CBC: Hues Of The News

165 Replies to “CBC: Hues Of The News”

1. Toronto will happily solve it’s own problems once the feds give us our money back.
   god knows we sent enough money west to help develop the oil sands in the first place.
   Not that Toronto – aside from taxes and fees levelled at the municipal level – has any money of its own (“our money!” he wails), ya gotta love Toronto’s left – they’re all hot for socialism until it starts to hit them in the pocketbook.
   Whatever happened to “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” Toronto socialists? And when am I going to get reimbursed for the Sheppard subway, or the Skydome?
   David Miller, by the way, runs a tight fiscal ship. Ha ha ha ….

2. Kate, at least the Angry Reporter didn’t ask if you’re a Jew, but I’m sure it’s a matter of time …

3. Oppppssss….sorry Kate. That should have read “replying to”. My bad

4. Jeff said, “god knows we sent enough money west to help develop the oil sands in the first place.”
   Would that be the transfer payments that Alberta receives? Oh wait, Alberta gives tranfer money not receives.
   Perhaps you mean the money you pay to heat your house or run your car.
   I don’t ever recall an announcement in the federal budget that would help prop up the poor Alberta oil companies. Unlike the propping up of such eastern companies like Air Canada and Bombardier.
   Trev

5. Another thing, that could be STEAM coming from those towers and not smoke. It depends on what the temp was that day.

6. Jeff,
   Merikan’ money built the oil and gas industry out west. I think you have it @ssbackwards:
   Alberta is already spreading the wealth
   Any discussion of ‘redistributing’ the province’s petrodollars to correct fiscal imbalances is misguided
   PRESTON MANNING AND FRED KERR
   As the premiers and the federal government discuss fiscal imbalances and equalization, one hears increasing references to Alberta’s burgeoning petroleum revenues and suggestions that Ottawa should somehow involve itself in “redistributing” such revenues more equitably across the country.
   In 1980 — the last time the federal government acted on such advice after the OPEC-engineered oil price hike — the results were politically and economically disastrous. Confiscatory taxes imposed on the industry in Canada almost killed the goose that was laying the golden egg. Oil-patch investment and jobs fled the country. Western alienation came within a hair of being transformed into full-blown western separatism.
   And the Liberal government responsible for the so-called national energy program destroyed its electoral prospects in much of the West for more than two decades.
   The Harper government obviously has no intention of repeating such mistakes. And there would be less misguided pressure for it to do so, if the public were to better understand the following facts:
   1. Albertans’ per capita contribution to equalization is by far the highest in the country.
   The federal government collects consumption, income and other taxes from individuals and corporations across Canada. Naturally, it collects more revenue in provinces whose economies are vigorous than it does in provinces whose economies are weak. Ottawa then redistributes significant revenues to the governments of less affluent provinces through the equalization program, to enable them to provide social services to their people roughly equivalent to those available in the rest of the country.
   Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty cites the $23-billion net federal fiscal contribution made by the people of Ontario, and argues that this is excessive. But, for 40 years (even when oil prices have been low), Albertans’ net federal fiscal contribution per person per year has been more than triple that of Ontarians.
   Any suggestion that Albertans have not been contributing their fair share to equalization and should be contributing an even higher percentage is itself unfair.
   2. The benefits of the current boom in the petroleum sector are already distributed far more broadly than most people think.
   In 2006, $108-billion in revenue will flow into the petroleum sector in Canada as a result of record high oil prices.
   The portion of this revenue that is most visible to the public — because it is most frequently mentioned by the media and the politicians — is the portion that flows into the coffers of the Alberta government. In 2006, this will amount to almost $20-billion — about $14-billion in royalties, $3-billion in taxes, and $3-billion from the sale of drilling rights.
   But what about the other $88-billion? The Canadian petroleum industry will send about $5-billion to Ottawa in federal income taxes in 2006 and another $2-billion to $3-billion to the treasuries of other hydrocarbon-producing provinces such as British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. It will spend $11-billion on debt and equity financing charges, and another $23-billion on administrative and operating expenses.
   And then there is the big ticket item — capital expenditures.
   Conventional oil and gas wells start declining from the moment they come on stream. Typically, a new gas well’s production declines around 30 per cent in the first year. As a result, the industry must drill an ever-increasing number of wells just to keep production flat, let alone grow it. Oil-sands plants are even more capital intensive. This means that much of the capital generated by conventional and oil-sands production must be reinvested in further development. Thus, in 2006, the industry will commit more than $40-billion to capital expenditures — everything from rigs and mining equipment to chemicals and pipes — much of which is made outside Alberta, notably in Ontario.
