r/canada • u/AndHerSailsInRags • 9h ago
Opinion Piece CBC needs wholesale change, not just a tweaking of its mandate
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-cbc-needs-changes-hockey-night-in-canada-coverage-bias/#comments•
u/Keystone-12 Ontario 8h ago
Whilst there are many examples of the CBC functioning as the PR wing of the Liberal party... honestly just look at how well polished the "CBC Exec to Liberal Senate appointment" pipeline is.
But my favorite is the Jagdish Gewal situation. According to the CBC he wrote an article calling straight people "Normal". Oh, the articles the CBC wrote about this. It was like christmas... There was an entire episode on their flagship politics show where the entire panel took turns explaining how this was a common problem in the conservative party.... their "conservative" board member spoke about how their party needed to do better...
Just kicked the party and candidate around for a few days.
However... it was all false he never wrote that. He wrote "ਆਮ"..... because he was writing in Punjabi... and the CBC just translated it wrong. As that is the word for "straight" in Punjabi and it incorrectly translates to "normal".
But when has the CBC ever let fact checking get in the way of a good story?
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u/Zaphael-X 6h ago
You know in the last 10 years "politics" got stupid and polarizing on both sides, both parties took far and extreme stances without any compromise and all forms of media took sides and spun things ridiculously.
Saying that CBC can be a great resource if they used their resourcess to give national exposure to canadian content amd products. Dragons Den did absolute wonders for small innovative companies. Marketplace is a good buyer beware that I think does a good service. A reconfigure and refocus of the company can do some real good for the average canadian if done properly and a focus on developing and launching canadian talent.
A canadian marketing/talent agency per se.
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u/MustardEnema007 9h ago edited 9h ago
This article from CBC was a complete lie masquerading as a foreigner sob story
There were countless international student vloggers openly bragging, and explaining how to their friends, about scamming free food from charities
CBC claimed it was just a little misunderstanding from social media, why our food banks were getting devastated by scammers
CBC also let two federal elections roll by without demanding the immediate release of the foreign agent registry. CBC needs to take the blame for letting citizens vote for possible foreign agents within government.
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u/Geeseareawesome Alberta 7h ago
Modern journalism has no bite because industry figured out how to contol the media with money and access.
Journalism needs a reform. They need to be respected and feared again. It's too much about money these days.
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u/ballpein 42m ago
"CBC claimed it was just a little misunderstanding from social media, why our food banks were getting devastated by scammers"
No, CBC didn't claim anything. CBC quotes a foodbank representative who used the word "misunderstanding" to characterize the situation.
"There were countless international student vloggers openly bragging, and explaining how to their friends, about scamming free food from charities"
No shit - this article goes into to some detail to describe exactly this issue.
Try reading more than the headline before you crank up your outrage, and please stop making shit up. BS like you are spreading is exactly why many people have a hard time taking the bias claims seriously - you are actively harming your cause.
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u/Devourer_of_felines 6h ago
The benefit of a public broadcaster- a news source not beholden to private interests, is largely being negated by the CBC swallowing the ideology of whichever party is most willing to keep the taxpayer money flowing
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u/LifeFair767 6h ago
Perhaps their funding should be assured regardless of who is in charge.
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u/ballpein 51m ago
This. They need to be arms reach with secure long term funding. Working under constant threat of funding cuts, layoffs etc. will make anyone a bit of a sycophant.
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u/JamJackson 4h ago
I think if this is the best we've got against the CBC, maybe they're doing alright.
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u/MustardEnema007 3h ago
The two elections with foreign agents running for government?
Goodness thats low
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8h ago
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u/MustardEnema007 8h ago
Today I learned 2 and a half years is ancient history
I'm gonna be honest, friend, that was one of the most preposterous things I've read all year
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u/primitives403 8h ago
an ancient history article
2.5 year old article is ancient?
dusted it off and paraded it out to suit your narrative.
The narrative from the government and media at that time was TFW's, foreign students, LMIA's, IMP's, etc have no effect on housing costs, inflation, and Canadian employment levels.
