Media Bias in Canada

 What are we to do when our MEDIA picks favourites? What are we, as a society, to do when journalists are part of the right-wing propaganda machine? 

What are we to do when Canadian journalists repeat conservative talking points as facts, without verification? When they use tentative terms, like "claims" or "alleges" when reporting government statements, and absolutes like "says" and "stated" when reporting CPC statements? 

What are we to do when Canadian Media look to junk "think-tanks" like the Fraser Institute and the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation to paint a picture of reality? What are we to do when our fourth estate has been bought and controlled by those who are not interested in our public good? 

Where are the journalists with integrity? Where are the journalists with professional commitment? Where are the journalists with the guts to fact-check the conservatives? Where are the journalists who are working for the public good? 

Why is even the CBC, our public broadcaster, acting as a CPC cheerleader, even though the new leader promises to put them all out of work? What has happened to journalism in Canada? What can we do about it? 

It's no coincidence that any invading army or dictatorial regime takes control of the media early on. If you control the news - what is reported and how it is reported - you can change the way people see their society. You can create scapegoats. You can justify the unthinkable. 

Many may say I am over-reacting. But this has been going on a long time. Canadians are getting used to hearing the news conservatives want them to hear. Panels of pro-conservative pundits are normalized now. We get more opinion than news, and that's been normalized too. 

1. Is it true?
2. Is it verifiable? (i.e. not the word of an anonymous source)
3. Is publishing it in the interest of the public good?

These are the tests every single piece of news reporting should have to pass.

Think critically when you hear or read the news. Question the way things are worded. Is the reporter conveying trust in what is being said, or incredulity? Is there fact-checking? Are there multiple reputable sources? Is what is being reported important or meant to stir the pot? 

Is the language used in reporting slanted in favour of or against the person or party being reported about? i.e. "Scandal-ridden government" is pejorative. It makes assumptions and leads the reader. Does the reporting seem factual and unbiased? 

Is the reporting full of heuristic cues to evoke positive or negative emotions in the reader/viewer? Adjectives can change the tone of a sentence dramatically, and affect the recipients' perceptions. Be wary of reporting that contains words that celebrate or vilify. 

Does it rely on a single-source so-called "expert" organization, like the Fraser Institute? Does it offer clarity as to the "expert's" qualifications/loyalties/funding? 

Offering "the other side" is a ruse in many cases. There can be one side that is factual and another that is opinion. It is important to differentiate. Offering a contradictory opinion is not only often not useful, it can be harmful. 

If you have a doctor talking about vaccines and an anti-vaxxer contradicting them, that is not good journalism. The other side does not always deserve the airtime because they are just wrong. And the fourth estate is not acting in the public good by giving a podium to just anyone 

We need to be on our guard. Our Canadian media has abandoned us. There are some great reporters out there, but the media infrastructure is controlled by those who do not have the public good at heart. This is a real and present danger to our Canadian way of life. We are not USA north. 

• • •

When Journalists Mislead the Public...

 And here we see, in real time, a Canadian reporter attempting to smear government MPs. Ms Walsh is not the only one, but the example handy. She links the MPs with a notice from the ethics commissioner's office. No explanation. 

It implies the MPs are in trouble with the ethics commissioner. They are not. Nevertheless, conservative trolls are already squawking on social media about another Liberal ethics violation, where there is none. This is very poor journalism. 

This is using omission of an explanation to cast shade on innocent people. I have no doubt that Canadian media know that most people will not read past the very first couple of lines. They are planting the suggestion of malfeasance by omitting any detail. 

Mercedes Stephenson, of Global news, simply retweets the announcement from the Ethics Commissioner which is also incredibly misleading and suggests the Liberals were guilty of something. 

And, most egregiously, @CBC @PnPCBC posted an alert saying outright that these ministers were guilty. 

Fortunately, Diane Marie and others caught this...

I am sure Canadian journalists also know full well that misinformation spreads much faster than a retraction or correction. Which seems to have been their intent. Deleting a misleading tweet does not undo the damage. 

This is totally unacceptable. This is our press deliberately trying to undermine our duly elected government. And they do it all the time. This was just another example. I call on the @CBCOmbud, the @CRTCeng and whomever oversees the Ethics Commissioner... 

To take a close look at this. From the Commissioner's office on down, this news was worded and presented in such a way as to allow the reputation of these ministers to be impugned. This is not what the press is supposed to do. This violates journalistic integrity and ethics. 