   Finally, there is the stream of dividends and distributions paid to investors in Canada’s petroleum sector — about $6-billion in 2006. The ownership of today’s industry is structured quite differently than it was in the 1980s — with many energy producers having organized themselves into royalty and income trusts. The majority of these are owned by individuals, mutual funds, and pension funds based in Central Canada. When the Liberal government mused about rejigging the tax rules for royalty and income trusts, it was no coincidence that the loudest and most immediate protests came not from Calgary but from Toronto.
   And then there are the capital gains recently enjoyed by Canadian energy investors, most of whom live outside Alberta. The energy sector, which, during the Nortel glory days of the high-tech boom, represented less than 10 per cent of the TSX index, today represents about 30 per cent. That’s a lot of wealth generation for a large number of Canadians right across the country.
   The bottom line? While $20-billion of the $108-billion generated by the petroleum industry in 2006 will end up in the hands of the Alberta government, the remaining $88-billion is much more broadly distributed than most media commentators, politicians and Canadians think.
   3. The investment of $100-billion in the oil sands will generate more tax dollars for the federal government than the Alberta government, and almost as many person years of employment outside Alberta as within the province.
   A recent study by the Canadian Energy Research Institute highlighted the following facts: Conventional oil production in Canada is declining, underscoring the importance of oil sands as a vital source of North American supplies. In 2004, Alberta’s oil sands were recognized by the International Energy Agency, for the first time, as part of global oil reserves. This established Canada’s reserves as second only to Saudi Arabia’s, justifying Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s assertion that Canada is becoming an energy superpower.
   But oil-sands development requires massive capital investment before anyone sees a dime of revenue. Producers need to delineate ore bodies, build processing facilities, and buy trucks and loaders or inject steam to coax the gooey stuff out of the ground.
   The need for massive capital investment creates opportunities for investors across Canada and around the world. And all this capital investment creates thousands of jobs, for which Alberta alone cannot hope to supply the labour. Trades people, engineers and labourers are flocking to Fort McMurray from across Canada, including a large contingent from Newfoundland. Most of those workers pay Canadian taxes.
   Many send a portion of their oil wages home to Corner Brook, Barrie or Moncton.
   The CERI study estimated the impacts of $100-billion invested in oil-sands development over a 20-year period through to 2020.
   Even if oil prices were to level off at half their current level, this investment will lead to:
   6.6-million person years of employment, 44 per cent of it outside of Alberta. Of the 1.7-million person years of employment generated in Canada outside of Alberta, 1 million would be in Ontario alone.
   Federal government tax revenues of $51-billion, making Ottawa (not Alberta) the largest recipient of government revenues generated by oil-sands development.
   An interesting future study would be to compare the national distribution of benefits, including tax revenues generated for the federal government, from the development of an oil-sands plant in Alberta versus a hydro-power project in Quebec or a nuclear-power plant in Ontario. And if such a study showed — as it would — that the benefits from the hydro and nuclear projects were much more narrowly distributed than those of the oil-sands project, would the political and business establishments of Ontario and Quebec support federal intervention in the name of equalization to ensure a more equitable distribution? Not likely.
   The above facts concerning the current and future distribution of benefits from the development of Alberta’s petroleum resources are not widely known. They are rarely even mentioned, let alone taken into account, in the debate on how to correct fiscal imbalances and reform equalization. It is high time they were.
   Preston Manning, a former federal leader of the Official Opposition, is president of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy and a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute. Fred Kerr is a Calgary-based commentator and former institutional stockbroker specializing in the energy sector.
   Source; Globe & Mail.
   Don’t let the door hit your @ss on the way out.

7. Isn’t it ironic that Kyoto does nothing to curb the real pollutants that dirty the Toronto skyline? After all, Kyoto is all about curbing CO2 (i.e. plant food) emissions, not actual pollutants. This is perhaps one of the biggest problems with Kyoto and the “global warming” and/or “climate change” hysteria. Attention is being diverted from real pollution problems.

8. There is absolutely no point in arguing science with the lefties, they boldly state the science is complete and supports their contention that man-made CO2 destruction is destroying the planet.
   They revel in their ignorance.
   So what to do? Simple, agree with them! and offer the obvious solution……..NUCLEAR energy.
   Then watch their heads explode.
   As for the CBC, there is no point in drastic action that could become a cause for the sheeple, far better that it dies a death of a thousand cuts.

