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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.