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“Government Broadcaster Running Interference For PMJT At Every Turn”:
Former CBC Journalist Rips Network
INSIGHT - SPENCERFERNANDO
JUNE 17, 2021
“I’ve been reluctant to refer to our public broadcaster as a government broadcaster but this sealed it for me – it has become the government broadcaster running interference for PMJT at every turn,”
Alan Fryer
When people criticize the CBC, some respond by claiming that only right-wing Canadians have a problem with the network. That response omits CBC’s horrible ratings, a sign that much of the public has simply tuned them out, despite being forced to pay for it regardless.
Yet, in a recent series of Tweets, Alan Fryer a former journalist with both CBC and CTV who has worked in Montreal, Ottawa, Moscow, Washington, and Toronto, ripped into how the network covered Green Party Leader Annamie Paul’s denunciation of Justin Trudeau.
Here’s what Paul had said about Trudeau not being an ‘ally’ or ‘feminist.’
“To PM Justin Trudeau I say you are no ally and no feminist. Your deeds and words over the past weeks prove that definitively” – Green Leader Annamie Paul”
Yet, as Fryer noted, on CBC’s The National, Paul’s remarks on Trudeau weren’t covered.
As he slammed the network, Fryer didn’t hold back:
“Excuse my ******* language but I cannot believe what I just saw on @CBCTheNational. The coverage of Ms Paul’s remarkable news conference today had no ******* mention in the lead story of her full frontal attack on PMJT. Not a word. Disgraceful.”
“I’ve been reluctant to refer to our public broadcaster as a government broadcaster but this sealed it for me – it has become the government broadcaster running interference for PMJT at every turn.”
“This is the clip that any reporter doing a proper job and NOT working on behalf of the government would have used in their lead story:
Paul to PMJT: “You are no ally and you are no feminist”
That clip wads absent from the lead story on @CBCTheNational. Why?”
“For 35 years – from local small town reporter to foreign correspondent – I lived and breathed journalism. Sometimes to my detriment, it became the love of my life. Nothing was more important than getting the story and getting it right. That and holding the buggers to account.”
“Don’t get me wrong, there are many fine journalists and opinion writers still doing that important work every day and you know who they are, you see and read many of them here but, man, it’s getting harder.”
“I got out 12 years ago and have never regretted a day I spent in the trenches. But I weep for the profession today. That’s it. Thanks for indulging my rant.”
Credibility
Fryer speaks with a lot of credibility, as someone who has been in the media for a long-time and has personal experience with the CBC. Thus, he cannot simply be dismissed as a ‘disgruntled conservative’ or someone who opposes taxpayer-funded media for ideological reasons.
With that noted, it is instructive that his criticisms of CBC very much line up with what many other critics of CBC say, showing there is a deeper truth that is being noticed by many different Canadians.
Justifying taxpayer-funded broadcasting
The general ‘justification’ for forcing Canadians to pay for CBC has been that CBC is all that stands between Canada and the deluge of ‘American culture.’
Well, considering how CBC spends a disproportionate amount of time covering American politics (they were just as Trump-obsessed as most US networks), and considering that their coverage often heavily relies on American news sources to begin with, and the argument that CBC preserves Canadian culture goes out the window.
That can be further explained by the fact that CBC has terrible ratings, falling behind other private Canadian networks, showing that government funding isn’t necessary to get people to watch Canadian news, and may in fact be counterproductive.
If CBC was serving such an essential function for Canadians, wouldn’t more people be tuning in? And, there’s an even bigger problem.
Bias
Critics of CBC often refer to it as a ‘state broadcaster,’ ‘government broadcaster,’ or ‘state-controlled media.’
Supporters of CBC prefer the term ‘public broadcaster.’
The battle over defining CBC is important because it defines the terms of the debate and how the network is perceived.
A ‘public broadcaster’ would – in theory – take public money but be as neutral and unbiased as possible, doing everything they could to prevent even a hint of bias or favouritism towards any particular political party.
