CBC engineering our opinion again

[Jimmy SG]

"Jeremiah

Kamloops

To Allen and Brad, I ask you; what are you doing to help the Afghani people? I lost friends over there to help them get back on their feet. I was told personally, to my face by a local man after a comrade was blown up in suicide bombing, that "The people who did this were not Afghani, they do not care about Afghanistan".

He went on to thank me for leaving my security and paradise (he had heard of the luxuries we enjoy in Canada) and travelling 1/2 way around the world to help his country with NO PERSONAL GAIN and at great risk to myself.

Until this point, I didn't realize the effect that I had on these people's daily lives. Just to be able to open a basic shop, to be allowed to fly a kite, basic freedoms. Not the kind of freedoms trumpeted by the Bush government, but genuine freedoms. Basic human rights. The right to live your life as you choose that has been denied these people.

And yes, dying is a poor way to make a living, but I feel that the chance to help these people outweighs my selfishness and personal security. I want for nothing here in Canada, I would die to help others share in the same paradise that I now enjoy. I will return there shortly, try to see outside your own luxuries and realize that the world isn't as perfect as we have it here. There are STILL people out there that are capeable of the atrocities of the holocaust. That is all.

Posted January 30, 2007 03:18 AM"

They are not removing all the positive comments.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Source?

Here is the link to Levant's stated source: http://www.stephentaylor.ca/

About halfway down the page is a list of political donations which may have come from the head of Telecaster.

IF true there is bound to be a perception of bias which, as with conflict of interest, should be enough to tarnish all concerned.  The Tories should be able to spin this into a nice little scandal - they should hope and pray that Mr. Patterson will fight back so as to stretch it out for a long, long time.  Tar brushes are sooooo useful in politics.

 

[observor 69]

"Jeremiah

Kamloops

To Allen and Brad, I ask you; what are you doing to help the Afghani people? I lost friends over there to help them get back on their feet. I was told personally, to my face by a local man after a comrade was blown up in suicide bombing, that "The people who did this were not Afghani, they do not care about Afghanistan".

Small point but shouldn't the reply have read "Alden " and Brad?

 

[vonGarvin]

I got an email today from the cbc.  They were having technical difficulties, much like was mentioned a few posts up.

 

[dapaterson]

As always:  Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.

 

[a_majoor]

As always:  Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.

On the other hand, there are some very good reasons to believe malice is involved as well:

http://www.mediaright.ca/MSMbias.htm

MSM Bias 101: An Essay

By: Celestial Junk Blog

Mainstream Media uses a number of techniques to foist upon the public its views, but all the while maintaining the appearance of impartiality.  Media Bias 101 is a description of the more subtle techniques used.  Those who follow the more intelligent discussions and posts on media bias, will find nothing in Media Bias 101 to be surprising.  However, I have become convinced that all too many well meaning individuals are completely ignorant of the methods used by media to distort the truth, and therefore fall victim to its ploys.  I must stress that the following essay is not about op-ed writing, but the straightforward reporting of hard news.  Editorial pieces are opinion, so they should not be governed by the same rules as “News” pieces, but by other standards which are not a part of this commentary

Index: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Follow the link and read the ten different techniques used by the MSM in an attempt to engineer our opinion. This isn't entirely new, but past practitioners of "Dezinformatsiya" were State agencies, rather than private parties.

 

[Ippocalyptica]

Also, we have to differentiate between possible technical incompetence or malice on behalf of the CBC forums, and the general viewpoint of CBC itself.  It anything, CBC is trying to "engineer" a positive image of the CF - I subscribe to the Globe and Mail and most of the authors and editorialists therein are strongly supportive of the CF, in every way (just check any given week's coverage - Christie Blatchford, John Ibbitson, even the highly cynical Margaret Wente, amongst others).  Peter Mansbridge himself is strongly supportive of the CF, and he is perhaps the face of CBC (there is ample evidence of this in the video archive - people who watch The National know of his views).  Finally, if people want to believe that the CBC is an organ of the federal government (a criticism I know was levelled at CBC when the Liberals were in power), then if anything support for the CF would be at its highest now.

The second matter here regards support for the mission in Afghanistan, which can be quite distinct from support for the CF, at least on its face.  People can say, "Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Canadian Forces, but I hate this mission in Afghanistan."  There is somewhat of an inconsistency in such a statement, since support for an organisation is highly dependent upon that organisation's activities ("you are what you do", or "actions speak louder than words"), so if someone supports the CF without supporting its activities, they either do not understand what it is that soldiering entails, or simply want to validate their anti-Afghanistan sentiment with something equally offsetting, such as patriotic comments supporting the CF.

