The CBC’s Insolent Election Bias

As Canada’s federal election is less than a month away, the CBC is now a full-fledged left-wing partisan mouthpiece. If you thought the BBC was bad, it has nothing on its bastardized clone. Canada’s public broadcaster—despite its cute mandate to reflect the views of all Canadians—has devoted itself to mocking Conservative Leader Prime Minister Stephen Harper, all the while lauding and defending Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. (NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair hitherto received tepid coverage, but since polls consistently show him evenly splitting the 60-65 per cent of voters desiring change, he has lately been in the CBC’s crosshairs.)

The Mother Corp’s darling Trudeau is given affectionate Putinesque coverage by our state broadcaster. Perusing the CBC’s website, one can see Trudeau boxing with his trainer; Trudeau sipping a beer; Trudeau cuddling his baby boy; Trudeau walking his other son to the park; Trudeau taking his kids to school; Trudeau paddling down a river in a canoe. Of course these moments are contrasted with less flattering pictures of the other two leaders at press junkets, but the intimate nature of many of Trudeau’s shots suggest he is either accompanied by a personal photographer or stalked by paparazzi.

And the bias goes far beyond the aesthetic qualities of the CBC’s selected photographs. A minute-long video of Trudeau paddling down the Bow River was inexplicably tweeted by our state broadcaster. No commentary provided—no story to be told—just a rustic scene of a man enjoying the outdoors. The video coincided nicely with junior Trudeau’s pledge to give CBC an additional 150 million dollars to its annual billion dollar federal subsidy.

Conversely, the public broadcaster’s coverage of the CBC-cutting Harper has been marked by juvenile petulance. From a video montage mocking Harper’s repetition of addressing his audiences as “friends,” to using a picture of the CPC’s Facebook page to accompany an article entitled “Facebook building a dislike button” (apparently by mistake), the CBC constantly portrays the CPC and Harper in a negative light.

Even more telling is a juxtaposition of the CBC’s headlines of its hero and villian. Here are some effusive headlines from the CBC’s Trudeau puff pieces: “Justin Trudeau shows love for Montreal Canadiens,” “Trudeau commits $900M to boost high-tech innovation,” “Trudeau slams Mulcair and Harper for attacks on father’s record,” “Justin Trudeau promises to make family reunification easier for immigrants,” “Justin Trudeau takes back seat to ‘star’ candidates in new Liberal ad,” “Justin Trudeau stakes his claim to prove he’s the true anti-Harper candidate,” “Trudeau vows to bring back long form census, restore respect for public service, end Harper ‘war on science,’” “Trudeau cites his daughter as a reason for Elizabeth May to join debate,” “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian, Justin Trudeau hammers Harper on ‘old-stock’” and “Justin Trudeau built for speed and risk, says snowboarding pal.” These are not cherry-picked articles, but run-of-the-mill spin churned from the Mother Corp.

Yet, even when the gaffe-prone Trudeau slips, the CBC comes to his aid. “Justin Trudeau leaves some deficit wiggle room” was the euphemistic headline the broadcaster chose after Trudeau flip-flopped within the span of a week from promising to keep balanced budgets to declaring to run three large consecutive deficits if in power.

Meanwhile, here are some of the public broadcaster’s attacks leveled at Harper and the CPC: “Muslim Conservative ‘completely’ disagrees her party is racist,” “Stephen Harper may have lost touch with Alberta values, Notley says,” “Stephen Harper booed in absentia after skipping women’s issues interview,” “Stephen Harper’s ‘old-stock Canadians’: Politics of division or simple slip?” (the CBC willfully ignored the other leaders past use of the same term), “Wayne Gretzky to endorse Harper even though he can’t vote” and “Quebec Tory candidate says women ‘absolutely not’ underrepresented in party.” The CBC constantly attempts to brand the CPC as a group of racist and misogynistic bigots.

(Sometimes the CBC goes a little overzealous in its attacks on Harper and has made slight revisions to screeds, only after much outrage from the public.)

The only silver lining Canadian conservatives can take from their public broadcaster’s open hostility to their party is that the Corpse has only a dying influence. The CBC allegedly plans to sell off all of its buildings, consistently records the worst ratings in its history and is plagued by show hosts’ scandals. Despite the constant barrage of attacks by the CBC, the CPC remains locked above 30 per cent, leading the other two parties in many recent polls.

Just this week Harper commented on the CBC’s woes: The reason for the difficulties aren’t the cuts…The reason is the loss of audience. It’s a problem for the CBC to fix.”

It is a valid criticism as the CBC, unlike the BBC, is able to make ad revenue on all of its platforms. If the CBC could only find new relevancy with average Canadians it could increase ad revenue.

Of course the CBC doesn’t see it that way. President Hubert Lacroix, in typical bureaucratic fashion, suggested more regulatory fees are the antidote instead of gaining a renewed audience of Canadian citizens.

Even more disturbing than Lacroix’s denial and delusion of his network’s many failures is the glaring conflicts of interest many CBC reporters fell into when covering the election. Ezra Levant and The Rebel broke the news that the Canadian Media Guild–the union that represents over six-thousand journalists–is registered and actively campaigning against the Conservatives. Furthermore, top executives are on leave of absences to join Trudeau’s campaign team.

Is it any wonder then why the CBC churns out anti-Harper and pro-Trudeau propaganda? Its windfall and very existence hang in the balance.

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