Truth in Broadcasting

Jason Kenney seemed to say lying was OK this week when in defending Bev Oda he suggested there was no real problem in what she did saying, "The CBC lies all the time."

I don't agree with Kenney but that may explain why the CRTC was planning to go ahead with the rule change that would make it alright for broadcasters to simply make up the news. Most people thought it was to get ready for the new right-wing, FOX news style TV channel which will soon go to air in Canada but perhaps it was to put broadcasters on the same foot as legislators.

Well, hold on to your hats. CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein (I'm sorry I always think of Hogan's Heros when I hear his name.) is quoted in the Embassy, Canada's Foreign Policy Newsletter saying “I was perfectly happy with what it was before, and I’m sure at the next commission meeting, we will withdraw this attempt at rewriting.”

On Thursday the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations, a committee of the House and Senate, agreed to withdraw advice to the CRTC to water down a regulation prohibiting the broadcast of false and misleading news.

As a result of advice from the committee, the CRTC issued a notice of consultation in January to change its prohibition on the broadcast of false and misleading news so that it would instead be a prohibition on “any news that the licensee knows is false or misleading and that endangers or is likely to endanger the lives, health or safety of the public.”

Thanks to everyone who wrote the CRTC and their MPs to stop this stupid rule change.

CRTC Betrays Canadian Public Again

CRTC Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein

The news out of Ottawa this week is that the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is proposing a regulatory change that would give Canadian TV and radio stations what some are describing a  free reign to broadcast false and/or misleading news.

The regulations now prohibit broadcasters from putting any "false or misleading news” to air but apparently the commission thinks the ban is too onerous. 

The new proposed regulations propose a ban on the broadcast of “any news that the licensee knows is false or misleading and that endangers or is likely to endanger the lives, health or safety of the public.”

That of course would make it perfectly acceptable for a broadcaster or a reporter to make up the news and to put that news to air with impunity. As long as no one's health and safety was endangered. 

The CRTC quietly posted notice of the proposed change, which is slated to go into effect on Sept. 1, on its website last week. The commission has also limited the public's ability to respond to this proposed change. They will only be accepting comments from the public until Feb. 9.

You too can raise your objection to this very questionable decision at the CRTC Website. Scroll down until you get to 2011 - 14, The subject  is Call for comments on amendments to the Radio Regulations, 1986, Television Broadcasting Regulations,

I have lost count of how many CRTC hearings I have testified at over the years. I lost any faith I may have had in that bunch years ago.

I worked in television when the CRTC started to blur the lines between “news” and “public affairs” programming. As the definitions became more and more fuzzy, reporters and cameramen were assigned to an increasing number of what we used to call, “bobbing for apples” stories and away from the harder news which required extra time, cost a little more and for which some actual research might be required. Seasoned reporters found themselves working as purveyors of info-tainment instead of real news.

So, thanks to the CRTC, news today is less relevant that it once was and fewer reporters are out there working the beat. Now truth in news is going out the window. If you are looking for that elusive silver lining in this story, there may be more jobs for creative writers in broadcast news rooms in coming months. Researchers need not apply.

The timing of this decision, just a few months before a right wing Canadian  “FOX news style”  channel is preparing to go on the air is very interesting to say the least. This latest betrayal by the keepers of the “public airwaves” is probably the last nail in the coffin of broadcast news, such as it is.