Several reasons to read Norman Spector:
1) His vision is about our most acute:
…
Here in Canada, on the other hand, we’ve just seen the worst in journalism, with the CBC’s broadcast of an interview in which CSIS Director Richard Fadden states that a number of Canadian politicians are influenced by foreign states. Now, politicians and pundits are criticizing Mr. Fadden for making this statement. And calls for his resignation are being heard across the land.
How does the broadcast of this interview reflect the worst in journalism, you ask?
Buried within Colin Freeze and Ian Bailey’s fine report of the interview fallout in Thursday’s Globe and Mail, we read: “The timing of the CBC interview was not Mr. Fadden’s choice. This spring, CBC approached him to repeat remarks he had made at a private, but videotaped, speech at the Royal Canadian Military Institute. The public broadcaster kept the interview in its back pocket until it broadcast the exclusive this week.”
In other words, CBC sat on the explosive interview for weeks, if not months. And it chose to make the interview public on the eve of a state visit to Canada by China’s President Hu, and on the eve of a summit to be attended both by him and by the Prime Minister of India.
Shame on the people who made that judgment. Heads should roll all right – heads at the CBC.
2) He can really mine the papers:
…
–Might this explain the CBC ambush of Mr. Fadden?
Fadden’s remarks seemingly out of character
Mr. Fadden’s first major speech as CSIS director – delivered last fall to the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies’ annual conference – also contained statements that struck many observers as strange. In it, he directed aim at Canada’s political elites and the media for underestimating the threat posed by international terrorism.
Although there had been five convictions or guilty pleas in terror cases before the courts, he noted, “Our elites tend to avert their eyes and media tend to give what little coverage they grant on this subject to groups that seem to feel that our charm and the Maple Leaf on our backpacks are all that we need to protect us.… Why … are those accused of terrorist offences often portrayed in media as quasi-folk heroes, despite the harsh statements of numerous judges? Why are they … more or less taken at their word when they accuse CSIS or other government agencies of abusing them?”..
3) He can sniff the stink:
THE COLUMN I’M GLAD I DIDN’T WRITE
A column that gets it wrong from start to finish—with a couple of idiociesThere is no stuffing secrets back into the spy director’s briefcase (Mason)
Mark
Ottawa
Holy fack! I know reporters sometimes keep undated stuff in their back pockets for slow news days, but this is NUTS! CBC’s got some ‘splainin’ to do….
Anyone who can’t say that there isn’t a blatantly obvious bias at the CBC by now is blind as a bat, willingly or not. This is just one more reason for SUN News to make a big splash – and why it will.
Defund the CBC. Fire. Them. All.
The Liberal rep Collonette on Evan Soloman’s Panel questioned CBC decision to sit on this interview until this week. it appears even the Liberals are shocked by CBC’s underhanded reporting.
CBC mocking the goodie bags given to the international media and mocking the free booze and living wall in the media center. It appears that Toronto Canada is beneath the CBC’s snobby journalists.
I say throw the bums out… Canada deserve better.
Tell me again why Canada doesn’t need Sun TV ???
I hope Sun TV News keeps tabs on Spector, journalism like this is what Sun needs.
[...] (such as former senior public servant and current columnist Norman Spector and right-wing blogger Adrian McNair) called for heads to roll at CBC for their journalistic [...]
Can’t wait for SUN TV to start shaving the already decreasing audience share that CBC ‘enjoys’.
Like the frantic thrashings of a dying beast, CBC seems to be throwing all the bias it can find at the government, perhaps in hopes of a last minute rescue by Iggy and Co.
CBC has crossed an ethical line, the CEO should be fired ASAP.
This is troubling. I wonder what the rationale was for sitting on the interview. If CBC news waited to release it when it could get the most press, then that seems very unethical.
That said, Fadden’s assertions that even the Prime Minister’s Office apparently wasn’t aware of are very serious and he could have handled this whole situation better.
Newsflash!!! Reporters present stories in such a way to get the most attention possible. In other news, the Pope is Catholic and bears may indeed take their dumps somewhere in the woods.
The last time I checked, blathering on in public about suspicions CSIS may or may not have wasn’t anywhere in the job description for CSIS Director. Getting the maximum amount of attention possible paid to their stories on the hand is a pretty fair assessment of the job of any news agency. The CBC might be jerks for timing their story for their own benefit. So?
There are many enemies of Canada, in fact of the Western Democracies, some of them even elected to help the very democracy that they actually seek to destroy. I believe that the CBC is in on this philosophy and is playing it for all it’s worth, know that their time is drawing near. The CBC is almost Kaput, at least the biased anti-Canada crew that now runs it can see the writing on the wall.
Once there is a station to oppose them openly, with equal air time, they’re done.
You guys know Spector was, well, speculating, right?
The interview in question was conducted on Monday night.
So can I assume you all will be apologizing to the CBC now?
I won’t be. My low opinion of the CBC wasn’t effected in the slightest by this little issue. The CBC is a rather mediocre product considering the large sums of money spent on it each year. And that’s just quality I’m talking about although, the news departments at the CBC are simply attrocious at putting aside their natural human biases. Of course there sources with an even more blatant agenda, (coughFoxcough), but “we suck less” is the best that the CBC could reasonably claim on that front.
I’d assume that the CBC was the best you could reasonable expect a publicly funded broadcaster with such a gargantuan mandate, but then there’s the BBC. The BBC is similarly funded and is leaps and bounds superior to the CBC in any area I can think of.
I wouldn’t privatize the CBC, but someone really has to do something to improve them.
[...] to this post, CSIS and l’affaire Fadden: “Heads should roll all right – heads at the [...]