CBC approved list dominated by recipients of the $650 million Trudeau media bailout

CBC recently released a list of local news outlets across the country that it finds trustworthy. No surprise: Rebel News did not make the cut!

CBC doesn’t really do local news anymore. But if you hadn’t noticed, don’t fret! You are among the vast majority of Canadians who don’t pay much attention to what CBC is up to. Fewer than 330,000 thousand people in our country of nearly 38 million tune in to watch CBC’s dinner-time broadcasts.

I recently reported how back in March, CBC cancelled some local, English-language broadcasts, citing the coronavirus pandemic. This bizarre action actually breached the conditions of the network’s broadcast license.

To help Canadians fill the void left by local news broadcasts no one watched in the first place being cancelled, CBC has now published the “Local News Directory,” a list of outlets, searchable by city, that the CBC deems as reputable sources of information.

See the full story and video here.

Defund the CBC and shower parents with cash

Erin O’Toole’s successful campaign for the leadership of the Conservative Party was full of ideas designed to appeal to the party’s base.

Chief among them was a plan to defund the CBC’s digital operations and halve funding to CBC English television operations by the end of his first mandate. It’s a promise that polls solidly with Conservatives, but less so with the general public.

Read the full story here.

CBC Lobs Softball Questions

On August 14, CBC’s flagship radio program As It Happens featured a segment on the UAE and Israel peace deal to gauge the Palestinian reaction to the deal.

The program interviewed Diana Buttu (pictured right), a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) who said that the deal represented a “stab in the back” for Palestinians. (Queue to the 27:00 mark to listen to the interview). For Buttu, the deal was “shameful, disgusting and a real let down…. Israel is being rewarded for its ‘illegal behavior.'”

Oddly titled: “Palestinian UAE Deal” (not Israel and UAE deal) CBC guest host Peter Armstrong (former CBC Mideast bureau chief) lobbed softball questions to Ms. Buttu which gave her ample opportunity to condemn the normalization deal without challenge.

Read the full story here.

CBC is busted

CBC BUSTED: Panelist who defended WE Charity was paid $40,000 by Trudeau government

CBC commentator and president of Pomp & Circumstance PR, Amanda Alvaro failed to disclose to the public broadcaster that her company received $16,950 from the Department of Foreign Affairs, which would directly conflict with the Journalistic Standards and Practices at the CBC: "it is important to mention any association, affiliation or specific interest a guest or commentator may have so the public can fully understand that person’s perspective."

Additionally, Alvaro received an added $24,997 contract to provide "communications advice" to Trudeau's Minister of Women Maryam Monsef, according to Blacklock's Reporter.

To the surprise of no one, Alvaro has made frequent appearances of CBC's Power & Politics, wherein she defended the Trudeau Liberals in their ongoing WE Charity scandal.

Read the full story here.

CBC guilty of systemic betrayal of Canada

In the past two weeks, our CBC has sunk to new lows in its betrayal of Canada. It has launched another all-out assault against Canada’s majority, European-based, White population. It has done that by accusing Canada and its institutions of “systemic racism”.

Assuming that the word “systemic” means “existing throughout an institution or existing throughout a population”, the CBC is accusing the majority of Canadians and the majority of Canada’s institutions of being racist. That’s quite a charge to make, so the logical question that Canadians should ask the CBC is this : What evidence does the CBC have? For example, the Vancouver CBC has recently used Vancouver Police Department statistics to claim that there has been an increase in what the police describe as Anti-Asian “hate crimes” and that these numbers should be a cause for major concern. According to the VPD, those numbers are less than 200.

Read the full story here.

CBC edits out federal funding discussion

Conservative leadership candidate Erin O'Toole had an answer edited out by the CBC during an interview with the crown broadcasting corporation—during this answer, O'Toole made the case for defunding the CBC.

The CBC only chose to edit out the question and answer that related to the CBC's federal funding. No other answers were cut from the interview.

Towards the end of the interview, The CBC interviewer said that he couldn't "have [O'Toole] on the CBC without asking you about your policy for the CBC ... why would you seek to reduce the number of journalism outlets in the country when the industry is widely seen as being in a bit of a crisis?"

O'Toole's response, which was cut out by the CBC,  went as follows: "What we wanna do with the English [CBC] television is privatize. What we don't need is Canadians spending millions of dollars to create The Family Feud Canada edition."

