Loss of ‘W5’ a win for misinformation

As origin stories go, the one about the birth of “W5” is pretty great. It begins in 1966 with a fumble by a rival, a snatch and a heroic run.

The CBC, in 1966, had just cancelled a groundbreaking and saucy weekly current affair show “This Hour Has Seven Days.” It poked the powerful, bent traditional storytelling and earned plenty of enemies — too many for the management of CBC News at the time to withstand, so they canned it.

CTV National News was then in its infancy, and just as plucky. It saw the opportunity CBC had provided and launched a similar hard-nosed investigative show called “W5,” even though the privately owned network was in desperate financial shape at the time, verging on bankruptcy.

Scrub through 58 more seasons of “W5,” and you land on its final episode, which airs this weekend. To its end as brash and brave and devoted to truth as in its earliest days, only now with owners flush with cash.

Bell chose to cancel “W5” on the same day it increased its dividend to shareholders and its executives for the 16th straight year. The “W5” staff was dismissed or scattered as part of Bell’s biggest layoff in 30 years, 4,800 people in all divisions.

None of it has helped the share price. It’s still falling.

But the loss of “W5” and thousands of journalist’s jobs are only part of the story I think is worth telling, because they are occurring at the precise time as the surging digital threat to the safety and security of Canadians.

Let me explain. Canada’s security agencies have jointly warned “cyber threat actors are attempting to influence Canadians, degrading trust in online spaces.” The Canadian Security Agency warns foreign powers “are increasingly using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance online disinformation.” NATO has given it the name “cognitive warfare.” “More people are unable to differentiate between legitimate and manipulated information” the alliance warned in April. Allies need to focus on “strengthening and defending the mind.”

The number-one antidote to cognitive warfare, security experts agree, is robust verified journalism and fact checking. Yet Bell, the largest and most profitable media company in Canada, has chosen now to drastically shrink its division devoted to the pursuit of truth. Look at the public record:

■ With the world rapidly destabilizing, Bell Media eliminated every international news bureau outside of North America.

■ With climate change and cyberattacks contributing to more community emergencies, Bell Media eliminated most local radio reporters.

■ It’s reduced the number of employees providing national news in every province outside of Ontario to one person.

■ Many of its local TV newsrooms are now deserted on weekends.

■ And Bell Media continues to eliminate the most experienced reporters and anchors Canadians have learned to trust.

All of these decisions risk making Canadians less able to combat cognitive warfare with verified facts and credible reporting. The agents of misinformation and manipulation face less resistance — which reduces our country’s resilience to this new form of hybrid warfare.

It is my opinion that the board and senior leadership at this highly profitable company, which was granted stewardship of Canada’s No. 1 news source by federal regulators in 2011, should acknowledge the current threat of psychological information warfare and reverse course. It should invest in its newsrooms, sustain “W5,” and try some new bold ideas to fund real journalism instead of relying solely on cuts after cuts to reward shareholders.

This is the time to fortify our information defences, not tear them down.

And Bell appears to know this. It is promoting itself to business these days as a cybersecurity leader. “The threat landscape is changing,” its ads say. “Bell has you covered.”

But when it comes to the security of how we think, Bell is steadily capitulating. By eliminating in-depth investigative journalism, gutting international reporters, and cutting local news and radio to the bone, Bell risks unwittingly aiding our adversaries in undermining our trust in truth, one another, and leaving our peaceful society more vulnerable.