According to a review published on July 26 by CBC Ombudsman Esther Enkin, CBC News has acknowledged that it deleted mentioning in a headline of a March 8 article that a Palestinian terrorist killed by Israeli forces in an arrest raid shootout was a “gunman”.
CBC admits that its editors removed the word “gunman” from their headline after receiving a complaint on the basis that the terrorist’s family had cast doubt that he was an attacker and that the claim was not in attribution.
Read the full story here.
cbcexposed is all about exposing the waste of the CBC ... over 1 billion dollars a year of taxpayer money funds the cbc and a lot of that taxpayer money is wasted.
Does CBC Ad Violate Human Rights, Labour Laws?
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?
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:
Can an Employer require Applicants to be Nonunion?
Read the full story here.
So, employment law students, how many violations of the law do you see in that ad?
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 discriminationSection 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.
Can an Employer require Applicants to be Nonunion?
Read the full story here.
CBC misjudged demand
CBC/Radio-Canada’s poor numbers from its experiment with paid commercials on Radio 2 and Espace Musique show that the public broadcaster “clearly” misjudged the market for national advertising on its music-focused radio channels, one industry watcher says.
The CBC raised $1.1 million in revenue from ad sales on the two music-focused networks in the 2014 broadcast year, according to the CRTC’s annual report on the financial results of Canadian commercial radio stations.
That’s well below the $10 million the CBC hoped for when the CRTC approved its plan to air ads on the two channels.
Read the full story here.
The CBC raised $1.1 million in revenue from ad sales on the two music-focused networks in the 2014 broadcast year, according to the CRTC’s annual report on the financial results of Canadian commercial radio stations.
That’s well below the $10 million the CBC hoped for when the CRTC approved its plan to air ads on the two channels.
Read the full story here.
Is CBC News Biased?
Is CBC News Biased? Should Canadian Taxpayers Fund the CBC with $1 Billion Every Year?
The CBC should be accountable directly to all Canadians. But it is not. Instead, it is accountable to the Prime Minister. He controls CBC funding, and appoints the Board of Directors and President (through the Governor General). Also troubling is that every English-language CBC ombudsman to date has been a former CBC employee -- and therefore potentially biased in favor of the CBC. Given that this unconscionable risk of bias has been allowed, how much confidence can we have in the integrity of CBC management? Has the CBC ever voluntarily admitted to a scandal before being caught?
Read more here.
Read more here.
Another CBC On Air Correction
Following HRC’s intervention, several times today, CBC News TV and Radio aired on-air corrections to remedy its wrongly reporting on July 14 that Israeli forces killed three Arab terrorists inside the Al Aqsa Mosque.
As we noted in our recent analysis of Canadian media coverage of the terror attack, two Druze Israeli officers were murdered by Arab-Israeli terrorists on the Temple Mount. CBC freelancer Irris Makler had erroneously claimed that Israeli forces killed the three terrorists inside the mosque, which is a very sensitive and revered Muslim holy site, and not outside in the Temple Mount compound.
Read the full story here.
As we noted in our recent analysis of Canadian media coverage of the terror attack, two Druze Israeli officers were murdered by Arab-Israeli terrorists on the Temple Mount. CBC freelancer Irris Makler had erroneously claimed that Israeli forces killed the three terrorists inside the mosque, which is a very sensitive and revered Muslim holy site, and not outside in the Temple Mount compound.
Read the full story here.
MP files complaint with CBC
An MP has lodged a formal complaint against the CBC for what he considers “shockingly offensive remarks” made in an opinion article featured on their website.
Garnett Genuis, the Conservative MP for Sherwood Park – Fort Saskatchewan, submitted a letter to CBC ombudsman Esther Enkin to raise concerns about an opinion piece by journalist Neil Macdonald headlined “Simple truth is Canada’s mass shooters are usually white and Canadian-born.”
Genuis takes issue with several of the assertions in Macdonald’s column, including a line that the alleged shooter in the Quebec City mosque attack was “Probably a Christian, judging from his name.”
“This is an entirely false and deeply offensive statement that, were it to mention any other religious community, would be recognized immediately as plain bigotry,” the complaint reads in reference to a tweet by CBC’s The National regarding the column.
Read the full story here.
Garnett Genuis, the Conservative MP for Sherwood Park – Fort Saskatchewan, submitted a letter to CBC ombudsman Esther Enkin to raise concerns about an opinion piece by journalist Neil Macdonald headlined “Simple truth is Canada’s mass shooters are usually white and Canadian-born.”