9. Ben,
   Global swarming, a diversion from the real problem. *Pollution* Exactly! = TG

10. I’m a living ex-steeple-jack and I’ve painted stacks like that in Ontario for Ontario Hydro. If you compare the paint jobs at the top of the stacks from the two photos, you can see that they were actually painted in between the taking of the pictures.
    So how old were those smokey shots??
    I agree with Mississauga Matt, I fish the warm water outflow of that coal plant for carp and I have never seen that much crap coming out of them, ever.
    Nor have I seen anywhere near that amount of “smoke” coming out of any Ontario hydro stacks anywhere.
    Photoshopped “smoke”.

11. John,
    Re: tar-sands investment. Petro-Canada has a major investment in the Tar-Sands development, and as a crown corporation, some of that money comes from central & eastern Canadian tax-payers. The so-called Western based oil companies also have received significant investment from Canadians across Canada. Capital flows, buddy.

12. Warwick: “exile,
    so you think that remembering the people killed serving our nation is right-wing propaganda then? If so, you should move to North Korea and eat dirt for the few months it takes you to starve.”
    Your kind sentiments aside, that’s a non sequitur. During WWI, Canadians died fighting for one (bad) empire against another (bad) empire. This belief is not equivalent to, nor does it imply, any kind of positive beliefs about North Korea.

13. Dear Angry Reporter,
    “Global warming will kill your grandchildren.” ? Mr. reporter, the trouble with anger is that it is an emotion. Emotions overwhelm the logical thinking process, and your wild statement is evidence that your thinking is seriously comprimised.
    Either that or your sniffing glue.

14. Why is the TO mayor getting so much flak, who elected him. Blame the population of the city. These are the same voters who vote liberal without thinking. Good for them. As for eastern money developing AB oil or the tar sands. It was the eastern banks and bay street that sent AB, with a social credit govenment, led by Mr Manning, away when they wanted loans to develop the recently discovered oil. No way those elitist bankers in the east could lower themselves to support Alberta. They said it would never amount to anything. Result, go to the US and you see the results. Ont has been jealous ever since and still refuse to accept that AB is the new center of the universe. Missed opportunity, big time. To get even, they keep voting liberal, but that hasn’t worked to keep us down.
    cbc just announced they will have a discussion with suzuki about his cross country tour and meeting with Mr Baird and the petition.

15. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/04/20/suzuki-baird.html
    “Calling it a crime against future generations to ignore warnings about global warming, environmentalist David Suzuki was to present a petition to Environment Minister John Baird on Friday…..”
    “First of all, let’s stop listening to the goddamn economists,” he said….
    Dr. Kooky, let’s start with the Stern report.

16. Exile,
    You miss the point of the excersice. You aren’t memorializing the empire nor the war. You’re giving thanks to people who died in the war. These are the people who defend your freedom. That WWI was perpetrated by a bunch of inbred, callous, sister-shagging monarchs isn’t the point.
    I agree that WWI (unlike WWII) was an atrocity perpetrated on the people. In some cases, it led to better things (the west,) in others, it led to worse (Russia and the Ottoman Empire.) It did lead to the final curtain call on the power of monarchs and the death of the fuedal system in favour of more representative democracy in Europe. After the WWII the west even got to enjoy it.
    But that doesn’t change the fact that if you’re gonna lose your life for your country, the least you can expect is some respect for it…

17. Kyoto bill a ‘risky, reckless scheme’: Baird
    Last Updated: Thursday, April 19, 2007 | 10:59 AM ET
    http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/04/19/baird-kyoto.html
    Where have all the smoke stacks gone?
    Long time passing
    Where have all the smoke stacks gone?
    Short time ago
    Where have all the smoke stacks gone?
    CBC has picked them every one
    When will they ever learn?
    When will they ever learn?

18. By the way, this site is now linked on National Newswatch.
    Good for Kate –
    exile – if you cannot imagine anyone considering that the Liberals are ‘left’, then, try reading the MSM opinion-iters, who all talk about the Liberals as a ‘left’ party. Read how Layton is fighting to differentiate himself as the Liberals move more and more and more – left.
    Consider the attributes of a ‘left ideology’, which is based around a big centralist government making all decisions, a rejection of individual decision-making, a socialist welfare state model, an attitude of social engineering towards the population, cultural relativism, quota politics, identity politics, rejection of private services to the public and so on. That’s all socialist, that’s all left. That’s all Liberal.
    Angry Reporter – you are making emotional and sophist statements. Please provide factual evidence that global warming will kill my grandchildren.
    The fact that pollution kills is trivial; that’s why we have laws regulating the content of foods, the practice of agriculture, the disposal of wastes etc. Chemistry and agriculture are old and wise sciences. What’s your point?

