It’s about time! For two years, CBC radio and television viewers have been subjected to what I have repeatedly drawn attention to: biased, one-sided anti-Israel propaganda, disguised as news reporting and analysis.
The CBC, in covering the Gaza conflict, has … in my view … taken sides, favouring the terrorists.
We’re not complaining here about legitimate questioning, challenging or criticism of Israel’s actions or policies.
Only the almost complete absence of similar questioning, challenging or criticism of Hamas’ actions and policies.
As someone with 38 years’ experience in the “news” business, I believe ANYONE listening and watching CBC coverage of the Gaza conflict, with a basic sense of fairness, would easily discern the one-sidedness of Canada’s taxpayer-funded broadcaster.
I have written about it before:
Jan. 13, 2025: https://harveyoberfeld.ca/poilievre-should-pledge-to-purge-cbc-not-just-defund-it/:
June 9, 2025: https://harveyoberfeld.ca/history-will-condemn-medias-one-sided-anti-israel-coverage-of-the-gaza-war/:
Aug. 25, 2025: https://harveyoberfeld.ca/cbc-spending-salaries-raises-soar-while-viewership-plummets/.
CBC, in my view, has become a platform for Palestinian/Hamas supporters, sympathizers, activists to spew anything they want … including distortions, outright lies and rants (sometimes several minutes long) … targeting Israel, with little or NO challenge by acquiescent CBC hosts or supposed journalists.
Hamas officials’ claims, accusations and “statistics” are liberally regularly reported/quoted without any questioning/skepticism … often identified as coming from “Gaza health officials”, covering up their Hamas terrorist group connection/sources … while Israeli perspectives/explanations/evidence are downplayed/minimized, with their spokespersons given little airtime or just ignored.
And pay attention to the “analysts” and “experts” invited on CBC radio or television programs to comment following their slanted “news” stories and you will hear/see multitudes of anti-Israel criticism, even lengthy unchallenged diatribes, but be VERY hard pressed to hear/see invitees who defend/support or even explain Israeli actions/policies.
This is not reporting: it’s propaganda!
The CBC, I believe, has been carrying on its own “Jihad” against Israel for more than a year now … pushing the Palestinian side in the dispute and heavily weighting its “analysis”’ with one-sided anti-Israel critics.
And now, an independent UK-based analytical study confirms that CBC bias!
“CBC fed Canadians a biased view of the Israel-Hamas war — and the data proves it,” read the op-ed headline in The National Post last week.
“CBC headlines expressed sympathy toward Gaza nearly five times more often than toward Israel, while the articles themselves reflected a smaller, though still persistent, two-to-one imbalance.”
The analysis of 2,789 CBC online articles (between Oct. 7, 2023 and June 7, 2025) was carried out by an independent U.K.-based data analysis firm Innohives, in a study funded by Honest Reporting Canada, the Jewish media-monitoring organization.
“What our analysis shows is not a subtle or debatable pattern, but a structural one,” Innohives reported.
“Even more troubling is that after December 2023, Israeli civilians virtually disappeared from the narrative. Only a handful of direct quotations were allotted to telling their stories at all for the remainder of the war. This, at a time when over 100,000 Israelis had been displaced from their homes, the country was under sustained rocket fire and hostages were being held in tunnels while their families waited in anguish for news about their loved ones,” the British organization found.
(You can read the full National Post piece here: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/cbc-fed-canadians-a-biased-view-of-the-israel-hamas-war-and-the-data-proves-it.
As I have reported on this blog previously, the Honest Reporting Canada website (https://honestreporting.ca/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21514977015&gbraid=0AAAAADeEv8vEPUN8BsqzvlaBNEM-58ytk&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyZD7r7PLkgMVBBmtBh1bXA6yEAAYASAAEgLmZfD_BwE ) outlines a very disturbing litany of one-sided stories, unquestioned and unchallenged claims/accusations by anti-Israel propagandists on CBC radio and television broadcast from coast to coast to coast.
It’s hard to believe those in charge of the CBC today have read … let alone try to follow … the CBC’s own stated Broadcast Standards of “Accuracy, Fairness and Balance.”
In fact, last July I submitted a formal Complaint to CBC Ombudsman Maxime Bertrand after a guest on the program Power and Politics went totally unchallenged after accusing Israel of DELIBERATELY using a food distribution operation in Gaza as “bait” to attract Palestinians so they could “MASSACRE” them.
An outrageous accusation!! Yet, not even questioned!!! Disgraceful journalism! So I filed a complaint with CBC Ombudsman Maxime Bertrand.
The Ombudsman referred my submission to the show’s producer, who responded that CBC standards only “requires us to uphold the principles of accuracy, fairness and balance over time.”
Over time?
So I challenged the Ombudsman to “pick any dates before I filed my complaint …(three or four) and have your staff review the Gaza war coverage” by the CBC to see if the public network met its required responsibilities “over time.”
I was confident the CBC would be found guilty as hell of violating, even ignoring its own stated journalistic standards.!
The CBC Ombudsman’s response?
“My mandate as an ombud involves reviewing complaints about specific CBC news stories or programs.”
Not “over time”.
Think about that: the CBC producer says CBC standards must be looked at, not in single cases, but over time ; while the CBC ombudsman says she’s not allowed to look at coverage over time, but only specific instances.
A typical government bureaucracy Catch 22 cover-our-ass situation!
Given that Canadian taxpayers subsidize the CBC to the tune of $1.5 Billion each year, surely, a formal complaint of an outrageous on-air statement that maligns, slanders an entire nation and is broadcast to millions of possible viewers deserves more than a three-card-Monty style shuffle!
So I re-iterated my request that the Ombudsman proceed with a formal review of my specific complaint of the specific outrageous statement on the specific broadcast on the specific date in question.
That was last September.
I’m still waiting.
But now that an independent agency has found/documented and reported the CBC’s bias: what we need is action from the CBC board, the CRTC and the Mark Carney Liberal government to stop it.
Harv Oberfeld
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