Conflict of Interest: The Media and the Liberal Party

I was reading this post by Bob at Let it Bleed about the upcoming election. The post dealt with an article in the Globe and Mail by Jane Taber. I read the article and was quite surprised at how matter of factly this portion was written:

Meanwhile, a lobbyist for a communications company told Ontario Liberal MPs at their caucus meeting yesterday to expect a negative campaign both from the opposition and the news media.

Charles Bird is a lobbyist for Bell Globemedia (owner of The Globe and Mail and CTV) and is the Ontario campaign chairman for the federal Liberals. He told Ontario MPs the electorate is "very volatile" and warned that "it's going to be a very negative campaign."

However, he vowed that Liberals will not be deterred.

"We will give as good as we get," he told MPs, according to an insider.

Does anyone else see the conflict of interest in all this? When Bird says "We will give as good as we get" is he refering to Globemedia as well? Anyone who didn't already question the partisanship of the media, particularly the Globe & Mail and CTV, will now have some solid evidence that the ties between the Liberal party, the Federal Government, and the Canadian media are too close. A democratic society needs the media to be the watchdog of the government, not of the people.

Update: Greg at Political Staples posted on the same topic. I guess I should leave the serious stuff to the smart people. :-p