Genuis takes issue with several of the assertions in Macdonald’s column, including a line that the alleged shooter in the Quebec City mosque attack was “Probably a Christian, judging from his name.”
“This is an entirely false and deeply offensive statement that, were it to mention any other religious community, would be recognized immediately as plain bigotry,” the complaint reads in reference to a tweet by CBC’s The National regarding the column.
Read the full story here.
Politics at the CBC
You think the politicking is tough at Ottawa City Hall. Ha. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Politics is played at the highest level in the nosebleed executive ranks and in top journo echelons of the CBC.
And what’s at stake in those murky areas? Only the most prestigious spot in journalism.
Replacing the inimitable Peter Mansbridge on The National.
The spot on The National is mostly bingo-calling rather than real journalism. The poor grunts in print, the few who are left, are the real journalists. They write their stories on the ground, file them to the mother ship and Canadian Press sends them to other broadcast and print outlets. Then the great seer of The National deems which ones he will read to a waiting nation while the CBC’s reporters put film around the poor grunt’s story.
So no doubt the knives are out and the makeup is flying to be the most famous person in Canada. And all that reading gets you an Order of Canada and recognition in airports. Makes journalism look pretty petty doesn’t it.
Guess what? Sometimes it really is. But then that’s what happens when one lives in a newsroom where people are trained to listen to gossip. There’s lots of gossip and back-stabbing and jealousy. Often it’s not very nice.
Nowhere is it played at a higher level than at the CBC.
Read the full story here.
Politics is played at the highest level in the nosebleed executive ranks and in top journo echelons of the CBC.
And what’s at stake in those murky areas? Only the most prestigious spot in journalism.
Replacing the inimitable Peter Mansbridge on The National.
The spot on The National is mostly bingo-calling rather than real journalism. The poor grunts in print, the few who are left, are the real journalists. They write their stories on the ground, file them to the mother ship and Canadian Press sends them to other broadcast and print outlets. Then the great seer of The National deems which ones he will read to a waiting nation while the CBC’s reporters put film around the poor grunt’s story.
So no doubt the knives are out and the makeup is flying to be the most famous person in Canada. And all that reading gets you an Order of Canada and recognition in airports. Makes journalism look pretty petty doesn’t it.
Guess what? Sometimes it really is. But then that’s what happens when one lives in a newsroom where people are trained to listen to gossip. There’s lots of gossip and back-stabbing and jealousy. Often it’s not very nice.
Nowhere is it played at a higher level than at the CBC.
Read the full story here.
CBC strategies remain stuck in the twentieth century
Change doesn’t seem to come naturally to the cbc, whose strategies remain stuck in the twentieth century. For more than a decade, The National’s ratings have been stagnant, while Canadians’ trust in media has steadily declined. The ‘90s saw an attempt at restructuring the program: the format at the time was a twenty-two-minute-long news segment at the top of the hour and a current affairs program, The Journal, at the bottom. They combined it into an hour-long news and current affairs show, Primetime News. It was a complete failure. Mark Bulgutch, a former line-up editor for The National who was working on the program at the time, says he knew that the merger wasn’t going to work. “The cbc continues to try to find the right format; to find better formats; to find smarter formats,” Bulgutch says. “It turns its back on the audience at its own peril—when looking for new audiences you’ve got to be careful that you don’t turn off the one that you already have.” The National returned to its pre-merger version a year later, and has remained more or less the same ever since.
For better or worse, and according to the cbc’s 2017-2018 programming slate, a new version of The National will return this fall. The time has come for the public broadcaster to make the fundamental changes necessary to regain its viewers’ trust and to prove its worth—before its audience signs off for good.
Read the full story here.
For better or worse, and according to the cbc’s 2017-2018 programming slate, a new version of The National will return this fall. The time has come for the public broadcaster to make the fundamental changes necessary to regain its viewers’ trust and to prove its worth—before its audience signs off for good.
Read the full story here.
Cutbacks at CBC Make Room For Digital Growth
For many Canadians, the CBC is more totem than mere media organization.
Decimated by repeated cuts to its government appropriation, the organization has shed a quarter of its workforce — 3,600 jobs — since 2008. Its core TV audience is also aging out, skewing mostly 55-plus. Possibly worst of all, in 2014 it lost the broadcast streaming rights to NHL games, and its 62-year-old institution, Hockey Night in Canada, was bereft of any actual hockey.
So in 2014, Hubert T. Lacroix, its president and CEO, announced the 2020 Initiative (“A Space For Us All”), a pledge to retool the institution by doubling its digital reach, ensuring its sustainability and personalizing its content for an audience whose media habits had markedly changed.
