Toronto Star’s Biased Coverage Of Cargill Workers Another Example of Pro-Corporate Media

Profits are up at major food producer Cargill but not only are those gains failing to make their way to the ranchers that supply the meat and the workers who process it, it is being suggested that the latter are going to have an effect on already-high meat prices for having the audacity of asking for a wage increase. And which regressive outlet is reporting that? None other than the Toronto Star, who's article failed to mention the massive profit gains at the company owned by one of the wealthiest families in the United States. David Doel explains the situation in a short video on his show the Rational National that I invite you to watch.

Like you also might have thought, I used to think the Toronto Star was a rare, progressive exception in the corporatized media landscape in Canada. It is clear, however, that especially since their sale to NordStar Capital, that they are just as biased towards corporations and their money as all the others are, from the Globe and Mail to PostMedia which owns the likes of the National Post, the Regina Leader-Post and pretty much every other major community newspaper in Canada.

The Cargill story is yet another example of how the corporate media, intentionally or unintentionally, slants their coverage towards big money and corporations, and away from the workers who create the value for said corporations. You would think that media should be tailored to the consumers of it, the vast majority of them being workers like most of us are, but more and more we are being tailored to the media, their owners and advertisers.

The Era Of Monopolies, Corporate Conglomerates, and Fewer Choices

The neoliberal shift away from community-needs and to the global free market ruling every aspect of our lives has allowed companies to get away with almost anything in their pursuit of profits. We live in a new era of monopolies, corporate conglomerates (especially in the media), and fewer choices, which, according to Econ 101, means higher prices and lower quality. This lack of competition and the hyper-focus on exponential profit growth has resulted in companies focusing less on innovation and efficiencies that would benefit the consumer (and society) and more on marketing and mergers. Workers thus have less options available for work and pairing that with weak labour laws and union-busting, they must accept wages that are paltry relative to what recent generations could have demanded back when workers had more power.

You won't hear much about these anti-worker and anti-consumer economic stories in the major news outlets, however. You won't hear much push-back, if any, on the long-since busted myth of trickle down economics. You won't hear many stories about how the average worker is taking home less and less each year. You won't hear much complaining about the unsustainability of increasing housing prices and shareholder returns and how these are a major reason why corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion is ramping up. We have moments of great investigative journalism such as with the recent Pandora Papers leak but no critiques about the capitalist roots behind these schemes and how they are starving communities and public services of much-needed funding. You certainly aren't going to hear how companies and the rich should pay more in taxes or that workers deserve higher pay and a higher share of the massive profits that corporations are making.

Corporate Wokeness

The corporate media instead pushes ideas of individual action and personal responsibility as a way to solve the massive problems infecting our society today. Even the 'progressive' CBC pushes thinly-veiled libertarian propaganda such as this recent piece titled 'Government policy can limit climate change — but so can changing your shopping habits, say experts.' Sure, news sources should be as unbiased as they can by exploring stories from all angles but if the CBC and other outlets want to be serious about climate change reporting, for example, they should not be repeating the same bullshit personal-responsibility-as-a-solution propaganda that the fossil fuels companies themselves pushed to skirt their own responsibility for the pollution and waste their products create. The personal responsibility mantra is rooted in free market principles and the free market is how we got into this mess of heatwaves and flooding in the first place. Climate change is not going to be fixed through the free market and serious journalists should be recognizing that.

Identity politics is another way the media attempts to identify symptoms while seeking social justice through individual actions and personal responsibility. If only we treated each other with more respect and kindness is the general argument and we should absolutely be doing that, but as I have already suggested, these individual actions are not going to be enough. For example, almost 60% of minimum wage earners are women and more and more of them are immigrants. How is being kinder to each other going to help people feed their families and put roofs over their heads? It won’t. So why doesn’t the corporate media talk more about the abysmally low minimum wage if they truly cared about women and racialized communities? Why aren't they talking more about the poor economic factors that are leading to the increasing conflicts between distinct groups?

Continuing to ignore these things will have far-reaching consequences for our society. We already had a preview of what corporate-fueled tribalism looks like in the United States, where more people put their trust in Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton. Then four year later, Americans just barely avoided another Trump term and elected Joe Biden, who is so far failing to do anything significant for their economy, which will likely result in another Trump presidency, or worse. Canada isn't immune to the same fate and we run the risk of pushing people further into the hands of far right, reactionary forces if the media and the government continue on this trajectory.

Finding Effective Solutions

If we truly care about fixing our planet and making society more equitable, we must identify the real sources of our problems and find effective solutions for them. The way I see it, the only way to truly accomplish these things is through class solidarity. I believe we must be looking past labels and find common ground with our fellow workers who might not look and sound like we do. As I’ve said before to the segment of my audience who are privileged enough to find themselves in the so-called middle class, we have much more in common with the person working the cash register at the grocery store and the janitor cleaning up our kids' messes at school than we do the landlord or the equity manager or the CEO. We won't become united by pursuing culture wars and beating down on the underprivileged by publishing articles suggesting that workers asking for a livable wage and a fairer share of company revenues would be the primary cause for the high prices we pay at the store for meat.

Instead of focusing on divisive culture-based topics, would it not make more sense to expose the exploitation of the working class and environment by the ownership class while empowering all working class people, no matter their gender, race, sexual orientation, or education-level, and no matter what role they seek, whether it be stay-at-home-parent, caregiver, teacher, artist, nurse, or software developer? Would it not make sense to focus on popular, universal policies that improve everyone's lives? Unfortunately, in today's profits-by-any-means world, it’s a lot harder to make money running on solidarity and on class-based issues than it is stoking fear in people with cultural issues.

So what can we do about it? Fortunately when it comes to news sources, there are myriad options out there, whether in the form of podcasts, videos, or print. I have made suggestions on here before but I welcome you to explore and find news sources that are not only meaningful to you but sources that also challenge your own beliefs and experiences. Make some time in your day or week to consume and support quality journalism, even if you don't agree with it. Being intentional in what you consume will be far more rewarding to you and those around you than if you were to simply scroll through the algorithmic echo chamber that is your news feed.

Most of all, always think critically about any information you are consuming. Consider where it is coming from and who benefits from it. Maintaining our autonomy and avoiding the influence of the corporate media won’t be easy. But what truly is the worth of something that is achieved without effort?

Update (Nov. 22, 2021): Replaced 'Panama', as in Panama Papers, with 'Pandora', to distinguish between the recent leak of tax dodgers and the one from 2016.

Update (Nov. 23, 2021): Replaced 'if the media and the government that should be regulating it isn't careful enough' in the last sentence of the last paragraph of the Corporate Wokeness section with 'if the media and the government continue on this trajectory.' I felt like I was getting the wrong message across with the original wording by implying that regulating the media would prevent people from being pushed to the far right. The point I am making is that improving the economic factors of people will prevent this radicalization and that both the media and government have a role in making sure this happens.