Journalists aren’t always eager to report on their own employer, or even comment on a broader media landscape that might affect us. But the current campaign calling into question the journalistic independence and integrity of the CBC demands clarification.
CBC/Radio Canada is pausing its Twitter use, after Elon Musk’s platform slapped a “government-funded media” label on its main account. This followed similar declarations on other public broadcasters’ accounts around the world – and lobbying by federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to include the CBC. The CBC says the label undermines the professionalism of its journalists, who are independent.
I worked for the CBC from 2000 to 2007, mostly in radio news. For a time I was a national arts reporter, which sometimes involved reporting on media, including the CBC itself.
So I feel compelled to disclose the number of times, during my (admittedly low-level) tenure and to my knowledge, that management got involved or in any way influenced our coverage of government, federal or otherwise.
The number is zero.
Not once did a manager, producer, or any higher-up dictate – or even suggest – how our coverage should lean. Never did I receive or observe instructions about reporting on government or partisan issues, other than that the coverage be fair and balanced. Which it was.
We were not pressured to be tough on any particular party, nor easy on another. If one party might have been considered less friendly toward the CBC than another, this was never discussed or considered as we did our jobs.
Mr. Poilievre is campaigning to defund the CBC, pushing an online petition to that effect, and has gloated on Twitter about the issue. “Now people know that it is Trudeau propaganda, not news,” Mr. Poilievre tweeted after the CBC’s “government-funded” label appeared.
There is a vast difference between government-funded and government-controlled. One would think that Mr. Poilievre understands that. Instead he is playing lowest-common-denominator politics by getting his base riled up over a gigantic red herring.
The government funds the CBC, yes, but it has no control or involvement in editorial content. To suggest otherwise is to fuel what is becoming a dangerous mistrust of journalism.
I usually avoid writing about the big CBC questions because of my history there and my attachments (full disclosure, my former husband/the father of my son works there).
But this is too serious to ignore. The CBC performs an important service. If there is a belief that this service is no longer necessary, let’s have that conversation. But for Mr. Poilievre to rage about the CBC being the Pravda-esque voice of the Trudeau government is fake news.
There are legitimate beefs one might have with the CBC. You will often find me yelling at the radio over some inane question or chit-chat, a newscaster who obviously isn’t paying attention to what they are reading, any bad grammar, and other errors.
And there is valid concern that other media organizations (including The Globe and Mail) must compete with the publicly funded CBC for the same online eyeballs and advertising dollars. This is something private media outlets have been furious about forever.
But that is very different from allegations of journalistic bias. The CBC, like its competitors, is not beholden to its funders to provide positive coverage. It is beholden to Canadian taxpayers to practice good journalism.
Why Twitter’s new labels caused CBC, NPR to stop using the platform
And don’t tell me that I can get what the CBC is offering elsewhere on the dial. The morning zoo on your local rock station is not going to dive into long-form analysis of the Dominion Voting lawsuit or clashes in the Middle East. The lineup on CBC Radio (I’m focusing on radio because it’s the senior service, has a larger audience, and I listen constantly) includes shows about climate change, science, literature. Mr. Poilievre, you will have to pry Shelagh Rogers and Eleanor Wachtel from my cold, dead ears.
When a Canadian Press reporter asked Mr. Poilievre about the CBC, he patronizingly mentioned a possible conflict of interest because CP sells content to the CBC. When she asked again, he called the CBC “a biased propaganda arm of the Liberal Party.” The smile on his face during this exchange, to me, screamed of juvenile delight.
Speaking of juvenile, CP reported that Twitter responded to requests for comment with an auto-generated e-mail bearing a poop emoji.
There are children running our global town square. Who do we want running our country?
Mr. Poilievre is either completely ignorant of how the CBC really works, or knowingly dishonest when he makes such pronouncements. If it’s the former, he should educate himself. If it’s the latter, that’s a whole other story.
Marsha Lederman