Lacroix’s vision was very top line — a shrinking of infrastructure, a shift away from a producer’s role to that of a multi-platform broadcaster, a mobile-first approach to news. For some critics, it seemed more a way of putting lipstick on an austerity pig than a bona fide strategic shift.
Read the full story here.
Decimated by repeated cuts to its government appropriation, the organization has shed a quarter of its workforce — 3,600 jobs — since 2008. Its core TV audience is also aging out, skewing mostly 55-plus. Possibly worst of all, in 2014 it lost the broadcast streaming rights to NHL games, and its 62-year-old institution, Hockey Night in Canada, was bereft of any actual hockey.
So in 2014, Hubert T. Lacroix, its president and CEO, announced the 2020 Initiative (“A Space For Us All”), a pledge to retool the institution by doubling its digital reach, ensuring its sustainability and personalizing its content for an audience whose media habits had markedly changed.
Lacroix’s vision was very top line — a shrinking of infrastructure, a shift away from a producer’s role to that of a multi-platform broadcaster, a mobile-first approach to news. For some critics, it seemed more a way of putting lipstick on an austerity pig than a bona fide strategic shift.
Read the full story here.
CBC TV bets on arts and culture
Just as the private Canadian networks launch schedules full of Muppets, superheroes and other new American series, CBC is wading in with arts and culture. Have they painted themselves into a corner?
Making a serious scheduling commitment to arts programming in prime-time in 2015, however, simply would not happen at a rival broadcaster — which is why Heather Conway is doing it.
Conway, CBC’s executive vice-president of English services, is in the second year of a five-year plan to steer the public broadcaster towards a digital future, and one that is — as she emphasized last May at the CBC season launch —”identifiably Canadian.”
Conway was the chief business officer at the Art Gallery of Ontario prior to joining CBC in 2013. She sees the arts strategy as one that will “make sure we have a distinctive voice, an offering that doesn’t look or feel like anything else on the dial.”
Selling art-related programming on TV has risks, agrees Conway.
Read the full story here.
PS - my question ... will this strategy resonate with average Canadians who are footing the Billion dollar tax bill to support the CBC?
Making a serious scheduling commitment to arts programming in prime-time in 2015, however, simply would not happen at a rival broadcaster — which is why Heather Conway is doing it.
Conway, CBC’s executive vice-president of English services, is in the second year of a five-year plan to steer the public broadcaster towards a digital future, and one that is — as she emphasized last May at the CBC season launch —”identifiably Canadian.”
Conway was the chief business officer at the Art Gallery of Ontario prior to joining CBC in 2013. She sees the arts strategy as one that will “make sure we have a distinctive voice, an offering that doesn’t look or feel like anything else on the dial.”
Selling art-related programming on TV has risks, agrees Conway.
Read the full story here.
PS - my question ... will this strategy resonate with average Canadians who are footing the Billion dollar tax bill to support the CBC?
The CBC wants its critics to go away
Canada’s state broadcaster has published an op-ed, not signed by anyone in particular, going after those that disagree with their latest move to expand their mandate well beyond anything contemplated in the Broadcasting Act.
Whether it’s an opinion pages section on their website, on-line music streaming services, producing web-only comedies and dramas or offering a Netflix-style service in Quebec, even mainstream media progressives are beginning to speak up.
The CBC wants its critics to go away and never speak ill of them again.
Unfortunately, Trudeau’s Liberals are big CBC backers and it’s very unlikely they’ll turn around now and clip their wings after giving them even more taxpayer money.
Read the full story here.
Whether it’s an opinion pages section on their website, on-line music streaming services, producing web-only comedies and dramas or offering a Netflix-style service in Quebec, even mainstream media progressives are beginning to speak up.
The CBC wants its critics to go away and never speak ill of them again.
Unfortunately, Trudeau’s Liberals are big CBC backers and it’s very unlikely they’ll turn around now and clip their wings after giving them even more taxpayer money.
Read the full story here.
CBC to pull away from television and radio
For the second time since the election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government last fall, you could hear all employees at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) breathing a big sigh of relief.
The struggling public broadcaster received a reprieve from the new federal government after plans were announced today to provide the network with a $675-million investment over five years. CBC will receive a $75 million boost this year, followed by a $150 million annual increase until 2021.
More than 2,800 positions have been eliminated at the CBC since 2008 due to the Conservative government and changes in the media landscape. The network has lost its once-proud sports department, which is no longer capable of broadcasting professional sports.
The latest plan indicated the CBC would pull away from television and radio and focus more of its resources on digital and mobile platforms.
Read the full story here.
