Ken Berwitz
The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) is very well known for its leftward bias. This is nothing new at all. But I thought you might be interested in the letter written to it by the Canadian Life Coalition, regarding its non-coverage of this year's National March For Life:
Monday May 25, 2009
CBC "Engaged in Blatant Media Censorship" Says CLC about Lack of National Coverage for March for Life
CLC lodges formal complaint to the CRTC
By Alex Bush
May 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), the Canadian pro-life organization that every year organizes the National March for Life, is accusing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) of engaging in "blatant media censorship." According to the pro-life group, "for a broadcaster who is funded by the taxpaying Canadian public" CBC's failure to give national coverage to this year's March for Life "certainly constitutes unethical journalism and professional misconduct."
A letter signed by CLC president Jim Hughes was sent to the CBC Ombudsman today, suggesting that CBC willfully "ignored" the 12,300 people who convened on Parliament Hill two weeks ago to protest the 40th anniversary of the legalization of abortion. This despite the fact that CLC provided CBC with information about the massive pro-life event well in advance, and the fact the station has reported on much smaller protests on the Hill in the past.
"How is it that CBC's national news desk has in the recent past given lengthy coverage to a paltry 200 individuals at a pro-marijuana rally on the Hill," asks the letter, "but fails to notice 12,000+ prolife citizens overflowing the grounds of Parliament Hill?"
"Is this not proof of a double standard which favours 'socially liberal' causes?"
The letter points out that even the local coverage of the March by the CBC was limited to a mere "25 seconds on a local affiliate which misrepresented the numbers attending as 'hundreds'," rather than the more than 12,000 who attended.
According to CLC, the national blackout regarding the March for Life was to all appearances initiated by the CBC "for no other reason than the CBC disagrees with our opinions on abortion."
CLC suggests out that the omission by the CBC is even more egregious given the unprecedented level of support given to the march by the Canadian bishops, 11 of whom were present on Parliament Hill, and the "explosive 50% growth in attendance" at the march over last year's event.
Jim Hughes concludes the CLC letter, saying, "On behalf of millions of Canadians who have been deprived of unbiased journalism by its public broadcaster and the hundreds of thousands who are disgusted by the CBC's annual blacklisting of the National March For Life, I request a thorough investigation into CBC's programming practices. The results and remedies ought to receive the national publicity and exposure which CBC routinely denies to opinions with which it disagrees."
CLC also sent the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) a letter of formal complaint, which accuses the CBC of discrimination against the March for Life.
"We believe the evidence is overwhelming to support our claim that the CBC has discriminated unfairly against our massive National March For Life in that it gave no national television coverage whatsoever to this historic event," says CLC in that letter.
Is the CLC correct? You bet your life it is.
Reporting on news has - or, more exactly, should have - nothing whatsoever to do with the opinions of reporters. News is news.
If there is a story about a rape-murder in Toronto, it doesn't mean the media venue supports rape and murder. If there is a story about a terrorist attack in Montreal, it doesn't mean the media venue supports terrorism. If the weather prediction is rain, it doesn't mean the media venue wants to ruin anyone's day.
Similarly, reporting a major pro-life event doesn't make the media venue pro (or, for that matter, anti) life. If it is a news story, it is a news story.
But fully reporting a news story for one side of an issue, then not reporting it at all for the other side, does make the media venue something. It makes the media venue biased.
And that is what the CBC is. Biased. Has been since I can remember.
What a disgrace the CBC is.
John F. The CBC is a state-run, liberal propaganda machine. For decades under successive liberal governments, its leadership has been stacked with liberal/socialist/marxist idealogues who view their role as to reshape society in their own godless, marxist image. While giving lip-service to the virtue of "tolerance", the CBC tolerates no opinions other than its own elitist, far-left views. The fact that the CBC is state-run is scary. Why scary? Because it puts in place the apparatus for a totalitarian government, whether practicing soft or hard totalitarianism, to use the CBC for propaganda and destruction of its political and idealogical opponents, such as occurred with state-run soviet media. This is our scary Canadian CBC. (05/27/09)