wonder no more...



As Donald Gutstein reports in the Rabble "About 160 working journalists have "honed their economic reporting skills" since the Fraser Institute launched its economics for journalists program in 2007."

In fact the program has been so successful that the Fraser has decided to expand the number of slots available .

Gutstein goes on to report that only three of these attendees have seen fit to mention their participation, the rest seemingly seeing fit to hide this obvious conflict while interviewing someone from the Fraser, which happens all too often unfortunately.

So the next time you see the Fraser interviewed or mentioned in the media ask yourself ... Did the interviewer author or editor attend this 'education' program and if so why isn't that being declared.

Personally I have to ask myself, did those who spiked this story also attend a Fraser institute "education seminar" Global News Disappeared a Koch Brothers Exposé




The economy is a difficult subject for journalists to cover. Most have never studied economics in any depth. At Carleton University's Journalism School, an estimated six per cent of Bachelor of Journalism students take the Introduction to Economics course, the prerequisite for all other courses in economics. That means 94 per cent likely have no economics background.


So how can they cover Canadian politics, with its emphasis on the economy?


Fraser Institute to the rescue.


About 160 working journalists have "honed their economic reporting skills" since the Fraser Institute launched its economics for journalists program in 2007. It's quite the success story.


So the law of unintended consequences (which neoliberals use to claim anything government does will go wrong) and the tragedy of the commons (used by neoliberals to argue that everything should be privately owned) are presented as if they are common-sense economics.

Sas notes the many fallacious claims made by seminar leaders: the minimum wage causes unemployment, too much government regulation caused the 2008 financial crisis, Canada's economic stimulus actions were a profound failure, and Keynesian economic policies failed everywhere.


The Fraser Institute has faithfully followed the grand scheme of propaganda dissemination laid out by Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek in his influential 1949 article, "The Intellectuals and Socialism." The problem Hayek addressed was how to turn society away from social democracy and the welfare state -- the road to slavery and serfdom as he saw it -- and toward a state governed by the market (i.e., capitalism). This would require altering the prevailing climate of ideas.

Following Hayek's advice, the Fraser Institute marshals most of its resources for the task of influencing journalists, commentators and editors in the news media. But over the years it attempted to influence other second-hand dealers in ideas.


more


Economics for journalists? From the Fraser Institute? Biased? | rabble.ca

 

[taxslave]

The Fraser Institute is usually a good source of economic advise. Most leftys don't like the advice offered though because it doesn't fit with their ideology.

 

[waldo]

The Fraser Institute is usually a good source of economic advise. Most leftys don't like the advice offered though because it doesn't fit with their ideology.

so... it's (usually) a good source... cause it fits with your ideology. Good on ya, taxi... good on ya for telling it like it is.

 

[tay]

One year ago, Global News pulled "The Koch Connection" by acclaimed Canadian TV producer and investigative journalist Bruce Livesey just days before it went to air.

Promo material about the Koch brothers' influence in Canada, including an interview with an Alberta Fort McKay First Nations negotiator in talks with Koch Oil Sands Operating, was also scrubbed off their site.

Livesey told his story on Canadaland and was subsequently fired - along with, if memory serves, some members of his production crew.

Now The Real News Network is teaming up with Livesey to get his doc finished and to market. The film exposes how :

"the Kochs’ are waging relentless campaigns to deny climate change and using their wealth to get conservatives elected to office to approve the Keystone XL pipeline and further their corporate interests."​

Founded by filmmaker Paul Jay - producer at Fifth Estate and Frontline, creator of the brilliant CBC debate program CounterSpin withhost Avi Lewis, and founding chair of Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival - The Real News Network airs alternative in-depth Canadian content, sans the usual corporate spin.

Kudos to them for picking up the Canadian slack, and if you want to see this doc made, show it some support here.

For more from Bruce Livesey, see his work as lead investigative reporter at the National Observer.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLj5WugkzHQ

 

[Walter]

Libel is libel.

 

[Curious Cdn]

Maybe the Koch Bros. have threatened to cut off the energy supply to Canada, so that the "Canuck bastards can freeze in the dark"

 

[Locutus]

by acclaimed

1. To praise enthusiastically and often publicly

Lol...by whom?

Canadian TV producer

L

• Robert Lang (producer)
• Teza Lawrence
• Douglas Leiterman
• John G. Lenic
• Steven S. Levitan
• Daniel Levy (TV personality)
• Eugene Levy
• Peter Lhotka
• Johnny Lombardi
• Anne-Marie Losique
• Patrick Loubert
• David Loxton
• Graham Ludlow

by acclaimed

Lol...ok

and investigative journalist

riiiiight.

Bruce Livesey

oh, and here's the source link you um forgot to include in your post.

Friday, February 26, 2016
Creekside: The Doc the Koch Brothers Don't Want You to See

 

[Cliffy]

 

[Angstrom]

Hey cliffy , long time no see, missed ya bud. Swing by more often will ya?