The CBC will announce shortly the firing of most middle and top-level management personnel, replacement of their entire editorial staff, and retirement of all television anchors and international reporters currently delivering the news;
Our very mandate is to provide Canadians with a view of their political life unobstructed by bias. To do that, we must be detached from partisan interest, and professional and dispassionate in all aspects of our reporting. We must be seen to be all these things as well.
More…
Far from restoring the credibility of CBC News, the Corporation’s handling of the Erickson affair has managed to shred that credibility to tatters.
For starters, it confirmed the cozy relationship between the CBC and the Liberal Party, something everybody in the news business knew, but which the CBC always denied until now.
But, but. but…wasn’t Krista acting on her own without CBC approval?
Well, that’s what Cruickshank says—without an iota of evidence provided to Canadians to back up that contention. We’re supposed to take his word for it.
Well here’s a word — NO.
[…]
Maybe Pablo isn’t Erickson’s boy after all and Cruickshank is laughing up his sleeve as reporters make an incorrect assumption. Or maybe Pablo is the Liberal that Krista Erickson was dating, according to one of our sources. Does pillow talk count as Principles, Section 3’s ” association or contact which could reasonably give rise to perceptions of partiality”?
CTV(tass) serving up the same pap. critics say.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080124/afghan_prisoners_080124/20080124?hub=TopStories
they never say much about this torture- from the most of the referances you would get hurt more in a college hazing or a bad night in Amsterdam. In fact the stuff going on is Abu Garib was something that Order of Canada nominee Ashley MacIsaac bragged about doing with his underaged boyfriend. sure makes the talk of outrage from some of these dippers and liberals look out of plance.
Very good post Truepeers. The media’s highly successful weapon is to shut down dissent because they are the ones “who get to decide who is extreme and who mainstream.”
Their tactics have been to immediately refer to the dissent as “American style … health care … or warmongering … or economic imperialism … or capitalist greediness …or whatever”. Using that “American style” method of faux debate has for decades caused many of us to shrink from discussing the matter further … thinking to ourselves … why waste my time?
But it is not time wasted to point out to the CBC intellectually lazy elite who oppose us, that much of the dissent revolves around ideas that are not American ideas but ideas that started 800 years ago with the Magna Carta and have been refined and fought for until recently. Recently our elite have decided that liberty is no longer worth fighting for, because their goal is moral relativism and they are willing to surrender our sovereignty for their transnational goals.
The CBC is infested with a Toronto centric groupthink who have lost the ability to think … period. “The CBC cannot be reformed.” So we will get a majority, we will close them, they know we will do that and thus they are rational in their viciousness against all things conservative. It is OK to be biased, I’m biased. But it is not OK to tax me to pay for the bile of the CBC bias. Only private money should pay for those ideas, not my money.
“Minister Bev Oda seems to have been looking for corporate-board experience, rather than a background in media or the arts, with the appointment of the new chairman of the CBC.
Montreal-born Timothy Casgrain, 58, who is currently chairman of the aviation company Skyservice Investment, was named the CBC’s new chairman Friday.
…
When asked about an affiliation with the Conservative government, he said that he supports the Conservatives in his local Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence.
…
“My role as chairman is working with the board, working with Mr. Rabinovitch and his team, and helping move the whole CBC mandate forward,” Mr. Casgrain said Friday. “I’ve always had a great love of the CBC…It’s there. It’s part of our fabric.”
As whether he foresees any major changes at CBC, he said, “I’m not in a position to answer that question just yet. Ask me in six months’ time, when I hope I’ll be well versed and able to give a good response.”
A shake up at the cbc by the cbc?
~snicker~
Yeah, right.
Meet the new hosers, same as the old hosers.
So then I can assume that minister Oda brought Cruickshank on board.
Or has he been at the helm for a long time?
Brilliantly argued, Truepeers. The notion of an unbiased media, or unbiased anything else, is a myth, always has been, always will. Biologists have a word for unbiased, they call it dead.
Having got that out of the way, and while I’d like to see the CBC disbanded, because I don’t want state-funded media on principle, it remains the case that the CBC is above all else a bureaucracy. It is in that sense that when reading Mr. Cruickshank’s propaganda I was reminded of Sir Humphrey’s response, in Yes Prime Minister, to Hacker’s question as to whether or not Humphrey would answer a simple question. Humphrey said:
“If I am pressed for a straight answer I shall say that, as far as we can see, looking at it by and large, taking one thing with another, in terms of the average of departments, then in the last analysis it is probably true to say that, at the end of the day, you would find, in general terms, that, not to put too fine a point on it, there really was not very much in it one way or the other, as far as one can see, at this stage. Without resorting to crude generalizations or vulgar over-simplifications, in due course, in the fullness of time, at the appropriate juncture, when the moment is ripe, when the requisite procedures have been completed, all things being considered, and making all possible allowances, I shall do my utmost to oblige.”
