St-Onge is gambling you’ll love her new, improved CBC: are you as excited as I am?
Plus! Censorship scandal as Trudeau senator gets Hill Times to rewrite Opposition op-ed, cash for coverage rocks Irish media and CTV's outing of Lululemon founder
A new mandate and a new boss for the CBC are, we’re told by the CBC through anonymous CBC government sources, about to be revealed.
And it has to happen soon, because the wife of Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge (pictured above) is about to have a baby so the minister will be taking parental leave (according to CTV the timing was unplanned). All the best to the happy couple and their little bundle of joy.
So, a couple of quick polls to get things rolling and then we’ll dive into naughty Senate shenanigans, CTV’s Tall Poppy issues and other stuff.
There is a long history of politicians using only the facts that best support their argument only to have those countered by an opponent.
There is a rough and tumble aspect to this rhetorical dueling, but it has generally served society well. One can be outraged by an opponent’s biased use of statistics but still respect their freedom to do so, parry and thrust. This is the essence of democracy.
These days, if the latest Senate shenanigans are anything to go by, the first instinct is not to duel but launch a pre-emptive strike through censorship - an authoritarian tool which, according to Blacklock’s Reporter, Senator Lucie Moncion got caught using. A former banker who calls North Bay home, Moncion was among the Trudeau government’s first appointments to the Senate in 2016.
What she did was use her influence as chair of the internal economy committee to convince The Hill Times to rewrite an August 21 opinion piece written by fellow committee member Senator Donald Plett (Manitoba) who is also the conservative leader of the Opposition in the Senate. The Hill Times is a twice-weekly publication focused on coverage of Parliament. It appears it did not advise readers of the update or check with Plett to confirm the changes.
“I wish to offer you my personal, unreserved and unqualified apology,” Moncion told the Senate last week. “I offer it with genuine intent and humility. Every day is a learning experience and I have learned from this event.”
Why Moncion defaulted to censorship instead of simply writing a rebuttal of Plett’s commentary is downright creepy.
Nor is this a good look for The Hill Times, which is among the many media in Canada being subsidized through the Journalism Labour Tax Credit. It also enjoys a multi-year $898,567 federal contract for news clippings that it is no doubt hoping will be renewed next year. As with many if not most media recipients of government subsidies these days, it has demurred from mentioning that connection when publishing articles critical of Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre’s proposal to abolish media subsidies.
Subsidy recipients are not required by law to report this association, but the appearance of conflicts of interest is often addressed in news organizations’ ethics guidelines. The Toronto Star’s Journalistic Standards, for instance, state:
“Independence from those we cover is a key principle of journalistic integrity. We avoid conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts. Torstar news organizations believe in paying the costs incurred in gathering and publishing news. In circumstances where that may not be possible, we disclose information that could create the perception of a conflict of interest. Transparency with our readers about the potential for conflicts should guide our considerations about real or perceived conflicts.”
I reached out to Senator Pamela Wallin (Sask.) , a former journalist and podcaster, for her take. This is what she said:
“Opinions and/or facts you disagree with are not misinformation or disinformation. They are ideas or thoughts that you don't share. … A belief in free speech means tolerating views you do not hold or like. Someone's opinion may even offend you. So say you disagree. Write your own opinion piece. If it's hate speech, call the cops. …Words matter folks. So does our freedom to disagree.”
In Ireland, they actually have a Media Minister. Her name is Catherine Martin and she’s been busy setting up funding for news organizations, some of whom - independent radio stations - declined because it meant doing additional work. But the big news has been that, as Gript put it “The Irish Media Knew They were being Bribed And Kept Silent.” The Sunday Independent, which had originally shown interest in the fund but declined once it suspected there were strings attached, blew the whistle when it reported:
“Details of internal discussions about the Global Ireland Media Challenge Fund (GIMCF), a scheme aimed at boosting media coverage of “major geo-political developments and the changing nature of Ireland’s role in the world”, have been released following a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.
“So far under the scheme, RTÉ (the public broadcaster) has been granted €720,000, Virgin Media €500,000, and Journal Media €231,500. The Irish Examiner, the Business Post and Reach Media, the publisher of the Irish Daily Star and Irish Daily Mirror, all received €100,000 each. Bauer Media, the German owner of Newstalk and Today FM, is to get €55,000. Sunday Independent owner Mediahuis applied in 2021, but later withdrew.”
Pay for play is one way to describe it. But there are other words, too.
CTV News Vancouver thinks it newsworthy that there was a sign outside the $80 million mansion of Lululemon magnate Chip Wilson stating (B.C. Premier David) "Eby will tell you the Conservatives are 'far right,' but neglects saying that the NDP is ‘communist.’”
