Canada’s team fell short Wednesday in its big test against Switzerland, coming close, but not able to tie the Swiss in the late stages of the game. Still, they live on to face the joyous South African team in Los Angeles this Sunday.

There was huge hype in Vancouver for Wednesday’s game, with Vancouverites taking to the streets and packing the BC Place Stadium for the big event. For its part, the Toronto Stadium looked makeshift and shaky for its first hosting.

The pursuit of the almighty dollar has taken the World Cup by storm, with advertisers and particularly sports betting firms (which will go unnamed to avoid giving them even more coverage) partaking enthusiastically in the “hydration break” opportunity mid-way in each half of the FIFA Games. These breaks undoubtedly give the players water to help get them through the game.

But the advertisers took advantage of the extra time to pack in several quickie ads and keep the money flowing for FIFA and the networks. The coaches also took advantage by making small adjustments in their deployment of their players.

Meanwhile one of Canada’s great sporting traditions has also fallen prey to the search for more money. On June 16, the CBC and Rogers Sports Net announced that they were not able to reach agreement to renew their broadcast deal. Rogers had in 2013 first secured a 12-year 5.2 billion rights deal with the NHL. 

Many Canadians grew up with iconic Hockey Night in Canada broadcasters like Danny Gallivan, Foster Hewitt, Bob Cole, Ron MacLean and that old curmudgeon, Don Cheery.

​Rogers itself said that HNIC had consistently ranked among its top five programs reaching on average 7.5 million Canadians each week. For a small population country like Canada, that’s a lot.
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​For its part, the CBC gave up on its mainstay program, ostensibly because of the success of their broadcast of amateur athletics and, in particular, its presentation of the recent Milano-Cortina Olympic Games.

But let’s face it, Olympic athletes are not quite so pure as they once were, taking sponsorships and advertising opportunities which mean they can, rightfully, live a normal life where their sport is essentially their job.

Hockey enthusiasts and commentators swiftly came to the defense of HNIC. Hockey analyst and podcaster Jeff March says it’s not just a loss for sports fans for Canadian culture more broadly.

Canadians are in an “elbows up” mood (note the hockey reference) with U.S. President Donald Trump’s frequent and insulting references to Canada as the USA’s 51st State.

So, dumping HNIT touched a nerve.

“I can’t imagine it,” said Michael McKenley, author of Hockey Night in Canada: Sixty Seasons: “I mean, I can imagine it, I don’t want it imagine it.”

Canadian disgruntlement in the hockey world, leaks into the football world as well.

The CBS news network’s premier news magazine public affairs program, Sixty Minutes, is “on fire” according to Scott Pelley, just fired as the network’s key journalist.

The tumult at CBS is just part of the network of corruption and sad deterioration in US television news. Two of the chief billionaire players in this cross-ownership situation are the Ellisons—Larry, and his film producer son, David, who are strong backers of U.S. President Donald Trump. The Ellisons own Paramount, which is in the process of acquiring CNN, the first 24-hour news channel founded by the late Ted Turner.

CNN has had an independent news reputation until now, but the connection to Paramount and the Ellisons does not bode well for the likes of Wolf Blitzer and Kaitlan Collins, or for that matter long-time CNN stalwart Anderson Cooper who recently resigned from his other role with Sixty Minutes on CBS.

One of the United States’ finest beacons for good journalism whether national or local was Robert Caro, the Pulitzer Prize winning author, speaking in 2019 about Bob Woodward of Watergate fame. Caro asked: “What is a good reporter? Someone who never stops trying to get as close to the truth as possible. There is no truth or simple truth either. But there are facts. Hard facts. Objective facts. And the more facts you come up with, the closer you come to whatever truth there is.”

In my 50-year career in journalism, I have argued repeatedly there is more to reporting than talking to people on the phone, texting them or emailing them. Reporters must get out and talk to real people, face to face, and cover all the local councils and boards.

While facts are critical, commentary is also vital, but it must strive to be fair and without a proverbial axe to grind. Good journalists must develop a thick skin and be courageous, because they will face criticism when they are doing their job properly, for instance, Scott Pelley, Anderson Cooper, CBC journalists, David Cochrane and Rosemary Barton, and many more working on national and local outlets throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Social media do not offer much more than gossip, and in the age of hand-held computers there are many dangers for youth and adults alike in relying on cell phones as a primary source of information. Television also can develop a grip on uncritical viewers. Tech-enabled authoritarians such as Elon Musk and other billionaires are having far too much control over people’s brains and day-to-day living.

In this regard, it is excellent to see that the Canadian federal government has introduced the “Safe Social Media Act. This is a complicated field to regulate, and the full process of Parliament will be needed to ensure that final legislation is thorough and fair.