By contrast, a ‘state broadcaster,’ ‘government broadcaster,’ or ‘state-controlled media’ would represent the government forcing people to pay for what is in effect a propaganda machine directed at manipulating them.
We would be paying people to try and influence our minds in a particular political or ideological direction – which is completely at odds with how a truly ‘public broadcaster’ should act.
So, for us to witness Alan Fryer say “I’ve been reluctant to refer to our public broadcaster as a government broadcaster but this sealed it for me – it has become the government broadcaster running interference for PMJT at every turn,” demonstrates that there is a growing acknowledgment that CBC can no longer be honestly referred to as a ‘public broadcaster.’
State-controlled media
Canadians really need to consider what this all means. In authoritarian, anti-democratic states, state-controlled media is one of the key levers of power for the government.
More ‘sophisticated’ authoritarian states have moved beyond outright lies and denials for the most part (though they still indulge once in a while), into more of a pattern of manipulating the truth, telling part of the story and spinning the rest.
Part of that tactic is censoring true opposition, while allowing token opposition to remain, so long as it doesn’t really push back on the dominant ideology or ruling class in the country.
And, ‘softening’ up negative events, or casting them in the most positive light (as CBC did with Annamie Paul’s comments about Trudeau) is a key tactic of state-controlled media.
Those who work for the CBC, and Canadians in general, must reflect on what it means to see the network drifting towards the propaganda tactics of authoritarian nations, and realize that if the choice is between being forced to pay for our own propagandization, or defunding CBC, defunding is by far the better choice.
I used to watch CBC's The National - nightly news broadcast. They have a ten-minute panel discussion on politics with one centre-left commentator, two far-left commentators and a far-left host. As I slowly discovered that any subject that could possibly result in criticism of Justin Trudeau was avoided like the plague, I lost interest in that segment, and then realized I had no interest in the rest of their left-wing edited news. I no longer watch CBC.
Another CBS anchor slams own network live on air over
‘discrimination’, hints at Project Veritas exposé
21 Jun, 2021 16:18
© Twitter / @bennyjohnson
April Moss, the weekend weather anchor for CBS 62 Detroit, dramatically announced during her forecast on Sunday that she would be exposing the television station’s alleged “discrimination” in an interview with Project Veritas.
As Moss forecasted the weather as per usual – announcing warm temperatures on Sunday, followed by showers the next day – she abruptly added: “And speaking of a brand new week, I will be sitting down this week with Project Veritas to discuss the discrimination that CBS is enforcing upon its employees. Tune into Project Veritas for my full story."
Moss then seamlessly continued on with the weather forecast as if nothing had happened and failed to elaborate on what sort of discrimination she was referring to.
The CBS Detroit weather anchor is the second local news personality to pull such a stunt this month, after Fox 26 Houston reporter Ivory Hecker made a similar announcement live on air last week.
“I want to let you the viewers know that Fox Corp. has been muzzling me to keep certain information from you the viewers,” Hecker declared, before promising to release “some recordings about what goes on behind the scenes at Fox” in an interview with Project Veritas – a controversial conservative investigative journalism organization which has previously released undercover footage of CNN and Google employees.
In her subsequent interview with Project Veritas, Hecker claimed that the local station had told her to stop posting on social media about the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential remedy for Covid-19. Hecker also said that the station refused to cover bitcoin during its 5pm coverage hour because apparently the “poor African-American audience” would not be interested in cryptocurrency trading.
Hecker was soon terminated from her position at Fox 26 Houston.
Trust in media is the lowest in the US & interest in news
has waned since Donald Trump left office – survey
23 Jun, 2021 17:42
Journalists gather at the White House following the 2020 presidential election © REUTERS/Carlos Barria
An alarming new study on media consumption around the world has found that trust between news organizations and consumers is at the lowest in the United States.
Americans are not only distrustful of traditional media outlets, but consumption of the news has also waned since Donald Trump left office, according to the Digital News Report 2021 produced by Oxford University and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
Asked whether they agreed that “most news” can be trusted a majority of the time, only 29% of US respondents agreed while 44% strongly disagreed, and 27% neither agreed or disagreed.
