Posted on 06/19/2003 2:41:35 PM PDT by knighthawk
Earlier this month, the National Post editorial board invited readers to e-mail us their complaints about bias at the CBC. In coming months, we'll highlight some on these pages. Taxpayers subsidize our national broadcaster to the tune of $850-million every year. Too often, that money goes to subsidize anti-U.S., anti-Israeli propaganda.
Often, the slant creeps in subtly -- a refusal to call Palestinian terrorists "terrorists," for instance. (In CBC-speak, they are all "militants.") But sometimes, the bias hits you squarely in the face. On CBC Radio's The Current, there have been a few appalling instances of late -- such as when the producers ran a phony story that alleged the United States had admitted war in Iraq was motivated by a lust for oil.
But perhaps the best recent example was served up by As It Happens, CBC Radio's flagship evening news program.
On June 6, the same day we ran out first "CBC-Watch" editorial, the day's big news was the announcement that Hamas, a Palestinian "militant" group which regularly blows up Israeli restaurants and buses, had broken off talks with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who was then trying to arrange a ceasefire with Israel. As It Happens led its show with a six-minute segment on the subject.
The piece consisted entirely of an interview with Diana Buttu, a Canadian-born advisor to the PLO. The fact there was only one guest, and that she was a Palestinian official, was not in itself objectionable. Partisanship does not always translate to propaganda. And in any case, As It Happens' producers occasionally get Israeli guests on their show too -- though, as was the case last Thursday, they are often peaceniks whose views mirror those of the Palestinians.
But the Buttu segment was truly toxic. While the interview purported to be about Hamas, Ms. Buttu instead spent her time talking about the alleged evils of Israel and its leader, Ariel Sharon. Worse, much of what she said was pure disinformation. Though Ms. Buttu presents herself as an expert on international law and the Middle East, her comments were full of blunders.
Ms. Buttu declared, for instance, that "under international law, all of the territories that Israel occupied in 1967 ... belong to the Palestinians and Israel is not even entitled to a single inch of that." Wrong. UN Security Council Resolution 242, the guiding authority, requires Israel to withdraw from some, but not all, of the disputed territories. Moreover, Israel is obliged to withdraw only after its "right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force" is guaranteed, which, as Hamas itself regularly demonstrates, hasn't happened.
Ms. Buttu declared that "Hamas isn't actually opposed to peace with Israel. Hamas takes the approach that ... when Israel recognizes Palestine, we will recognize Israel." Wrong. Hamas is pledged to the total destruction of the Jewish state. Its founding covenant, which is available on the Web in various languages, declares that "peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of [Hamas]" and "the Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them."
Ms. Buttu declared that, "International law is very clear. There is an international border, and Israel simply has to withdraw to that international border, and from there we can begin to negotiate about other issues." Wrong. If the border separating pre-1967 Israel and the West Bank is an "international" border, then what's the name of the "nation" on the other side, Diana? It has no name, because no sovereign nation called "Palestine" exists (or ever did). Before 1967, Jordan controlled the area. But that country renounced its claim to the West Bank 15 years ago.
To her credit, Mary Lou Finlay, the As It Happens host, tried to guide Ms. Buttu back to the subject. But it didn't work. Within seconds, the irrepressible PLO propagandist -- whose ostensible role on the show, remember, was to talk about the refusal of a terrorist organization to countenance peace negotiations -- was back to railing against Israel.
How did this interview make it to air? Despite the guest's obvious falsehoods, the producers at the CBC not only thought the segment good enough to broadcast to a national audience, they made it their lead item. This ensured their listeners were nicely programmed with anti-Israeli bias by the time last week's violence erupted. No wonder many Canadians have such a biased view of the Middle East.
It is thanks to broadcasts like this that I am increasingly abandoning the CBC in favour of its more objective U.S. counterpart, National Public Radio (NPR). In Toronto, where I live, I can tune in the Buffalo affiliate of NPR, WNED 970AM, on my car radio. The sound is scratchy because Buffalo is two hours away. But then, I would rather hear electromagnetic distortion than the ideological variety.
At home, my wife and I wake up to the local Toronto CBC show, Metro Morning. But the host, Andy Barrie, doesn't even try to hide his left-wing bias -- and so as soon as we can drag ourselves out of bed, we turn it off, and switch on NPR's Morning Edition. (Anyone can get crystal clear reception by accessing the NPR audio feed through their Internet connection. Visit npr.org for a list of Web-casting stations.) Some conservatives in the United States grumble that NPR is left-wing. But by Canadian standards, it is positively centrist. Certainly, no NPR producer would permit the sort of overt bias and basic errors I regularly hear on CBC.
One CBC producer who called me after the Post began promoting CBC Watch accused me of "targeting" his network. But that's not what we're doing. Our objective is to get the CBC to improve itself -- to drop the propaganda. This is supposed to be our national broadcaster, not a left-wing college radio station.
Motivating change is difficult. The CBC official who takes calls on this issue is left-leaning "Chief Journalist" Tony Burman. I've been on various media panels with him, and have found him to be perfectly gracious as a person. But when the conversation turns to the network's anti-Israeli, anti-U.S. tilt, he sticks his head in the sand and starts reading off from a list of prepared sound bites.
Burman's not doing the network any favours. Canadians already have access to a half-dozen news channels on television. And broadband technology now allows people like me to easily tune into superior U.S. news radio. If the CBC doesn't change, people will simply tune it out.
Jonathan Kay is editorials editor.; Comments about CBC can be sent to cbc-watch@nationalpost.com
Bumping the National Post!
That's scary as hell.
ROTFLOL!
Too funny...;o)
(Relatively) free countries usually are.
The former host of "As It Happens" was Barbara Frum
mother of David, of "Axis of Evil" fame.
But times were different then.
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