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Saddam And The CBC - National Post

On Monday, National Post columnist Colby Cosh predicted the left would try to figure out some way to disparage Saddam Hussein's capture. We were skeptical. Finding the Iraqi dictator was plainly a massive victory both for U.S.-led coalition forces and freedom-loving Iraqis. Left-leaning media outlets, we expected, would have the good sense to realize that any effort to present this news in a negative light would come across as contrived and petty.

But as the Monday-night installment of CBC's National news telecast made clear, we were wrong.

All week, millions of people in Iraq have been celebrating Saddam's capture. So what footage did CBC reporter Nahlah Ayed show us to lead off the public TV network's broadcast? Why, an angry group of Saddam loyalists, of course. Ms. Ayed then told us that, aside from more violence, "Saddam's capture seemed to make little difference to what's become the everyday here." For good measure, she added later that the former dictator's capture is militarily meaningless and, therefore, Iraq "will likely continue to witness more bombings, more killings, and more injustice."

CBC viewers were then whisked off to Washington where reporter David Halton suggested Saddam's capture had caused U.S. President George W. Bush to lapse into a characteristically "gloating" oratorical style. In conclusion, Mr. Halton informed viewers that "what some Democrats worry about" -- i.e., what the CBC worries about -- "is a big show trial in the fall that will remind people of Saddam's atrocities just before the presidential vote."

From there, CBC viewers were taken to Kabul to get Afghans' take on Saddam's capture. Why Afghanistan? We haven't the foggiest -- except that the backdrop provided a convenient pretext to remind Canadians that, although Saddam is caught, Osama bin Laden -- who "many argue ... is far more dangerous than the former Iraqi leader" -- is still at large.

CBC viewers who hadn't already turned off their sets were later treated to an anti-American hit-job segment titled Skeletons in the Closet, in which reporter Brian Stewart focused on U.S. links with Saddam a generation ago. It was, in fact, France and the Soviet Union that supplied Saddam with most of his 1980s-era arsenal. Yet, oddly, the CBC piece focussed almost entirely on the United States as Saddam's friend. Go figure.

To summarize, here are the impressions a casual viewer might have taken from Monday night's CBC news: (1) Iraqis still love Saddam, and so his capture has only enraged them; (2) Despite Mr. Bush's "gloating," things will get worse; (3) Saddam's trial will be a propaganda trick engineered to re-elect a Republican president; (4) To the extent Saddam did anything bad, America was the real villain; and (5) Saddam's capture is meaningless anyway because Osama is still on the loose.

That all seems fair, doesn't it? You can really see what CBC News editor-in-chief Tony Burman was talking about when he told National Post readers earlier this year that "informed citizenship benefits from the expression of the fullest range of responsible opinion on important issues, rather than artificially limiting the spectrum of debate to favour one particular perspective."

Sarcasm aside, this is yet another example of left-wing, anti-American bias at the CBC. We remind the network's executives again that the public broadcaster is funded to the tune of $850-million per year by Canadian taxpayers. It should not -- and must not -- serve as a closed-circuit forum for the predictable biases of a tiny clique.

We have heard a great deal about corporate governance in recent days. If the CBC board of directors -- which is appointed by the prime minister -- fails in its public duty, perhaps Canada's public broadcaster should be subject to oversight by a more pro-active, hands-on board whose composition is determined by less partisan criteria.

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This article is spot-on!! Man, do I EVER wish I could get the FOX News Channel up here in Toronto to balance all the Liberal drivel the CBC & Global News dishes out!!

GREAT ARTICLE deserving of a full post....

- ConservativeStLouisGuy