The thing which actually happened was a former US Ambassador was found in violation and these Ministers have agreed to not interact with him for a year. 

And yet, CPC fans are racing around announcing 9 Liberals have been found guilty of an ethics violation and they are all criminals. Because such people grab any information that fits their worldview, and also, they don't seem to actually understand how any of this works. 

The wording used by the Ethics Commissioner's office, & the way the real information was buried in a fine print document is very suspect. One might almost think Dion was channeling his predecessor, Mary Dawson. Someone needs to remind him he is supposed to be non-partisan. 

But our journalists, actively misleading Canadians about this instead of looking into why the ethics commissioner's announcement was so vague as to suggest the Liberals had done something wrong.... Well, that is unconscionable. And decidedly not in the public interest. 

Update: The CBC noon hour radio news just did a piece on Eric O'Toole's complaints about waiting in line for hours for a COVID test. He blames the federal government, even though it is provincial jurisdiction. CBC did not correct him. 

• • •

Let's Talk About Journalism

 Let's talk about journalism...

Basic tenets of journalism:
1. Is it true?
2. Is it verifiable (can you prove it's true)?
3. Is publishing it in the public good? 

1. Is it true?
Truth is fact. It is not conjecture, opinion, or spin. It is empirically provable. It is not rumour or heresay or speculation. It is not driven by ideology. Reporters should report truth. This may include, "X said-, however, this research shows this is inaccurate." 

Fact-checking political statements against demonstrably true information is part of "Is it true".
We are seeing a lot of so-called journalists falling down on the job here. Repeating any politician's statements as truth without due diligence is not journalism. 

The parties have PR departments for that. Doing the homework and knowing the facts allows journalists to call out politicians when their claims deviate from the truth. This is the job of journalism. 

Truth vs Lies/speculation/conjecture. Robert Fife should have been fired back when his inaccurate words led to Maher Arar being detained & tortured. He shouldn't have worked in journalism in Canada ever again. Neither should the other journalists involved.

Hear No Evil, Write No Lies | The WalrusMaher Arar was portrayed as a sly fox, a predator working with al-Qaeda. He turned out to be a hare, an innocent family manhttps://thewalrus.ca/hear-no-evil-write-no-lies/

And yet, it is from this same scribe that we got the SNC-Lavelin scandal and the WE scandal. Why are people still believing him? He compromised his journalistic credibility ages ago. 

Truth in reporting can involve asking penetrating incisive questions. "When did you first learn of the arrangement between Mike Duffy and Nigel Wright?" after the arrangement became public, is a penetrating, incisive question. 

"Are you going to put a gun to the oppositions' head to force through your corrupt legislation?" Is not. I hope people can see the difference. The second question is loaded with assumptions and hyperbolic imagery. It is an example of very bad journalism. 

Asking the PM, "When will the pandemic end?" and then reporting that the PM "dodged" the question, is shoddy journalism. You cannot ask a question to which there is no known answer and then accuse the interviewee of misconduct in being unable to answer. That is shoddy journalism. 

2. Is it verifiable? Can you prove it is true?
This is the dividing line between accepting rumours or leaks as fact, and doing your own research and digging to find out if there is anything to it. There is a terrible trend towards rumour reporting. (again, see FIFE) 

Currently, there are a number of Canadian news organizations who will be subject to lawsuits based on their escalation of rumour, innuendo, conjecture, and speculation related to the WE thing. Speculation IS NOT journalism. Especially ideologically-driven speculation. 

3. Is publishing it in the public good?
This is contentious, apparently. Some feel the public has a right to know everything about our elected officials. The key question is, what purpose does that serve? Does some tidbit of gossip about an MP benefit Canadians by knowing? 

If an MP's child wets the bed beyond the age where that is "normal", should it be broadcast by our national news outlets? If it's rumoured that an elected official had a spat w/ their partner, is that news? Would you like your personal life broadcast? What purpose does it serve? 

If an elected official is being tested for diabetes, is that in the public interest to report? A health concern may become a significant issue, if it impedes that representative's ability to fulfill their duties, but in Canada we have traditionally regarded our representatives' interactions with their health care provider to be a private matter. MPs and MLAs have traditionally come forward if they have a health issue that may interfere with their job. So, what possible public good is an accounting of medical tests anyone may or may not have had? 