19. Those that know me or have met me know a couple of things: what I do and how much I despise the CBC.
    That being said, this picture thing means nothing. Troy, earlier up, is absolutley correct in saying that graphics like these, more often than not, are composite images. Big deal.
    Some reporter or copy editor, god knows which, went over to the graphics guy and said “Fred, I need an ominous picture of Toronto all warmerized and stuff” and Fred made one. That’s about how deep the plot goes. That Fred used some stock image and altered it doesn’t mean much.
    That the CBC sucks is no surprise. That they should be forced to deal with market forces is something I have written about in the past. This, however, is pretty much meaningless in the grand scheme. This is not the TANG memos, it is not Adnan Hajj, it is not blue helmet guy.

20. Whether altering news photos to make a political point is a “big deal” depends on your own views, but this is certainly another small reminder that CBC is in the business of assembling and promoting a particular partisan narrative.
    The National in particular continues to (in effect) wage a relentless campaign against those who don’t hold Lib/NDP views. Sometimes it’s done overtly, more often slyly, but the overarching narrative is that the truly Canadian view is Liberal or left of Liberal.
    CBC would be merely quaint if they were a private local cable station, but they’re a coast-to-coast campaigning force who Canadians have been forced to pay for, to the tune of billions of dollars over the years.
    Highly respected journalist Robert Fulford worked for many years at the CBC. In a National Post column published last September, he gave some valuable insights into the CBC’s institutional mindset:
    “In their own quiet way, CBC people have become a remarkable cult, the proprietors of a vast reservoir of smugness that they are incapable of recognizing as such. For generations, they have been constructing a body of impregnable, self-regenerating opinion. As employees they are pre-selected and their views are pre-recorded, like most of their programs. A single rule governs all personnel selection: Like hires like. That principle, followed for seven decades, produces seamless intellectual agreement in all corners of the staff. Occasionally a few oddballs somehow slip through the screening process. They are allowed to hold unofficial views, providing they have the good sense not to express them. Otherwise, the CBC encourages everyone to speak up.”
    “CBC producers glory in what Wordsworth called ‘smooth and solemnized complacencies.’ They believe in universal one-tier medicare, feminism, the Kyoto accord, employment equity and the United Nations…”
    He recounts that after a reader complained to him abou the airing of a flagrantly anti-American remark, he “…had to explain to her the horrible truth”: not only would the on-air personality in question “find it natural to say something like that, but just about everyone around him (producer, researcher, writer, fellow commentators, technicians, executive producer) would probably agree with him entirely and would find my reader’s protest narrow minded.”
    He recalls that when he first began broadcasting at the Mother Corp, “…the term ‘politically incorrect’ didn’t exist. But no one at the CBC needed a term. They lived by it without knowing what to call it. As I listened to them I began to realize that they all read the same publication and thought the same thoughts. Many became friends of mine, but I developed an aversion to their eeries uniformity of views.”
    In another NP column written a year ealier, he wrote: “CBC-watchers have always known that its managers operate on three principles”; number two was “Don’t tolerate anyone who stands outside the liberal concensus that governs Canada.”
    The lingering questions, regardless of one’s political views, are: 1) should non-Lib/NDP voting Canadians be taxed to the tune of billions of dollars to support a GTA enclave that relentlessly campaigns against their views? and 2) Would Lib/NDP-voting Canadians allow a single “public broadcaster” to campaign relentlessly for conservative values, and against Lib/NDP values?

21. The SDA post is now on hotair.com!!
    Let’s make the cbc.ca pay!

22. Kenneth:
    Hate to break this to you, but Petro-Canada is no longer a crown corporation as it was privatized in the early 90s and is trading on the TSX. And even if it was a crown corporation, it generates profit and is not a tax drain as your ill-informed post would suggest.
    And yes there is a lot of PRIVATE Eastern Canadian money being invested in the Western Canadian-based oil companies. Equity investors are making a lot of money investing in energy stocks at this time. What do you think is driving the TSX 300 to it’s record heights.

23. Actually if any of you hayseeds had ever visited Toronto in August, you’d know that this is pretty much how it looks on a smoggy day. So does Vancouver for that matter.
    Good reasoning though…
    CBC ads some yellow to photograph depicting Toronto smog.
    Therefore there is no such thing as global warming.
    Genius.

24. “Consider the attributes of a ‘left ideology’, which is based around a big centralist government making all decisions, a rejection of individual decision-making, a socialist welfare state model, an attitude of social engineering towards the population, cultural relativism, quota politics, identity politics, rejection of private services to the public and so on. That’s all socialist, that’s all left. That’s all Liberal.”
    The essence of socialism is social ownership of the “means of production”. What you’re talking about is some kind of mishmash of various aspects of what passes for the American “left” (as characterized by the American right), which is “left” in America only because the American political spectrum is a very, very narrow slice of the right end of the political spectrum.

