CBC = biassed!

I never really realized this before, but the CBC is biassed, just like any other news agency.

Y'see, being a good Canadian girl, I've always had a soft spot for the CBC. I see Yergn Goth as that crazy old uncle who tells weird stories, Tom Allan is my morning pick-me-up, and Peter Mansbridge's forehead soothes me (and the fact that he could not be wearing any pants and I'd never know amuses me). My main source of news is the ten minute updates on CBC radio two, and I've always thought that the CBC was fairly accurate, and unbiassed. Maybe they were a little Liberal, maybe they covered hockey a bit too fervently -- but, hey, what good Canadian station wouldn't?

Then came the Prime Minister's trip to Asia. Last Thursday I was listening to the news, and was shocked to hear a reference to "The 1989 'student protests' in Tiannamen Square". Pardon? "Student Protests"? How about "massacre"? Never once in the news brief did they mention that people got killed in 1989, or that the Chinese government still hasn't admitted to what happened.

In the same news brief, then mentioned the "Quebec Ad Agency 'Affair'". What happened to the 'scandal'? Again, the word choice denoted that the CBC was backing away from blaming anyone. The Chinese government isn't power-hungry and anti-democracy, the Canadian Liberals aren't corrupt...what next? The Hiroshima 'bomb incident'?

The language bothered me becuase it seemed too much like the CBC was taking the Liberal Government's side, the side that says trade with China is good, and we'll worry about those silly human rights abuses later, and that the Ad Agency Scandal was just a big misunderstanding. Suddenly I remembered that the CBC is technically state-owned media. Boo.

So, there goes another cherished childhood naivete. Sure, the CBC is a good station, with generally good news reporting. But they have their biasses and their hidden political agendas, just like everybody else.