The struggling public broadcaster received a reprieve from the new federal government after plans were announced today to provide the network with a $675-million investment over five years. CBC will receive a $75 million boost this year, followed by a $150 million annual increase until 2021.
More than 2,800 positions have been eliminated at the CBC since 2008 due to the Conservative government and changes in the media landscape. The network has lost its once-proud sports department, which is no longer capable of broadcasting professional sports.
The latest plan indicated the CBC would pull away from television and radio and focus more of its resources on digital and mobile platforms.
Read the full story here.
The CBC is making all the right noises
Although they are talking of establishing a new five-year “accountability plan” for the CBC, the Liberals seem to think the logic of giving the broadcaster more money is self-evident. Because it’s the CBC, you can imagine them saying.
But given the revolutionary changes to the media landscape, wouldn’t this be a good time to revisit what we want from public broadcasting, and how best to achieve it, before simply writing a giant cheque?
The CBC is making all the right noises about investing much of the new cash in a digital strategy of some kind. That sounds necessarily futuristic and sensitive to the disruptive nature of today’s communications technology.
But as someone who works in privately owned media, as a writer, broadcaster and business owner, I find it hard to understand why the CBC uses taxpayers’ money to operate websites that compete directly with every newspaper, magazine and broadcaster in the country. Is the Internet so short on sources of information that we need another one, subsidized by the government?
Read the full story here.
But given the revolutionary changes to the media landscape, wouldn’t this be a good time to revisit what we want from public broadcasting, and how best to achieve it, before simply writing a giant cheque?
The CBC is making all the right noises about investing much of the new cash in a digital strategy of some kind. That sounds necessarily futuristic and sensitive to the disruptive nature of today’s communications technology.
But as someone who works in privately owned media, as a writer, broadcaster and business owner, I find it hard to understand why the CBC uses taxpayers’ money to operate websites that compete directly with every newspaper, magazine and broadcaster in the country. Is the Internet so short on sources of information that we need another one, subsidized by the government?
Read the full story here.
CBC special status shields it from market turbulences.
In November, CBC proposed to withdraw from advertising in exchange for increased government funding. This is a significant move for the corporation because the broadcast-television advertising market, once lucrative, is fragmenting as advertisers shift to digital platforms on televisions, computers and smartphones. Both private broadcasters and the CBC are facing a huge challenge, but CBC’s special status as a taxpayer-subsidized Crown corporation substantially shields it from market turbulences. Private broadcasters don’t have the luxury of public funds to replace declining revenue.
Both the CBC and private broadcasters are responding to this challenge by expanding their current affairs presence on new digital platforms, which adds to the competitive pressure on the financially hard-pressed newspapers, now investing heavily in digital editions and new business models in a frantic struggle to reverse advertising declines.
The traditional argument for taxpayers subsidizing public broadcasters is the challenge of creating television content in a relatively small Canadian market. But an important question remains: is the digital market where we fund public broadcasters? Do we want CBC competing for digital advertising dollars with the Winnipeg Free Press and other papers across the country? Is the CBC’s expansion into this sector a threat to Canadian newspapers adapting and surviving in the digital era?
Read the full story here.
Both the CBC and private broadcasters are responding to this challenge by expanding their current affairs presence on new digital platforms, which adds to the competitive pressure on the financially hard-pressed newspapers, now investing heavily in digital editions and new business models in a frantic struggle to reverse advertising declines.
The traditional argument for taxpayers subsidizing public broadcasters is the challenge of creating television content in a relatively small Canadian market. But an important question remains: is the digital market where we fund public broadcasters? Do we want CBC competing for digital advertising dollars with the Winnipeg Free Press and other papers across the country? Is the CBC’s expansion into this sector a threat to Canadian newspapers adapting and surviving in the digital era?
Read the full story here.
CBC Internal Memo Short on Promises
Yesterday’s federal budget included investing $675 million over five years into the CBC. The broadcaster will receive the first, $75-million round of funding this year and $150 million every year following.
An internal memo obtained by CANADALAND sheds some light on how the CBC plans to spend the new dollars. Notable journalistic commitments are investing into digital bureous across the country and bettering international coverage with “pocket bureaus.”
Read the full memo here.
An internal memo obtained by CANADALAND sheds some light on how the CBC plans to spend the new dollars. Notable journalistic commitments are investing into digital bureous across the country and bettering international coverage with “pocket bureaus.”
Read the full memo here.
CBC seen as digital uber predator
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has a looming public-relations problem.
That's because in the eyes of other media, the public broadcaster is seen as an uber predator in an age of diminishing ad revenues.
