CBC has a totally unfair advantage

CBC has received a massive injection of taxpayer money under the Trudeau government.

Despite already being well-funded previously, Trudeau upped their budget to the point at which CBC now gets around $1.5 billion per year.

And that money is on top of the advertising revenue they receive, as CBC is allowed to benefit both from being State Media, and from the private advertising market.

This gives CBC a totally unfair advantage, putting private broadcasters on an unequal footing.

Yet despite this huge built in advantage, CBC is unable to convince people to watch their biggest news show – The National.

The National is now averaging 401,000 viewers – less than half of what CTV National News brings in.

Read the full story here.

CBC allows falsehood to exist on CBC website

On May 17, CBC Online published an article by former Mideast bureau chief Derek Stoffel on the Eurovision song contest which Israel hosted in Tel Aviv recently.

In his article which focused largely on how Palestinians called for a boycott of Israel and the Eurovision song contest as the host city was inside the Jewish state, reporter Stoffel included the following quote from a Hamas official which erroneously claimed that Tel Aviv sits atop land of former Arab villages “stolen” by Jews:

“No one has the right — including singers and artists — to whitewash Israeli crimes by organizing the Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv, on the land which was stolen from our grandfathers and grandmothers,” said Basem Naim, an official with Hamas, a political party and militant group that is considered a terrorist organization by Canada and other governments.”

What CBC did not tell readers is that Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 as the first all-Jewish city in modern times. Since when did Palestinians have any connection to Tel Aviv?

CBC declined to revise its article allowing this falsehood to exist on the CBC’s website.

Read the full story here.

CBC wastes taxpayers' money on fake news horoscopes

Did you know that CBC has a horoscope section? and it's not even in the entertainment section where it should be. It's in the "life and culture" section for some reason, lumped in with opinion articles and news.

Let's look at an example of the CBC horoscopes.

Am I reading a softcore romance novel? The Jay Peterman catalog? Or a horoscope? Who writes this stuff?

Anyway, joking aside, I wanted to know why the state broadcaster is paying someone to write horoscopes, who that person is, and how much it's all costing us to have CBC provide this vague astrological slice of Canadiana?

Read the full story here.

CBC is operating outside its mandate

The Canadian taxpayer supported CBC has become a tool for left-wing social activists to indoctrinate the Canadian public for a implementation of a carbon tax. CBC is promoting Liberal Party ideological objectives, which most definitely do not reflect the views of many Canadians.

CBC continues with their climate crisis articles while never pointing out differing views that many scientists have with research pointing out that human activity is a small factor in climate change, pointing out that China and India are still spending tens of billions of dollars building coal plants, or articles praising Canadians for their renewable energy efforts.

Read more here.

CBC is now dwarfed in the media world

Handwringing over CBC funding obscures the fact it’s becoming a smaller and smaller player in a highly concentrated media world.

Over the past three decades, the place of the CBC within the media universe has been eclipsed as wholly new media have been added to it: e.g. mobile phones, broadband internet access, pay TV, OTT, online gaming, social media and search engines. In this context, carriage (or connectivity and bandwidth) is king, not content.

The upshot of these trends is that the CBC is now dwarfed in the media world. It’s share of the total media economy dropped from 5% in 1980s and early 1990s to less than half that amount today.

Read the full story here.
 

Why did the CBC drum up this fake news story?

I recently learned that Canada’s state broadcaster spent resources trying to investigate me and my social media. And the Prime Minister’s Office took an interest.

The CBC attempted what amounts to a smear campaign against, among others, myself, Ezra Levant and Barbara Kay.

You might have seen the story online. The alarmist headline read: “Twitter trolls stoked debates about immigration and pipelines in Canada, data show: 9M troll tweets released by Twitter reveal foreign campaigns to influence Canadians’ opinions.”

That’s quite the statement. And a reader could be forgiven for thinking that foreign agents posted nine million tweets about Canadian pipelines and immigration in an attempt to meddle in our politics and push propaganda. That’s what the headline says, after all.

But that’s far from the truth.

The article reveals that Twitter released an archive of 9.6 million deleted tweets since 2013 that came from suspected bots — that is, fake accounts that are not connected to real people.