By comparison, trust in the media over all the 46 markets – approximately 2,000 participants each – studied sits at 44%, which is an increase from 38% last year.
The study points to cable news networks such as Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC as fueling distrust through polarization on political topics.
One of American consumers’ biggest gripes with the media also happens to be bias, as many feel their age groups and views are not represented “fairly” by the news.
This feeling is especially prevalent on the right, with 75% saying media coverage of their views is “unfair” and only 16% arguing it is fair. Only 34% of people identifying themselves as on the “left” feel the same way about their views being represented, while 51% say they are fairly represented.
Which makes absolute sense with 90% of media news coverage being left-wing.
The new media report shows that interest in news consumption generally is also slipping in the US, mainly for right-leaning customers thanks to the lack of the ‘Trump bump’. In 2020, for instance, 74% of respondents who identified as “right-aligned” said they were very interested in the news, but that number dropped to 57% now that Trump is out of office.
“Our data show signs that many former Trump supporters may be switching away from news altogether. Almost all of this fall in interest came from those on the political right,” the report noted.
While some countries saw a rise in media interest with people looking for the latest information during a turbulent year plagued by Covid-19, the study found that there has been an overall decline in interest, similar to the US, with Spain, the UK, Italy, Australia, and others seeing steady declines from previous years.
The country with the highest percentage of trust for the media, according to the study, is Finland, with 65% of respondents saying they trust their news a majority of the time, which is a 9% increase from the previous year.
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‘The new paper of record’? Teen Vogue basks in anti-war praise after obit calls Rumsfeld ‘accused war criminal & torture defender’
1 Jul, 2021 02:15
Breaking with its usual fashion advice and celebrity gossip, Teen Vogue was cheered after posting a fiery obituary for Donald Rumsfeld, dubbing the ex-Pentagon head an “accused war criminal” and a cheerleader for torture.
The publication marked Rumsfeld’s passing with a provocatively titled obituary on Wednesday, whose headline immediately recalled war crimes allegations against the former official.
The article appeared on social media with an even bolder caption, this time also making mention of Rumsfeld’s strong support for torture during his time in the George W. Bush administration – which euphemistically labeled the practice “enhanced interrogation.”
Teen Vogue’s focus on the darker aspects of Rumsfeld’s legacy earned plaudits on social media, with readers hailing the site’s straight-talking approach while contrasting it with more tepid coverage from other corporate media outlets.
“Teen Vogue once again proving they're more serious about journalism than the NYT, WaPo, WSJ, etc.,” one user said while sharing the obituary.
One observer even deemed the youth-oriented website the “new paper of record,” snatching the prestigious title from the Times and the Post, both of which went with more conventional headlines for their obituaries.
Others shared examples of more lukewarm coverage of Rumsfeld’s death, including from the Associated Press, which was slammed as a “stenographer of power” after hailing Rumsfeld as a “visionary” and “skilled bureaucrat” whose good reputation was “soiled” by the disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003.
With his lengthy career including stints in the Navy, Congress as well as the Nixon and Ford administrations, Rumsfeld was also a key architect of the Iraq invasion, playing a major role in kicking off the broader War on Terror after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Rumsfeld’s vocal advocacy for torture gave rise to war crimes accusations both during and after his tenure with Bush, seeing two separate lawsuits filed against him in Germany beginning in 2004. Brought by former detainees at the notorious US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, as well as the American detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the plaintiffs alleged that Rumsfeld authorized brutal interrogation methods and was responsible for abuses at the two sites.
In 2012, a separate tribunal held by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission also found Rumsfeld and other top Bush officials guilty of war crimes in relation to torture carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
It's odd that the left-leaning mega-papers would go so easy on Rumsfeld. I expect they will do likewise on Dick Cheney who most likely is responsible for starting the war in Iraq. There is no question in my mind that both of these men were Deep State plants in the Bush gov't, and both likely carried more power than they should have.
Leading journals are always gentle with Deep Staters.
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