By Aly Kamadia, Editor-In-Chief, iDose

One of the luxuries of being born in a liberal democracy is that, at least in theory, each of us have a right to free speech. But in practice, is the right as “free” as many members of the press often advertise?

Hardly so.  

Consider mainstream media coverage of Covid-19, specifically, much of the broadcast media coverage (i.e., television, and not newspapers) in the United States and Canada.

Despite non-stop Covid-19 commentary from television pundits, some of whom suffer from the delusion that they practice real journalism (to be sure, there is a minority that engages in journalism among this crowd), major networks will not tolerate any opinions, facts or truths that depart from standard orthodoxy.

Thus, as the capacity of hospitals throughout North America (and beyond) is being tested by the Omicron variant, asking some sensible questions regarding much needed reform is deemed as heresy.

For instance, have you ever heard pundits seriously investigate the question of why rich medical schools throughout North America don’t graduate more physicians, despite an overabundance of highly qualified applicants? Or why we don’t significantly increase the number of physicians and medical specialists through the use of increased targeted immigration policies?

Is the chattering class on mainstream networks so out of touch that they don’t understand elementary economics, and notice that the supply of physicians and medical specialists is artificially kept stupefyingly low? So low that, as an example, the average Quebec medical specialist “earns” over $400 000 courtesy of the taxpayer? (It’s worth noting that in 2018, medical specialists in Quebec protested their own salary increases, which they characterized as “shocking” in the face of other “draconian” cuts.)

During the pandemic, why haven’t mainstream television pundits covered stories about powerful lobbying efforts behind closed doors, and not highlighted some of the absurd policies that professional medical organizations mercilessly advocate that are detrimental to society’s health (the aforementioned example of artificially keeping the total number of medical doctors and specialists stupendously low comes mind)?    

Where can one find mainstream broadcast pundits who interrogate the ruthless monopolistic pricing practices that Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers engage in?

Where are the knowledge disseminators who understand that we need to vaccinate as much as the world as possible to minimize the risk against potential future variants? The voices that relentlessly question the merits of keeping the intellectual property of largely publicly funded mRNA vaccines secret from the poorest people on the planet during a historic global pandemic? 

How can any pundit claiming to have a moral compass pay so much attention to the economic issue of inflation, which is justified, while at the same time cutting off the tongues of those who highlight historic income and wealth inequality? The horrific extent of wealth inequality demands that if you saved $500 000 USD per year, you would have to save for the next 484 thousand years (484 000 years) to be as rich as Elon Musk (as of January 24^th, 2022, using Forbes real time list of Billionaires).   

Indeed, a recent report published by Oxfam noted that during the pandemic, 99% of humanity’s incomes have fallen, while the richest ten men in the world have collectively made $1.3 Billion dollars PER DAY (doubling their fortunes).

Is it not a gross moral failure for so-called broadcast “journalists” to ignore these sort of economic injustices and censor the slightest whispers that ask to increase taxes on the superrich?

At the height of the pandemic in the US, the Federal Reserve was pumping nearly $1 million PER SECOND into the economy, and Canada (along with the rest of the developed world and beyond) was pumping historic amounts of money into the economy as well. Even if you spend hours and hours a day watching mainstream media, have you seen significant coverage of where all this money went and is going, and moreover, meaningful discussions of where the money ought to go?  

What is the politically correct label that we should name a class of talking heads who brand themselves as the most passionate lovers of free speech and a free press, while never daring to question an economic system that is, in some important respects, slavishly accountable only to a tiny minority of the superrich?

Much of what is referred to as broadcast “journalism” is better labelled as sensationalized gossip and entertainment with a side order of news. That gossip and entertainment continues to have no interest in the ideal of free speech when it clashes with standard orthodoxy – a virtual truism that long predated Covid-19.

Despite this observation’s lack of novelty, ever so often we should make an assessment and if necessary, remind ourselves that many who occupy the chattering class have absolutely no genuine interest in the freedom of speech. Their corporate overlords and/or their own biases will readily censor any voices that clash with profit or ideology.

We should remind ourselves that this professional class of entertainers disdains free speech during a moment when Western democracy is seriously at risk.

We should remind ourselves that a number of the most popular broadcast gossipers in the US get paid tens of thousands of dollars per day, and in extreme cases up to more than $100 000 PER DAY (is it any wonder that they devote virtually zero time to subjects such as raising taxes on the richest one percent?).  

And to those of us who actually do have the money, resources and/or talent to make democracy stronger, we should remind ourselves to look in the mirror, and ask if we are doing enough to strengthen a political system that is often taken for granted.

After all, democracy in the West only continues to weaken, and glimmers of optimism are increasingly fading.

© All Rights Reserved

Aly Kamadia is Editor-In-Chief of iDose. To read selected articles by Kamadia, click here.