Essay by Eric Worrall

Prime Minister Trudeau’s follow up to distressing media images of police horses trampling old ladies appears to be a Communist Chinese style social credit system for news reporters, presumably to discourage publication of stories which embarrass the government.

Of course, Trudeau is not alone in doing this. Biden has also raised the introduction of incentives which provide government assistance to media outlets which produce content which his regulators approve.

Biden’s tax breaks for local media an effort to turn them into ‘versions of leftist NPR or PBS,’ critic says

Published November 15

The tax break allows eligible local media organizations to take a credit of up to $25,000 per journalist they employ

President Biden is proposing to give a major tax break to local media outlets as part of the $1.85 trillion reconciliation being considered by Congress.

The tax break would allow eligible local media organizations, including newspapers, digital news websites and television stations to receive a tax credit of $25,000 per journalist they employ, and $15,000 for the following four years. The tax break can be claimed for up to 1,500 journalists.

…

Read more: https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/biden-media-tax-breaks

In my opinion a funded social credit system for journalists is a dangerous attack on free speech and independent journalism, a consolidation of the preeminence of the government point of view on mass media, just a short step from outright government ownership of media outlets – defacto control without explicitly restricting free speech.

Obviously this unfortunate development is not directly related to climate change. But I wonder how many media outlets which play the game and accept the subsidies would risk their government handouts by giving airtime to climate skeptics, or to anyone who has a story to tell which politicians would not like? Paying someone’s mortgage is a powerful incentive to toe the line, to the detriment of everyone other than the political sponsors of these reprehensible media control schemes.