What to hammer it home, Kate!!
We'll wait patiently (or not ) for their response.

Not my letter - it's linked to the comments. I've updated the post to make that clearer.

Sry Manny... thought it was Kate's letter.

Just part of that whole echo chamber thing.

Great letter Manny!!

"About one in four Palestinian children goes without breakfast," Two of three of my kids miss (skip) breakfast every day. I am sure that they are not particularly unusual.

Excellent work Manny. That damned right-wing biased CBC must be taught a lesson!

Another reason I haven't watched CBC news in 4 years.

Thank God the CBC investigasted itself and found no bias.

Great job Manny! "Some" is always a dead giveaway eh? There's some of everything what? Some Hollywood actors are conservative!

Waste of time though, I'm sorry to say. Factual, statistically sound information of the kind you've provided will have no traction whatever for the simple reason that the CBC is not actually seeking the truth of the matter. This is the thing: rational arguments against irrational views don't work. Or as a friend puts it, "you can't reason someone out of a view he didn't reason himself into".

This is ET's failing too often: excessive faith in reason.

I learned that depressing truth once and for all when I provided a "Bush Lied, People Died" friend with 35 quotations from A-list Dems concerning their fears of Saddam's WMD. Zero impact. Since that day, I do not engage liberals in debate. As Coulter says, "How to talk to Liberals, IF YOU MUST".

When CBC has a motto of "Juck to foos" what did you expect?

me no dhimmi - ahh, here we go again. You simply do not have the grace and courtesy to allow me to arrive at my own opinions, which are indeed, I hope, based on empirical evidence and the logic of reason. You insist that I give up my opinions...and follow yours. Why? You have failed to convince me of the validity of your opinions and there is no reason why I should accept them.

Manny's letter was excellent. And what is needed is more such factual, empirical, reasoned letters, commentary etc - to the CBC, to MPs, to the MSM. You see, I have this faith, and it is indeed faith, that truth and reality are more viable than fiction; that fiction does have its attractions because it is simple and undemanding, but since we humans exist in reality, then, our minds must, at some time, acknowledge it.

The fact that you refuse to engage a Liberal in debate does not mean that you should refuse to articulate and express your opinions! Should we abandon our voices just because some people are fixed in their fictional beliefs?

Manny's letter, by the way, wasn't a debate; he wasn't attempting to change the biased beliefs of anyone. He was pointing out that they were and are biased and are thus, not merely distorting reality, but are abusing their mandate. His letter, as I said, and others like it, should go to many people outside the CBC. Such will not 'unbias the biased' for that is almost impossible; but it might start a movement where authorities will force change, or even yes, disband the CBC.

So if those fat little kids would just go and use the brand new Olympic sized swimming pool they just opened up in Gaza.

Or go to a nice summer camp and play . . oh wait, HAMAS just destroyed the camp.

Too bad, so sad.

Fat little gaza kiddies . . . they'll really blow up good when the get older and go all jihadi.

Will they need more C4 in the explosive belts ?

Unfortunately the CBC will never change, therefore a funding change to $0 is in order.

No worries guys, NASA is on the case making sure that the Muslim world is recognized for its endless contributions to munitions, er, science.

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/07/krauthammer-bashes-obamas-infantile-nasa-muslim-outreach-program/

Well, at the very least, we have established that Manny, and several others here, did not bother learning anything in school.

Being malnourished and being underweight are NOT the same thing. They do coincide, but they can, indeed often do, exist independently from each other. Neither is an overweight person well-nourished. He just has excess stores of fat.

Nourishment is based on nutritional input, not general caloric input. You can consume thousands of calories and get minimal nutrition out of it.

Think of white bread, for example. Generally the cheapest form of food. High in carbs, high in sugars, okay with protein, but generally lacking in many nutrients and minerals. High consumption of bread - ie eating more calories of bread than you burn in a day, will make you overweight. If it is the only thing you are eating, it will also leave you MALNOURISHED. If you eat only cake everyday, you will be obese. And malnourished.

In other words, Manny had best go back to schhol. And many of you would benefit from cracking open a science textbook and seeing what malnutrition means. And then compare it with obesity.

You simply do not have the grace and courtesy to allow me to arrive at my own opinions, which are indeed, I hope, based on empirical evidence and the logic of reason
- ET.

Ouch. Damn, I removed that and put it back again.
Listen, ET: I think you're terrific like most SDAists.

But you're being emotional, not logical here. I didn't denigrate your opinions, only referred to your undue reliance on reason in dealing with irrational people. That's all I said. Which is what Manny is doing here also. I gave you an example from my own experience involving 35 pieces of empirical evidence that A-List Dems were worried about Saddam's WMD, to no effect.