I was living in Toronto for most of my life, getting a cosmopolitan view of these views.  I have been living in Ottawa for eight months now, getting a more formal and bureaucratic view of the issues.  Ultimately, people ascribe more importance to CBC (or MTV, or any single source) than it deserves, especially in our highly globalised, Internet-oriented age where information sources from afar are often more important than national ones.  It might be possible that the people who tend to post more on these online forums (not THIS one, but most of them) tend to come from left-wing, activist dispositions - after all, posting on Internet forums is a form of "activism" in their view - and so the preponderence of critical voices is not representative of the total population, but merely of the patterns of forum posting.

 

[sober_ruski]

On the other hand, there are some very good reasons to believe malice is involved as well:

http://www.mediaright.ca/MSMbias.htm

Follow the link and read the ten different techniques used by the MSM in an attempt to engineer our opinion. This isn't entirely new, but past practitioners of "Dezinformatsiya" were State agencies, rather than private parties.

da, nyet, vodka, horosho

That's a fancy word for government approved lies in order to confuse the enemy, military or otherwise, not bias... it doesnt directly translate to bias. Not sure if there is a single word in English to translate it.

I guess next step is registration, prohibition, and confiscation of private firearm ownersh.... oh wait... never mind.

 

[Ready Aye Ready]

"People can say, "Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Canadian Forces, but I hate this mission in Afghanistan."  There is somewhat of an inconsistency in such a statement, since support for an organisation is highly dependent upon that organisation's activities ("you are what you do", or "actions speak louder than words"), so if someone supports the CF without supporting its activities, they either do not understand what it is that soldiering entails, or simply want to validate their anti-Afghanistan sentiment with something equally offsetting, such as patriotic comments supporting the CF."
I strongly disagree with this statement.
The activity of the Canadian Forces is the Defence of Canada and the promotion of Canadian National Interests. The people who do this job are to be commended and supported for their willingness to preform a job most Canadians do not want to do, as it comes with certain hardships and risks. This support for the individuals in the CF is unconditional, as the CF does not make foreign policy decisions.
However, if the Government of Canada employs the CF in a manner that does nothing to make Canada more safe, and is contrary to Canadian National Interests then it is the duty of every Canadian Citizen to NOT SUPPORT that activity. I am not saying that this is the necessarily the case in Afghanistan as of yet; however, to take an example from the USA, the invasion of Iraq is one of the largest blunders in US foreign policy since 1776. If all sensible free thinking persons in the USA had given critical thought to the plan of invasion in 2003, instead of wrapping themselves in the Flag and calling all disenters unpatriotic and anti-troops, they might have seen OP IRAQI FREEDOME for what it was: extremely detrimental to both the National Security and National Interests of the USA. I would hate to see the same thing take hold in Canada, you never know what kind of quagmire it may leads us into.         

 

[a_majoor]

Dezinformatsiya was indeed state sanctioned lies and misinformation, so it is not an exact analogy to what is going on here. On the other hand, it seems strange that virtually every MSM outlet you see is spinning stories in a very distinct manner. We see examples of "push polls" against the Conservative government (i.e. "Would you like a $1000 general tax cut by the Conservative Government or a $1000 environmental tax cut by a Liberal government?"); the relentlessly negative reporting from Iraq (where is any mention of the raising standard of living in 2/3 of that country, or for that matter an unequivocal reporting of which outside agencies are sponsoring and funding the insurgency and to what end they are working?); one sided and alarmest reporting on "Global Warming", but omitting the time period that Canada's emissions rose 30%, etc.

Even Afghanistan is a constant case in point. I saw CTV newsnet piece where the EXCOM commander was being interviewed. No audio feed was given, rather a "talking head" was asked what the general had said, and proceeded to mention about 4 lines from the general's remarks and several paragraphs of his own to Taliban intentions and "upcoming offences" this spring. We can also compare the number of stories and videos of "Ramp ceremonies" compared to stories about the PRT's.......

The seeming desired end state is to turn Canadians away from the new direction we are starting down and back to "Trudopea", although I have yet to see any sort of balanced assessment of how Canada did either in Trudopea or how and why our international presence evaporated in the 1990's. If after reasoned debate we decided that Trudopea really does serve our national interests better than any alternative then fine, but there is no debate desired or seemingly allowed.