As regular readers of this Substack will know, this spring I’ve been writing the Massey Essay on the state of the media — a partnership between Massey College at the University of Toronto and the Literary Review of Canada, where it’s published.
The annual essay honours the legacy of the long-time CBC producer Vincent Massey Tovell. This year’s essay explores the collapse of public trust in the media. Leading up to its publication next week, I’ll be re-running podcast interviews with some of the journalists that helped shape my thinking for this essay. Including today’s conversation, which originally aired in July of 2023.
Peter Menzies is a former newspaper executive and a former vice chair of the CRTC, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. He’s now a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and a frequent commentator on the Canadian media.
Peter Menzies is my guest, today on Lean Out. (Paid subscribers can access the transcript here.)
Great interview overall. However, when it comes to the question of trust in the media, especially the publicly funded CBC, the elephant in the room was not addressed. The adoption of a radical social justice ideology at the CBC has alienated many Canadians. There is a role for the CBC to be a trusted source of balanced journalism but not until it is purged of ideology.
Victoria Lazier
Bingo, pay the girl.
We don't trust the media because it's untrustworthy. Quite simple really, no need to over think it.