Of the 9.6 million deleted tweets, 21,600 mentioned Canada.

Yes, 21,600. Not nine million, as the headline deceptively implies.

The story reveals that the account most retweeted by trolls was CBC News, followed by Rebel Media and its founder, Levant.

Despite the alarmism of this “investigative report,” these accounts were retweeted less than 200 times each.So why did the CBC drum up this fake news story?

Read the full story here.

CBC's failure has been an acceptance of the flagrant commercialization of CBC programming

Despite the partial restoration of its budget by the federal government, CBC governance needs a major overhaul. Action on this front is urgently needed and long overdue.

The first and most obvious failure of the CBC board has been its acquiescence to the ongoing erosion of CBC funding.

The second failure, which is related to the budget cuts, has been an acceptance of the flagrant commercialization of CBC programming. CBC is supposed to be a public broadcaster. It was created to serve citizens, not to sell commercial products or services, which the private sector can do quite well. Its mandate is to inform, entertain and enlighten Canadians, using predominantly Canadian programming, something that the market alone cannot achieve.
Read the full story here.

CBC Reporter’s Biased Reporting About Israel

In response to several unfair and inaccurate reports about Israel that CBC TV’s The National and CBC Radio’s World Report recently broadcast, HonestReporting Canada has filed a formal complaint with senior executives at our public broadcaster calling for immediate corrective action to remedy the CBC’s biased reporting about Israel. As of this writing, we await a reply from the CBC.

On the October 11 broadcast of CBC The National, former Middle East Bureau Chief Margaret Evans (now stationed in London) produced a feature-length, almost 10 minute report entitled: “Young Palestinians see no end to the Israeli Occupation”.

Firstly, we took issue with this report’s headline which was appropriated by CBC editors. Ms. Evans’ report did not solely focus on Palestinian views about Israel’s so-called “occupation”. Instead, the report talked about the progress of building courthouses in the west bank (a joint Canadian-Palestinian project sponsored by CIDA), along with a discussion about how Palestinian politics are”frayed” and rife with “nepotism” and “corruption”. Yes, there was a discussion about the two state solution, Israeli settlements, and the presence of Israeli checkpoints, but this wasn’t its exclusive focus. 

Why then, did CBC editors want to focus reader’s attention to this issue to the exclusion of others?

Read the full story here.

CBC spreads fake news propaganda

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has big plans.

It wants to compete with Netflix, private news companies, and broadcasters to be the chief Canadian content provider.

To truly do that though, the CBC would have to function as a media producer that represents all Canadians.

With only one week until the election ends, they have blown that opportunity by not just blurring the line between partisanship and journalism, but erasing it altogether.

Then there’s the fake news propaganda CBC routinely spreads, too. With so much Liberal pamphleteering, it’s no wonder why Canadians are turning away from the CBC to independent alternatives.

Read the full story here.

Taxpayers foot CBC Trump attack ads

Ads have been appearing throughout Canada on billboards and in public places comparing Donald Trump’s request to fund a border wall with Mexico to the USSR border wall in East Germany.

Trump has brought border security to the center of his domestic policy platform. The U.S-Mexico border wall was one of the main things he campaigned on before his 2016 election.

It is unclear how much CBC has spent on the billboard and TV-ad campaign but they have appeared in several locations throughout Canada including on Vancouver’s transit system.

Read the full story here.

CBC claims contradicted by memo

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation once claimed the loss of licensing rights to Hockey Night in Canada only cost the network a “few dollars.”

That’s apparently not the case, according to an Access to Information memo obtained by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The memo reportedly confirmed a steady decline in ad revenue for the CBC ever since the network lost the rights to Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC), which they held from 1952 to 2014.

The memorandum stated CBC advertising revenue peaked at $523 million in 2014, which was the last year the network held broadcasting rights to NHL games before losing it to Rogers Communications. Revenue fell 40% within two years, with ad revenue totaling $318 million in 2018.

Rogers paid $5.2 billion, outbidding the CBC for the HNIC licensing contract, which runs until 2026. At the time, the CBC claimed the loss wasn’t significant, with then network president Hubert Lacroix stating the network has “not lost hundreds of millions of dollars on the hockey contract.”

