Farewell independent Winnipeg Free Press, I knew thee well.

There was a time not so long ago that the Winnipeg Free Press was a bright light in the increasingly dark world of Canadian daily newspapers. Due to its distinction as a major daily that had somehow escaped the maelstrom of media conglomeration that struck so many other newspapers across the country, the Free Press was considered one of the last truly independent major newspapers in Canada. The Free Press held a special place in the hearts of many Manitobans as a newspaper free of the meddlesome hands of large conglomerates like CanWest Global Communications, and a bastion of integrity as a local forum for opinion.

Those days, however, are over.

Increasingly, the opinion pages of the Free Press are wrought with articles that are not unique to the paper at all, but instead are those of a separate newspaper altogether - the national daily and CanWest owned, National Post.

The practice of newspapers running comment articles by journalists from other papers is not in and of itself troubling. It is often beneficial for local papers to provide the public with alternative views and issues normally found within their pages. In fact, the Free Press did very well in the past few years to balance the focus of its op-ed section between local, national and international issues - occasionally utilizing the work of other papers’ journalists to do so.

However, there is a vast difference between running articles by journalists unaffiliated with the Free Press when appropriate to do so, and its present practice which relies heavily on the Post’s journalists providing opinion content. National Post writers are becoming firmly entrenched in the political and social opinions that the Free Press delivers to the public.

One needs only to have flipped through the pages of the Free Press from Jan. 26 to 30 - the days surrounding the unveiling of the federal Conservative government’s budget - to witness just how drastic this reliance on the Post’s journalistic opinions has become. Of the five comment sections published during that five day period, three days featured at least one opinion article regarding the budget taken from the Post.

“ National Post writers are becoming firmly entrenched in the political and social opinions that the Free Press delivers to the public.

That means the opinions pages of the Free Press were not concerned with the ways the federal budget could affect Manitobans, but promoted the views of journalists from another newspaper, with no relevance in the Manitoban context.

This increased synergy between the opinions of the National Post and the Winnipeg Free Press shows the troubling and increasing integration between both newspapers in general.

This relatively cozy relationship became apparent in October, when CanWest’s massive debt loads became ominous, and the company eliminated the Post’s daily circulation in the Winnipeg area due to its tendency to hemorrhage money. A subsequent deal was struck between the two papers which ensured that a portion of the Post’s business section would appear in daily editions of the Free Press.

What once was a proudly independent daily newspaper seems to be in the process of being co-opted into the waiting wings of the CanWest media empire. Even if no further integration arises, this increased reliance on opinions of National Post journalists poses major issues regarding the editorial integrity of the Free Press, as well as the very real possibility that yet another Canadian daily newspaper will fall prey to the CanWest media empire.

Andrew Tod is a University of Winnipeg student.

Published in Volume 63, Number 20 of The Uniter (February 12, 2009)