CBC Reporting Found Imprecise and Lacked Context

HRC (Honest Reporting Canada) issued a media action alert which noted that although Israel won widespread praise for its leading role and brave humanitarian efforts in the daring rescue of hundreds of individuals associated with Syria’s White Helmets, our public broadcaster, the CBC, produced truly appalling coverage that maligned Israel’s efforts.

Ombudsman Finds CBC National’s Reporting on White Helmets Rescue Imprecise and Lacked Context.

Read the full report here.

The CBC has a weird sexual obsession

The CBC has a weird sexual obsession, and they are pushing it on children.

Away from the prying eyes of parents, and on a popular platform called Snapchat (that virtually only kids use), the CBC’s tone changes dramatically when parents aren’t watching. Like a predator alone with a child, they are publishing some of the most asinine, immoral, and objectionable content I have ever seen, much less ever expected from our state broadcaster.

The CBC's Snapchat social media team seems to have a particular fetish for stories about polygamy, and stories explaining to your 13 year old daughter how to treat a hallucinating meth user.

Read more and see the video here.

Allow CBC to become a specialized niche channel

I believe that when the CBC began, it was absolutely essential at almost any cost. It was one of the only mediums of communication, and for many parts of Canada it was the only television available. It was undeniably a key means of getting information out from coast-to-coast, and held great cultural value in terms of defining Canada a country. I believe it certainly justified its fairly high cost to the public purse in times past… wait for it… *sound of other shoe dropping*… Unfortunately for the CBC, the world we live in today is not the world of yesteryear.

The CBC has consistently lost market share to their private rivals that do not benefit from a taxpayer subsidy. This fact alone dictates that people have voted with their television remotes already. The CBC likes to spin the government funding they receive (a fairly substantial $1.16 billion) by saying that it creates 3x that much for the Canadian economy. My response is that a private company could take those assets and do even better for the Canadian economy as a whole (as evidenced by their already more efficient business models).

We don’t have to do away with the CBC entirely, just pair it down and call it what it really is. Why are we trying to fund an entity to compete with the legitimate businesses? Instead, let’s allow the CBC to become a specialized niche channel that is a Canadian version of PBS.

Read the full story here.

CBC should not be party to perpetuating falsehood

It’s rather self evident that Israel considers Jerusalem to be its eternal and undivided capital city, even though Palestinians also assert a claim to Jerusalem as their future capital. As far as the CBC is concerned though, its journalists have no problem with allowing guests to assert unchallenged that Jerusalem is a city of “Palestine”.

Case in point, on CBC Radio’s Q program on May 15, host Tom Power interviewed Bashar Murad, a Palestinian musician who CBC noted is “based in Jerusalem,” about the Palestinian music scene.

CBC, should not be a party to the deligitimization of Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem and to perpetuating the falsehood that Jerusalem is a city of “Palestine”.

Read the full story here.

CBC rebrands over-the-top streaming service

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is rebranding its over-the-top streaming service. Dubbed ‘CBC Gem,’ the premium, ad-free service will continue to cost $4.99 per month.

According to tweets posted by Marcia Douglas — the director of business affairs and digital at the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) — CBC Gem will feature content from independent producers, other broadcasters, as well as existent CBC content.

Read the full story here.

Does this CBC Ad Violate Human Rights?

Wanted:  Male, 23-35, Any race except Caucasion, Non-union.  Send photo and audition tape to the CBC.

So, employment law students, how many violations of the law do you see in that ad?

The National Post reported yesterday on an ad run by a recruitment office (Larissa Mair Casting) on behalf of the CBC, for a spot on a kids TV show. The ad included the above noted criteria. The story reports that, after complaints, the reference to “any race except Caucasian” was removed, but the other requirements I listed remain.

We are dealing with a job advertisement, so the first place to look is Section 23(1) of the Human Rights Code. That section regulates the content of job ads, and it says this:

The right under section 5 to equal treatment with respect to employment is infringed where an invitation to apply for employment or an advertisement in connection with employment is published or displayed that directly or indirectly classifies or indicates qualifications by a prohibited ground of discrimination.

Section 5 says that it’s unlawful to discriminate in employment on the basis of, among other grounds: age, sex, race, ethnicity, and colour. So Section 23(1) prohibits employers from advertising positions that “directly or indirectly” indicate qualifications by age, race, ethnicity, and colour.

