Metro: start out, sell out

As it's first edition arrived in bright green newspaper boxes across the Lower Mainland today, the Vancouver edition of Metro has already discredited itself at this page by selling a one-third stake to CanWest Global Communications. It appears that either Metro took advantage of the smell of fear from CanWest (who obviously realized that they can't charge 75 cents for the pseudo-news in the Province when someone's giving it up for free at every bus stop) or Canwest just bullied the new kids on the block into submission. "Gawd forbid some up and comer with visions of Pulitzers (or a staff job) dancing in his head gets something subversive printed, it's bad enough we have to put up with these punks on the internet!"

This move flies in the face of work that Metro did with local focus groups months prior to today's launch: polls repeatedly show British Columbians distrust the mainstream media more than any part of the country, largely due to the fact Canwest owns almost all of it, and the rest of it is stifled by their incestuous relationship with the BC Liberals. Can you think of anywhere else in Canada where the Premier's brother is a leading columnist in the paper of record? Or where the major independent weekly is arbitrarily threatened with trumped up charges of tax evasion?

We may have wanted something convenient, and I'm sure many Vancouverites will like having a print version of City TV. However, since the Globe & Mail has taken a pro-Liberal editorial position (thank's to parent company Bell's 2010 Olympics sponsorship), this city remains without an objective and accessible daily. Metro had an opportunity to take that corner all for themselves, instead they're being pimped by Canwest on every corner in town.