This is a compilation of two twitter rants on the morning of Thursday, March 7, 2019, following Prime Minister Trudeau's statement on the SNC-Lavelin uproar. The first sees me expressing my disgust for the biased reporting I was witnessing on CBCNN.
The second, I began live tweeting as my frustration over the coverage boiled over a second time. I decided to create a blog with these threads as an example of what is being presented that is passing for journalism just now on our national broadcaster.
Hashtags have been retained but sentences have been connected and paragraphs created for greater reading clarity.
Thread #1
For goodness sake! @CBCNews Are you not supposed to be impartial? All morning you have had talking heads telling us the PM's message wasn't good enough. For CPC pundits there will never be anything the PM or the LPC government can do that will be good enough. #cdnpoli Not just about SNC, but anything, ever.
The media are largely responsible for what is essentially office politics gone sour turning into a crisis. You are doing Canadians a huge disservice by telling people what they should think.
Canadians are, by and large, intelligent and well-educated. Give us facts & let us make up our own minds. We do not need all these panelists and opinionaires declaring "Canadians feel..." They don't know how Canadians feel. They have no business making sweeping declarations.
The air time would be much better used having guests who could actually educate Canadians on how our system works, as many appear to have considerable confusion about this. As do many of your hosts and reporters, I would add. Far too many Canadians seem to have learned about politics and civics from American tv and American politics and our system is VERY different. It would be a far better fulfillment of your mandate if you focused on facts and clarity, and stopped the speculation and opinion-driven hysteria.
The SNC issue is extraordinary, but not in the fact people working together sometimes disagree and misunderstandings occur. It is extraordinary in that it is an entirely media-driven "crisis".
"Slow news day? Hey, let's bring down the government!"
Just stop it. Stop being the tool of the CPC. Stop the feeding frenzy. Start being factual, analytical, and actually be a force for good by making sure Canadians have access to information that makes them better informed citizens and voters.
Stop with the breathless hyperbole. Start fact-checking all political parties. Give a bit more attention to provincial politics (yes, all provinces, not just Ontario). You could easily fill all the time currently devoted to pundits. #DoYourJob
Thread #2
For goodness sake! @CBCNews Are you going to call out Scheer's misinformation you are presenting right now on your station?
1. A DPA does not "let SNC off the hook" - can you have someone on who can accurately explain what a DPA is, please?
2. #JWR was not fired. Can you have someone on to explain that a cabinet shuffle is not a "firing", please?
3. Can you also have someone on to clarify that, yes, people do experience and recall events differently?
Seriously. Let him speak. But don't let his misinformation stand as truth. Dissect his words as carefully as you dissect the PM's. It's only fair. You devoted hours this morning to tearing apart Trudeau's speech. Let's see you do the same with what Scheer says. After all, Scheer wants to be PM. Canadians deserve to have his words analysed just as carefully. #DoYourJob
OK. Scheer is done. Andrew Nichols has paraphrased Scheer's words. Now they have a woman on praising Scheer for not backing down. Now she's criticising Gerry Butt's testimony....
She's addressing Scheer's tactic of trying to foment dissent among Liberals. She thinks his strategy is clever.
Now they are going back to slicing and dicing Trudeau's speech from this morning. She uses phrases like "confusion in their own ranks" regarding the Liberal government. "She was not heard by him"...
Now a bit of speculation about how the liberals go forward, casting some aspersions on whether retired judges should be allowed to offer opinions...
Now reading a tweet from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada about conducting their business w/o political interference.. She says it's controversial in the context of the PM's speech. (I would postulate that the PPSC should not be interfering in politics, either).
And that's it. Zero comment on the factual errors and hyperbole in Scheer's speech. Next they are going to a Singh event so he can have his kick at the PM.
This is not good, or unbiased, reporting. #DoYourJob @CBCNews #cdnmedia #cdnpoli
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