[Deathwatch] Israel "Izzy" Asper,founder of Canada's largest newspaper publisher, 71

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Colorful Canadian Media Baron Izzy Asper Dead at 71
Tue Oct 7, 4:38 PM ET
	
By Jeffrey Hodgson and Roberta Rampton

TORONTO/WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Israel "Izzy" Asper, the
colorful, controversial, jazz-loving founder of Canada's largest
newspaper publisher, has died, CanWest Global Communications Corp. said
on Tuesday.

Winnipeg, Manitoba-based CanWest said in a statement the 71-year-old
media baron was admitted to the city's St. Boniface Hospital on Tuesday
morning.

He died shortly after, in the presence of his immediate family,
including son Leonard, who had already succeeded his father as
CanWest's chief executive. The statement did not give the cause of
death, though Asper was known to be a heavy smoker.

The former tax lawyer was a up-by-his-bootstraps entrepreneur who
turned his Winnipeg-based company into a media empire that spans three
continents.

CanWest's holdings include stakes in Australia's Network Ten, Ireland's
TV3, Northern Ireland's UTV and New Zealand's TV3 and TV4.

But the origin of the company's success was Canada's Global television
network, which Asper started from a single Winnipeg station in the
1970s and built into the country's second major private broadcaster.

He secured his position as perhaps the country's most powerful media
owner with the blockbuster C$3.2 billion ($2.4 billion) purchase in
2000 of the Southam newspaper chain from press baron Conrad Black.

PHILANTHROPY PRAISED, INTERFERENCE SLAMMED

But the deal sparked heavy criticism. Asper, who led the Manitoba
Liberal party in the early 1970s, was accused of editorial interference
and outright censorship on a variety of issues, including the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Asper made a speech last October accusing domestic and international
media of blatant anti-Israeli bias, citing the coverage of CNN, the New
York Times, the BBC and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC)

Last year, CanWest fired Ottawa Citizen publisher Russell Mills after
the newspaper published an editorial critical of Prime Minister Jean
Chretien, a friend of Asper's.

The firing was condemned by journalists, unions and opposition
legislators. Media watchers, including the Vienna-based International
Press Institute, said it threatened freedom of the press in Canada.

Chretien told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday that Asper would be very
difficult to replace. The prime minister said he had seen Asper
recently at a political fund-raiser in Winnipeg and thought he looked
in good health.

"I'm very surprised, because I spent an hour with him on Friday, and as
you know I'd know him since a long time (ago) because he was the
Liberal Party (of Manitoba) when he was a younger man," Chretien told
reporters.

"He was a great Canadian. He had strong convictions on everything."

In addition to politics and business, Asper's other major passions
included jazz. His enthusiasm was seen as a factor in CanWest's
decision to launch an all-jazz radio station in Winnipeg.

A boundless booster of the small Prairie city, Asper's name graces a
business school at the University of Manitoba and a Jewish community
complex in the city. He was spearheading the efforts of the family's
philanthropic foundation to establish a human rights museum in the
city.

But his greatest contribution to the province was showing that
entrepreneurs didn't have to leave for bigger centers to become
successful, said friend and Liberal senator Sharon Carstairs.

"Here was a man who made a great deal of money and was very successful,
and he refused to move," she said.

"And that signal to other Manitobans, particularly other Manitoba
entrepreneurs, I don't think you could put a value on."

Asper had a history of heart problems, Carstairs said, although she
said she was not aware of any recent illness.

"I think he died the way he would have wanted to die, living life to
the fullest," she said.

(Additional reporting by Randall Palmer in Ottawa)