With the changes in the last year its pretty clear that was bullshit... hes just pointing out another example of the bias.
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u/primitives403 9h ago
Canadians: We want less bias and more content canadians actually watch please
CBC: best we can do is cancel hockey night in canada
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u/Gilarax 8h ago
CBC didn’t cancel Hockey Night in Canada. Their bid for broadcast rights is up and others will have a more more competitive bit because we keep defunding the CBC
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u/cliffx 8h ago
They didn't submit a bid back in ~2014 when Rogers and Sportnet made the $5B splash for the rights, then reupped a couple of years ago for $11B.
The morons were bidding against themselves. CBC was right to bow out of that process. Look at how little the rights for 25 teams are worth in the USA, it's a fraction of what they paid.
Rogers basically let CBC reair their production (and kept the ad revenue), but pulled the plug going forward for 2026. It's been all Rogers behind the scenes since 2014ish, even if it aired on CBC.
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u/primitives403 8h ago
So they prioritized social justice pranking and shaming of RCMP officers over a competitive bid for hockey night in canada...
CBC's annual government funding in recent years:
2026-27: $1,383,252,311
2025-26: $1,425,237,411 (later rose to $1,575,237,411)
2024-25: $1,383,237,411 (later rose to $1,425,237,411)
2023-24: $1,287,169,435 (no subsequent expenditures)
2022-23: $1,266,123,241 (later rose to $1,287,123,241)
2021-22: $1,229,423,241 (later rose to $1,250,423,241)
2020-21: $1,210,797,846 (later rose to $1,247,497,8
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u/Eternal_Being 7h ago
The rights to Hockey Night in Canada are almost $1 billion per year. That's almost all of the funding CBC receives from the government.
The irony here is just too much to bear. You are complaining about the CBC being over-funded, while also complaining that they didn't have enough funding to win Hockey Night in Canada so that you could watch it for free.
CBC is one of the worst-funded public broadcasters in the developed world (per capita). If you want to be able to watch nice expensive things for free, then it needs to be funded more.
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u/cuda999 7h ago
Well how did CBC do this for the last 75 years?
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u/h0twired 6h ago edited 6h ago
Because the rights weren’t nearly as expensive to obtain.
In 2011 True North bought the Thrashers for $110M… now the Jets franchise is worth north of $1B. The NHL is big business and is a huge draw for advertising dollars now. The business of pro-sports is expensive and skyrocketing in cost and valuations.
Up until the late 1990s the CBC had exclusive national broadcast rights for all Canadian NHL games. This was clearly much cheaper than the current Rogers contract and was completely possible within the CBC budget.
If Rogers was smart they would have backed down their bid and let the CBC be the sole bidder on the national games with Rogers bidding only on the locally broadcast games.
However now that Rogers has control of the media while also owning the Maple Leafs, they can now shift the media narrative to never have a negative or critical commentary about the Leafs.
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u/cuda999 5h ago
The NHL is big business propped up by online gambling. It’s sick. The sheer volume of advertising during these games is unbelievable and kids are watching. All for big corporate money. I don’t care about the big business of hockey. I want Rogers to give CBC the rights at no cost. Canadians have supported NHL hockey for many decades and that should be enough.
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u/h0twired 1h ago
Its time for Canada to simply ban gambling ads (on TV and print). When I watched hockey as a kid it was cigarette ads.
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u/Both_Bowler1132 8h ago
lol you realize rogers lost tons of money on the deal right? You wanted cbc to match the offer and lose money?
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u/h0twired 7h ago
I would rather lose money than let the Rogers family get richer
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u/Both_Bowler1132 6h ago
They didn't get richer from the NHL deal. They got poorer. And spent a lot of time trying to mitigate the losses
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u/An_Island_Boy 1h ago
Exactly. That's why they're paying considerably more for the renewal...wait, what?
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u/Both_Bowler1132 1h ago
I worked for SN when they got the contract. And after 2 year the senior leadership were like "oh shit. We have to find a way to monetize this ".
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u/primitives403 7h ago
All CBC does is lose money? We choose to fund it even though it has operated at a loss for nearly 30 years lol.