Cruickshank speaks with forked tongue.
Vitruvius…sounds like you are channeling Paul Martin.
In the very early days, most Media Organizations were just arms/inventions of Political Parties, not ?
Nothing is new.
Not Paul Martin, Ryan, Sir Humphrey Appleby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yhN1IDLQjo
CBC reporters are in fact perfectly gd’ed overt, perfectly unlike Sir Humphrey.
Susan Bonner performed a brave little Liberal promo tonight on The National. Once again, it wasn’t anything resembling news, it was inflamed, blatant comment from a Liberal critic of the Conservatives, leading other Liberal critics of the Conservatives.
Tonight Bonner had to have gotten a leg up from the producers and management and writers, or from whoever wrote this intro:
“It’s an issue that’s dogged the government, led to bitter exchanges in parliament, even suggestions by the prime minister that the opposition sympathize with the Taliban. Now the government admits that there’s evidence detainees were tortured in Afghan custody, and that the evidence was so strong it quietly stopped transferring prisoners months ago! Today, critics suggested this government can’t be trusted to tell the truth about Afghanistan. Susan Bonner reports.”
Bonner: “Canada’s federal court became a legal battlefield today over the treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan. It followed yesterday’s stunning news that almost three months ago Canadians soldiers secretly stopped handing over captives to Afghan authorities because of evidence of torture…”
At one point in her report — and I wish there was some way to communicate here her bitter, sarcastic, preachy, resentful tone of voice — Bernier is shown speaking in the house; the clip freezes on the word “transparent”, and an ominous pan-in begins as Bonner says –(seriously)– “TRANSPARENT??! Bernier said not a word about the halt of prisoner transfers, a policy change that happened nine days earlier! The opposition today accused the prime minister of misleading Canadians about the mission:”
(Duceppe: “He, he just lied to the house when he said…there was not such a thing as torture.” Dion: “When they will be honest with Canadians, (sic) how can we believe this government…” Layton: “When the government stops telling the truth to its people about a war, you’ve got a serious problem…”)
An image of a handcuffed man is shown, as Bonner says “The government won’t answer questions about the handling of detainees now — not where, or how they’re being held, or how many there are.”
U of Ottawa’s Amir Attaran, who appeared to be on the verge of a smirk, says “Even the United States at Guantanamo will tell you who they’re holding, and the people have lawyers. We may be doing something worse than that.”
That’s bad, no?
Bonner concludes: “The federal court is not expected to render a judgment for at least several weeks, but the political judgment is happening now, as the parties return to the hill, and an inflamed debate over how the government is handling the Afghan mission and the larger question of the mission’s future. Susan Bonner, CBC News, Ottawa.”
Amazing that just a few days after the Krista Erickson incident is “resolved” the CBC broadcasts a piece as blatant as any previous piece of broadcast Lib-work. Incredible.
Sorry folks, but I’m with Krista on this one. She was doing her job … period. To me, it shows that there are more weak-minded libs to prey on than Conservatives … not a surprise.
Why go after the hunter for taking the easy shot? BTW: I agree, the CBC should be shut down.
Yes of course CBC reporters are perfectly overt, EBD, I’ve understood that for a
long time. I was comparing Humphrey to Cruickshank. Sorry I wasn’t more clear.
I love the Humphrey/Cruickshank comparison Vitruvius, but their use of language shows what a huge difference there is between the two of them: Sir Humphrey is vital, calculating, intelligent and alert; poor old Cruickshank, on the other hand, is dull, earnest, and plodding; apparently exhausted by the effort needed to summon a few routine banalities. One is like a fox surveying its terrain for opportunities and threats; the other is like a brick that’s been knocked off the side of a building and is just lying in the dirt waiting to be kicked.
Point taken. But then, it is the CBC.
lookout at January 24, 2008 8:51 PM, yes, the PM does appoint the CEO. That’s one of the biggest flaws of the organization. Consider the number of times a Conservative PM has had the privilege. I don’t know the answer to that question. Maybe it’s none. But certainly, given our propensity to be blessed with Liberal governments, the number of times the office becomes vacant during a Liberal mandate is huge. Little wonder the bias is so oriented toward the Liberal Party. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Don’t tick off the man that gave you the cushy position.
