CBC sticks to its role as an ally while questions are raised about whether Canada's news industry has the guts to do its job
Journalists are increasingly under the gun - from journalists - for lacking the courage to think independently or even report anything that challenges their biases
Yes, we’ll get to all that, but first a little fun.
Many of you will have heard many times - particularly now that we’re in an era of state funding - that money can’t possibly corrupt newsrooms. Journos and executives will swear up and down that the biz is pure as the driven snow.
Certainly there were many times in my career when editors and publishers nobly resisted commercial pressures. But there were times, too, when messages were made pretty clear.
So when retired broadcaster Bruce Steele sent this along, I just had to share.
“A brief story regarding the influence of sources of money on reportage. My first job in media was at a small radio station in North Bay. I was a 15-year-old summer relief announcer.
“One day, a huge storm was pelting raindrops onto the skylight above the main studio in which I sat doing the mid morning show. Every time I turned my mic on, you could hear the rain.
”At some point in the shift, I commented on air that it was a great day to stay at home and listen to the music on our station, what with the weather being simply awful.
”From down the hall where the executive suite was located I heard the thundering foot steps of my boss. The door to the control room was thrust open and Bruce McLeod (who, by the way, was one of Roy Thomson’s first station managers in Timmins Ontario) stormed into the control room.
“Said McLeod; “Sponsors pay good money so people hear their commercials on our station. They pay your salary. Your job is to send listeners to their stores. IT’S NOT RAINING!!!!!”
There you go. We’ll look to share more stories of newsroom life behind the veil in future posts. There are plenty more where that came from. Now, on with the show . . . .
Last week’s scan pointed out which news organizations had shown interest in the latest scientific developments involving gender dysphoria. A significant and very newsworthy review of the science done by pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass prompted treatment centres in England, Scotland, the Netherlands and Belgium to immediately put the brakes on in much the same fashion as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith - to the great dismay of many -proposed to do. Big news, one would think. The Economist, after all, called it a “landmark judgment.” Al Jazeera posted commentary calling it a victory for women, children and common sense.
Regardless of the international attention, The Rewrite noted that the CBC was among the many mainstream outlets in this country that had not covered this story. Shortly after, CBC weighed in with a report so bereft of balance that one could only conclude it had abandoned any pretence of principled journalism in favour of playing the role of ally to those whose assumptions are threatened by Cass and her findings.
The Cass Review was prompted by the fact that within 15 years, diagnoses of gender dysphoria in the UK rose from 50 mostly male patients annually to 3,000 mostly females. The Canadian Pediatric Society has also noted a rise in cases.
The CBC chose, however, to focus solely on the issue of puberty blockers. It quoted three doctors, each of whom calmly defended the treatments, cited reports confirming the same and posted a news story that would lead any casual reader to conclude that Cass - who the Times of London reports no longer feels safe on public transit - the English, Scots, Dutch, Belgians, etc. are all wrong. The CBC included a sentence to indicate the Cass Review had not responded to its request for comment and that was it for efforts at balance. A reasonable person would have no choice but to conclude the Cass report was silly British bunk. Here at The Rewrite, we think an editor should’ve just firmly said “well if you can’t get any comment from the Brits, keep trying - there’s no way we’re posting a story that one-sided on an issue as important and controversial as this.”
That said, the lack of interest in balance wasn’t a surprise given the structure of previous CBC coverage of the issue, including a story wondering if there really is a noticeable difference in strength, power and speed between trans women and the ones still identifying with the parts they were born with.
It’s actually a pretty good read, focusing on the 46-year-old quarterback of the Edmonton Storm, a women’s football team. The QB, Aria McGowan, said she was a lot more powerful prior to transitioning and certainly wasn’t the fastest on the team. Of course not, I thought, you are 46 years old, probably at least 20 years older than most players in the league and far past anyone’s athletic prime. But, hey, other than that swing and a miss and the absence of comments from any of the biologically female (women) players in the league, it was an interesting piece.