Read the full story here.

Shouldn’t the CBC National run ad-free?

My main target is the CBC, particularly the national news. I don’t watch a lot of television, but I have for many years taken the time to turn on the news at 10 p.m. on most days.

Firstly, I have to say that I do not like the new format as much as the old. Unlike other news broadcasts, the CBC has always spent more time in editorializing and offering opinions instead of just reporting what happened. The new format is even worse, with four so-called “anchors” chatting with each other too much, which I find annoying and not news worthy.

But that is not my main beef. It is the frequency and duration of the commercials. So many interruptions. Having to endure two or three commercials followed by one of the four "stars" announcing the next item or feature and then having two or three more commercials is so annoying.

The CBC receives many millions of taxpayer’s dollars every year. The main Canadian competition, CTV and Global receive nothing. They need the income from commercials to exist, so why does the CBC have to present as many or more commercials per hour (or so it seems) than it’s free enterprise competitors?

Read the full story here.

CBC ad-free paid streaming option

CBC launched ad-free paid streaming option as part of revamped TV app.

The broadcaster said in a memo that the new app, which will also be available for free in an ad-supported version, will allow users to live stream CBC TV, watch episodes on demand on the same day they're released, see ad-free children's programming and see series not aired on the network.

The broadcaster said it will cost $4.99 for the ad-free, premium version of the new CBC TV app.

Read more here.

CBC TV Ratings are in the Toilet…

Here's what one person had to say ...

VancouverTVGuy

The only time CBC places in the top 10 anymore is when Hockey Night in Canada airs. Beyond that, most folks couldn’t care less about CBC shows and they sure aren’t going to watch the fake news, Trudeau puff pieces and SJW opinion pieces masquerading as “news” on The National.

We don’t need to be paying taxes for a state broadcaster that’s little more than the Liberal Party’s propaganda wing. If I were PM, here’s what I’d do with the CBC:

* CBC Television would be privatized and spun off, keeping the CBC name
* Ici Radio-Canada Télé would be sold to Quebecor Media and merged into TVA, finally giving that network OTA stations outside of Quebec
* The CBC’s English and French radio units would be spun off as non-profit, listener-supported networks akin to NPR in the US, with a name change for the spun-off networks.

Read other comments here.

What do YOU think??

The CBC: Taxpayer-Funded Leftist Propaganda

1) Introduction:

In this article, I will try to explain why I claim that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is a Leftist propaganda machine funded by Canadian taxpayers.

2) My non-claims:

As usual, let's start with the things I am not claiming:

2.1) I am not claiming anything about the whole long history of the CBC, just recent history (say, 10 years or so). Maybe the CBC was fine a long time ago.

2.2) I make no claims about CBC programs that have nothing to do with Leftist propaganda, like weather reports, cooking programs, sports, etc. (as far as I know, those programs are fine).

2.3) I am not aware of the existence of a good "Mainstream" TV channel. I insist on this because of the Leftist's reflex, who start vomiting on "Fox News" as soon as they hear somebody criticize the CBC! First of all, I'm talking about the CBC, not "Fox News" or some other media. Second, what little I know about "Fox News" fills me with as much distrust as toward the CBC.

2.4) I am not asking the CBC to replace Leftist propaganda by right-wing propaganda! Propaganda is propaganda, and I don't like propaganda!

2.5) I'm not even demanding that the CBC stop Leftist propaganda! I just want the CBC to stop censoring Christians! Like a bit of chlorine in a lot of infected water, a bit of truth in a lot of propaganda is vastly sufficient to neutralize the lies. But we do need that little bit of chlorine! The CBC does need to stop censoring Christians, who pay a large proportion of its budget. Or then the CBC should be totally de-funded of public monies.

Read the full article here.

CBC needs a dose of common sense

But it's not just money the CBC needs. It's a dose of common sense and it needs a reminder that, while it's a special service, it cannot be remote from the principle that it is indeed a service. It's not an institution to be exploited by those it employs to fulfill their most base instincts.

But while CBC is in a better relationship with this government, it is not necessarily in the best phase of its relationship with the paying public. Even CBC's strongest supporters cannot turn a blind eye to the narrative of the last two years – Peter Mansbridge's and Rex Murphy's paid speaking engagements, the Ghomeshi scandal, the Amanda Lang debacle and the strange and sudden departure of Evan Solomon. That's a lot.

