CBC Censors The News Again

By Stephen Pate – Canada’s state-owned TV and radio network, the CBC, is well known for a lack of ethics in the newsroom. CBC regularly cuts off any internet comments on stories for unstated reasons. This is typical of state-owned or controlled media like Pravda but should not happen in an open democracy like Canada.

The story Why the minimum wage ‘Fight for $15′ may be the wrong battle published August 2, 2015 and immediately closed for comments.

Stories may be closed for comments when time passes since a moderator has to check the story, when the story involves reporting of criminal cases and CBC wants to avoid defamation.

Stories are open for comments, the norm in the internet news business, to encourage reader engagement and encourage alternate points of view.

“Online reader comments can provide valuable feedback to news sites,” wrote Science Daily quoting a study by the University of Missouri-Columbia. “Readers often value different journalistic ideals than traditional journalists. Researchers have found that editors and owners of news organizations may want to pay more attention to what their readers are saying about their news stories in order to better serve their consumers.”

If you are the state-owned media outlet you risk the charge of censorship by cutting of comments but that does not seem to deter the CBC who have their own journalistic standards. Canadians have seen first hand that the CBC News department can be influenced by speakers fees for Peter Mansbridge and Rex Murphy. CBC business journalist Amanda Lang used her position to kill a story about Royal Bank of Canada since her friend or partner is a director.

CBC has complained that the government cut their funding and asking for more money from the Canadian government. One would think the logical move would be to encourage more reader / voter engagement and hence bolster their argument for higher subsidies.

As for the $15 minimum wage story, it reminded me of my economics professor who said two economists in a room will give you three opinions. Four economists gives you six opinions and a fight.

The article basically posits several alternatives to paying people a living wage, none of which will likely get approval and help the working poor. Thanks CBC.

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network