25. Trent said… “Is it possible to find a list of the names of the alarmists who were screaming about Y2K and the disaster it would bring, and check it against the Kyoto crowd?”
    Good idea. Then we can check it against the list of alarmists shrieking that if we try to cut emissions, we’ll be in for a financial blow that will make the great depression look like a picnic. For kicks, we could also hold it up next to the list of those who think that Islamofascists are taking over the world. And maybe a list of Quebecers who feel that hijabs are a grave danger to athletes, but I think I digress now.

26. Krydor said… “Fred, I need an ominous picture of Toronto all warmerized and stuff” and Fred made one. That’s about how deep the plot goes.”
    Bingo.

27. “Therefore, I think it’s fair to ask – who at CBC news made the decision to “dirt enhance” the image that accompanies the item on John Baird’s report? And why?”
    Ooooh… cue “dah-dah-dah-DAAAAH” conspiracy music. John’s right. Visit Toronto in August, and that’s pretty much what it looks like. Why was this image doctored? Probably because CBC needed it now and couldn’t wait till summer.
    You know what other city isn’t polluted AT ALL? Los Angeles. The sky is supposed to be grey-brown for weeks on end and sunsets are SUPPOSED to look like that.

28. “Actually if any of you hayseeds had ever visited Toronto in August”
    In all reality…Who the hell would want to visit that sh*thole?

29. Who would want to visit Toronto in August if that’s what it looks like?
    There was a time about 20 years ago I recall traveling along a highway that ran through Detroit and I noticed all the disgusting litter strewn along the way. I thought to myself you would never see that filth in Canada. Well I was wrong and as a former (thankfully) resident of Mississauga, and with the opporunity to go back there on business over the past four or five years, I am clearly noticing a significant increase in litter. On my last trip there in February, I was travelling along the 401 near the airport, and thought to myself, how can these people pretend to be alarmed about climate change when they don’t even have the decency to find a garbage can in which to dispose of their litter….disgusting.

30. Desperate liars …..
    However, we still need to change some of our habits, each one of us [including the evil journalists and the rot within the Gore and Suzuki camps].

31. exile – what’s your point? Why are you bringing in the ‘Americans’ into the discussion of left and right perspectives? These two sides are found everywhere. Try Europe.
    The US Democrats are very much on the left.
    No, the left does not have only one attribute, ”social ownership of the means of production’ – which is to say, that the GOV’T owns the means of production.
    What you are ignoring in this ambiguous empty image, is WHO MAKES THE DECISIONS? It’s meaningless to claim that ‘the public’ owns the means of production. That’s irrelevant because what matters is, again, who makes the decisions about this ‘means of production’.
    And it most certainly is NOT the citizens, ie, your mythical owners. It is an unaccountable clique of authorities. We’ve seen what happens with unaccountable authority in the Liberal party – a leftist party. It’s called corruption.
    By the way, it is absolutely impossible for a large industrial society, with a population in the multimillions to operate in the communist socialist manner you promote, – public ownership of the means of production. Collective ownership doesn’t work except in SMALL hunting and gathering bands – which actually don’t own anything anyway.
    But, communal ownership of the means of production doesn’t work. Humans have been around for 10,000 odd years – and collective ownership of the means of production doesn’t work as soon as the population rises above a few thousand.
    As for those who are supporting the CBC’s ‘right’ to doctor an image – you are showing that you support propaganda. The CBC has no right to doctor an image; its duty is to report facts. Not make up images.
    I live in Toronto. Right downtown. No, it doesn’t look like that at any time.
    Do you want to know some cities that ARE polluted? Try China – any medium sized Chinese city. And that’s where the Kyoto cultists want us to send our money – to enable China to build 500 more coal-stocked factories a year. The air in China is bad, bad, bad. Oh – and you can’t drink the water.
    But, back to my point about ‘small things’. The Kyoto cultists are ranting about ‘big industries’ must stop their emissions…a typical anti-industrial socialist rhetoric. I’m saying, how do these cultists feel about all the litter left around? When they have one of their activists meetings, and the city crews have to go in after and clean up all the litter left behind after their rally?
    John – you are exactly right. The litter is appalling, it’s everywhere, and what is interesting is to see the discrepancy between those all ‘hot under the collar’ about ’emissions’..and their everyday behaviour, which includes a cavalier attitude to littering.