Read the full story here.

CBC News hard at work

Source of photo is here.

CBC lacks cohesion, among other things

Readers write to me about The National. That would be the usual thing if I write something about CBC’s flagship newscast. But readers now write to me regularly about The National, not just in response to a column.

Mostly, they complain. Often, they’re writing to tell me they’ve given up. They stopped watching because the hour of news is confusing and they don’t feel they’re getting a definitive, authentic roundup of the important news of the day.

Some long-time viewers are irritated by the use of on-screen text to promote an upcoming story in a certain number of minutes. The appearance of the text is too brief to read, let alone register.

The National is on the air for hours every night. Capturing the tone, style and methodology is tricky. It’s not the same every night, no matter what some readers feel.

What it doesn’t have is cohesion, nor does it offer the traditional attempt at defining the news tally of the day. If viewers are fleeing, that’s utterly understandable.

Read the full story here.

The CBC is a Propaganda Tool for the Left Wing Social Activists

The tax supported CBC is a tool for left wing social activists to indoctrinate the Canadian public.

It collects $1.7 billion each year from the federal government to promote its left wing ideological objective which most definitely does not reflect the views of most Canadians. It does so, even though the Broadcasting Act, which was updated in September, 2018, specifically states in Section 3(l)(i) that broadcasters are required to provide a balance of information and in Section 3(l)(iv) that the CBC must provide a reasonable opportunity for the Canadian public to be exposed to differing views on matters of public concern. The CBC is operating outside its mandate.

Former CBC President, Hubert Lacroix, and current President, Catherine Tait, have ignored the Broadcast Act and have allowed the CBC to promote only left wing propaganda programming. They have had no hesitation in doing so since the CBC is assured that the Liberal government will continue to fund its operation, regardless of its bias, or perhaps because of it.

Read the full report here.

CBC facing more Bullying & Harassment Claims

Following the April 2015 release of the Rubin Report, which detailed workplace abuse and institutional failures at CBC’s Q, many internal changes are being championed by the public broadcaster. Bullying awareness posters are plastered throughout the halls and every employee must take online training to help prevent bullying and harassment.

But CANADALAND has learned of serious bullying, harassment, and workplace abuse complaints at the CBC, throughout its departments. Through conversations with over a dozen CBC employees, our investigation revealed that CBC Radio One, CBC TV Sports, and CBC human resources have all experienced, or are experiencing, allegations of workplace bullying and abuse.

Read the full story here.

CBC Losing Viewers & Ads

CBC ad revenues remain half what they were since the TV network lost NHL licensing rights, says the Crown broadcaster’s latest Annual Report. 

The CBC has asked cabinet for an additional $400 million a year in budget funding to offset the loss of advertising: “If you’re not informing and you’re not entertaining, people will go somewhere else.”

See the story here.

CBC runs interference on international ridicule of Justin Trudeau

On last night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, I asked whether the Prime Minister's astronomical liquor bills were behind the behavior that led to the international ridicule of Justin Trudeau this week.

During Trudeau's meeting with Prime Minister Shinzō Abe of Japan, Justin mistakenly calls Abe “Chinese.” Not once, but twice. And the CBC covered for him.

See the video here.

How the CBC lost Hockey Night in Canada

It was a marriage that many thought would last forever.

From the initial radio broadcast with play-by-play by Foster Hewitt in 1926 to the move to television in the early 1950s, Hockey Night in Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation were inseparable — until 2013, when Rogers Communications won the exclusive rights to broadcast NHL games in Canada in a 12-year, $5.2-billion deal.

How the CBC lost Hockey Night in Canada — and all the ways Rogers's big win went wrong — are detailed in Globe & Mail reporter David Shoalts's book, Hockey Fight in Canada: The Big Media Face Off Over the NHL.

Read the full story here.

Storm clouds gathering over the CBC

The CBC should make a TV drama about the CBC.

It would be darker than any show currently on the network.

CBC Sports, once a vital department, is now on the brink of extinction.

The truth is, existential threats have been gathering like storm clouds over the CBC for more than a decade, especially in the fiercely competitive arena of sports media.

Read the full story here.

CBC Wrong on Natural Health Again

In a Q&A on the CBC web site, Dr. Sean Wharton, a “weight management expert,” was asked, “Are products that replace good gut bacteria helpful?” for weight loss. “Probably not,” he answered. Fact check? . . .