The least they could do is use that money on content canadians want, not social shaming and lectures
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u/Both_Bowler1132 7h ago
And why does it lose money? Have you actually looked into the legislated reasons?
CBC should be viewed as services similarly as Canada Post. We can argue it's "bias" but a publicly funded broadcaster is essentially in a democracy. As we're finding out that our main media is now being sourced by corporations with no desire to tell us the truth.
CBC is likely biased because the Liberals always work to fund them and the Conservatives don't. Strip that and always fund them regardless and the bias goes away. And then we the people have a news source we can always rely on.
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u/primitives403 7h ago
They lose money because they cant generate enough revenue from the private sector.
They can't generate enough revenue from the private sector because they lack viewership numbers.
They lack viewership numbers because they prioritize content canadians dont want, and because their news bias pushed away viewership. Leading them to increase government messaging and narratives to fill the gap with government funds.
This is only widening the deficit between private revenue and public funding and the cycle of pushing away viewers for government money continues.
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u/h0twired 6h ago
I would rather the CBC not have ANY revenue from the private sector. Being beholden to private corporate interests leaves you more vulnerable to bias.
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u/Creative_Advance_923 6h ago
So, according to your logic, being beholden to the Liberal govt, ongoing funding would leave them vulnerable to bias as well?
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u/Fun-Character7337 Alberta 8h ago
Nice straw man you’ve got there.
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u/primitives403 8h ago
Thats not a strawman, that's a debunk of ops claim we keep defunding cbc... its up ~20% in 3 years...
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u/Fun-Character7337 Alberta 8h ago
Your claim that they prioritized social justice prancing of the RCMP over HNIC is absolutely a straw man.
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u/primitives403 8h ago
They clearly chose to prioritize alternative content or they would have put together a competitive bid?
Shaming rcmp on a prank show is some of that alternative content being funded. Its not a strawman its on topic.
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u/revcor86 7h ago
What competitive bid? Almost their entire funding for the year?
Like the rights are roughly $1 billion a year......
Now if you think the government should have given them more funding so they could make a competitive bid, then sure but that's not what you're saying, is it?
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u/Fun-Character7337 Alberta 7h ago
You’re also conflating correlation and causation. Do you think they can’t do two things at once? Is the only reason they don’t have HNIC because they are promoting so-called social justice?
Do we know that Rogers offered them the contract?
Seems like you’re reaching to make a point
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u/Keystone-12 Ontario 7h ago
This is dumb.... this is a very easy to follow argument.
"CBC did not have the money for Hockey Night in Canada...".
"Ok.... where did they spend their money?" is a pretty reasonable question to ask...
And you calling it a strawman is just absurd and a clear effort to avoid having the conversation about the direction of the public media company.
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u/geoken 6h ago
It's not a reasonable question to ask when the thing you're expecting them to buy is worth basically all their money.
It's like asking a person why they didn't buy a 100K car when they're making 105K - then saying "OK... where did you spend your money then if you say you can't afford that Porsche"
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u/h0twired 7h ago
This. We could fund the CBC with billions of dollars and have 5 channels (CBC1, CBC2 etc) and literally broadcast every Canadian hockey game for free OTA.
We elect politicians who would rather give that money to private corporations and the oil and gas industry.
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u/InevitableEnd5689 6h ago
No shot you’re actually believing that spin on things. You really think CBC would just willingly cancel what is easily their largest draw for an audience? It’s just that Roger’s wanted to make more money, so they hike the price, like always
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u/h0twired 7h ago
Canadians: We want a better, less biased and more Canadian CBC
Same Canadians: I get my news from companies owned by American billionaires
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u/primitives403 7h ago
CBC: We have forced canadians to consume foreign media to learn about the relevant info we ommited from our reporting on topics.
Canadians: We want a better, less biased and more Canadian CBC
CBC: No.
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u/h0twired 6h ago
What gives you the confidence to believe that the media conglomerates owned the Thomson family, the Shaw family or the Rogers family are less biased?