32. kingstonlad
    “alby, u leftard moron
    1. we are knuckle draggers, not knuckle walkers”
    I disagree, from my vantage point most right-wingers here haven’t evolved to knuckle dragging yet.
    “2. what was done here is fraud, a lie, an untruth, deceit”
    No, it’s just a picture, you have to read the words too.
    “I do not know about you, but I have raised my children with the lesson that lying is bad, no matter how right you think your cause is”
    Well then you had better teach them there is more to a story than just a picture so they know the whole truth.

33. Jose, about the CGI: Don’t take Michael Totten’s word about all the development in Kurdistan, try Google Earth. It’s a year or two behind, but it should satisfy your curiosity.

34. Since the control freak social engineers banned smoking here in Whitehorse no one seems to care about the mess in the streets. Smokers are so angry to be forced outside that they throw butts everywhere but..wait for it..low and behold the sheeple of the ‘clean liver’ types are throwing garbage everywhere, because they do what they see others do – monkey see, monkey do…
    “the best laid plans of bureau crates and ‘Mo'[ slems….”
    As for CBC: Do they still use those tax funded, indoor, heated smoking rooms? ‘Hip Hip o crates’ keeps rolling off my tongue.

35. This is old “news”, but it is an interesting perspective . . . coming from Russia before they signed on to Kyoto. Too bad they did not pay closer attention to Mr. Illarionov’s original concerns. By the way, for those who may have missed it Russia originally did not plan to sign on but was persuaded to do so by Moe Strong on that notorious Northern junket sponsored by the Governor General. (Wonder what tactics ($$$) he used — or do we think the decision was a good-will gesture on the part of Mr. Putin?) I remember this specifically, because it was one of the “positive results” Adrienne cited in defending this egregious expenditure of taxpayer money. It is all too sad.
    Reuters
    October 27, 2003
    MOSCOW (Reuters) – With solutions costing up to a mind-numbing $18,000,000,000,000,000, it is among the most expensive questions in history — “How do you stop people from causing dangerous global warming?” Eighteen quadrillion dollars is almost 600 times the 2002 world gross domestic product, estimated by the World Bank at $32 trillion. If you glued 18 quadrillion dollar bills end to end, they would stretch way past Pluto. Luckily, most estimates of the costs of curbing global warming by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) run to just hundreds of trillions of dollars over 100 years — a relative pin prick for a growing world economy.
    But the costs of cleaning up human emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide produced by factories and cars, and of shifting toward cleaner energies such as solar or wind power, are starting to give governments nightmares. “The long-term costs could be enormous,” said Andrei Illarionov, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin who has backed away from previous promises to quickly ratify the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol on curbing global warming.
    Kyoto, a tiny first step toward reining in human emissions of non-toxic carbon dioxide from fossil fuels blamed for blanketing the planet and driving up temperatures, will collapse without Russia’s approval. The United States pulled out in 2001. “Maybe the money would be better spent on promoting economic growth, on ending poverty or on helping developing nations,” he told a climate conference in Moscow this month, pointing to the highest IPCC estimate of almost $18 quadrillion by 2100.

36. George slaved in/for CBC. He got a job there soon after he arrived from Hungary. Lasted over 20 years. Gawd!
    If it blows up buses and subways, it must be a terrorist
    by George Jonas
    CanWest Publications
    July 21, 2005
    Talk about coincidence. Just as I started writing this column, someone on CBC-TV called this month’s bombing of the London public transport system “a terrorist attack.” By the time I shifted my glance from the computer to the television screen, the station cut to a commercial, so I can’t identify the offender.
    If he was an employee, he took a chance. An internal memo warns that calling terrorist attacks “terrorist attacks” is against CBC policy.
    The word should be “attack,” pure and simple, or rather neither simple nor pure, but Pharisaically correct. Contemporary disciples of the ancient Pharisee sect — whose name has become a synonym for self-righteous hypocrisy — have long infested public broadcasters such as the CBC and the BBC. Now they’re proclaiming that reporters should use only “neutral language.” Describing terrorist attacks as plain-vanilla “attacks,” say the latter-day Pharisees, permits viewers and listeners “to form their own conclusions” about just what kind of attacks they were.
    Needless to say, the CBC’s reluctance to influence the audience’s deliberations doesn’t extend to all issues. The same news organizations that won’t call terrorists terrorists — CBC, BBC, Reuters, and others of their ilk — have no qualms about tainting the audience’s opinion in relation to things that seem morally clear to them. The CBC doesn’t insist that reporters describe a company’s act of dumping toxic waste in “neutral language” and leave the word “pollution” to the viewers. Nor does Mother Corp demand attribution for such as emotionally loaded word as “murder.” CBC reporters can say: “A witness described the murder” rather than: “A witness described the accused throttling the victim in an act the police characterized as ‘murder.'” They can say: “A man was charged with molesting a child” rather than: “After a child was fondled, a crown attorney called a man a “child molester.'”
    But reporters can’t call a suicide bomber blowing up a London bus a terrorist attack. Let viewers “make their own judgment” about what to call it. The CBC won’t make judgments for them. Perish the thought. We tell people what happened; we don’t tell them what to think. We’re pure as the driven snow. …-
    http://www.georgejonas.ca/recent_writing.cfm?id=334

