The head of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News faced questioning from Conservative MPs on Parliament Hill Tuesday about what they called a "doctored photo" that appeared in April on CBC's news website.
The public broadcaster's news web site carried an altered stock photo of the Toronto skyline that was noticeably darkened and made the smog and atmospheric haze appear much worse than in the original photo.
The altered picture of the skyline accompanied a story about the Kyoto accord and was first noticed by a Canadian conservative blogger.
During a meeting at the Commons heritage committee, Conservative MP Chris Warkentin accused the CBC of publishing a "doctored photo" that misled the public.
The CBC official was appearing before the committee as part of its study of the role of the public broadcaster in the 21st century.
"It was a complete misrepresentation," he said. "It speaks to the sensitivity that you have to engage in at CBC. Of course it wasn't intended, you ensure us, to mislead Canadians but in fact it did mislead people because it was there to support an opinion that was being brought forward with the article that it was published along with."
Tony Burman, editor in chief of CBC News, Current Affairs and Newsworld, CBC Radio and Television, said the use of the darker photo of the Toronto skyline was the result of a "process error" and not indicative of any editorial bias at CBC.
"What happened then is that a photo was retouched," he said. "It wasn't retouched for use on air . . . It got misfiled . . . It was inadvertently pulled out and used."
"It was a very subtle difference. In fact it looked very similar. We did check it. It was immediately pulled when we were aware of it. It was an inadvertent error."
Of course it was. "Inadvertent error" is the usual manner in which an original stock photo is first cropped, run through a "warming filter" to achieve the desired tone, saved with a new file name, and then uploaded to the CBC web server, before being randomly selected to illustrate a "news" item featuring a report on the economic impact of meeting the Kyoto protocols.
Someone's finger slipped.
The original.
An unenhanced photo of the same site in July of 2005
Previous:
Hues of the News (1)
Hues of the News (2)
There's all the evidence we need, Burman et al are taking us for fools. Truth escapes them, they have no scruples.
We really should be calling for Burman to be fired.
It's gotten to the point where watching the news is a total waste of time. When we see the usual faces spouting more opinion than facts it's time to click off.
We're paying them for the bare news,that's a news anchor's job, we'll decide how to process it in our own minds. Roving reporters constantly shove their opinions forward when covering events as well, they should be called opinionators, that's what they are.
A few months ago we had Christina Lawand skewing a Harper event, Bloggers got her put out of sight for a spell, they're now trying to sneak her back, we won't tolerate it!
Has anyone ever in memory heard so much negative reporting on any government? It's even worse and more sinister than during the uncovering of Adscam. Of course we were dealing with the loving family of Liberals and MSM, an incestuous mix.
CBC can be called to heel. CTV and Global are another story, every bit as misleading but all we can do is complain and shut off, let them talk to themselves.
So is the CBC itself an "inadverdent error"?
Privatize the damned thing!!
"What happened then is that a photo was retouched," he said. "It wasn't retouched for use on air . . . It got misfiled . . . It was inadvertently pulled out and used."
Huh?? Why would you retouch a photo if you weren't going to use it?? That's like saying I put fuel in my car NOT to drive it! And what is this crap about the CBC being asked questions? In this case, the Conservatives are no better then the CBC. They can throw out all the softball questions they want. Problem is, most of us don't want questions.We know the CBC is a leftard tool,just can it.
1 billion dollar subsidy for the CBC or an extra billion for health care. where are your priorities? what is more important to the little old lady waiting for up to two years for hip surgery?
Did other readers hear what I heard on yesterday morning's CBC radio news? On the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War, the opening sentence of the piece ran something like: "Forty years ago Israel lashed out at its Arab neighbours....."
Prickly, those Jews.....
This morning on CBC with the little smiling geek whom I have no interest or ability to refer to by name, an interview was held with leaders of Danza Cuba who are performing in Toronto (am going Tuesday).
Toward the end, the interview turned from Dance to an attempt by the interview to twist it into criticism of the US policy toward Cuba, how the Bush Administration is refusing visas to Cuban performers and how there were communist points made in the show.