Why a journalist would find this newsworthy (B.C. is in the home stretch of an election campaign) mystifies me. In many ways it is no different than finding a sign outside a union hall denouncing the evils of capitalism. But what really gets me is that not only did CTV publish the street address of Wilson’s home (which, to no one’s surprise was then vandalized), they acknowledged that they hadn’t even confirmed if Wilson was involved in putting the sign up. One of these days, sloppy journalism like that is going to cost CTV a lot of money. As it turns out, more signs have appeared and now Canadian Press thinks it’s a story big enough to consume what we are constantly told are scarce resources. Media love celebrity, I guess, but I still don’t get it. Tall Poppy Syndrome at CTV maybe. Or, clickbait.
A new poll was published last week by UQAM’s School of Media. It showed that trust in journalists continues to decline, with 50 percent of Quebeckers of the belief that traditional media manipulate the information they broadcast. That’s up six points from 2023.
We started with the CBC, so let’s finish with it. Five of its alumni - David Suzuki, Peter Mansbridge, Adrienne Clarkson, Paul Kennedy and Linden MacIntyre, have written to Brodie Fenlon, head of CBC News, with a list of “recommendations” for enhanced coverage of the “civilizational threat” posed by fossil fuels and global warming. Yes, yes, many of you are rolling your eyes.
But what struck me was the request for a “daily climate emergency report.” If it is that important, Suzuki and Mansbridge have enough money to pay for something like that themselves and launch it on this internet thingy that all the kids are talking about. Suzuki even has his own foundation. Use it. If CBC is ever going to be useful again, it will be as a trusted source of news, not as a platform for advocacy.
Happy Thanksgiving and my own thanks are given this week to Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney at The Line for publishing this piece of mine on the mess that is Canada’s digital policy and to John Ivison for posting this tale of how the Royal British Columbia Museum is snubbing efforts by my brother Graeme and former cabinet minister Ted Menzies to reclaim artifacts for the Menzies Clan Society. And yes I’m sucking up in the hope they will recommend The Rewrite and add jet fuel its growth. You, too, can help spread the word. (Note: A previous version of this edition identified Senator Pamela Wallin as a Conservative. She is in fact a member of the Canadian Senators Group. My bad. I feel shame.)
(Peter Menzies is a National Newspaper Award-winning journalist, a former publisher of the Calgary Herald, a past vice chair of the CRTC and a Senior Fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute)
I dusted of my bean-counting skills and reviewed the CBC's annual report and CRTC submissions. My conclusion is that the CBC is a bloated, poorly run organization. Facts to support that conclusion include:
1) CBC English TV averages 108 employees per station, CTV 49. The difference is not spending on news as CTV spent $153M on news while the CBC spent $50M.
2) CBC English TV spent $40M on Sales & Promotion which generated $72M in advertising revenue. CTV spent $44M on Sales & Promotion and had $513M in advertising revenue. Put another way, CTV spent 8.6% of its advertising revenue on Sales & Promotion - the CBC spent 55.6%.
3) CBC's Trade Receivables represent 4 months of advertising and subscriber revenue. That indicates a "pay us when you feel like it" attitude in the collections department.
4) CBC's expenses increased from $493M in Q3 to $574M in Q4 (Jan 1 to Mar 31), an increase of $81 M (The increase was $65M in 2023). CBC's explanation was "Operating costs tend to be higher in the fourth quarter as the Corporation incurs costs preparing for the fall broadcast season and completes project deliverables due by the end of the fiscal year".
The CBC does not explain what costs are incurred for the fall season or what projects must be completed by the end of the fiscal year. Is there a lot of travel? Fancy get togethers to celebrate the fall schedule? Are costs related to cancelled shows and failed pilots written-off in Q4? Is this an accounting issue where costs aren't booked until Q4? Or do they look at their budget and see they have money left so they go on a spending craze in order to use up their budget? My bet is a spending craze.
5) The Rogers/CBC HNIC deal is an epic failure for the CBC. Rogers gets full use of the CBC's network, gets 100% of the advertising revenue, and pays the CBC nothing. The only benefit the CBC gets is plugs for its shows during HNIC.
6) The CBC's 2023/24 financial results were only released last week - that's more than 6 months after their year end. The audit was completed almost 3 moths after year end. The financial results should have been audited and released by the end of April - one month after year end. Virtually every public company does this.
7) The CBC has a number of key performance indicators (KPIs) which they often miss. How do they handle these misses? Do they replace people? No, they lower the target for the following year.
With problems like these, I don't see how the CBC can be reformed. If we want a public broadcaster, I think we need to scrap the CBC and start over.
Wow! So far a strong majority of your readers want the CBC to get the Milei chainsaw treatment.
The last part of your column nicely links to the first. A large minority of Canadian see the CBC is biased and want it refunded. Susuki and Mansbridge want to pour tons of fuel on the fire, counterproductively proposing to make it MORE biased, making this outcome even more likely.