"Is that where taxpayers' money should really be going?", asked O'Toole.

Read the full story and listen to the full interview here.

CBC is the real issue

On Friday's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Spencer Fernando of SpencerFernando.com joined me to discuss Justin Trudeau's involvement in the WE Charity scandal, and what happens when the media gets put on the Trudeau payroll too. 

As Spencer said: 

"If you know a scandal is going to come out, then you release it first. You try to beat the story, and you try to get it to someone you think is going to be supportive or friendly. The real issue is the CBC — we all pay for it — it's not supposed to be friendly to friends of the Liberal Party. So the fact that they even felt like the CBC would be friendly in and of itself, that's a pretty serious problem."

WATCH the clip and see what Spencer has to say about how the story went to CBC's house Liberal, who managed to tie Justin Trudeau's most recent scandal to Stephen Harper of all people. 

CBC fell for misleading poll

Recently, anti-Israel groups in Canada commissioned a deceptive “push poll” in an effort to manipulate views about Israel’s sovereignty application of Judea and Samaria (wrongly dubbed “annexation”) under the guise of conducting an opinion poll. 

Not surprisingly, mainstream media outlets like CBC Radio-Canada fell for the misleading poll and gave it undue coverage.

Read the full story here.

CBC Falsely Claims Israel is “Annexing Parts of the Palestinian Territories”

With Israel’s pending decision to apply sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, Canadian media outlets devoted considerable coverage, much of it was misleading and lacked context, while some reports contained outright falsehoods.

Case in point, on June 24, CBC Radio’s flagship World at Six program aired a feature-length segment by former Mideast Bureau Chief, Margaret Evans, which was replete with errors and which lacked vital context about Israel’s plans.

Read the full story here.

Do wWe Really Need the CBC as it is Yoday?

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. 

I have several friends in the journalism industry, and they all report the same reality – that everyone wants a CBC job because they are better-paying and much more cushy in terms of benefits and expectations. While this might be great for the unionized workers at CBC, it is definitely not advantageous to the average Canadian. Nor is it fair to the other networks that compete with the CBC. 

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 journalist bizarre tweet

In a bizarre tweet on Thursday, CBC journalist Rosemary Barton exclaimed "Huzzah!" in response to the news that Trudeau's Liberal Party has surged in polls due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Canadian political Twitter was quick to react to Barton's inappropriate and apparently partisan cheer.

Barton tried to clean up her mess by tweeting a clarification that she simply jsut loves the poll tracker itself and not the favourable result for Trudeau ...

Barton has been at the centre of other controversies regarding her bias. She famously took a selfie with Justin Trudeau that was roundly mocked around the country, and she was a plaintiff in a lawsuit by the CBC against the Conservative Party during the last election.

Read the full story here.

Wendy Mesley disciplined by CBC News

CBC News has revealed that it has disciplined news host Wendy Mesley. An internal investigation found that offensive language was used "on two separate occasions during editorial meetings."

She used offensive language once in a meeting in preparation for an upcoming segment on anti-racism, and a second time while referring to a title of a book.

Mesley took to Twitter to provide an statement that read, "I used a word, and yes, it's the word people think ... I thought that by saying the word, I was somehow exposing the truth. I now realize that my abuse of the word was harmful. I hurt my colleagues, my team and the CBC. For that I am deeply sorry and ashamed."

The punishment was not disclosed by CBC News.

Read the full story here.

CBC watched by only 3% of Canadians

The CBC is watched by by just three percent of the Canadian population, yet it is funded by 100 percent of the population, according to a recent Globe and Mail article.

"It cannot be overstated how badly CBC TV is run. During the coronavirus pandemic, it’s been one stumble after another. It’s hard to even know where to start," led the article.

Despite the CBC's chronically uninterested audience, the crown broadcasting company routinely splashes out a fortune on underwhelming products. In the early days of the pandemic, for instance, the CBC spent $2 million on a Creative Relief Fund.

This money came in spite of the CBC temporarily replacing local evening TV newscasts in the most confusing days of the pandemic.

Read the full story here.

Rosemary Barton Confirms Trudeau Got A Haircut

Super-serious and totally-credible journalist Rosemary Barton is covering the big issues that matter to Canadians.

Barton – showing that the CBC totally deserves $1.5 billion in our taxpayer dollars every year – is ensuring that Canadians are 100% up to date on the immense issues facing our nation.

