KINSELLA: Jewish journalists outraged by CBC’s activism

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From the river to the sea, CBC will be … discriminatory.

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We’ve all grown used to hearing about managerial missteps at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: controversies about layoffs, controversies about mandate, controversies about executives quietly getting big bonuses. But Canadian Jews, in particular, continue to be treated unfairly by the taxpayer-subsidized broadcaster.

This writer has documented some of that imbalance in recent months. CBC has adamantly refused to call Hamas terrorists what they are, which is terrorists; they accept Israel-Hamas war casualty counts that come from Hamas; and they have established a secretive internal group – “Middle East 2023” – to oversee coverage of Israel, leaving Jews feeling isolated and victimized.

As one former senior producer said about CBC’s treatment of the Jewish state: “It’s extremely one-sided and is only leading to more misinformation and hatred towards the Jewish community in Canada.”

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And, since the atrocities of Oct. 7, the situation is getting worse.

To cite just one example, a writer and producer for CBC’s digital team has shown up in the Toronto newsroom wearing a keffiyeh – and has posted online that Israel is “an oppressive, destructive” country and “you’re a vile human being if you still defend or excuse Israel.”

Employees who complained to CBC bosses were allegedly told to mind their own business.

But that’s not all:

The Toronto Sun has learned that CBC management has convened “listening sessions” for staff in the coming days – and the sessions are being led by “facilitators” who say they want to “challenge the status quo of Zionism,” who say Israel oversees “an immoral and oppressive occupation” – and one of whom has said he “wholeheartedly, unreservedly supports” an Ontario politician who has been sanctioned for anti-Semitic views in the provincial Legislature.

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The “listening sessions” have left Jewish journalists feeling outraged.

Said one: “Many of us Jewish journalists have spent our entire careers committed to fairness and making sure that the work we put out is balanced, and that it’s backed up by journalistic ethics. And what we’ve seen within the last number of years is a pivot within the CBC from journalism to activism.”

Despite that, the CBC’s top spokesman, Chuck Thompson, was dismissive when asked about the sessions: “Respectfully, whatever meetings or sessions we may be having with employees are just that, they’re internal.”

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With Jewish staff feeling targeted – and with Canadian Jews feeling like their tax dollars are being used against them by CBC – what is the solution? A British lawyer, of all people, may have one.

Trevor Asserson is an experienced litigator and Oxford-trained scholar. He’s an award-winning member of the bar in both Israel and the U.K.

A few days ago, Asserson released a shocking report on the the CBC’s original inspiration, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which found “a deeply worrying pattern of bias and multiple breaches by the BBC of its own editorial guidelines on impartiality, fairness and establishing the truth.”

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Asserson and a team of data scientists and neutral lawyers examined nine million words produced by the BBC across television, radio, web and podcasts. They found an “overwhelming disparity in the perception of the two sides, with sympathy for Palestinians vastly outstripping sympathy for Israelis, even shortly after the massacre of October 7th, 2023.”

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Key findings of the Asserson report:

– BBC’s major TV newscasts favoured the Palestine/Hamas side more than 90% of the time

– BBC web stories favoured the Palestine/Hamas side nearly twice as much as the Israeli side

– BBC accused Israel of war crimes 592 times and Hamas only 98 times

– BBC’s Arabic service even broadcast Hamas propaganda videos, and expressed open support for the terror group on Oct. 7 when 1,200 Jews were slaughtered and hundreds of Israeli women and girls were raped

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Sound familiar? CBC, many suspect, is just as bad – or worse.

In an interview, Asserson said of CBC and BBC: “Israel is being reported on by media organizations that have authority [and which are] obliged to be impartial. So people therefore assume they are.”

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But they’re often not – and that bias needs to be “challenged,” Asserson said.

He continued: “I’m less interested in private broadcasters being very anti-Israel or very pro-Israel, because they’re allowed to be. They don’t get any public money. You can just switch them off and watch something else. I believe in freedom of speech. But I don’t believe that a public body that’s obliged to be impartial should be allowed to get away with unfairness.”

Well, at the CBC, unfairness seems to being running the show(s).

And maybe it’s time for Trevor Asserson, or someone like him, to examine anti-Israel, anti-Jewish bias at CBC – because they’re doing it using our tax dollars.

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