Courtesy of Blacklock’s Reporter…

April 13, 2018

Ten federal agencies last year paid a national broker almost $577,000 to distribute newspaper stories ghostwritten by government employees. The payments came as Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly lamented “fake news” in Canada. Joly’s office yesterday did not comment.

Records show agencies paid $576,623 in seventeen separate contracts to News Canada Inc., a Toronto-based broker that distributes “ready-to-use, timely lifestyle content that is free of charge and copyright”, according to a management statement. Unsigned stories were identified only as “News Canada” content. Blacklock’s found weeklies from Alberta to Québec that republished items without any advisory they were written by communications staff with government departments and agencies.

Examples included Achieve Your Long-Term Financial Goals With Your Home Equity, a story placed by the Financial Consumer Agency advising homeowners on how to apply to banks for lines of credit. The item did not disclose the federal Agency draws 77 percent of its $17.6 million annual budget from banks and other lenders.

Read ‘Pesticides In Canada’ and ‘Debunking The Latest Health Fads And Myths,’ a News Canada item ghostwritten by the health department

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1 COMMENT

  1. They’re not fake, they are an easy way for an editor to fill up a newspaper after all the reporters were let go due to budget cuts and declining readership. TV “news”casts use these all the time.

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