Like Justin Trudeau getting a haircut.

Yep, Barton thinks Trudeau’s haircut is the issue all Canadians are talking about.

Read the full story here.

Goal to fully privatize CBC English TV

An Erin O’Toole Conservative government would defund CBC digital and cut the CBC English TV budget by half, the federal leadership candidate says.

“Our plan will phase out TV advertising with a goal to fully privatize CBC English TV by the end of our first mandate,” O’Toole says in a new video obtained by Postmedia to be released publicly Friday.

O’Toole promised to preserve CBC Radio and Radio Canada, which he said fulfilled an important role serving Francophones and Quebecers in their own language, but said CBC as a whole is in need of modernization and reform.

Read the full story here.

CBC tells kids J.K. Rowling is “transphobic”

A CBC children’s show is calling Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling “transphobic” and “dangerous” for saying only women menstruate.

In the June 12 episode of the CBC Kids News programme Recap, the three cohosts say they are “fired up” over a Twitter firestorm that started earlier this month when Rowling defended a biological definition of womanhood.

The show Recap is targeted towards children as young as six, CBC’s website says.

Read the full story here.

CBC was furious

Jason Kenney has fired a slew of NDP partisans from a judicial nomination committee.

One of those fired was Anne Wilson. On top of donating a grand total of $23,846.86 to New Democrat parties across Canada, Wilson would forward Notley fundraising pages to her followers like it was her day job.

Another recent fire, Lise Gotell, breathlessly praised her savior Rachel Notley on Twitter during the 2015 election.

The CBC was furious that the legacy of the NDP was being washed away before their eyes. The CBC can’t stand seeing all their hard work propping up the Notley Government go to waste.

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.

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.

A recent example of CBC’s intolerance to differing views took place on September 23, 2018, when it interviewed former Conservative leadership candidate, Maxime Bernier, who has formed his own political party, the People’s Party of Canada. Regardless of one’s opinion of Mr. Bernier, he should never have been exposed to such a derogatory and insulting interview as took place when rabidly partisan journalist, Wendy Mesley, interviewed him. She lobbed ideologically loaded grenades at him, insinuating that he was part of a vast right wing conspiracy. Ms. Mesley’s contempt for Mr. Bernier and his views, are similar to that exhibited by another CBC journalist, Rosemary Barton, when she interviews individuals with conservative values.

The CBC is also attempting to indoctrinate children by its program, CBC Kids News, which is thinly disguised propaganda to promote the left wing agenda.

Read the full story here.

CBC host suspended after allegedly using racial slur

CBC host Wendy Mesley has been suspended from her position after she used a “word that should never be used” during an interaction with coworkers. 

The word she used has not been specified, but it was apparently said in the context of race. 

Mesley, who hosts The Weekly with Wendy Mesley, admitted to Canadaland that she used the word when “quoting a journalist” during a discussion about racism. 

The incident is alleged to have occurred while Mesley and others prepared for last Sunday’s episode on Black Lives Matter.

“In the context of an editorial discussion about current issues regarding race, I used a word that should never be used,” she said.

Read the full story here.

CBC decision-makers shortchanging local viewers

Wednesday, In the middle of a pandemic, the CBC quietly turned out the lights on “Here and Now” and other supper-hour news shows across the country.

CBC journalists were issued directives from their bosses to not tweet or complain publicly about it.

Twenty years ago — even 10 years ago — local CBC managers would have risked their jobs to fight back against an order to stay off the air. Instead, they spent the afternoon trying to shape and control the message.

Viewers expecting local news got cookie-cutter network coverage of the COVID-19 crisis. They were not able to see stories about their community told to them by the familiar faces they’ve come to know and trust over the years.

This decision is a preview of things to come. My former colleagues tell me there are the rumblings of budget cuts in the air. I fear that by the time this pandemic is over, CBC management will be able to justify the decision to centralize or cut local supper-hour programming entirely. It will be an easy decision to justify — CBC’s once loyal local viewers will finally have migrated en masse to the competition.

Read the full opinion piece here.

Do we need the CBC?

The CBC license is up for renewal and the debate is (again) on. Is it fair to keep public funding for this broadcaster? Or, more bluntly, do we need the CBC?

Let’s pretend that the CBC has more quality programs and the best product representing Canada. The question remains: why the CBC viewership is shrinking?