“We lost a few dollars,” Lacroix said in 2015 during testimony at the Senate communications committee.

Read the full story here.

The CBC has damaged its own brand

"A total lack of political savvy, another boneheaded move,” says one CBC journalist of the broadcaster's suit against the Conservatives.

There are only two possible scenarios for Rosemary Barton, and neither is good.

Either she knew that the CBC was going to sue the Conservative Party of Canada in her name and she let it happen, or she didn’t.

If she knew about it, that’s bad. She is, after all, the lead CBC journalist covering a federal election that’s mere days away. Three days before the copyright-infringement suit was filed on October 10, she was a moderator of the official English-language leaders’ debate, where impartiality was the essence of the job. To consciously make herself an adversary of the Conservative Party would be staggeringly stupid. It matters little in this scenario if she were an eager participant or just along for the ride, under pressure from management. It strains credulity to imagine that Barton was somehow forced by her employer to personally sue the Conservatives — and if push came to shove, she could always have resigned. To not refuse is to agree, and to agree is to demonstrate a shocking lack of journalistic judgment by entering into a conflict of interest that would seem to compromise her ability to continue to cover federal politics in Canada, perhaps permanently.

Read the full story here.

The “shocking” video the CBC is trying to prevent you from seeing

The CBC is taking the Conservative Party of Canada to court for using the broadcaster's footage in an online advertisement.

In response, the Conservatives used the lawsuit as a fundraising pitch, arguing in an email to supporters that CBC "footage should be usable by those who fund them."

The party is asking for donations so that it can "hit back hard" against "this attack on free expression."

As well, the Conservative Party says in a statement on its website that it plans to fight the CBC legal action.

Read the full story here.

CBC acknowledges missteps

It sucks. It really, really sucks. “CBC’s The National acknowledges missteps and looks to retool — while pledging to keep its four hosts”.

CBC attempts to justify unethical habits of their stars

As the latest news story about CBC hijinks breaks, I’m beginning to wonder if we shouldn’t just rename it the Corrupt Broadcasting Corporation. (Ba-dum-cha!)

We’ll be publishing more frequently, from now till Election Day. Here’s why.

Here’s the story trending. Apparently, Amanda Lang, one half of the amateurish Lang and O’Leary Exchange, is in bed with the Royal Bank of Canada. Literally. (Ba-dum-cha!)

Lang, who is in a relationship with RBC board member Geoffrey Beattie, is accused of trying to suppress the 2013 story about RBC abusing the temporary foreign workers program. They were using it to replace Canadian workers on the cheap in a year when their profits were $8 billion.

Kathy Tomlinson, the investigative reporter behind CBC’s Go Public, broke the story on The National, with pick-ups on other CBC shows. The story led to an apology from the company and changes in legislation.

So no harm done? Maybe. But I want to know how many stories Lang successfully derailed.

That’s because the Lang kerfuffle is further complicated with news that the business reporter has been interviewing some of the people for whom she also does paid speaking gigs.

It’s outrageous. Which is why it’s also reached the point of high comedy. While there was nothing funny about the Jian Ghomeshi scandal, the way CBC managers attempt to justify the unethical habits of their stars has sitcom potential. Well, if you like those cynical sitcoms that feature sex, money, and backroom capers.

Read the full story here.

Angry CBC Radio listeners

Long-time CBC Radio One listeners upset over summer programming that featured a dozen shows about personal concerns and peoples’ problems will be listening carefully this fall to see how many of those kinds of programs are in the line-up.

Hundreds of traditional Radio One fans strongly agreed with my blog of two weeks ago, in which I blasted CBC management for broadcasting the mindless and banal programs.

Hundreds of people said they no longer listen to Radio One, while other said they turn the radio off as soon as they hear one of the selfie-like programs.

Read the full story here.

CBC Comedy has grown stale

The CBC—once the home of world-class comedy—now struggles to land its jokes. And with more competition than ever before, it’s losing its place in the cultural firmament.

It wasn’t so long ago that the CBC was known as the Canadian home of strong satire and sketch.

But now, when Canada needs a compelling comedic voice more than ever, the CBC’s output has largely grown stale and irrelevant.

The CBC, meanwhile, continues to rely on its stable of ever-aging dinosaurs instead of promoting new shows.

