I believe in the CBC … or, at least, the CBC that used to honour its actual mandate.
“The CBC’s mandate is set out in the 1991 Broadcasting Act. It says the public broadcaster should “provide broadcasting services incorporating a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains,” a CTV story reported this past weekend.
The article (https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/with-conservatives-promising-to-defund-could-the-next-election-kill-the-cbc-1.7172797) suggested a Poilievre government could not just defund the CBC, but “kill it” completely.
That would be a mistake.
The CBC had, in the past, done a good job of bringing Canadians together on momentous occasions, giving voice to communities and issues ignored or rarely shone the spotlight on by private broadcasters and print journalists.
With private corporate bean counters slashing news coverage and staff by the hundreds (while still rewarding managers with millions in bonuses!) it would be a tragic mistake to leave Canadians’ news, information and public service coverage to the dwindling already emaciated private sector.
Canadians NEED the CBC … but NOT what the CBC has become in recent years.
When it comes to “informing” and “enlightening”, I contend the CBC has failed its mandate in that regard!
Readers of this blog will note I have often referred to the CBC’s The National news coverage as “the unofficial voice of the NDP”.
But the bias and the journalistic failures, in my opinion, now extend far beyond The National.
The CBC’s coverage of major Canadian societal issues … abortion, right to life, refugees, immigration, First Nations claims, transgender rights, resource development, pipelines, climate issues … have, in my view, been overwhelmingly ONE-SIDED … more advocacy of far left positions than an honest canvassing of varying positions and opinions.
You would never know, watching (or listening) to the CBC that MILLIONS and MILLIONS of Canadians hold views, beliefs and principles that oppose the “progressive” liberal agendas on these issues listed above … that the CBC dishes out every day, every week on programs and interviews after programs and interviews after programs and interviews.
That is pushing PROPAGANDA … not informing and enlightening!
And as bad as the CBC has, I believe, violated its mandate in covering these domestic issues for years now, I contend it has done even a worse job with its international coverage … its Mid East “journalism” so terribly one-sided, so anti-Israel, so pro-Palestinian ( I submit, even pro-Hamas) it has ignored the basic principle to fairly report BOTH SIDES of the conflict and its impacts.
The evidence speaks for itself. Just watch with a critical eye!
CBC viewers are flooded on almost every newscast with Palestinian-provided Hamas-friendly carefully edited and selected videos showing what they say are civilian victims … women, children, old men and women, mourning relatives … lots of body bags and funerals.
They can’t ALL be “civilians”!
Where are the dead Hamas, Islamic Jihad fighters, terrorists? You know, the ones who have killed 835 Israeli soldiers so far in the conflict, who keep firing missiles at Israeli towns and cities, even now. Does the CBC report those almost daily Israeli deaths? Or show their funerals and grieving families? Have I missed it every time …or is the CBC ignoring most of them?
And what about the dozens of wounded Gazan children and adults who were moved by bus through Israel last week to hospitals … bringing to more than 1,000 the number of injured Palestinians evacuated through Israel for medical assistance since the latest conflict began? Did I miss that … or did the CBC ignore it? Why???
There are almost daily interviews on CBC Newsworld with clearly biased, one-sided Gazan Hamas health “officials”, biased anti-Israel UN/UNRWA mouthpieces, anti-Israel human rights “spokespersons” and anti-Israel university “experts” … NONE of whom EVER blame or even question Hamas, Islamic Jihad for senselessly continuing devastating war, for hiding/operating/firing from inside refugee-filled facilities, using Gazans as human shields, for stealing huge quantities of food and supplies shipped into the area or for shooting their own people who try to flee the conflict zones … or even question why Hamas murdered, in cold blood, six hostages (two of them young women), found in a tunnel with their hands tied behind their backs and bullets in their heads?
When I see interviews with Israelis on the CBC, they certainly seem to overwhelmingly favour relatives and friends of the hostages who demand an immediate ceasefire or critics/foes of Prime Minister Netanyahu. They just can’t seem to find Israelis (in the millions) who support continuing the fight until Hamas and other terrorist threats are eliminated.