True, the shrinkage is common to the entire broadcasting sector, public and private, but for the CBC this is a chronic, old and more serious disease that predates the new technology.

Some argue that the production of quality programs comes with a price, so public funding is justified. Fine, they have public funding, but the question remains: why do they have less audience then most private broadcaster?

Why should we increase public financing for a broadcaster that has serious difficulties to fulfill its mandate? Why not invest more money in the new technology to better connect Canadians, especially those in remote areas?

Moreover, does it make sense that the more Canadian turn away from the CBC the more they are forced to pay for it?

Read the full story here.

Questioning the CBC code of journalistic practices

The following letter was copied to us by a long time follower who is questioning the CBC code of journalistic practices ... we agree completely.

_______________________

Jack Nagler

CBC Ombudsman

CBC Canada

May 29, 2020

Dear Mr. Nagler,

Please treat this email as an official complaint against the following CBC web page article:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-minneapolis-tweet-1.5589777

Trump tweet about Minneapolis protests slapped with Twitter warning | CBC News Twitter has added a warning to one of U.S. President Donald Trump's tweets about protests in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd in police custody, saying it violated the platform's rules ... www.cbc.ca

My complaint is as follows: As quoted in the offending article, Trump's tweet that drew the Twitter warning is as follows:

"...these THUGS are dishonoring of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!".

From this quote, it is clear that President Trump is speaking about looters and arsonists, and others engaging in violence. Yet the headline, and the article, states that Trump is referring to "protestors" in general. The vast majority of people protesting in Minneapolis are non-violent, engaging in peaceful demonstration . Only a small minority are engaging in violence.  It is only the small latter group Trump is referring to.

Yet the Associated Press, and the CBC, say that Trump is referring to "protest". This is in the CBC headline. It is in the first sentence: "...about protests in Minneapolis".  This is factually incorrect. In fact, President Trump retweeted a tweet from Lara Trump which reads as follows:

"Looting is not protesting. Burning down local homes and businesses is not protesting. How sad the memory of #GeorgeFloyd has been lost in all of this.

The CBC code of journalistic practices says that reporting should be accurate. Yet in this article, the Associated Press article, which the CBC web page is carrying, is not accurate. It falsely claims that Trump is referring to Protestors" and "protests" when he is in fact talking about violence.  

The above constitutes my complaint.

Hope you and family are safe and doing well during the quarantine.

Sincerely,

David Murrell

Fredericton, NB

CBC continues to operate as if it's still 1975

The cuts happening at CBC are simply a reflection of what has been happening at all Canadian media outlets for decades, thanks to the fragmentation of audiences brought on by technology.

Yet technology is a blessing, not a curse, particularly for media consumers. It has allowed audiences access to the world of news and entertainment in an instant, regardless of their geographical location.

That access to diverse voices and views has been delivered by the private sector, making CBC irrelevant in the 21st century. Furthermore, its very existence actually poses a threat to journalists and members of the media working in the private sector. As a government agency, CBC is competing with private sector media outlets for audience and those audiences have value or CBC would not be able to sell advertising on television or on Radio 2. Every audience member and advertising dollar CBC takes hurts the viability of local media outlets across the country (and the good-paying jobs those outlets provide), starting locally with the Prince George Citizen and the four local private radio stations and one local TV station.

Read the full story here.

CBC temporarily scraps local TV newscasts

The CBC temporarily scrapped most of its local TV newscasts to consolidate resources at CBC News Network amid the COVID-19 crisis on Wednesday - a move the premier of Prince Edward Island said should be reversed to keep remote and vulnerable communities informed during the pandemic.

Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King said he was “incredibly disappointed” in the move, and planned to speak with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and formally ask Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault to intervene and reverse the decision.

“With the health and safety of Islanders at the forefront, it is vital that we continue to share the latest information with Islanders in real time,” King said in a statement.

“It is my opinion that now is not the time for the CBC to suspend its local news programming.”

Daniel Bernhard, executive director at watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, called it “a pretty inopportune time to suspend service.”

Read the full story here.

5 times CBC spread fake news about COVID-19

From attacking dissident Chinese journalists to parroting World Health Organization talking points, here are five times that the state broadcaster CBC made fools of themselves during the coronavirus pandemic.