If the CBC continues to downplay new voices online and shackle itself to long-time creators who produce staid broadcast work, it risks losing a hold among the creators that are the lifeblood of the scene.

As it currently exists, the CBC gives talented creators little incentive to write anything better and smarter. It’s time to stop coasting off of legacy work, establish a clear direction, recognize comedians as artists, and properly promote those artists through social media and streaming services. Until they do, Canadians will rightfully continue to ignore CBC Comedy in favour of the many superior alternatives.

Read the full story here.

CBC should be representing the views of all Canadians

With the support of its members, the CCFR was able to answer a long-standing question; is Canadian media biased against the ownership of firearms and the people who own them?

The answer is yes. It is now an established and irrefutable fact.

Given that gun owners are being done a disservice by the CBC, a state-run broadcaster that all Canadians are forced to pay for, what do we do about it? The CBC should be representing the views of all Canadians with accuracy and honesty. If this organization is incapable of abiding by these simple virtues, why should it exist at all? The CCFR, as a first measure is lodging this official complaint to both the Ombudsman in charge of the CBC and the Minister of Heritage who oversees the public broadcaster.

At worst, we may experience inaction concerning this complaint. At best, a dialogue about how the CBC can improve its coverage and restore its relevance. Either way, a government friendly to the most vetted and law-abiding Canadians will form a majority at some point in the future; and the documented conduct of the leaders of the CBC may become a foundation for significant change.

Read the full story here.

CBC admitted it had known about the allegations

Let’s just start with the current big scandal, the Kokanee Grope.

Have they not heard how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau groped a small-town newspaper reporter in 2000?

That’s possible, I suppose, if your only source of news is the CBC. When the grope story first materialized in June, the CBC admitted it had known about the allegations since “earlier this year,” but had chosen not to report on them.

The CBC, which receives a taxpayer subsidy of over $1 billion a year, claims it sat on the story to protect the victim’s privacy. Fascinating, though, how their concern for her privacy coincided so conveniently with keeping their prime minister’s image clean.

If you believe there is no bias at the CBC, ask yourself whether the broadcaster would have sat on these accusations had they been made against Stephen Harper while he was PM?

Read the full story here.

CBC’s fake news problem

Minister of Democratic Institutions (a Soviet-style moniker devised by the Trudeau government) Karina Gould recently espoused confidence in the state broadcaster the CBC to mother Canadians by telling them what information they can and cannot believe.

Shortly before Gould tweeted CBC’s biased article on fake news, which propagated the childish notion that the dark arts of disinformation only comes from the right of the political spectrum, the CBC itself published false information on tech giants censoring conservative individuals and information.

When the state broadcaster dismisses real internet censorship as a right-wing conspiracy theory and the Liberals in power defer to the CBC as the go-to source for determining what is and isn’t real news, Canadians need to start questioning the reliability and honesty of the so-called public broadcaster.

Read the full story here.

CBC ignores inconvenient truths

Canada’s public broadcasting corporation, CBC, released an “article” earlier this week, which largely attempted to paint our organization as a conservative advocacy website.

I write for The Post Millennial; I am a leftist; and let me tell you: the CBC has got it all wrong.

In an age where challenging the narrative and questioning the unquestionable are a rising trend, CBC’s shoddy attempt to attack our diverse organization only seems to have hurt their own credibility.

A good news organization appreciates opinions, encourages free speech, and enables critical thinking. The Post Millennial does just that. By having leftist, centrist, and rightist writers, we challenge our readers’ opinions and the narrative surrounding mainstream media.

As an esteemed news organization, we make it our mission to question the government when it’s wrong, and appreciate it when it’s right. It’s basic journalism.

Read the full story here.

CBC using the term “climate emergency” in place of climate change

While it may be hard to believe, the Trudeau government and the CBC have concluded the language they currently use to describe climate change hasn’t been apocalyptic enough.

So now, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and the stated-funded public broadcaster will be using the term “climate emergency” in place of climate change.

“Senior CBC management told staff they were able to use the terms ‘climate crisis’ and ‘climate emergency’ when covering the wide-ranging impacts of temperature rises around the world.”

Read the full story here.