by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
March 15, 2004
On a recent edition of CBC Newsworld’s "Inside Media", the program pretended to debate the issue of whether or not the CBC has a left-wing bias. The show began by an introduction by host Susan Orimston, who, after mentioning how much news CBC has - CBC, CBC Newsworld, Radio-Canada, Radio 1,2 and 3 and short waved services, condescendingly said that "but for some of the viewers, that’s not enough. What’s going on?" Ormiston then laughed and said that the Mother Corp. is going through a mid-life crisis. Her comments were pure CBC arrogance--they have so many outlets, how could anyone possibly criticize the network? You see, it’s like this Susan--not everyone takes the quality of CBC programming as a given. There is a difference between quantity and quality.
after reading some complaints from viewers and readers such as the one that said that "In my view, an appropriate motto for CBC journalism is: If it ain’t left, it’s left out", Ormiston said "Ouch, that’s not a balanced view, either." Suzie, Suzie--individual Canadians are not journalists or media companies--they have no need to be balanced. Unlike the CBC not everyone in the country is required to be a middle-of-the road anti-american, pro-Kyoto, Liberal. Ormiston’s comments are so typical of the mindset at the CBC who, unlike the BBC simply refuses to acknowledge that anyone could possibly suggest that their programming is biased. Ormiston’s demeanour clearly showed that the issue of the network being biased is nothing more than a joke to the "Mother Corp."
Susan Ormiston’s introduction was followed by what purported to be a debate between Matthew Fraser, the editor in chief of the National Post and CBC editor Tony Burman, who is always called out to deny that the network nothing but fair, accurate and balanced. Fraser said that a left-wing and anti-american bias within the CBC is a given and not debatable, yet he failed to give any concrete illustrations of that bias that could be put to Burman to argue the point. Fraser’s lack of concrete examples of bias rendered the discussion into a "yes it is, no it isn’t" exchange. Fraser’s criticism of bias was limited to the argument that the CBC was publicly funded, saying in effect that it is permissible for privately held media to be biased. While Canadians who think that they should receive their news in an unbiased manner would likely to be more upset if their taxes were used to subsidize the bias, it was shocking to think that the editor of a major Canadian newspaper sees nothing wrong with bias as long as there is no public funding. Nothing was said in this so called debate that distinguished hard news from opinion. Fraser left the impression that it was okay for the National Post and other private news organizations to be biased in their presentation of their news and not just editorially.
Burman denied, as he always does, that the CBC has any bias. He quoted survey upon survey that show that the vast majority of viewers and listeners thought the network presents a balanced view. What was never mentioned by Burman was how many respondents in these surveys got all or most of their news from the CBC. If consumers are not well read, and only get their news from the CBC, then their view of the world will be the same as the network.
Both Susan Ormiston and Tony Burman used well-known leftist tactics to uphold the CBC. While Ormiston refused to acknowledge any legitimate criticism by laughing the whole matter off, Burman attacked the critics. He said that only a minority of about eight per cent of viewers think that that the CBC is biased and described this minority, in a country where minorities are lavished and praised, as "an extreme militant group, espoused and represented very well by the National Post".
as every casual observer of the people’s network knows, "militant" is the word that CBC uses to describe groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah who have been known to blow up babies in public places. Burman equates those who think that the CBC has a left-wing bias with suicide bombers.
The CBC receives approximately $850 million a year from the taxpayers. The money would be just as well spent giving it to some underprivileged Quebec advertising company.