Until very recently, the families of our elected officials have been sacrosanct. This set us above the media in most countries where tabloids report nonsensical speculation about every politician or royal's private life. The Queen frowns and tabloids have Camilla incarcerated 

Is it in the public good to recount every tweak to legislation? Hundreds, maybe thousands of minor tweaks to legislation, are passed every year. Most are incredibly boring. Changing the wording on bills of lading, changing the way some signage must be presented... 

Changing a measure of acceptable levels of something by a tiny amount... these things are happening all the time. Is it in the public interest to report them all? No. In fact, it would probably deter the public from reading any political news. 

There is a certain enlightenment that is required to discern when some minor bit of legislative tweak is going to be newsworthy, and in the public good. It takes a strong grasp of the field of expertise in question, and some good reporter's intuition to dig deeper. 

But only after digging, consulting with experts, should that sort of thing become news. If there is something newsworthy and in the public good. And to report it, it must pass all three tests. 

Likewise, it is shoddy journalism to not publish information that does not align with some ideological stance. Two things came to my attention today that I fear will not get the attention they deserve from a public good standpoint. 

Here's one:

Here's another:

Journalists need to understand that good news stories can absolutely be in the public good. Our media must not hide good news just because they don't like the government. Especially now. We all need good news. Why are our government's success stories not being told? 

We need our fourth estate to be pure of partisan biases and interference. Now more than ever. We need reporters who do their homework and call out misinformation. We need journalistic integrity. We do not need rumours, or innuendo. We need facts and clear information. 

Do the Conservatives Have a Platform?

 I see people often say the CPC/UCP/etc have no policy, only attacks against the Liberals/NDP... I think this is inaccurate. They cannot present their policy to the public because Canadians would find their vision for Canada so unpalatable as to relegate their RW movement to the scrapheap of history. Some basic tenets upon which the current conservative movement is built:

1. Universal healthcare is an abomination to capitalism
A blog about the UCP in AB, but with the history explaining why the UCP think this way.

Alberta Bill 30 - Introducing For-Profit Medicine in AlbertaA blog about life in Canada. Everything from political ranting to living off the grid, to really whatever strikes my fancy.https://thecailleach.blogspot.com/2020/07/alberta-bill-30-introducing-for-profit.html

2. Public education is an abomination to capitalism, and the Church, as well as a hindrance to continual conservative rule.
Andrew Scheer had, as one of his platforms, the funding of religious private schools and home schooling. But this is just one part.

Federal funding for private schools: a cautionary taleAndrew Scheer’s proposal for a $4,000 tax deduction to send kids to private school would plant a ticking time bomb at the core of Canada’s school syst...https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/08/06/federal-funding-for-private-schools-a-cautionary-tale.html

Premier Jason Kenney had the "public" removed from public schools within Alberta and cut funding to post-secondary institutions, except private religious colleges.

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…

Furthermore, in Alberta, the UCP has introduced the idea of non-funded home schooling which does not have to meet the provincial curriculum. In other words, people can now teach their kids any damn thing they want.

Alberta government introduces bill to reduce rules for new charter schools, unsupervised homeschoolingKenney’s government lifted long-standing cap on charter schools last yearhttps://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-alberta-government-introduces-bill-to-reduce-rules-for-new-charter/

If you read that previous article, you will have noticed a push towards vocational schools. And not just high school. Lets get those pre-teens learned up on pipe-fitting and mudlogging. Oh, and don't forget coal-mining. The UCP has paved the way for more open pit coal mines...

And created a lower minimum wage for those under 18. We can get those kids out to work faster than ever!

Making Child Labour Great Again! Alberta’s new labour law breaks old ground while undermining unions - Alberta PoliticsAlberta’s about to Make Child Labour Great Again! If you think this is a breakthrough, you’re probably a fast-food franchise owner. Yesterday, Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party introdu…https://albertapolitics.ca/2020/07/making-child-labour-great-again-albertas-new-labour-law-breaks-old-ground-while-undermining-unions/

Jason Kenney has, over the years, expressed his concern that schools are indoctrinating kids in collectivist thinking (learning to share & co-operate, one might assume) and all manner of harmful ideas (science?) that detract from basic numeracy & literacy.