37. Jeff comments: “both images you offer from the cbc depict a city choking on it’s own pollution”
    So I don’t get it. Why don’t Torontonians attempt to get politicians to address their issue with pollution instead of carrying on about CO2 emissions. We are all being environmentally cheated as long as the primary focus is on CO2 rather than on clean air, clean water and garbage reduction.

38. BTW, “Enhancing” means: to raise to a higher degree. Deception is quite another thing. Also, who is this albatros idiot/troll?

39. I would like to come to the defense of “Angry” – not because I support her (his) views, but because I think that she represents a major component of the Kyoto scam. I have recently come to realize that those pushing Kyoto (a handful of very powerful people, I believe) operate in part by recruiting well-intentioned believers. Most of us want to do what’s right and stand up for a better world. The Kyoto people are on to this and know enough about how to recruit foundations, the media, and ultimately naïve voters. What is truly scary is that so many people have come to believe in Kyoto so whole-heartedly. Anyone challenging the pro-Kyoto view of things is to be castigated and shunned. This is doubly astonishing since what Kyoto proposes flies in the face of common sense. The Economist Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, concluded in 2001 that, “implementing Kyoto will cost $150 billion to $300 billion globally every year, merely to postpone the temperature rise by six years from 2100 to 2106” (Some would question whether or not curtailing emissions would accomplish even this much), however his conclusion is correct when he states that “It’s a very expensive way to achieve very little.” So why haven’t the media become more questioning about what’s behind this “group think.” And people wonder how the Germans could have been so easily duped by Hitler. Now we have Mr. Gore’s video being pumped into schools. People who can control how large numbers of people view the world REALLY scare me.

40. “we dont need the friggin cbc anymore, plain and simple.”
    Actually coming here and seeing how stupid people are… you need it more than ever. Not that you’ll pay attention, but lucky for you and your kids, others will.
    CBC is far from perfect, but it helps balance out the private networks. If you want to end up like the US, which is currently circling the drain… why not move there?

41. Yes, John the US is circling the drain. That’s why people are crossing deserts and risking their lives on rafts to get. Perhaps you’d like to live in some of the socialist paradises you worship and give us a report from there.

42. Actually John, I do live there I don’t see any drains circling and, the last time I checked, I might be in a position to actually comprehend it than say someone watching television in Canada.
    But aside from being fatuous, you don’t seem to have much to say.
    I check the cbc.ca daily but it has little to say that resonates for an ex-pat. I get more information about Canada from private sector blogs of all political points of view.
    The point is that a publicly funded institution is terribly biased and unable to balance itself at all.

43. jrb,
    Be patient … as soon as John gets his opinion from CBC he will give it to you … but of course, anyone that actually monitors MSM will know what he thinks before he does.

44. “Actually John, I do live there I don’t see any drains circling”
    It’s hard to tell when you’re moving with the the current. So what are the indicators?
    Well for one thing, the utter rejection of science and fact. Global warming is just one aspect of this, the other is the fact that the majority of Americans believe a dirty old book that tells them the world was created in 7 days.
    Then there is the small issue of the president attacking the consitution every chance he gets. Oh yeah, and the war, and the debt and deficit.
    And finally… the insane notion that seems to be cropping up lately that the answer to gun violence is more guns. Yeah… brilliant.

45. jrb,
    What I said.

