Canada’s CBC quits Twitter in protest over ‘government-funded media’ tag
Elon Musk created a big stir when Twitter placed the label of “government-funded media” on Canada’s public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). CBC’s response was to quit Twitter — or, as CBC itself more gently put it, to “pause Twitter.” CBC spokesman Leon Mar said in a statement:
Twitter can be a powerful tool for our journalists to communicate with Canadians, but it undermines the accuracy and professionalism of the work they do to allow our independence to be falsely described in this way.
But the broadcaster really is heavily government-funded, and everyone knows it. Nonetheless, CBC wasn’t happy about its new label, which caused its executives discomfort and embarrassment. The news spread fast across Canada and around the world. Jordan Peterson mocked the CBC:
According to the Associated Press, CBC sent a letter to Twitter “asking the company to re-examine the designation.” Elon Musk then tweeted this, given the dispute about what exact percentage of CBC money is from public funds:
Not too long ago, Twitter gave voice to Leftists who relentlessly savaged and canceled their political opponents on the Right, and participated in that cancellation itself, banning even the president of the United States at the time, Donald Trump, while allowing the likes of Ayatollah Khamenei and the Taliban to tweet freely. The platform was even enforcing Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
But that was before Elon Musk took over. Musk has been upsetting Leftists who once enjoyed the benefits of cancel culture on Twitter.
The inconvenient truth for the CBC is that a large segment of the Canadian population has long bemoaned being forced to pay their taxes for a government-funded media outlet that is obviously biased. Yet the broadcaster coasted along with ease as it enjoyed its reliable, hefty annual government income, while other media vied for market share in a highly competitive environment. A 2021 Toronto Sun title said it all: “Let’s talk about CBC and their very obvious bias.” It began:
Can we talk about CBC for a moment, I mean talk about them in a serious way? There has been a lot of angst over CBC, much more than you would expect for a network that doesn’t rank in the ratings.
CBC was never burdened to rank in the ratings because it’s government funded. In 2021-22, the CBC received over than $1.2 billion in Government funding — a waste, doled out to programming that has been woefully lacking in the fair Canadian content about which it boasts. It gets roughly the same amount each year. Another Toronto Sun article in 2020 highlighted one public grievance among many:
Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were elected on a promise to increase CBC’s base funding by $150 million a year. That promise has been met and I’m sure Trudeau will soon be considering more money for his favourite news and media outlet.
Unless you’re a Liberal, you don’t get real substance from the CBC; you get activist media indoctrination. CBC just isn’t balanced. One could argue that other mainstream media outlets show bias as well, but when taxpayers are paying for it, it’s a whole other story. Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the official opposition party, the Conservatives, has made no secret of his plans to defund the CBC. In fact, the Conservatives have posted an online petition calling for the broadcaster to be defunded. According to a National Post article:
Chants of “defund the CBC!” have occasionally greeted Poilievre at his rallies. Under Poilievre’s tenure, the Conservative Party’s official website even maintains an official “Defund the CBC” petition. “We call on this Liberal government to defund the CBC to save taxpayer dollars and ensure a free and competitive press in the Canadian media landscape,” it reads.
Of course such demands are a gesture to highlight an issue. One cannot expect that Trudeau would shoot himself in the foot and actually defund the CBC.
In 2022, CBC TV and radio producer Tara Henley wrote an article in the National Post: Why I quit the CBC. Henley’s public departure from the CBC was the astonishing part, not her accusations about the government-funded broadcaster. She stated:
To work at the CBC in the current climate is to embrace cognitive dissonance and to abandon journalistic integrity.
Most Canadians already knew that, but having Henley say it took it to a whole new level.
CBC has also been featured on Jihad Watch for its provocative and harmful bias:
- Canada: Taxpayer-funded CBC puts jihad murderer Omar Khadr on its Easter Sunday show
- Canada: Muslima once featured in CBC hijab diversity ad now arrested for trying to join the Islamic State
- CBC gives Muslim carte blanche coverage in upcoming discrimination lawsuit against CSIS
- CBC says Muslims “fear scapegoating” after Muslim migrant murders Canadian girl
Added to the hype created by Elon Musk’s tweet to his 135.5 million followers comes more news about a CBC reporter who felt quite at home bashing white people. Anam Latif is alleged to have violated an ethics code that “‘requires staff to maintain professional decorum’ in their use of social media, even when they are acting in a personal capacity on social media.” Latif engaged “in a public campaign” against “all white editors” in another news outlet, The Record. As the Western Standard reports: “Latif, a self-identified Pakistani-Canadian Muslim, accused The Record of discrimination through a series of tweets and complaints filed with the Media Council.”
One of her tweets in February uses the “Islamophobia” canard to slam The Record for publishing a perfectly reasonable comment about immigrant assimilation, which every country expects except Western woke countries that despise their traditions and ignore Western culture’s laudable evolution, belying the fact that migrants are willing to risk life and limb to enter, even illegally.
Latif may have crossed an ethical line, but her general anti-white views and fixation on “Islamophobia” are not at odds with the CBC culture.
While the CBC may try to run from its Elon Musk Twitter label, it can’t hide from the truth that every Canadian knows, even while its minions seek to exonerate it. In the meantime, the Twittersphere is just a little bit lighter in the absence of one less woke government broadcaster.
Trudeau's response is just as hyperbolic - blaming the Opposition Leader of breaking up Canada. Trudeau knows that CBC is government funded to the tune of Billions of dollars, not to mention the hundreds of millions he arranged for news media that produce Trudeau-friendly reports regardless of what he has done.
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