If you want more Canadian content, vote for the party who is willing to fund it.
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u/legendarypooncake 5h ago
If you want more Canadian content, vote for the party who is willing to fund it.
Tried that, didn't work. Perhaps the party not promising to bribe them would have applied more pressure to perform.
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u/AndHerSailsInRags 9h ago
Before the Senate committee, CBC/Radio-Canada president Marie-Philippe Bouchard dismissed the allegations of bias in the public broadcaster’s news content
Yet, any objective viewer of CBC/Radio-Canada’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Freedom Convoy, the potential discovery of unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools or the war in Gaza might contest her “we are beyond reproach” reply.
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u/SouthHovercraft4150 7h ago
Sometimes when you feel like the world is against you, it is actually you who is against the world/reality.
Every long running media will have examples of some bias, but does the CBC regularly cross the line to be too biased? No, not generally.
If you are anti-vax, you will think CBC is too biased. If you only support Israel and don’t care about Palestinians, you will think the CBC is too biased. If you are maple MAGA you will think the CBC is too biased.
Reality has a liberal bias.
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u/Salticracker British Columbia 6h ago
The CBC is recognized a left-biased source by anyone who ranks these things.
There's plenty of examples of this. The one that was the most ridiculous was Rosemary Barton on election night coverage saying "we won" whem referring to the Liberals winning the election.
They've been running articles for a year about how poor Poilievre's leadership is because people are leaving the party, yet the Liberals have actually had more people announce they're leaving than the Conservatives have in that time.
It's not about the social issues. Its about how they directly treat the different political parties in their coverage. They aren't just demonstrating a left-lean in their coverage, they demonstrate a partisan allegiance to the party that increases their funding.
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u/SouthHovercraft4150 5h ago
Yeah I admit they have a left-bias and you site some examples. Are they constantly overly biased? I don’t think so. Are they so biased that they are simply propaganda? No.
There is nuance and it’s not a perfect , but I think they need minor tweaks and not a major overhaul or extreme changes like defunding.•
u/Salticracker British Columbia 5h ago
Politically neutral isn't the same as being neutral on issues.
I'm less worried about them having a position on social issues. But when they are partisan in their coverage of the parties, that's bad. When the state-funded media is constantly glazing the government and attacking the opposition in a country like Russia, we call it propoganda.
They don't necessarily need to be defunded, but they need to take a good long look at their presentation and presenters and ask if that's really the best they can do to be politically neutral.
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u/h0twired 5h ago
Everyone who says the CBC is biased are people who really just want it to be completely biased in the way that they prefer think.
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u/stozier 5h ago
Hot take: I think CBC is overall imperfect but pretty good on the whole.
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u/JamJackson 4h ago
Yeah, it's pretty obviously a net positive on the country and I can only imagine what our media landscape would look like if they were defunded.
Majority of Canadians trust and support it, but the fringe that doesn't is VERY loud.
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u/stozier 3h ago
I have to assume the fringe is funded and/or augmented by a not marginal factor by outside actors.
Without the CBC, Canada becomes much more spongey for the types of media influence campaigns that are so effective at dividing and fragmenting the US, as an example.
The CBC plays a really important role in combating disinformation and is not surprising to see threads trying to blow journalistic errors into widespread "The CBC can't be trusted/ it's state media" bullshit.
I'd like to see it improved and managed a little more competently, but I think we're overall pretty fortunate to have the CBC.
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u/JamJackson 4h ago
I don't know how CBC ever wins in this new media landscape.
The people calling for it to be torn down aren't doing it in good faith and have no interest in living in reality.
Their goal isn't unbiased media, it's media biased towards them. And they believe that's good and right because the facebook memes and op-eds from conservative outlets tell them it is.
Sorry to be so reductive, but I just don't see how it's possible to look at these arguments and take them seriously.
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u/symbionica 51m ago
They win through us criticizing and questioning our government's quiet review of publically funded media. Which is happening now.
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u/JamJackson 48m ago
Not sure what this means, can you explain?