VIDEO: Jason Kenney is fear mongering about ‘radical social engineering’ in Alberta schools againhttps://pressprogress.ca/jason_kenney_is_fear_mongering_about_radical_social_engineering_in_alberta_schools_again/

Basic numeracy and literacy are to be the focus of the new UCP curriculum, with annual standardised tests beginning in grade 1 to ensure that teachers do not stray from making their students memorize the times table.

This is the brand new Alberta school outcomes model. "Critical" as in "critical thinking" appears once, in high school. "Literature" does not appear at all. Literacy is treated as a career tool.
education.alberta.ca/media/3402192/…

Indeed, the UCP wants to go further, tying post-secondary academic programs to the speed with which graduates get high-paying jobs. Essentially, eliminating the arts and humanities and focusing on engineering and business.

Post-secondary funding in Alberta will be tied to performance, says ministerhttps://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/alberta-moves-to-outcomes-based-approach-to-post-secondary-funding

So, education is strictly for preparing Alberta's children for jobs to boost the bottom line of big companies. And if they can get rid of these secular public schools, workers will again be taught obedience to the church as well as to their betters.

3. Social programs are an abomination to the supreme authority of the church.
Charity used to be the exclusive purview of the church. Assistance was distributed according to the recipients' level of obeisance. Government social safety nets mean just anyone can get help.

Even sinners, like addicts. I believe there is a vocal element within the UCP who would like to go back to the old way, where everyone went to church and tithed, then the churches looked after the poor and sick as they saw fit.

Besides, social programs rob the government coffers of money which should properly go to the capitalist overlords.

Park parent of AISH recipient calls UCP changes obsceneThe 2019 Alberta budget is causing some major concerns for Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) recipients and their families.AISH provides a living allowance to Albertans who have a pe…https://www.sherwoodparknews.com/news/local-news/park-parent-of-aish-recipient-calls-ucp-changes-obscene

4. Canadians, outside of the inner circle of the conservative movement, are only human capital to be exploited for the increased wealth of the very rich.

Sorry, Not Enough “Human Capital”Restaurant Canada wants Alberta’s $15/hour minimum wage reduced for youth, liquor servers and people with disabilities. Mr Kenney says he’ll consider a reduction for youth and alcohol servers.  No …https://susanonthesoapbox.com/2019/02/17/sorry-not-enought-human-capital/

The CPC, under the rule of Stephen Harper and the direction of Jason Kenney introduced the temporary foreign workers program. There is a generally held belief that Canadians expect too much. Especially too much pay. This is why manufacturing went overseas. And the CPC...

Brought in the TFW program so employers could hire the same sort of cheap labour in Canada. Not as low-paying as jobs in their home countries, but lower than what a Canadian minimum wage worker would have to be paid. This not only exploited these workers, but also...

Depressed wages for Canadian workers. Because the common good of Canadians is far outweighed by the good of the corporations in conservative political minds.

Foreign workers a boon for employers, for Canada not so muchSkills shortages do seem to be rampant, but evidence of labour shortages is largely anecdotal and regional.https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/jobs/foreign-workers-a-boon-for-employers-for-canada-not-so-much/article11433730/

Another aspect of this view of citizens as human capital is a disregard for human rights, except insofar as it it the conservatives' own rights. Thus, draconian punishments which amuse the mob mentality, stripping of rights from "sinners" like the LGBTQ2+ community...

5. The CPC deserve to govern forever.
Democracy gets in the way of this. Clearly God favours them and they should win every election. Therefore it is ok to cheat, mislead the public, suppress the vote, etc. Because power is their destiny. Or some such rot.

6. The media should broadcast the CPC message and no other.
Which most of them do, of course. They believe strongly in state-controlled propaganda media and would like to see other media shuttered.

Stephen Harper's '24 Seven' videos require up to four staffers to produceAs many as four public servants from the Privy Council Office are engaged in the publishing of weekly video clips that celebrate Stephen Harper’s accomplishmentshttps://nationalpost.com/news/politics/stephen-harpers-24-seven-videos-require-up-to-four-staffers-to-produce

It all comes together in a tidy package. Low education levels, poor health for all but the wealthy, low wages and lowered worker rights, theological laws, control of the media, and the freedom to determine electoral outcomes. And no one able to stand up to them, because...

everyone is poor, sick, uneducated, in prison, or dead. So, it seems the CPC vision for Canada is sort of pre-Magna Carta feudalism meets Industrial Revolution. No wonder they don't make it public. Watch what they do, not what they say.

They follow the GOP playbook, with co-ordination assistance from the IDU...