Keep in mind that CBC’s journalistic standards and practices state that the Mother Corp is “committed to reflecting accurately the range of experiences and points of view of all citizens.”
Which is exactly what Sharon Kirkey of the National Post did April 19 with a story which showed some serious spine given the absolutely bananaland, kookoo, krackpot, are you OK nature of some of the anti-Cass “reporting.” According to one TikTokker posing as a journalist (complete with smudged mascara) the invisible hand of the far right is behind it all. Kirkey, meanwhile, actually sought to get to the heart of the “startling surge in gender-distressed children being referred to gender clinics, especially biological girls.”
As did The Atlantic which pointed out that in a world without partisan politics, “the Cass report on youth gender medicine would prompt serious reflection from American trans-rights activists, their supporters in the media, and the doctors and institutions offering hormonal and surgical treatments to minors.”
In addition, both the New York Times and Washington Post published significant commentaries suggesting similar prudence. And the British press, right and left, seems capable of routinely reporting on these matters with a level of poise beyond the grasp of most Canadian media, many of whom are still dancing around the issue like so many chickens fleeing a fox-infested hen house.
Which segues nicely to Jonathan Kay, a very experienced editor who, if his postings on X are anything to go by, is convinced that a big part of the problem with Canadian journalism is Canadian journalists.
His recent piece in Quillette is well worth the read. Kay describes a Canadian newsroom culture in which most journalists simply don’t have the guts the game requires. To which The Rewrite says: “Huzzah.”
“It’s now more difficult,” he writes, “ to get reporters to cover stories that don’t align with fashionable ideological postures: Even smart, fair-minded journalists who want to pursue these stories fear that doing so will open them up to accusations that they are political heretics.”
He continues:
“To be stunning and brave in Canadian journalistic circles these days is, for the most part, to stunningly and bravely say the same thing that everyone else is saying.”
The Rewrite hears a lot of that these days.
Tara Henley is another experienced journalist who abandoned legacy media for more modern platforms.
Her Massey Essay in the Literary Review of Canada is a must read for anyone who wonders what the actual has happened to journalism and how its decision to embrace activism has brought us to the point where “just 16 percent of Canadians report a high level . . . of trust in information and news from the media.”
Not to go all Biblical here, but maybe there’s something to that whole “as ye sow, so shall ye reap” thing.
Speaking of reaping, Blacklock’s Reporter notes in its April 22 file that last year the Winnipeg Free Press lost $6 million. That comes in the wake of Postmedia’s news that its second quarter operating loss was $4.8 million, up $4.3 million from the same period last year. As Postmedia CEO Andrew Macleod put it:
“Despite anticipated positive impacts from revisions to the Journalism Tax Credit and implementation of the Online News Act, the media industry in Canada continues to face major challenges as demonstrated by recent announcements of the creditor protection filings of each of Black Press and Saltwire.”
And, for now, we’ll leave it at that. No point in piling on.
(The Rewrite cares about quality journalism that serves readers the way they want to be served - with courageous reporting by independent thinkers who strive for objectivity and leave consumers free to reach their own conclusions. Please support this work by subscribing, following, sharing and otherwise spreading the word)
When I published for Metroland/Torstar, we ran a weekly column called Court Dockets, a weekly listing of anyone in the city convicted of a criminal offence. We did not have the resources to have a full time court reporter, and I felt it was unfair to report that people has been charged with a crime, unless we were prepared to cover it till its conclusion. No other newspapers in our company would run what became the highest read column in our paper, because they were afraid an advertiser might be convicted of a crime, and they would pull their advertising.
Great context. Thanks.
As I wrote (https://www.theaudit.ca/p/who-will-underwrite-the-legal-liability), the CBC was not only playing "the role of ally to" a few activists "whose assumptions are threatened by Cass and her findings", but of ally the Canadian Paediatric Society itself! The liberal use of puberty blockers in Canada is official policy.