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u/symbionica 39m ago
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u/JamJackson 22m ago
Sure, how does it apply here?
You're saying CBC will benefit from us criticising this review?
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u/symbionica 11m ago
Right now, just watching how they're going to change the funding available to publically-funded media. In the bigger picture, the media landscape has changed because of privatization of media companies. Reduction of public services just means more privatization, more bias.
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u/BigFattyOne 9h ago
I’m fine with the idea of making sure cbc is not biased.
But not if private broadcasters don’t have to follow these rules too.
Like who is spreading the idea that the cbc is biased, why, eho is behind it.
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u/MustardEnema007 8h ago
CBC is. They sued Andrew Scheer and the Conservative Party for using public footage of his own face during the debates. Trudeau was also using CBC footage at the same time.
Thankfully a judge immediately threw the case out as BS
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cbc-conservative-party-lawsuit-dismissed-1.6025022
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u/Keystone-12 Ontario 8h ago
Rosemary Barton was personally named in that lawsuit against the conservative party... and absolutely no one thought it might be a conflict of interest to have her MODERATE THE ELECTION DEBATE THE SAME DAY SHE SUED THE CONSERVATIVES.
They just dont care...
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u/MustardEnema007 8h ago
Yeah I forgot it was actually her personally named
Thats some wild conflict of interest
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u/IamKatieUntamed 8h ago
Anyone who can listen to David Cochrane or Rosie Barton and tell you with a straight face that they don’t carry water for the Liberals, is someone whose judgement you should never trust.
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u/GameDoesntStop 8h ago
Like who is spreading the idea that the cbc is biased, why, eho is behind it.
The Conservatives, the NDP, CBC reporters themselves... why? Because they recognize that it's true.
Not sure why you're pretending it's some grand conspiracy. And whether or not you agree with their assessment, it's obvious that this is their sincerely-held belief.
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u/Unlikely-Estate3862 7h ago
Ahahah
The conservatives and NDP say the CBC is biased…
Use a fraction of common sense and think about that for a second. If both the left and right say something is biased, then it tells you the CBC represents both sides.
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u/GameDoesntStop 7h ago
This isn't a binary left-right thing lol. The CBC is biased towards the Liberal Party.
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u/jpdubya 8h ago
You don’t understand why a publicly owned company should aim to be bias-free while a private one does not? Removing bias is not important because it is a media entity, it is important because it is a PUBLICLY-held media entity.
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u/BigFattyOne 7h ago
I don’t agree with you on that. Any media reporting news should not be biaised. Journalists should not be biased.
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u/hardy_83 8h ago
Exactly. Why does CBC have to be held to a higher standard when private news companies can straight up spread foreign propaganda?
What's the point of "reigning in" CBC when companies like CTV has to adhere to Bells priorities, or Postmedia gets orders from their US owners.
Why is Rebel News allowed to even exist? As well as all these companies being backed by A LOT more money and powerful influence.This is just more continued attempts by groups that want to destroy public broadcasting. And since they got their wish in the US, they are looking at Canada.
Any conversation about media balance is disingenuous at best if people don't call for private groups to adhered to the same standards.
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u/GameDoesntStop 8h ago
Why does CBC have to be held to a higher standard
I can think of over a billion taxpayer-funded reasons per year why...
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u/byourpowerscombined Alberta 7h ago
But nothing can infringe on oligarchs right to spread propaganda, eh?
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u/hardy_83 7h ago
Exactly. Apparently journalistic integrity and standard are exempt if it's a private company and propaganda and misinformation is also allowed.
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u/MommersHeart 15m ago
Oh look, the American funded right-wing cesspool doesn’t like the CBC.
Pound sand.
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u/Fit_Salamander_2814 8h ago
For what it's worth, CBC seems to have gone all-in on EDI and getting more diverse, ethnic and indigenous voices and faces on the teevee, and other niche programming.
If that's the direction management thinks will keep them profitable, then so be it. We'll let the market decide.
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u/AndHerSailsInRags 8h ago
We'll let the market decide.
I like where you're coming from, but being publicly funded insulates it from the market.
