CBC’s Shameful Right Wing Bias
Canadian Blue Lemons revived one of the favourite mantras of the URQ with this plaintive question “When Will CBC Bias End?”
This was prompted by the fact that during the same DAY Lemons heard two…TWO!!!…lefties being interviewed. Well, that proves it, I guess. What a hotbed of Islamocommunism.
It’s funny, though. My daily radio listening is generally limited to the fifty minutes between the time I get up (5:30) and the time I get to the office (6:20). In that period, every single morning, I hear the following segments.
1) “The Business Network“, featuring the Business Digest, and an invariably pro-business editorial. (Topics I remember include the danger of unions, the danger represented by Chinese labour, the need to allow market forces to act unimpeded in the recent sub-prime fiasco, and other subjects.)
2) London Market Peport, by RBC Capital Markets, London.
3) Business Commentary, by Michael Holynka (sp?), which inevitably consists of an essay on the importance of government non-interference with the markets.
I don’t listen as much during the rest of the day, but I occasionally hear Preston Manning, still doing his Jimmy-Stewart-On-Helium imitation.
Now, over the course of a day of programming, a good deal of which involves interviewing newsmakers of various kinds, it’s pretty much inevitable that some of the folks the Lemon refers to as “leftists” are going to be part of the mix. But I’m talking here about regular, recurring, DAILY segments that are a formal part of the CBC’s broadcast schedule; and each is not just PRO business, they’re PURE business.
Perhaps the folks who allege a systemic “leftist” bias at the CBC could tell me what time the daily “Labour Movement News” segment is carried?
When accusing a news outlet of bias it is important to actually watch/listen/read some of the stuff they put out with a disciplined regularity. Clearly these guys have not met even the minimum standard in that regard.
Bingo.
A “balanced” broadcast service doesn’t mean that news, opinions or programming reflecting particular points of view are never heard. It means that a range of perspectives gets expressed, and that the service as a whole reflects that range. A lot of our URQ friends seem to think that “balanced” means “I never hear anything I disagree with”.
Whooee! Dang right, Balbu. Another thing… if it weren’t fer the investigative reportin’ of Radio-Canada (CBC, parley-voo version) nobody ever woulda heard of AdScam an’ the GrittyLibs’d still be in a majority gummint.
JB
To most of the BT crowd, any news outlet that dares question or fails to fawn over the wisdom of the “all-wise conservative ideology du jour ” is automatically “left-leaning” or biased.
What’s especially funny is the self-proclaimed media pundits who declare CBC to be a “Liberal” party tool. Do these folks remember how much Jean Chretien and Pierre Trudeau loathed the CBC?
As Sol Alinksi always said, “If everyone hates us equally, we must be doing things right.”
Funny, no comments here from any of the BT’s – I trust you let the discolored fruit know about this post?
Oh, I can provide the argument their behalf, if you want. Ahem. Here goes.
[argument]
“CBC is a leftist network because everybody knows CBC is a leftist network.”
[/argument]
Bro,
I don’t pretend to be non-partisan – do you?
I commented on one example that involves a big group of family members, all of whom share a political philosophy similar to, say, the Trotsky family, an all of whom are in the public eye.
I can’t imagine what their family get togethers are like – “let’s talk about the problems in Sudan, no! AIDS, no! homeless in Toronto, no! I wanna talk about American imperialism, NO! I’m the oldest here and I wanna talk about misogeny in the NHL…”
Lotta fun. (then again my family get -togethers aren’t much either…
I have myself rung Pastro Preston’s bell in a post and I have also credited the Ceeb for producing some of the best radio in the world. I even sent them an email Monday telling them that.
I’m (other than Stagie of course) likely the most balanced dude on the web… (my tongue is being removed from my cheek).
Cheers,
“Bro, I don’t pretend to be non-partisan – do you?”
Not sure I know what you mean, bro. There’s no party I vote for regularly, given that none of them reflect my views across the entire spectrum of issues. “Right Wing” on media controls, firearms regulation and nuclear power, “left wing” on gay marriage, tax cuts and Afghanistan.
In any case, my comment was about CBC, and my argument is that institution is non-partisan.
“I commented on one example that involves a big group of family members, all of whom share a political philosophy similar to, say, the Trotsky family, an all of whom are in the public eye. I can’t imagine what their family get togethers are like – “let’s talk about the problems in Sudan, no! AIDS, no! homeless in Toronto, no! I wanna talk about American imperialism, NO! I’m the oldest here and I wanna talk about misogeny in the NHL…†Lotta fun. (then again my family get -togethers aren’t much either…”
If your intent in the post was to contrast the dinner table conversations of the Kleins en famille with your own family gatherings, well, I guess I misunderstood your intent. I may have been misled by the title of your posts, “When Will CBC Bias End”. Dunno, Lemons, that seems like a pretty clear statement.
“I have myself rung Pastro Preston’s bell in a post and I have also credited the Ceeb for producing some of the best radio in the world. I even sent them an email Monday telling them that.”
Good man. However, not knowing your heart of hearts, I am regrettably limited to commenting on what you post on your site. Unfortunately what you chose to post failed to do full justice to your thoughtful and nuanced views vis a vis the CBC, but suggested instead a stereotypical and uninformed URQ sensibility . I regret having done an injustice to your appreciative perspective, but I must say it was not in evidence in the post I commented on.
Whooee! Them’s a coupla civilized comments from Lemon an’ Balbu, sez I. You fellers is pretty palsy-walsy with them “Bro’s” back an’ forth.
Anyways, it’s dang good to see another CBC lover like Lemon chime in. I miss ol’ Max Ferguson an’ Alan MacPhee. Anybody remember when Bruno Gerussi did This Country in the Morning? Don Harron did stint, too. Judy LaMarsh, too.