To her credit, Liszt Alfonso ignored the buffoons leading questions.
IF THE PHOTO WASN'T RETOUCHED FOR USE ON AIR WHAT THE HE** WAS IT RETOUCHED FOR?
WHAT A FLAMING LIAR. FIRE THE BUM!
NEED MORE EVIDENCE HE'S TAKING US FOR IDIOTS?
Didn't the CBC have the non-corrected file on the web server also, hence the reason Kate so easily found it? Would it not have taken at least an ounce of intent to put the doctored photo in the article as opposed to the original?
What is this CBC you speak of? I actually have both of the CBC channels as blocked for inappropriate content ;)
Yesterday Paula Todd and CTV were highlighted, today the CBC's foibles are at the top of SDA spotlight for all the world to consider.
Spotlighting Canadian MSM's shadier side.
Time is on the bloggers side though, because the internet has poked a stick in the eye ( should be up their collective nuanced asses!) of the gatekeepers of Canadian information.
Watching SDA counter mount up daily is evidence of world wide attention to a very important Canadian blog.
roseberry - and Liars, that CBC.
For over a generation, Canada has been a one-party regime,the Liberals. This party set up a taxpayer funded media system, with its executive appointed by the gov't and all other staff necessarily followers of the executive ideology. Naturally it became an incestuous, self-organized partisan mouthpiece of the Liberals.
Academia is another haven of the left, with academics operating in the safe haven of tenure, unions and the unaccountability of cultural relativism. Journalism schools are linked to our MSM - and the mindset is nurtured and continued.
It's only blogs that are genuine participants in intellectual freedom.
Lieing POS.
The greatest threat to democracy is not Islamic terrorists but biased media that are incapable of reporting facts even remotely accurately. How can the public make up its mind intelligently about any issue if we are just fed crap. Garbage in garbage out.
Hoist on their own lefty pink petard.
CBCpravda " All liberal, All the time"
" All Khadr , All the time"
"How can the public make up its mind intelligently about any issue if we are just fed crap."
It's really quite simple Fritz...if it's on CBC,then just simply reverse what was said and you have the truth. Sorta like the Useless Nations. If they are against it,then it is a good thing in reality.
Kate: I emailed you a couple of weeks after it was"pulled" from the website providing a link to a page where the CBC was still using the picture on the site. Mr. Burman is either misinformed or lying.
I have not watched any Canadian TV news in over 6 months and don't miss a thing. The News used to be the News. It is now just left wing editorializing. No thanks I can do without that. I can get the news from the internet without the sanctimonious preaching.
I haven't paid any attention to the CBC since I was a college boy in the eighties and Burman's pitiable attempt at CYA is a good example of why: its institutional contempt for its audience's intelligence. Phase out all or most of the subsidy and force the CBC to either look for a paying audience or advertisers; as it is it's waste of time and has been so for at least two or three generations.
i watched ctv national news last night at 11, Now i know i was tired but did anyone else notice that there was nothing on the G8 Summit & the PM.
Not News worthy i guess.
i should also say that after 20min i shut it off so could have missed it.
That's why they are called the CBC:
"Canadian Brainwashing Corporation"
It is Coriolis Force LIEberal spin doctoring.
If you do it too often, you will be 'left' politically blind.
How could Burman be misinformed, it's his business to be informed. So what's the answer? Incompetence?
Heaven forbid, lying? He seems to know enough about it to KNOW it wasn't doctored to be aired, that's telling in itself.
He better go try smuggling dawn past a rooster.
I wish someone would slip when it comes to budget time for the CBC.
Mr. Harper, please, if you love this country, mute that Librano propaganda organ.
Can someone from our Conservative government explain to this Conservative why my tax dollars are used to support an organization that uses those dollars to denigrate me and everything I stand for? Cojones anyone?
One of my fingers just slipped, too. Guess which one?