Dr. Wharton said yogurt drinks contain insufficient quantities of probiotics. But he didn’t stop there. He broadened his answer by saying that you should “Be wary of products claiming to replace your good gut bacteria.” He included all “over-the-counter products.”

Did Dr. Wharton go too far? Is his total dismissal of probiotics as an aid to weight management correct? It’s not.

Despite CBC’s dismissive claim about probiotics and weight management, the recent science has begun to support a role for probiotics in weight management.

Read the full story here.

CBC admits it wrongly reported hyped-up insurance 'climate risks'

The Insurance Bureau of Canada’s decades-long campaign to raise alarms about the ravages of floods continued last week with an appearance by Blair Feltmate, a favourite star climate-change witness for the biggest insurers, at the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority’s annual meeting.

Robert Muir, an Ontario municipal engineer and member of the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, complained to the CBC ombudsman, pointing to flaws in Feltmate’s and the insurance lobby group’s claims. He alleged that the CBC report was misrepresenting science and insurance risks.

In his review of Muir’s complaint, the ombudsman delivered a scathing critique of the CBC coverage on its Radio Canada International site, saying that the CBC report had “failed to comply with journalistic standards” in assessing and reporting on the industry’s claims.

Read the full story here.

The immorality of CBC funding

Was Radio-Canada’s choice of Easter Sunday to broadcast an interview with a former Islamic extremist a deliberate attempt to provoke Christians on their highest holiday? Maybe, but probably not.

And while the studio audience offered Khadr a fawning standing ovation and the host, Guy LePage, tossed up a few friendly questions, there was nothing wrong with the show having Khadr as a guest – JUST NOT ON YOUR DIME AND MINE.

The Khadr appearance was a sophomoric effort to turn public opinion in his favour, to encourage him that he has plenty of elite support and tweak the noses of those who object to his current treatment by the federal government and courts.

However, while the episode may qualify as “fair comment,” it is as good an example as any of why the CBC should no longer receive an annual taxpayer subsidy in the neighbourhood of $1.2 billion (or roughly four times what they P.E.I. government receives in equalization).

As legitimate as the CBC’s pro-Khadr views are (wrong, but legitimate), there are millions of Canadians with equally legitimate and valid views against his repatriation to Canada from an American prison, his early release from a Canadian jail and the federal government’s 2017 compensation to him of $10.5 million. Yet the CBC never represents those opponents’ views with the same amount of time or respect. Mother Corp’s annual budget, though, comes equally from the taxes of his opponents and supporters.

That’s the immorality of CBC funding.

Read the full story here.

CBC is selective with facts

In the early 2000s, CBC faced charges of deep-seated left-wing bias. In recent years, it cleaned up its act and is rated centre-left by Media Bias/Fact Check, a website that rates accuracy and political bias in news media. Not unbiased but a big improvement from where it was.

Yet, the CBC’s flagship National newscast recently reported distorted facts and ignored relevant material on the crisis in Venezuela. The result created a false moral equivalence between the democratic opposition trying to bring in desperately-needed aid and the brutal dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro that’s blocking food from getting to starving people.

CBC is selective with facts. It approvingly quotes Amnesty International saying U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s oil “will surely hurt on the streets” but had not a bad word for the regime, which has inflicted massive human suffering.

So the CBC report makes a moral equivalence between the regime responsible for a humanitarian catastrophe and a democratically-elected opposition trying to get food to the starving, by quoting the impartiality of groups forced to be impartial for humanitarian or political imperatives.

This is not news and analysis, but spin to create a false equivalence while ignoring facts that directly contradict the spin.

Is the old CBC back?

Read the full story here.

CBC Fake News Show Hires Actor

It seems that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Marketplace show was unable to find a racist Trump supporter. Instead, they hired an actor named Mike to portray one as you shall see. 

It was their laughably unsubtle attempt to link Donald Trump to racism. Now Melanie Joly, Trudeau's culture minister, wants a national crack-down on "fake news." And the first place to start a crack-down on "fake news" in Canada is on CBC's own Marketplace.

See the story here.

She says ... CBC says ...

When the CBC was sued by a former employee for wrongful dismissal last year, the public broadcaster filed a statement in response that included a laundry list of alleged bad behaviour that would get almost anyone fired from their job.