The issue of shareholders in referencing ownership in government departments is far more important in Canadian politics than most people understand.
One of the most important structural changes the Liberals wrought on government in their last two sessions was corporatization,but with one important difference – the corporate models they put together were not that of the public corporation, but that of the private corporation, in which the Liberal party was the majority shareholder. Literally. Shareholders have never been a topic of discussion in departmental goals and plans.
Rather, the Liberals canonized the concept of stakeholders. In most cases, the stakeholders are the parasitic industries and political friends that feed on the productivity of the departments. The most egregious example of this is the Canada Revenue Agency in its present form, led by a management board of provincial hacks, and run by a executive suite. The minister’s function has been reduced by legislation to mostly reporting to parliament what the commissioner tells him – he has very little authority to make changes. When the agency was created, the HQ sales force was asked, during discussions about the new synergy with the “stakeholders”, “what about the shareholders?”. This was greeted by a dismissive sneer by the presenter, and quickly dismissed as irrelavent.
These perverse changes are rampant throughout the bureaucracy that is the Liberal legacy. CBC is only one fairly minor example of the politicization of the bureaucracy of government by the Liberals.
As soon as the word “shareholders”, or more likely, “stakeholders”, turns up in any conversation by a government bureaucrat, you know you are looking at a department co-opted by the Liberal party. The complete dismissing of the concept of “shareholders” is the signal flag that should make your ears prick up. The Liberals see no role of citizens in ownership of Canada’s democratic institutions, only the pesky part about having to call elections.
In a recent party (last week) held for the benefit of middle managers in Niagara Falls (over a week, at a cost exceeding a half million dollars, in a department that can’t find funding for necessary staffing needs) The managers were required at one point to stand up and salute the commissioner with “hail to the commissioner”, three times). This is not allegiance to Her Majesty, in Right of Canada, this is supporting the corporate ivory tower of an autocracy.
Along with the incredible incompetence, this is is the legacy of the “natural governing party” and the near destruction of a functional bureaucracy democratically serving the needs of Canadians.
Re: Canadian troops not handing over any more prisoners to the Afghans… could it be they don’t take prisoners anymore? After all, dead men tell no lies.
Luc Schulz Online on his blog exposes CBC’s high standards. He remembers the photo that the CBC has used in a recent article about detainees was one taken in 2001 when Chretien and the Liberals were in power.
http://lucschulz.blogspot.com/2008/01/yellow-journalism.html
Anyine here belong to a professional society who would not decertify you for breaching professional ethics this badly?….be nice to be simply “reassigned” if an engineer was caught in industrial spying or a doctor in drug dealing or a lawyer in jury tampering….if you work for a chushy crown corp you get “reassigned”.
I don’t think we have had a more glaring display of the 2 tiered class structure in Canada…the exclusive privilege of public employees and civil service and the burden of responsibility the private sector worker must bear.
If you find a news source isn’t credible you can vote against it in the marketplace by not purchasing.
We do not have that choice with the CBC.
Regardless of initial good intentions, this situation had to happen eventually. The CBC had to become corrupt because it’s not exposed to the corrections of capitalism.
It’s in fact a cave, gathering and protecting socialist moonbats from objective and free market reality. It’s become a fortress where they’re not just permitted, but flagrantly commanded to and rewarded for promoting a Liberal leftist agenda and propoganda.
Why do you think ALL of the programming sucks? Do leftist/Liberal writers and producers have any imagination within the prison of political correctness? What if the plot is always the same?
I’ve been told from an important source that there’s a lot more to this story that will be coming out. The Fifth Estate producers are involved, as well as a lot of others. It’s a vipers nest that is in the process of being exposed.
And with any luck exterminated.
CBC = 1.5B$/year
Solution: Dismantle?
Pull the plug and let it got private?
Or compromise: Half the budget is taken away to form a new news media source comparable to Fox news in the States. Call it “Lynx” news. (Fox, Lynx…Get it? And the wild feline is exclusively Canadian I believe)
But dont hold your breath, Right of centre Fox news is currently unnautorized to air in Canad’uh by the CRTC…When you think of it, it’s even a wonder Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are the current Government of this liberal highjacked landmass of ours.
Thanks, Louise, for the info that the PM appoints the CBC CEO, which, from anon above, I believe is Timothy Casgrain.