Burman is surely the most duplicitous creature in the mass media today. Close second is the excrable Heather Mallick. Miss Malice NEVER mises an opportunity to stick the anti-American knife in; she NEVER misses an opportunity to call George Bush "stupid"; and she NEVER misses an opportunity to denigrate the Prime Minister. Why, why, why are my tax dollars going to pay the salary of this stupid cow? It's an outrage equal to that of Burman being allowed to masquerade as a serious news manager.
I don't watch the news any more. They are a bunch of wankers. Everytime there is some kind of disaster, and destruction, the reporters always seem to find someone to say.....wait for it......"its like a war zone." Show some respect for the poor S.O.B.'S who have lived through war. Not me personally.
Oh this just ruffles my feathers you just cant trust those lying liberal leftwing news media i mean over 85% of the news photos are doctored
"the darker photo of the Toronto skyline was the result of a "process error" and not indicative of any editorial bias at CBC."
Sheeeeeeiiit...they aren't even gracious liars...how craven..they won't even stand up for their stilted prejudices...pathetic...typical cowardly leftist situational ethics.
I always liked this picture!
If I am not mistaken, it is taken from the West side of downtown; looking East. This means that the smoke in the forground is coming from over Lake Ontario to the South. New York perhaps; because I always thought the old smokestacks on the shores of Lake Ontario were on the East side of downtown and the Don Valley parkway? But what do I know?
As well; there must be terrible wind sheers in Toronto! The vapour from the high rises appears to be headed South-East; but the big Greenhouse Gas Plume goes North!
I suppose this is possible to have such a wind vortex if at the time the photo was taken the boys and girls of Queen's Park were sitting!
Liz J said: "A few months ago we had Christina Lawand skewing a Harper event, Bloggers got her put out of sight for a spell, they're now trying to sneak her back, we won't tolerate it!"
Heck Liz ya gotta actually watch CBC to monitor them that much, ...something I won't do....or more precisely "wont" do....I have a health condition that keeps me from ingesting daily doses of tainted gruel ;-)
The tide is turning, slowly but surely and the CBC monkeys can feel it in their bones. With each passing month mother corp becomes more irrelevant so Burman and crew are desperate to stop progress. My God, what would happen should Harper get a majority. We can't let that happen is the current mantra so they lie and distort to hang onto their overpaid taxpayer funded positions. Like Dingwall these leaches feel they are entitled to their entitlements. Ah, to be a fly on the wall during CBC strategy sessions.
Speaking of leftist media bias, here is a story about NBC devoting 75 hours of air time to Al Gore so that he can "move individuals, corporations and governments to take action.” Hmmm. Is Gore going to declare his candidacy later this summer or fall...?
NorthernLight-
Just to clarify, the picture was taken from the west facing east. The smokestacks you see were located in Oakville but they no longer exist. The position of the stacks in relation to the Tranna skyline is very suspect to say the least, and I personally think they were superimposed on the original picture.
The "smog" you see, if it is real, would have originated in the Ohio Valley. Ontario's contribution to pollution is found in Upper new York and the New England States.
Today,cbc has a new agenda..the presentation of the poor 'Balcony Rapist',Paul Callow,and how the nasty people of surrey want him out of their backyard.The fawning over him,by the cbc interviewer,and the 'injustice'of protestations by citizens was ridiculous.Bragging by cbc over the exclusive they got with this beast,to complain about 'his human rights being violated'was stomach turning to say the least.Callow had the gall to say,that 'under the Charter,he has a right to feel safe'..and he 'won't be intimidated into leaving.' Most telling,was his comment at end of interview,when he praises the cbc for being the only media outlet to 'seek the truth'
I'd like to know about the 'rights' of the women he violated,the rights of the kids and women in Surrey to feel safe..and why Ontario wouldn't allow him to stay in the province,so BC should welcome him now??..the sympathy of cbc toward this jerk is stunning.
Ha! Burman is completely full of crap and everyone knows it.
BTW - did you notice today the CBC relishing that they got a confirmation from the Russian state department that Putin is Meeting with Harper this week in Germany?
They are spinning this as Harper would not tell us anything .... look how much freer the Russians are!
Privatize them now and let the losers stew in their own juice instead of using my money to spread bullshit!