And as to "empirical evidence" in the arena of human conflict, well, not like in Physics, eh? You'll have your empirical evidence, I'll have mine, eh?

AND, you will note I praised his excellent letter!
Now, if you get enjoyment in writing letters to yourself, that's A-Ok. Just don't be deluded.

I only said it was a total waste of time just as are some of your long erudite responses to trolls who simply aren't interested.

ET,

I thought you would have been the first person to pick up on the lack of science involved here. Yet it appears to have passed you by.

This letter is meaningless. If you want to draw a comparison on malnutrition stats between Palestine and the West, you have to use malnutrition data, not obesity rates. Obesity rates just mean that caloric input is higher than daily caloric burn. Becoming obese is not difficult - just up your caloric input by 300 calories a day, and you'll be a kilogram heavier by the end of the month. 300 calories = 3 slices of whitebread. Nutritional value - low.

After that you have to factor in availability of foods required for a balanced (read micronutrient-rich) diet. This helps you establish whether they are malnourished because of poor choices or zero availability. Only then can you draw a comparison.

I don't know if you can fault CBC here since the evidence put up to show that they are wrong is laughable at best.

Good for you Manny. And you had the right idea to post it at SDA to give it a wide circulation.

I used to write several missives to both CBC and CTV, when I was stupid enough to watch their programs, neither ever replied to my emails, NOT ONCE. Actually, I have to thank them because I found an outlet for my anger by creating my own blog where I can rant to my heart's content.

You might get a "form" reply only because of the publicity your letter has now generated.

no, me no dhimmi, I said that Manny wasn't engaged in a debate; he wasn't attempting to change the CBC writer's opinion; he was registering a complaint agains the bias of the CBC. As such, his complaint has to be grounded in empirical evidence and reason. It can't be just another opinion.

whowser - you are correct that obesity and malnourishment can be correlated. But that's not what the CBC article was dealing with; check out the article.

The key claim in the article is that 'many (26%) went without breakfast'; this is being used as an indictator of hardship. This is invalid, for we do not know if their going without is because of lack of food or lack of interest. In all parts of the world, children go without breakfast or lunch because they don't want to eat that meal. This key factor, a scientific bit of data, was missing in the data base.

About 11% were anemic. Did you know that the rate of anemia among Canada's James Bay Cree babies is 31.9%? Then, there's a study done of Alaska natives - : "Southwestern/northern Alaska Native children-who are known to have high nutritional iron intake based on subsistence diets-had the highest anemia prevalence (35%)."

http://journals.lww.com/jpgn/Fulltext/2009/04000/Geographic_and_Racial_Patterns_of_Anemia.16.aspx

And "Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency and cause of anemia worldwide. In North America, it occurs in up to 11% of women and 4% of men. Certain groups are more prone to the condition, including toddlers, women of reproductive age, pregnant women, vegetarians and individuals from aboriginal communities."

http://www.parkhurstexchange.com/clinical-reviews/ct_04_vol15

The point is, the CBC article was poorly researched and had a political agenda. That political agenda is the problem; the news media should not have one.

HOW DOES SHE DO IT?

whowser - Manny was responding to the CBC article in it's own terms. Obesity rates are brought up in the article.

Now why do you suppose the CBC didn't publish bit titled "Some Jordanian Kids Malnourished"? Or is it obliged to pick up on every piece from the (lefty) Lancet.

whowser - I've never been a fan of Manny's posts but the point of his letter to the CBC was to attack its political agenda.

I totally agree with you that obesity and malnourishment are problematic indicators but that wasn't the point of the CBC article. Its focus was on 'going without breakfast' and Manny's letter with its focus on obesity was to counter the implied view of the CBC that the children were going without breakfast because of lack of food. His view was that there IS food. Now, your point was that this food might be of low nutritional value. But the CBC wasn't focused on this valid point; they were implying lack of food; not value of food.

As Manny points out, the rest of the CBC article points out a nutrition state, in particular, anemia, that is 'unremarkable by western standards'. As I've attempted to show, anemia has the same prevalence (11%) among N. American women and the James Bay and Alaskan natives have three times the rate.

fire THEM all,

Wonderful news that NASA is to be the lead agency in bringing neglected "muslim science" achievements to a waiting, breathless, world. First let us be made aware of all the work by dedicated muslim religious researchers who recently upheld the long ago discovery that the earth is indeed flat because ........ This could be a real launching point for those who feel the "History" Channel's load of dozy "Ancient" PC BS doesn't really cut it.

"Another reason I haven't watched CBC news in 4 years."