I’m gonna go so far as to say CBC radio is the most unifying force in Canada. That, and senate reform.
JB
I must be one of the few conservatives who likes the CBC. Their broadcasting is excellent, and I think I’m intelligent enough to determine for myself if a media bias is present and if so, whether I want to turn it off or not.
Like I suggested to others, HNIC doesn’t really have a bias, although Don Cherry certainly goes off on tangents about supporting the troops. Perhaps the left shouldn’t watch the Leafs this year?
Not watching the Leafs is another one of those rare areas about which both Left and Right can agree, I think.
The CBC is an excellent broadcast service by pretty much any objective standard; any blanket dismissal of the network tells you quite a bit about the commenter and nothing at about its quality.
And here I thought wings were for birds.
There’s a surprise a minute nowadays.
Good discourse, people.
Balbie – I coulda done a better title but my headline writers are no better than say, The Star’s…
CBC Radio is one of 3 non-music radio stations I listen to. And I think the bias is more in the hands of producers than Rabinowitz or the board
Think of Christina Lewands story last year – but – it looks like she got canned for it which is credit to CBC management.
Example – this program that fawned over Naomi Klein and almost anything on The Current.
I have said that Sunday Edition with Enright is likely the best radio show on the planet. (although Enright generally takes a LOC position he commonly has guests who don’t and treats them well). And As it Happens is funny, educational and interesting.
I reiterate comments made previous that we-all who comment on politics in Canada have way more in common as far as opinions and our positions are not nearly as diametric as they may appear.
I think on balance, CBC Radio is among the best of its kind in the world (if not the best).
I do wonder though about the need for a national public television broadcaster – since they deal in sound bites and not real content, their distillation of a POV (even on Hockey) results in only one side ever presented and in my opinion, favours LOC. Plus, the amount of their content that is Canadian is minisule. Two hours a day on CBC and little more on Newsworld (that isn’t news).
“And I think the bias is more in the hands of producers than Rabinowitz or the board
Think of Christina Lewands story last year – but – it looks like she got canned for it which is credit to CBC management. Example – this program that fawned over Naomi Klein and almost anything on The Current.”
Lemon, you’re a nice guy and I don’t want to pick on you. But a major point of my post (albeit not clearly articulated) was that cherry-picking instances of programming one finds biased, and then generalizing to the service as a whole, is not valid (and soon to be the subject of a longer post.)
My view on CBC TV is probably not a popular one. I support public broadcasting generally, but TV is at least 10 times more expensive to maintain as a service, and to provide a national television service as good as their radio service would require more funding than ANY political party would support right now. So what we have right now on the TV side is a bunch of very, very committed, demoralized broadcasters, managers and execs trying to figure out how to deploy an ever diminishing pot of money, in the face of nearly 25 years of government hostility, to achieve their mandate. Impossible task.
Whooee! Like Balbu sed up top, if somebody was to just single out CBC’s business coverage, they’d conclude that it is a corporate-lackey pro-free trade, pro big business, pro Bay Street, right of centre broadcaster. It ain’t.
I got not much use fer CBC-TV as it stands. I wouldn’t squawk much if they scrapped the main TV but replaced it with a new, improved, non-cable version of Newsworld. Despite the fact that they do operate as a commercial television network, they don’t turn much profit and they don’t offer much alternative to the Merkan pap.
I’d like to see ‘em expand in new media: internet radio, podcasts, expanded offerings on cbc.ca, full public access to downloadable archives of CBC radio. I know they’re already doing some of those things but they can improve and expand upon that if they quit wasting energy on trying to compete with commercial TV.
JB
Balb – I am not a nice guy at all (actually I am, but I gotta counter) I’m a competitive prick that cannot be wrong (all the time).
I like these threads – they’re thoughtful and useful and nothing too offensive.
More please…
Oh, JB: I like that. Yes: make CBC broadcast into Newsworld. I’d be okay with that, although I agree I might be in a minority. I heart CBC radio, though.
Except, keep 3 hours of kids CBC in the morning. It’s the only ad-free kids’ programming around anymore.
Why does BBC TV rock, and CBC TV… Not so much with the rock? It confuses me. Seems to me that BBC makes some of the best, funniest TV out there, and that it keeps having its ideas ’scooped’ by american tv. Unless proven, the American networks (besides maybe HBO) won’t invest in anything that isn’t the Honeymooners part 875 or Jerry Springer part 69.
Fox, for all the edgy exploitative thrills per minute it produces, (Reality TV starring the unlikely pairing of a Wiccan Black woman and a Baptist Klan member! Now with guns and audience voting! And a bikini! And some booze!), is a fundamentally knock-kneed, shrinking violet network.
“Why does BBC TV rock, and CBC TV… Not so much with the rock?”
I’m guessing it’s a combination of:
a) An unequivocal government commitment to public broadcasting, reflected in a funding formula less subject to political agenda, allowing for longer term project development and strategic planning.
b) A larger population, which means (i) a larger dedicated audience, (ii) a bigger tax base.
c) A strong film industry from the twenties to the fifties.
d) A fourteen year head start.
I’m with JimBobby: “I got not much use fer CBC-TV as it stands. I wouldn’t squawk much if they scrapped the main TV but replaced it with a new, improved, non-cable version of Newsworld”
And I like CBC radio, even though I don’t always agree with the DJ/Commentator/Whatever-the-hell-they-are-called.
After they killed “This is Wonderland” which was, IMHO, absolutely brilliant and funny along the lines of BBC programming, the teeny-tiny-miniscule support I had for the idea of the CBC died a forced, unnatural death.