Audrey James, CBC Television’s former senior director of scheduling, was terminated for just cause on March 2, 2018, ending a 29-year career at the broadcaster.

According to the CBC’s statement of defence in her subsequent suit, James was found to have violated the CBC’s code of conduct and policies on harassment and ethics, after a series of complaints made around the spring of 2017. Among other things, they allege James “made scheduling decisions…based on the negative relationships James had with her colleagues.”

James’s statement of claim calls the investigation into her conduct “tendentious,” arguing that the allegations the CBC relied on were “trivial” and “did not amount to just cause.” James asks for $366,494 of lost remuneration, along with other damages that account for the loss of pension value. James, who earned a $135,000 salary in her role, said she had not been able to find new employment that uses her skills and offers a similar salary.

Read the full story here.

CBC president Catherine Tait wandered off script

As she may now regret having done, CBC president Catherine Tait wandered off script last week to compare the popularity of Netflix, a U.S. multinational, with the French and British empires.

There’s nothing worse you can call somebody in this day and age than “imperialist.”

Except that if Netflix is imperialism, it seems a lot like United Nations imperialism.

Netflix has internationalized to the point where we now actually favour subtitles.

Should Netflix pay tax? Of course it should. It provides a newly produced service, and the whole idea of the GST is to tax all newly produced goods and services, with the rate of tax getting lower and lower as the tax base gets wider and wider. That said, it would take a brave politician, or a foolhardy one, to tax people’s Netflix.

Should Netflix have to contribute to a Canadian film and TV production fund? No, it shouldn’t. Earmarked taxes are a bad idea.

Netflix is a for-profit company: If the world wants something, you can bet Netflix will provide it.

It may not be imperialism when a government takes your money to produce films and TV you don’t care to watch, but it’s nothing good.

Read the full story here.

CBC questions Netflix Canadian content

CBC president Catherine Tait pointed a finger at Netflix at a recent conference panel in Ottawa, saying the U.S.-based streaming giant doesn’t have “boots on the ground” like other Canadian broadcasters providing Canadian content.

Tait was joined onstage by Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) president Reynolds Mastin, Corus Entertainment president and CEO Doug Murphy, Bell Media president of content and programming Mike Cosentino, and Netflix Canada director of public policy Stéphane Cardin.

Cardin, a former vice president of public and industry relations for the Canada Media Fund (CMF) who joined Netflix in August 2018, said he disagreed with Tait’s comments about Netflix.

He argued that the streaming giant is still involved in producing Canadian content even if the company isn’t physically located in Canada.

Referencing the Trailer Park Boys franchise picked up by Netflix in its eighth season, Cardin asked whether the franchise still counts as Canadian content now that it’s available on the streaming giant’s platform.

“Does that make it such that Trailer Park Boys is no longer Canadian?” asked Cardin.

Cardin added that “No one has the monopoly or the authority to tell a true Canadian story.” 

Read the full story here.

CBC president under fire

The president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has likened Netflix to the British Raj, arguing Canada needs to be wary of the negative effects of cultural imperialism that could result from an onslaught of foreign-owned media services.

She made the comments at the close of a sometimes heated panel at which Stéphane Cardin, Netflix’s director of public policy for Canada, noted the streaming service had already committed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on production in Canada without being required to do so by regulation.

Read the full story here.

CBC releases incorrect information to media

CBC claims to be open, transparent and accountable for the $1 billion dollars in taxpayers' money it receives. The $1 billion is spent on English and French radio and TV and miscellaneous other services. If more funding is needed to serve Canadian audiences, especially in TV, CBC needs to be far more transparent about how it spends its money and explain more convincingly why more dollars are required. The problem: CBC is too secretive and misleading.

CBC releases financial and other data to the media which often leads to inaccurate reports.

CBC has also released incorrect information to the media about the number of staff it has and the number cut in the past few years.

Misinformation and cuts to radio have alienated many CBC supporters and caused a major rift between CBC staff and management and CBC radio and TV staff.

Read the full story here.

CBC News spread false information

CBC News has apologized for spreading false information about the Covington Catholic School students two months after the network first reported on it.

In January, CBC reported that after the Washington, DC March for Life, a group of students made an offensive chant in the face of a Native American protester, categorizing the students as “teenage bullies.”

The CBC is now acknowledging this claim was false.

Read the full story here.