Here is how to meet our kyoto goals.
Sell the cbc.
Take the proceeds and spend it all on wind turbines.
Tell all the former cbc'ers that the turbines are actually very large microphones for them to complain about the great neo con conspiracy into.
The resulting jet streams of hot air will power Canada for a hundred years.
I generally do not make personal, disparaging remarks about individuals, but in this case, I'll reluctantly make an exception:
Question - How can you tell when a CBC news official (in this case Tony Burman) is lying? Answer - When his lips move.
Now, what does anyone suggest as penance?
Geez Jim, for a moment there I could have sworn I was reading the Shotgun Blog.
http://www.doubletruckmagazine.com/issues/dt_003/mediafiles/l14.jpg
Wardrobe Malfunction
Wikipedia
[edit] "Ethics
There is a growing body of writings devoted to the ethical use of digital editing in photojournalism. In the United States, for example, the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) have set out a Code of Ethics promoting the accuracy of published images, advising that photographers "do not manipulate images [...] that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects."[1] Infringements of the Code are taken very seriously, especially regarding digital alteration of published photographs, as evidenced in a recent case in which a Pulitzer prize-nominated photographer resigned his post following the revelation that a number of his photographs had been manipulated"
Burman is against ethics and for state-run fraud, so lets "retouch" all of the CBC transfer cheques accordingly in a "warming filter" of say, 10,000 degreees kelvin, to highlight the "sepia tones" and the "inadvertant" "proccess error" of democracy and liberty (read CBC) will be forever righted.
Purpose of hearing; State run broadcasters role in the 21st century.
As Ontario liberals like to say in their edgy $800,000 Euro-font, FLCK OFF CBC.
Brian in Calgary....for penance you must bow down to Queen Gaia(Lizzie May) and praise Borat Dion for his acce-lent grasp of thu Eeenglish Language. Or at least that is what the lefties would have you doing.
DELETED
CUT THE PROFANITY - ED
What do you mean, Paul, about the need for a Conservative majority. Harper and the Conservatives have failed to deliver on a single promise when it comes to privatizing or "commercializing" the CBC. They have not even completed the mandate review they promised. Harper is a pussy. He is afraid to take on the CBC. Majority or not.
conservative not (2:13 P.M.)
Only some kind of fool would chalk up Harper's governing "program" to date to him being a pussy. If you're so hot nuts to see him deliver on his promises, why don't you vote for him next election. What's that? Oh, you're AFRAID of Harper's governing style if he gets a majority.
So who's the pussy, "high school"? Poor baboo; are you terrified the country will fall to pieces if he actually privatizes the C.B.C., that feckless anachronism of an organization? They're a bunch of tiresome blowhards.
Imagine the propaganda factor the lefties could gain if the CBC was shut down.
Mark & Justhinkin ~ Kate has asked us not to respond to the commenter you are responding to, as he has been banned for gross misbehaviour. Those of his comments that leak through the filters will be deleted in due course. Please respect Kate's request.
Vit and Kate sorry...I wasn't aware of the request. Not a prob.
Understood, Justthinkin. As readers can now see, this thread is a bit chopped up because earlier two people, John and Alby, descended into impotent swearing, and their comments and a couple responses had to be deleted. Regular readers should by now be aware that that sort of behaviour will not be tolerated here, so please, I implore you, when you see someone else engage in it, do not respond in kind.
For the record, I have no official status here, these comments are just my opinion, like yours. That said, I think it should be noted that in my opinion one of the reasons SDA has attracted such a distinguished readership and notable awards is that Kate keeps the discussion from being hijacked by people that would seek to destroy it by drowning the signal in noise.
If we want to preserve this quality result, then it behooves us to not engage in the sort of behaviour that undermines it. Sorry for interrupting with this meta-comment. It is not my intention to distract from the deserved evisceration of the CBC.
Vitrvius...understand were you are coming from. I goofed..and responded. Sometimes I let my emotions take over. As for the the rightfully deserved and earned gutting (that's redneck,knuckledragger for evisceration) of the CBC, were does one start?