46. Well, I see about a half dozen other blogs I read have picked up on this. Earlier on, I raised my points as to why this is a non-event. I’ll go into a bit more detail.
    The picture so many are all heated up about does not claim to be a picture of Toronto today, yesterday or any other day. It’s a crop of an already made composite for CBC’s version of the great warmening. You’ll see similar pictures in every newspaper and every news broadcast in every single country every single day.
    These are designed, regardless of how much we don’t like the slant, as companions to the story. They aren’t the story.
    Once again, the TANG memos were fake. They were the story. Without the TANG memos, there is no story. Blue Helmet Guy stage managing a ghoulish parade of corpses is the story, because it defined a false narrative. Adnan Hadj photoshopped pictures and proclaimed them to be real, thus making all of his work questionable.
    The picture in question here means nothing. The CBC isn’t saying “look! this is Toronto RIGHT NOW because Steve Hitler, um HARPER, yeah, has not fixed climate change, or something.” They could have put a picture of whatever they wanted and it does not alter the content of the story.
    As much as I respect and admire Kate, this is a non-scandal. It’s a non scandal of epic proportions. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to dislike the Mothercorp. Some dude cropping and adjusting an already existing composite picture that they have used in the past for Kyoto is not one of them.
    Unbalanced and incredibly biased reporting at the CBC? Onside with that. Overfunded sacred cow/albatross? Oh, yeah. No doubt about it. Is this picture part of some larger scandal? No. I say that with no equivocation whatsoever.

47. Krydor,
    Would you consider it a scandal if instead of showing oil covered baby ducks they showed a picture of pristine shoreline after an oil spill?

48. ET: “exile – what’s your point? Why are you bringing in the ‘Americans’ into the discussion of left and right perspectives? These two sides are found everywhere. Try Europe.
    The US Democrats are very much on the left.”
    Because like many people here you seem to derive your political categories from (right-wing) America.
    There are more than two political philosophies! That’s the American perspective because they have such a very narrow political spectrum. (In fact the U.S. has hardly more than one political perspective!)
    Europe, however, has a greater diversity of political opinion, that is, a much broader political spectrum. The United States doesn’t even have social democrats. Canada does and Europe does. But Europe also has socialists in significant numbers, unlike the United States or Canada. The rest of the world has even more diversity and an even broader spectrum of political views.
    (The democrats would be considered a right-wing – or, at best, centrist – party anywhere but in the United States.)
    ET: “No, the left does not have only one attribute, ”social ownership of the means of production’ – which is to say, that the GOV’T owns the means of production.”
    I didn’t say “the left” had only one attribute. I said that social ownership of the means of production was essential to socialism. And no, we do not mean by that that “the government” should own the means of production.
    “What you are ignoring in this ambiguous empty image, is WHO MAKES THE DECISIONS? It’s meaningless to claim that ‘the public’ owns the means of production. That’s irrelevant because what matters is, again, who makes the decisions about this ‘means of production’.”
    When we talk about ownership, we are also talking about control.
    ET: “By the way, it is absolutely impossible for a large industrial society, with a population in the multimillions to operate in the communist socialist manner you promote, – public ownership of the means of production. Collective ownership doesn’t work except in SMALL hunting and gathering bands – which actually don’t own anything anyway.”
    Oh no, I never thought of that! We’ll just give up the whole idea then. (For heaven’s sake, you don’t even know what we’re proposing! There are various forms of social ownership.)

49. It’s Networks like CBC, BBC and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp.) that keep media in their respective nations credible. Unlike the networks in the US, the CBC relies on (but not completely) on tax dollars, so therefore they don’t need to worry so much about advertising dollars. Many Canadian viewers have come to trust the CBC and therefore ratings are kept high so advertisers are willing to advertise on CBC knowing they can’t manipulate the programming. CBC is then free to give the news without the advertiser manipulation of information being broadcast. In the US if the advertiser doesn’t like what you are saying because what you are saying might have a negative effect on their product, they will pull their accounts. When advertisers are able to control information people receive, they can control the democracy of that country. Don’t believe that companies like Wal Mart, Exxon and McDonalds have your best interests at heart and would prefer you to be dumbed down rather than informed. In the quest for advertising dollars credibility goes out the window so the US television news today has degraded into nothing but cheap infotainment. In the absence of credibility US networks resort to what best attracts American viewers and that is: one, celebrities (remember the O.J. trial), two, white girls being murdered or kidnapped (little black girls apparently don’t get ratings in the US), three, smart bombs blowing things up, four, flashy political scandals (though Americans have short attention spans for those).
    The BBC of course is entirely funded without advertising dollars, and is therefore the worlds most trusted television and radio news organization. All television networks can learn from the BBC. If the BBC sets the standard for new in the world, in this country it’s the CBC that sets standard, and whether people like to believe it or not, other television networks such as CTV follow that standard. Without CBC in this country we would end up with networks resembling Fox and CNN with all the ratings seeking flash, hype and eye candy that comes with them.
    Canada needs the CBC, it prevents us from becoming Americans with all the dumbing down that comes with American TV news. What Americans need in their news is a return to credibility, they need to tune out clowns like Hannity and O’Reilly and find another Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow.

50. How many trees were chopped down to make the paper all these reduclous enviromental treaties were printed on