CBC ad sales revenue plunges 53%

A shrinking CBC television audience has left the CBC with plunging advertising revenues, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

In the first six months of 2019, the CBC generated advertising revenues of $90.9 million, according to the public broadcaster’s second-quarter financial report. That is slightly less than the $92.8 million the broadcaster collected in ad revenue during the same time frame in 2017.

However, the amount the CBC collected from ad sales plunged 53% during the last five years. The Crown corporation raked in $192.2 million in the first six months of 2014.

The corporation receives $1.2 billion annually from the Canadian government.

Read the full story here.

Canadians are ditching CBC

Did you know that across Canada, over a total of 27 stations coast to coast, the average audience for CBC’s supper hour newscast was 329,000 people? That’s not 329,000 people per market, that is across the country.

Compare that to just one of CTV’s local supper hour newscasts, CFTO in Toronto, which averaged 1.4 million viewers per night in the first week of 2020. That doesn’t include other major markets like Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary or Ottawa where CTV outstrips CBC. It doesn’t include Global News, which is dominant in Western Canada and like CTV doesn’t take a $1.5 billion per year subsidy from the taxpayers.

These CBC ratings aren’t numbers that I’ve made up, they were contained in CBC’s most recent annual report and highlighted by Ottawa-based media outlet Blacklock’s Reporter.

Read the full story here.

Official complaint to CBC

One of our readers passed this on to post:
___________________________________________

Jack Nagler

Ombudsman

CBC

May 19, 2019

Dear Mr. Nagler,

Please treat this email as an official complaint.

My complaint is as follows: the CBC  news web page did not report on the release of a study -- by the Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China -- documenting on Chinese government intimidation of Chinese-Canadian dissident groups in Canada. The study can be accessed via the Amnesty International Canada web page, here:

 https://www.amnesty.ca/news/human-rights-defenders-increasingly-face-threats-intimidation-over-china-advocacy-report

Human rights defenders increasingly face threats, intimidation over China advocacy: report Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China says Canadian government’s inadequate response emboldens pro-Beijing actors OTTAWA – Advocates across Canada are increasingly facing threats, intimidation, and harassment for sounding the alarm on serious human rights concerns in China, according to a new report. The Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China, a coalition of Canada-based civil society organizations with a specific focus on the place of human rights in Canada’s foreign policy with China, released the report today. www.amnesty.ca

I did a search of the CBC web site, using the term "Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in Canada", and could not find any article. Other national media in Canada covered the story.

 I contend that the issue of intimidation of various Chinese-Canadian dissidents in Canada is important, and should be covered by CBC News. This study, promoted by Amnesty International Canada, offers a rather exhaustive and complete discussion of recent intimidation tactics by the government of China. I specifically refer to the CBC web page -- but my complain could be broadened to include other CBC media (TV and radio), if you can find that these latter media were negligent in reporting on this study.

The above constitutes my complaint.

I might add that the CBC web page recently published two attack articles against the Epoch Times Canada, perhaps the leading house organ for Chinese-Canadian dissidents in Canada:

 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/epoch-times-coronavirus-bioweapon-1.5548217

and

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-post-federal-government-epoch-times-1.5549462

I am not lodging a complaint against these latter two articles. But what I am complaining is that, on balance, looking at what was published and what was NOT published in the CBC web page, during this recent period, CBC news chose to ignore the concerns of the Chinese-Canadian dissident community.

Sincerely,

David Murrell (PhD)

Fredericton, NB

CBC seeks ratings from uninspiring game show

No doubt there’s a multitude of Canadian channel surfers who accidentally find themselves watching CBC’s old-is-new again but supposedly advertiser-friendly, Family Feud Canada, hosted by Gerard Francis Donoghue.

That’s Gerry Dee, for CBC non-watchers, the Toronto gym teacher turned stand-up comedian who has hosted a number of forgettable CBC shows — forgettable because I have never watched one of them to the end.

Read the full story here.

SUCCESS! Radio-Canada Deletes Article

On April 28, HonestReporting Canada filled a complaint directly with Radio-Canada Ombudsman Guy Gendron calling for immediate corrective action after our public broadcaster’s French-arm published a report blaming Israel exclusively for Gaza’s plight in fighting the Corona virus.

On May 12, CBC Radio-Canada responded to our concerns via email acknowledging that their reporting fundamentally violated CBC’s Journalistic Standards and Practices, while acknowledging that their article lacked balance and was therefore unfair.

Read the full story here.