But I’m still not sure that Cruickshank, as Publisher of CBC News is a government appointee. I’d imagine that his position is probably an internal appointment.
More people should know about the CBC CEO being appointed by the PM: just one more reason that CBC is all Liberal, all the time. Let’s hope Mr. Casgrain can have some positive influence, but it seems he’s like a government Minister, who’s very likely to be hampered by the bureaucrats who do the on the ground work.
One of these days, Kate’s orchestrated campaigns of character-assassinations are going to come back to haunt her.
“the private sector worker must bear.” Krista’s moving expenses.
No uncle’s pick up truck and tarps for the elite mandarins either.
They have “people”
“One of these days, Kate’s orchestrated campaigns of character-assassinations are going to come back to haunt her.”
Considering that “journalists” like Krista Erickson have paid their bills conducting character-assassinations, you’ll excuse my lack of sympathy. Until the internet came along, these people had an enviable position – they not only had the power to pursue their personal political vendettas through the mainstream media, they were protected by the same machine. That day has ended. They are no longer the gatekeepers. Individuals like Ms. Erickson had better get used to it, because the day is long overdue that their conduct, their private alliances, and their political agendas were exposed to public scrutiny.
Check out the letter from Mulroney’s lawyers to Paul Szabo, chair of the Ethics committee. References the CBC issue as well as Szabo’s request to get Mulroney’s income tax records made public, behind his back. Must read:
http://nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=261240
I repeat my question; was Szabo the second MP that Krista Erickson emailed her questions to? If so, then he must be removed as committee chair immediately.
Allowing light into the darkness of CBC news manipulation is character assassination?
Allow me to shake my head until I become a CBC fan. = TG
Note this line in the words from on high:
“But our role at the CBC is different from the private media whose obligation is, ultimately, only to their shareholders. Our very mandate is to provide Canadians with a view of their political life unobstructed by bias.”
The irony is the very words display bias.
Thinking you are not part of the marketplace; that you are beholden to different ‘standards’ than others in the field, and above all, being dishonest enough to use unbiased & ‘view’ in the same sentence.
Views are always created only by seeing an object from specific point. As a wordsmith, you’d think he’d care.
Guess not as long as he keeps cashing his government cheques.
Privatize this sewer.
‘CBC fan’ is a member of the fascist moonbat species that can’t survive in the free and open marketplace of ideas. They require protected environments where a socialist agenda is guaranteed to prevail over objectivity, rational thinking and the truth.
They quickly wilt and die when exposed to competitive ideas, reason and facts.
You can bet they’ll fight to protect their protected environments.
I don’t care what any of you guys say. Erikson is one of the hottest looking reporters on Canadian television today.
CBC bias will remain embedded in the editorial ranks. Like those that have gone on to wreak scandal at the CBC before her (Michael Enright, Neil MacDonald, Wendy Mesley, Avi Lewis etc), Erikson is destined for the promotional fast lane at the CBC.
Expect her to guest host the Current next week and fill in for Carole Macneil on CBC Slumday over the Summer.
Hell, if she plays her booty cards right, like the George Stroumbouloupoulooooos, she will be sleeping with her boss by the end of the month.
CBC is a legend in its own collectivist mind. To disagree is unCanadian dont cha know?
cbc fan should change his/her handle to: no fan of independent thinking.
RE: Richard, and his CBC Cruickshank post question.
Richard,
Todays plot is to defame Harper because Afghans are found to mistreat some Taliban killers while in custody.
Afghan police are a force in training.
What is tomorrows CBC anti-Harper plot news item? = TG
I have to laugh.
In most of the comments here, you could take the letters CBC out of the sentence and replace them with CWB, ie Canadian Wheat Board.
Most of the complaints made against the state corporation CBC are exactly the same as the ones Western farmers make against the Canadian Wheat Board.
Biased, narrowminded, intolerant, arrogant, one-sided, slippery, secretive, part of the Liberal re-election team, and of course, ‘hands in our pockets’.
Sane Canadians don’t want to finance the CBC which has degenerated into a propaganda machine for the Liberals.
And sane farmers don’t want to be forced to deal with the unabashedly Liberal CWB, (sort of a western Adscam, secret deals, two or more sets of books, elitism, inaccurate public statements, Liberal schmoozing/donations) for exactly the same reasons.
