I’ve noticed that Sun Media, in it’s ongoing jihad against the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, has started referring to CBC on second reference as “the state broadcaster.” This is comic on a number of levels I won’t get into here and it always makes me think of North Korean television.
CBC’s English television service, the target of much of the Sun’s coverage, is the top media employer on the Hill, with 52 accredited members, many of them camera operators and techs.
The CBC continues to ramp up staff for its online political coverage and recently added two more reporters, one from the Sun and the other from Postmedia.
The Chinese news agency Xinhua — which arguably is a state media organization — reaches the largest potential audience, but has just two staff on the Hill. They are outnumbered by the virulently anti-communist Falun Gong-affiliated media, Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty TV, who have five total. (One of them sits next to me in the Hotroom.)
My paper, the Ottawa Citizen, has the same number of bodies as the Vietnam Press Service. That’s a bit misleading — we get most of our political coverage the Postmedia bureau.
I’d love to find a way to compare bureau size with number of scoops, but that would be hard to quantify. Suffice to say, there’re great reporters in every bureau.
Hey Glen —
Fun project but also a good example of why human intervention on data projects is important.
For example: CBC-TV, CBC Radio, Radio-Canada and Radio-Canada Radio all share the same address and many work out of a common newsroom. The journalists involved often supply common content to different platforms in both languages. Probably a good reason to lump them all together.
Same thing for us: Sun Media, Le Journal de Quebec, QMi/Quebecor are already at the same address and we all have a common assignment desk, etc.
National Post and Financial Post also ought to counted as one.
Etc.
I can’t see any way an automated agent (i.e. a script) could figure that out. You’d have to be on the Hill and know who does what where.
Also: You’re probably not surprised to hear that, just as you find our “jihad” comical that we refer to CBC as the ‘state broadcaster”, we find it just as comical the “jihad” waged against what you call “Fox News North”. I think your “jihad’ is more comical though as a) we haven’t even broadcast a word yet and b) iif you wanted to look it up, your former owner, the Aspers, had and still holds the Canadian license for Fox News North.
Cheers!
Nothing like watching representatives of two of the country’s largest media chains both quite accurately pointing out the other’s claim to be classified as Fox News North. Can you feel the left-wing media bias?
I thought about clustering but it becomes subjective — Hill Times and Embassy separate or together? — so I just decided to go with what the PGP publishes online.
I agree the response to Sun Media TV station is premature, but Teneycke helped whip that up with lines like that quoted above.
You lost all credibility when you opened with the word “jihad”. Disgusting.
Of course….once again the CBC promotes the views of the Liberal Party. It is disgusting and they should not receive public funding in any amount.
I didn’t see iPolitics.ca on the list, there, Glen. Are they not full Gallery members yet?
Not sure if their memberships have gone through yet. David would know. They’re not listed on PGP website yet.
Someone is getting a tad sensitive eh MacGregor. The fact is CBC competes with the private broadcasters for advertising etc. Coupled with the $1 billion they get in taxpayer funding they have a distinct advantage.
Times have changed and when CBC was created it was virtually the only choice for most Canadian families. In the digital world that need is no longer there.
Put CBC on the pay for view channels and let those that like CBC fund it themselves.
The ruling by LaPointe today is significant. It shows the broadcaster to be either corrupt or inept. They wrote a story based on speculation. This is not uncommon these days in our media. No wonder most Canadians have little respect for the Lame Street Media in Canada.
Uh, why would I be sensitive?I don’t work for the CBC. I thought the Sun story on LaPointe’s decision was (truly) fair and balanced, and a good issue. But I don’t know that one report on one program is an indictment of the reporting standards of the entire network, as you suggest, or indication of an inherent bias.
Last week, Bob Ray called staffers in the PMO “25-year-old jihadis”, now you are attacking a competitor newspaper with the same term. Did Bob Ray start a fad? Are left-wingers now going to start calling everyone they disagree with “jihadis”? (except of course, real ‘jihadis’ who will be called ‘extremists’).
Beyond that, I don’t understand the point of your post. You disgustingly claim the Sun media have a “jihad” against the CBC, but then you dismiss refuting their use of the phrase “state run broadcaster”, and go on to describe the CBCs staffing levels on Parliament Hill and ramble on about other countries with state controlled media.
If anything, the fact that the CBC is increasing their staffing only shows that they are not concerned about making a profit, which would show that the corporation produces a net benefit for its shareholders – Canadian taxpayers.
As you should know, the CBC doesn’t don’t EARN most of their operating capital, they TAKE IT from taxpayers.
The CBC is a crown corporation, and the majority of its funding is from tax revenues – over $1 Billion every single year.
That makes it a ‘state owned’ and ‘state funded’ corporation.
Canadians have no choice in funding the CBC whether they watch it or not, and the CBC’s TV rating show that few people do, with the exception of Hockey Night in Canada.
Now, please explain what your issue is with calling the CBC a ‘state run broadcaster’? Are you offended by the truth?
I would only call the CBC a state broadcaster in the fact they are funded by the State. That is where it ends, CBC does it’s best to undermine the government and promote “progressive” parties.