How Useless Is Canadian Media?

With the identity of "Deep Throat" recently made public, I got to thinking about scandals that have been broken by Canadian media over the last few years.

After thinking about it long and hard, I figure that at least since the early 90's, our media hasn't broken anything of any significance. Now I don't necessarily expect the media to break a story like Watergate every couple of years. What I am getting at, is the breaking of a story particularly damaging on the political stage.

Sure, our media is capable of producing useless headlines with stories like this but that is far from breaking a story. Is this the best that our media is capable of?

Given all the scandals, or potential scandals, concerning Adscam or the recent vote of confidence in Parliament, you would think that at least one Canadian journalist could produce something that would fall under the category of investigative journalism.

Is our media capable of anything other than being the microphone for those with something to say? Watching (particularly reading) American media gives the impression that their journalists are much more likely to be out there trying to come up with an original story. Sadly, I can't say the same about the media up here in Canada.

Since my political memory only goes back to my days in high school (which was in the early 90s), I can only conclude that either our media is totally incompetent, or that they are biased when covering stories on the national stage. As an example, when the Walkerton tragedy occurred in Ontario it seemed that the media made all kinds of original revelations concerning the story. Of course, Mike Harris was often the target of these allegations and reports.

Why does nothing similar happen when it concerns Liberal or NDP politicians?

Using Adscam as an example, has the Canadian media broken any details of the story? Anything? Considering all the people involved you would think that at least one enterprising individual could come up with something.

Does our media put away it's investigative hat when liberal or left-of-center politicians are concerned? It certainly seems that way to me.

crossposted to The Shotgun