One of the biggest stories in Ontario politics is not about anything Dalton McGuinty is doing, but about the uncertain future of the province's biggest news media chain, which is on the financial rocks and partly nudged there by competitors.

Some of the many newspapers owned by Canwest Global Communications Corp. soon may be owned by others.

Owners of newspapers normally, although not invariably, decide which political parties they will support through their editorials, the papers' official voice. This is not surprising, because most bought them mainly so they could exert political influence.

Politicians, elected and back-room, and those who vote, which should mean everybody, have a huge stake in who owns these papers.

In Toronto, where the widest-circulating newspapers in the province are published, the Star energetically and relentlessly supports the Liberal party in its editorials, although this has not prevented its news reporters from leading in unearthing faults in McGuinty's Liberal government.

The Globe and Mail likes to think it is independent, but its editorials mostly support the Progressive Conservatives, and the Sun almost always urges vote Conservative.

The National Post, the flagship paper of the Canwest chain and therefore facing a possible change of ownership, diverges from the Conservatives' line only when it thinks they are not far enough to the right, which is often.

A National Post that no longer is Conservative would be a huge loss to the Conservative extreme right. Those who hope it will continue its present political stances also will include many in the Jewish community, who have seen it as a constantly reliable supporter of their causes and particularly the state of Israel.

Canwest's financial difficulties have been caused almost wholly because its owners in assembling it piled up huge debts and found it impossible to repay, particularly when newspapers generally are selling fewer papers and advertising in them has plummeted in the current recession.

But this writer has worked on the staffs of several newspapers that have died in recent decades, including the News Chronicle of London, England (where Charles Dickens was once a writer), the Toronto Telegram and the Ottawa Journal.

A variety of reasons contributed to their demise, but in each case repeated reporting by competitors that they were in financial trouble helped build a public image that made it more difficult for them to survive.

Advertisers who spend huge money on campaigns will not patronize a newspaper they feel may not be around long. They tend to play it safe by running their ads in papers whose continued existence is not in question.

Rival papers in Toronto reported the difficulties of Canwest and the Post regularly and even with relish.

In February, The Globe and Mail said Canwest was "scrounging for a few desperate dollars and has reached the wall."

In March, the Star reported its own readership remained steady, but the Post's had declined and it was forced to postpone a deadline for repaying, and the Globe said Canwest was merely tinkering with repaying and creditors were worried.

In April, the Star said the crunch time had come for Canwest to repay and it might be forced to sell. The Globe said Canwest's income from advertising had fallen so dramatically creditors might be less willing to wait for money owed and those most likely to take over had no insights that would win back readers anyway.

In May, the Globe reported that Canwest was trying again to extend deadlines to repay and "reworking" them several times.

In June, the Star said Canwest's debt load "threatens to topple" the company, which had to borrow money at a time when credit was tightest, and there was constant speculation about the future of its National Post, and in August, the Globe said advertising in the Post had dropped so steeply its debt was unmanageable.

The rival papers' predictions have come true, so it could be argued they were justified.

But they also helped weaken media already in trouble and may cost the public another voice that it cannot afford to lose.