In fact, iPolitics publisher James Baxter even used this term, "uber predator", in a recent presentation to the Commons Heritage committee.
The controversy has arisen over CBC's insistence on competing with other media companies for digital advertising. And it comes after the Trudeau government announced $675 million in new funding for CBC over the next five years.
Read the full story here.
That's because in the eyes of other media, the public broadcaster is seen as an uber predator in an age of diminishing ad revenues.
In fact, iPolitics publisher James Baxter even used this term, "uber predator", in a recent presentation to the Commons Heritage committee.
The controversy has arisen over CBC's insistence on competing with other media companies for digital advertising. And it comes after the Trudeau government announced $675 million in new funding for CBC over the next five years.
Read the full story here.
CBC president Hubert Lacroix Embarrassed ...
From his 2008 appointment until he became the focus of an internal audit, CBC president Hubert Lacroix claimed nearly $30,000 in improper expenses ...
“We’ve been reporting a lot on ineligible expense claims by public officials, now we have a story in our own backyard,” CBC reporter Rosemary Barton announced ...
The CBC does not release the salaries of its top executives, but Mr. Lacroix is paid between $358,400 and $421,600 per year.
Read the full story here.
Is the CBC is a biased broadcasting institution?
This question was asked at this website (quora.com) and here is just one response ...
CBC has a reputation in Canada as being very progressive/left wing. Supporting left wing political parties may actually be self-serving for the public broadcaster. Liberal governments have consistently offered support for CBC, while Conservative governments have generally cut their budget. Supporting the CBC was in fact one of Justin Trudeau's campaign promises when he came to power with the Liberals during the last election.
For their part though, CBC has, like any good journalistic establishment should, done its best to remain unbiased, but they definitely have a reputation in Canada for being friendly with Liberals and harsh with Conservatives.
See many more responses here.
PS - what do YOU think?
CBC has a reputation in Canada as being very progressive/left wing. Supporting left wing political parties may actually be self-serving for the public broadcaster. Liberal governments have consistently offered support for CBC, while Conservative governments have generally cut their budget. Supporting the CBC was in fact one of Justin Trudeau's campaign promises when he came to power with the Liberals during the last election.
For their part though, CBC has, like any good journalistic establishment should, done its best to remain unbiased, but they definitely have a reputation in Canada for being friendly with Liberals and harsh with Conservatives.
See many more responses here.
PS - what do YOU think?
CBC apologists scramble ...
CBC apologists scramble to fix Trudeau’s Freudian slip.
Canada’s Prime Minister rattled off all of the provinces and territories in his speech over the weekend, except Alberta.
He then awkwardly got back up on stage and offered a half apology, but was it really a mistake and are Albertans overreacting?
But over at the CBC, they seem to think it was just honest human error.
Let’s face it, the CBC just wishes this was a “mistake, but it took a Canadian-born celebrity living in Los Angeles, Sandra Oh, to first call Trudeau out for forgetting about Alberta.
Read the full story here.
Canada’s Prime Minister rattled off all of the provinces and territories in his speech over the weekend, except Alberta.
He then awkwardly got back up on stage and offered a half apology, but was it really a mistake and are Albertans overreacting?
But over at the CBC, they seem to think it was just honest human error.
Let’s face it, the CBC just wishes this was a “mistake, but it took a Canadian-born celebrity living in Los Angeles, Sandra Oh, to first call Trudeau out for forgetting about Alberta.
Read the full story here.
Does Public Broadcasting have a future?
In an increasingly fractured, crowded and competitive media environment, what is the role of the public broadcaster when it comes to news? How to attract a new generation of audiences and retain existing ones? What innovations bode well for the future of news?
It seems the idea of public service journalism is under fire everywhere. So three major public broadcasters came together to talk about their collective future at a forum held in Toronto by the Canadian Journalism Foundation: Jennifer McGuire, General Manager and Editor-in-Chief of CBC News, James Harding, Director of News and Current Affairs of the BBC, and Michael Oreskes, Senior Vice-President of News and Editorial Director of NPR. The discussion was moderated by Simon Houpt of The Globe and Mail.
See more here.
It seems the idea of public service journalism is under fire everywhere. So three major public broadcasters came together to talk about their collective future at a forum held in Toronto by the Canadian Journalism Foundation: Jennifer McGuire, General Manager and Editor-in-Chief of CBC News, James Harding, Director of News and Current Affairs of the BBC, and Michael Oreskes, Senior Vice-President of News and Editorial Director of NPR. The discussion was moderated by Simon Houpt of The Globe and Mail.
See more here.
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