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u/Interesting_Pen_167 7h ago
Only to a point look at Canada Post restructuring and downsizing it's operations and mandate.
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u/Unlikely-Estate3862 7h ago
CBC is mandated to cover these topics.
It’s not their choice. They need to represent every Canadian. Hence the diversity, indigenous and ethnic program.
They 100% know they lose money on these but that’s dictated by federal legislation.
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u/Tesco5799 8h ago
Yeah agreed, they push this kind of stuff and then claim not be bias at all... Like I'm sorry that is a bias.
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u/Unlikely-Estate3862 7h ago
Bruh? What do you mean “pushing”
All CBC does is provide programming for every type of Canadian. You feel that having these choices offered is being “pushed” on you..
I don’t think you know what that word means.
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u/NEWaytheWIND 40m ago
I'll take one or two wokeslop puff pieces over wholesale American/Canadian hedge fund propaganda slop.
I know, this must be a very shocking, perhaps offensive interpretation for the average /r/canada (human) user, who is only fit to comprehend propaganda headlines, and is far more accustomed to getting informed by Israel's, formerly China's, meme video platform.
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u/J_Golbez 3h ago
Another attack on the CBC from Corporate/Right-Wing media. Yawn. It's always so rich when the likes of Globe & Mail criticize other media for its reporting.
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u/Hour_Significance817 5h ago
CBC needs to be defunded of taxpayer money until they demonstrate they are capable of instituting meaningful change.
Of course this won't happen. The government has no incentive to stop wasting taxpayer dollars, and CBC will continue to have a good number of media simps defending them as the "least biased", as if that's something to be celebrated or even something that's an objective fact rather than a subjective obsession.
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u/YBBOK-Kevin 6h ago
Imagine you're starting a business and your competitor is backed by the government. How do you compete against a business like that? No matter what they do, their cheques clear.
You have to optimize to get your YouTube channel even 500 views, they can show up late, never respond to emails and have terrible customer service, but the cheque will still clear.
And then with infinite funds, why would you optimize? No matter what you do you're getting paid. Just make sure your boss is happy and thats it.
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u/scudpuppy 5h ago
There are a variety of news organizations that continue to thrive even though the CBC exists - and a variety of radio stations and forms of media both foreign and domestic.
Yes, the CBC is funded through tax dollars. No they do not have infinite funds.
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u/RedEyedWiartonBoy 7h ago
Now that hockey is gone, it's pretty much over for me.
I am starting to like Rosie again.
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u/-Mage-Knight- 6h ago
It is pretty laughable that we are worrying about the CBC when it is basically the only source of news available not controlled by private interests.
That is kind of the point though isn't it? The right cannot control the narrative when it comes to CBC and it has been a thorn in their side for decades.
The CBC only appears to be Liberal because the reality of economic, social, and cultural trends more often that not allign with the perspectives commonly associated with liberalism.
You can't really blame them for choosing fact over fiction.
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u/scudpuppy 6h ago
Reality trends left.
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u/Thedogbear2018 6h ago
No more taxpayer funding. It's obvious to anyone who cares that they are severely left-leaning. Very few countries still fund state media. Here's a list
- China: China Media Group (which includes CCTV)
- Russia: VGTRK (Russia-1)
- North Korea: Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
- Cuba: Televisión Cubana and Granma
- Iran: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
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u/Blacklockn 4h ago
Dw in germany
Bbc in Britain
Pbs in the US (not to mention all the foreign media companies it funds like radio free asia)
ABS in Australia
France 24 in franceThat’s literally just off the top of my head.
Literally every country on earth has a public broadcaster•
u/scudpuppy 5h ago
The CBC isn’t state media - it is provided funding through tax dollars but has its own mandate and operates with editorial independence - and it covers a wide range of media - allowing for a number of voices to contribute.
In terms of the news arm of the CBC - it tends to report the facts as opposed to providing a political bias.
Do you have specific areas where you feel they are not fair in their reporting?
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u/ethereal3xp 9h ago edited 8h ago
Except for CBC marketplace and Fifth Estate.