Friday, April 08, 2016

The Grim Story of Postmedia and the Millionaire's Club



Oh dear. I can only imagine what the mood at Postmedia headquarters must be like after the latest bit of bad news.

With writers like John Ivison and Andrew Coyne fighting over the last place in the lifeboat.

Or begging their boss Paul Godfrey to give them the last lifejacket, if they promise to attack Justin Trudeau like there was no tomorrow.

Because if Postmedia is the Titanic, I think we're just about at this stage in the story.



And there may well be no tomorrow. 

Amid what Postmedia Network Canada Corp. CEO Paul Godfrey called "an unrelentingly challenging environment," the company said Thursday it has set up a special board committee to oversee a review of its strategic options.

The announcement came as Postmedia reported a second-quarter net loss of $225.1 million, mainly due to an $187-million impairment charge. In the same quarter of last year, the company had a loss of $58.2 million.


With Postmedia now leaking like a sieve, burdened down by a mountain of debt. And even the representative of the hedge fund that owns most of it, jumping overboard.

Postmedia also said Ted Lodge has resigned from its board of directors, effective immediately. Lodge is a partner at GoldenTree Asset Management LP, which owns 52 per cent of the outstanding variable voting shares, and some of its notes.

Like a rat leaving a sinking ship.

But then why should anybody be surprised? When they never could put  business before their foul right-wing ideology.

Paul Godfrey could never could stop ordering his slavish stooges to attack Justin Trudeau... 



Even though most Canadians supported Trudeau, so it wasn't the best way to boost sales.

And now Postmedia has become one of the only media chains in the world to defend the sordid practices of this millionaire's club. 

Did you just feel the earth move? Maybe you’re not paying attention, because the “Panama Papers” have already been rated the bombshell of the decade.

Or perhaps you don’t remember LuxLeaks, which was the 2014 bombshell that was supposed to blow the lid off the sneaky ways the rich and powerful evade taxes. If not, don’t worry. Soon enough you probably won’t remember the Panama Papers either.


With another of Godfrey's faithful stooges claiming that the millionaire tax dodgers were doing nothing wrong.

And that the rest of us should stop trying to soak the rich, and just mind our own business.

When people and companies use legal means to minimize their tax bills, that’s not corrupt or greedy or unfair, it’s playing by the rules. If we want to keep cash here, it won’t happen by trying to lock it in but by keeping our taxes competitive and saving everyone the cost and trouble of resorting to Panamanian lawyers and Caribbean accountants. In the meantime, what legal things people do with their estate planning are entirely none of our business.

Which considering how most ordinary honest Canadian taxpayers feel about that Panama Papers' scandal, should make Postmedia even MORE unpopular. If that's possible.

Except of course in Panama...



While back in Canada, Andrew Coyne and John Ivison fight each other to the death for the last job.

Or whatever...



But then as I've warned before, when Postmedia finally goes down, it's not going to be pretty.

It's going to be really ugly.

It will be a grim funeral....



And because in the end, it was just a shabby Con propaganda service.


There will be very few tears.

And only a handful of Canadians will miss it...

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15 comments:

John B. said...

Don't worry about fate of the journo-shills. With their qualifications they'll have landed on their knees somewhere else before they have time to clean the dung off their chins.

Anonymous said...

"Syc Semper Tyrannis" or, in amerikan...
Fuck 'em.
Good riddance.

Unknown said...

Millions of people in Canada have no clue who these two goons are, average Canadians could care less and that's a good thing

jrkrideau said...

OT but have you noticed that David Cameron and George Osborne seem to be in a bit of trouble over the Panama Papers.

Cameron seems to have come up with at least 4 weasel-worded responses to the question of involvment in overseas trusts. It probably did not help that he wrote a letter to the president of the EU suggesting that there was no reason to extend transparency legislation to overseas trusts. No conflict of interest here.

I am waiting with bated breath to see when (not if) a member of the late and unlamented Con government has their name hit the news.

Anonymous said...

Never give up my subscription to The Guardian!

TS

Anonymous said...

You won't have to...
It'll just go the way of the dodo bird and also disappear!!!

lagatta à montréal said...

Psst, "Millionaires'" - unless there is only one of them left? What a dream.

Simon said...

hi John...I worry about the fate of the ordinary workers, the ones who keep a publication going, but who toil in obscurity. And of course for the graduates go journalism schools with no future. But as for the big fish you're right, they'll all end up as flaks and making just as much money if not more than before...

Simon said...

hi anon....I'm not anti media but Postmedia is such a tainted organization, and Con propaganda organization, that I won't be sorry to see it go. Hopefully some of the papers will survive and thrive on their own, without their ideology being dictated from above...

Simon said...

hi Unknown...you mean they don't know John Ivison and Andrew Coyne? Hmm...I'm going to have to do something about that. Because they do seem to be in some kind of competition to see who can please their boss the most, by attacking Justin Trudeau the most. And it's quite a Con clown show...

Simon said...

hi jrkrideau...yes I have and I am enjoying it immensely. The Cameron Cons have acted like absolute beasts. Their brutal war on the poor couldn't be more disgusting, and what they have done to Britain's medicare system is beyond belief. I didn't think that Dave could be more embarrassed after the that story about him and the pig's head, but this scandal could be even more damaging. They are a bunch of Eton boys, without an ounce of humanity, and they deserve what they get...

Simon said...

hi TS...the Guardian is a good paper even though like all other publications it has more navel gazing fluff in it than it once had, the ghastly trivia of our age. Still I think anon is wrong, the Guardian seems to be in pretty good shape, I must confess that I would read the Sunday Times f it didn't have such an expensive pay wall and I didn't feel I was helping the Conservatives, For it sometimes has some great stories about stuff other than politics...

Simon said...

hi lagatta...well at least now their activities have been thoroughly exposed, and the political damage they have done to their faithful servants like Piggy Cameron, is like manna from heaven....

Anonymous said...

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when we are tax evading, lying politicians". The hypocrisy and lack of morales of an unethical politician, truly know no bounds. Just another 'Me First' politician whose family believes that taxes are for the working class. So who are the coddled 1% here in Canada that need to be given the boot ? Let's start naming names. FP

Anonymous said...

Why is the adjective "millionaire" still used? Everyone who owns a house in Vancouver is by definition a millionaire - at least on paper.

Forget the millionaires, let's go after the billionaires first. They are the ones who control the politicians. Being a millionaire is not enough nowadays to influence a cabinet minister, or a cheap prime Minister like Harper. You need a billion or more to be in that club.