Ah yes...they can make us pay for it, but they can't make us watch it. Yet.

N1 Manny

So, I wonder how ol' Vince (Carlin) is going to respond? The guy's responses are made of rubber and bounce all over the place. Mr. Carlin can say/write with a straight face that the CBC always upholds its mandate to offer balanced opinions on issues of importance to all Canadians without giving an iota of proof -- in fact, having been smacked in the face with proof that the CBC has completely disregarded its mandate to fulfill CBC staffers' POV.

Great letter, Manny; we need a new generation of folks to ask the CBC to be accountable. As for your hope of "a public retraction," very good luck. (C'mon, Me No Dhimmi, "Waste of time though, I'm sorry to say"? Maybe it'll make Manny feel better or, who knows, maybe it'll be the gong that gets Mr. Carlin's attention (though he's in a pretty deep coma, I've got to admit).

E-mails and letters to the CBC Ombudstoady are always for the record. When this historical strata is unearthed, it will be shown that there were a few smart, alert citizens blowing the whistle on the damned lies that eventually did the populace in.

Kudos to Manny for taking the time to submit such a well written & researched letter.

If the recipient were a private business then it might make a difference. But based on my own experience with Mr. Carlin, nothing positive will come of this. I predict there'll be a delay after the automated response and then one day Manny will get a lengthy, poorly written response of gobbledygook going well around the Cape of Good Hope to justify the CBC's non-existent [in practice] journalistic standards.

You see, in their minds, they're NEVER wrong and anyone complaining is simply a Hateful Unenlightened Right-Wing Wingnut who must be answered solely because their policies say they must.

No one will be fired. No one will be disciplined. In fact, they probably post such complaint letters on a large bulletin board entitled "Harper's Neocon Nutters"!

Just another example of how some guy on the Internet can put together a more intellectually rigorous article than a national company with a billion dollar budget.

The CBC is truly pathetic.

To hell with "some" palistani kids not getting breakfast.
Here, in our little city in Southwestern Ontario, lots of kids don't get breakfast. I know because I volunteer for a school breakfast program and, believe me, these kids are hungry.
Charity begins at home.That's what we, living in a democracy do. Take care of our own, not wait and wail for international aid. If they really cared about their kids, they would find a way to feed them properly.

Given "The Lancet's" track record on reporting statistics from the ME .... I'm not surprised that the Ceeb hacks got the idea report it this way.

That is sort of their version of "Fixed That For Ya!"

I really doubt that anyone working for the Ceeb has the ability to actually read a report to extent required to comprehend facts or context. What they repeated was simply what they saw.

The MSM ARE the stupidest people on the planet.

Another reason for Sun News TV -- to point this stuff out, either in a Reliable Sources type format (okay, not the best show of its kind) or a Daily Show, but on the right. Days of the CBC controlling the message and filtering it through their L/liberal filter are fast coming to an end. Can't come soon enough, either.

Not a lot of critical thinking taking place in journalism these days. Journalists are supposed to weigh, question, evaluate and challenge information, not just regurgitate what is given to them.

Our local paper just reported that because school is out and the breakfast programs are unavailable, 'some' kids are going without food from Friday through Monday. No details on who these kids are, their circumstances or how may 'some' constitutes.

If 'some' kids are going unfed for a weekend and they know who the 'some' kids are, why aren't 'some' parents being outed for child neglect?

Manny, great letter. But, since when did CBC ever respond to facts, logic, or fairness? (It’s still important, as batb points out, to have an archive that altogether undermines CBC’s constant lies about its misreporting and its journalistic competence [sic] and integrity [sic]. Maybe we’ll get a government, some day, that will use this documentation to deep six this hugely subversive propaganda machine.)

I stopped watching CBC well over a decade ago. We’re watching Bret Baier on Fox right now: ’very good for my blood pressure.

IMO, Me No Dhimmi’s got it re liberals. E.g., Literally, I’ve got nearly a file drawer full of cases against the CBC and other left-wing media, from over two decades ago. My meticulously documented—and argued!—cases were summarily thrown out. (The CBC adjudicates itself!) So, I concur with the always (to me) courteous Me No Dhimmi: arguing with a liberal/left-wing entity is a lost cause. These people are ideological and, intellectually, altogether thin skinned. They’re like toddlers: my way or a tantrum.

I actually still have a few left-wing friends: these truncated friendships continue (I like their kids!) because I zip my lip re any facts that might upset their vehement, but oh so fragile, support for their pet causes and icons. To a liberal, facts and truth are like garlic and the cross to Dracula.

Thank God for the Internet—and Fox! And let’s hope we get our own version—soon.

Whatever happened to CBC Watch?