The Crooked State Corporatism Liberal Party du Canada sucks.
re: CBC Fan’s pathetic rant (threat) that Kate’s words will come back to haunt her…
it is worth noting that the CBC has an entire department of bloggers who are paid to post anonymous comments on the internet in support of the CBC and its liberal secular-progressive anti-conservative programming….
and I am willing to bet that CBC Fan is a member of that team
“I’ve been told from an important source that there’s a lot more to this story that will be coming out. The Fifth Estate producers are involved, as well as a lot of others. It’s a vipers nest that is in the process of being exposed.”
Posted by: irwin daisy at January 25, 2008 9:36 AM
Irwin, no surprise if there is a whole nest of contributors to this type of faux journalistic endeavour. Your statement that it will be exposed is encouraging. I hope that will be soon.
john g at 10:43:
Mulroney’s lawyer’s letter paints a devastating picture of the actions of the so-called Ethics Committee. Does anyone here think enough citizens and denizens of the MSM are aware enough and concerned enough about natural justice to ensure that the bright lights of scrutiny and challenge will fall on this committee long enough to make a difference?
Well, we’re in for real treat next week on CBC’s Ancestry show called “Who do you think you are?”, it’s about Avi Lewis’ heritage or whatever. I think a lot of us would like to ask that question of him and it has nothing to do with ancestry.
As long as we have the incestuous CBC and government bureaucrats who are Liberal to the core any Conservative government will be fighting off smears, lies and mischief making at every turn.
One of these days, Kate’s orchestrated campaigns of character-assassinations are going to come back to haunt her.
Posted by: CBC Fan at
=======
Yeah, well. The CBC can arrange it, for sure. They already have the conservative-bashing media market cornered, at least in Canada.
Mr. Cruickshank is also not above deleting comments that he does not like. I guess his fragile ego was hurt when I stated that what Canadians deserve is that he be immediately fired and the entire CBC be dismantled!
I can think of better places to spend our hard-earned dollars than on this Liberal mouthpiece.
remember CBCpravda fan.
Kate was one of five or so guest bloggers that made the CBCpravda cut. they do read this blog.
forgot to post this link.
http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes/forums/electionroundtable/2006/01/wow.html
It looks like it’s time to drag this out of the garbage can and show it to the CBC supporters:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_zolf/20060328.html
Quote “Harper sees this shift in mood as the work of the wicked media out to get him again.
For Harper, this go-it-alone approach is presenting problems, especially in Quebec with Afghanistan.
But with his total denial of access to the media that backed him in the first place, he isn’t doing himself any favours.
Harper�s treatment of the media is that of an ingrate. The media made Harper. The media also first made Trudeau and Mulroney. Later, the media made both Trudeau and Mulroney and their parties suffer at the polls.
A similar fate awaits Harper if he doesn�t change his basic suspicion and hatred of reporters and news commentators.”Unquote
Larry has no clue that having the media lie to Canadians could in any way be wrong.
But, what is wrong with a taxpayer-salaried journalist asking questions of the gov’t?
Im AMAZED I made a comment over at CBCPravda and they nuked it. Its shocking!!! I didnt swear or threaten or any of those things that might get you disallowed. All I did was ask questions. Goes to show you it really is time to sell off the assets and let these scum go find real jobs.
Vitruvius…sounds like you are channeling Paul Martin.
Or the current popular linguistic usage of “that being said” or “having said that” instead of saying “but” because the word “but” implies something negative coming up…
It’s probably all good to go, though.
I hate weasel words and weasel phrasing designed to pop a pre-determined concept into minds.
The Buckler incident provides an interesting contrast. Obviously the Tories and people on the Hill misspeak a lot. (I wonder if you are allowed to mispeak in court?). Erickson should be commended by for getting around all this misspeaking and showing some entrepreneurial zeal in filign what was an unbiased story. Much like a private sector reporter as I read elsewhere. If she had been a typical CBC reporter she would have galavanted to Eurpoe to talk to this source and that and filed some piffle..all at the taxpayers expense!!. Time to clean out the seniro staff at CBC!
The Buckler incident provides an interesting contrast. Obviously the Tories and people on the Hill misspeak a lot. (I wonder if you are allowed to mispeak in court?). Erickson should be commended by for getting around all this misspeaking and showing some entrepreneurial zeal in filign what was an unbiased story. Much like a private sector reporter as I read elsewhere. If she had been a typical CBC reporter she would have galavanted to Eurpoe to talk to this source and that and filed some piffle..all at the taxpayers expense!!. Time to clean out the senior staff at CBC!