And where is the detailed CBC coverage of the Israeli civilian casualties and suffering still occurring during the war … with millions still being forced to flee almost daily with their kids (often in the middle of the night) into bomb shelters as rockets/missiles continue to fall on them?
The CBC has done a very good job of showing how the sweet young innocent children in Gaza have been killed, hurt and traumatized by all the bombing, the damage, loss of family in the war; but I haven’t seen much on the CBC about the sweet young innocent kids in Israel who have also been killed, hurt or traumatized by the bombings, terror attacks, loss of family there in the war. Why?
Imagine if you/your family had to do that almost nightly. And the CBC almost ignored that!
And I am not alone now in criticizing the CBC’s Mid-East coverage.
The Jewish media-monitoring group Honest Reporting Canada (https://honestreporting.ca/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2aKOy77xigMVN7haBR0ECSNiEAAYASAAEgLdsvD_BwE) has been cataloguing CBC’s one-sided bias for several months.
Here are just a few of their most recent headlines:
“CBC Ombudsman Tells Journalists To Avoid Telling Canadians Gaza Health Ministry Is Run By Hamas”
“CBC Front Burner Spends 40 Minutes Accusing Israel Of Ethnic Cleansing”
“Israel-Bashing CBC Reporter Mouhamad Rachini Continues to Report On Hamas-Israel War, Uncritically Repeating Hamas Propaganda”
“CBC Ottawa Morning Blames Israel For Striking Syrian Regime Targets – Ignoring Why Israel Would Want to Keep Weapons Out Of Jihadist Hands”
“BC Podcast Front Burner Interviews Anti-Israel Activist Complaining About Giller Prize; No Challenge From Host As Usual”
“CBC Writer Sara Jabakhanji – Who Called for More Anti-Israel News Coverage – Publishes Four Articles Offering Misleading Picture Of The Middle East”
“CBC Journalist Mouhamad Rachini – Who Called Supporters Of Israel “Vile” – Publishes Article On Lebanon Ignoring Hezbollah Terrorism”
“CBC Radio Host Matt Galloway Allows “Genocide” Lie To Be Repeated 12 Times By Guest – Failing To Offer Any Challenge”
“CBC Radio Host Nadia Kidwai Features Uncritical Conversation With Extremist Anti-Israel Agitator & UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese”
“CBC Depicts Israel As Committing War Crimes In Gaza Hospitals, Ignores Hamas’s Embedding Terrorists In Medical Facilities”
“One-Sided CBC Article On Environmental Costs Of War Blames Only Israel, Exonerates Hamas”
I could go on for pages!!!
But how’s this:
“CBC Ombudsman Acknowledges Broadcaster Falling Short On Demonstrating Its Providing Balanced Reporting On Israel”.
That last one was back in September … and the others listed came AFTER that! Sure looks like nothing had changed.
In August, the CBC’s Editor in Chief Brodie Fenlon defended the CBC’s Mid-East coverage:
“No one story or interview will capture the totality of the ongoing events in the Middle East — and that’s never our aim. Rather, we will be judged on a body of work over time. I believe that body of work speaks for itself and demonstrates our values of independence, impartiality, accuracy and balance.”
Well, I believe you have failed miserably!
The CBC should be investigated by a Parliamentary Committee once Canada’s next government takes office … and heads should roll if the biases are as bad as it looks to me … or even worse!
Canadians deserve a public broadcaster that covers, reports fairly and accurately on both or all sides of complex issues … domestically and internationally.
I don’t believe that will …or can … happen unless there’s a wholesale purging of radical biased producers, writers and reporters.
But the CBC itself should be saved … and, for a lot less money now being spent on it, restored to the quality broadcaster it used to be.
Harv Oberfeld
(Follow @harveyoberfeld.ca on “X” for FREE First Alerts to new postings on this Blog.)