Canadaland: The Podcast Holding Power to Account
Jesse Brown’s Canadaland has stepped into the breach left by Canada’s ailing legacy media. The podcast has been a strong shot in the arm for the country’s investigative journalism.
Jesse Brown, the founder and prinicipal host of Canadaland.
Canadaland is one of the most successful, prolific, and high-profile podcast companies in the country. The podcast network and news site has carved out a vital niche in Canada’s news media. With over 9 million downloads of its shows in 2020 and an admirable record of breaking stories of major importance — many of which other news organizations would have been reticent to touch — Canadaland has earned a reputation for fearlessness and tenacity.
In an hour-long interview with Jacobin, the founder of Canadaland, Jesse Brown, discussed what he believes are his company’s unique contributions to Canada’s beleaguered news media landscape.
Canadian News Media Is in Trouble
To understand Canadaland’s success, it is helpful to be familiar with some of the North American nation’s recent history. In 2013, when the podcast launched, the leader of the Conservative Party, Stephen Harper, was prime minister. Harper, presaging Donald Trump, disdained journalists and ended the practice of holding regular press conferences at Parliament’s National Press Theatre. On the rare occasion that Harper or his ministers deigned to hold media events, they had journalists cordoned off behind ropes and required that they submit questions in advance. Not surprisingly, this had a detrimental effect on news coverage and was strongly criticized by Reporters Without Borders.
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