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According to the “Journalistic
Standards and Practices” of the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC):
“The CBC occupies a unique position of trust.
Not only is it the most substantial and broadly-based
broadcast journalism organization in Canada, it is
funded, through Parliament, by the people of Canada.
The CBC therefore considers it a duty to provide consistent,
high-quality information upon which all citizens may
rely.”
The CBC has broken this public trust.
Canadians can no longer rely on the network “to provide
consistent, high-quality information” when it comes
to the most complex science humans have ever tackled –
global climate science. The CBC can not even be trusted
to follow their own ‘standards and practices’ manual in
their coverage of this issue.
Instead, most CBC reporting of climate change science,
either directly or through subliminal techniques, takes
an activist role, promoting a point of view that is seriously
at odds with many of the world’s leading experts. The
network presents the causes of climate change as being
largely ‘settled’ with only a handful of “deniers” at
‘the margins of the issue’ disagreeing with the politically
correct position as promoted by the UN’s Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change.
This is a total misrepresentation of reality
– there is an intense and growing debate in the climate
science community about the causes of climate change.
Yet the CBC virtually ignores this controversy through
their choice of programme participants and in their selection
of facts being presented.
This is a serious problem because:
1 - the Canadian government is about to make multi-billion
dollar climate change policy decisions that will determine
our nation’s direction on this file for years to come;
2 – The Government has never held open, unbiased hearings
into the rapidly evolving field of climate science despite
the repeated requests of experts in the field:
- Letter
to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
- Letter
to Prime Minister Paul Martin
- Letter
to Prime Minister Stephen Harper
All of the above open letters were ignored. With politicians,
environmental groups and many media trying to sweep
the controversy under the rug, a detailed investigation
of this issue by the nation’s leading news organization
has never been more important.
3 – There is massive
confusion among Canadians about the Kyoto Protocol
and climate change. Consequently, the dissemination
of reliable information on climate change science is
of crucial importance if the public is to be sufficiently
well-informed to make rational decisions about environmental
policy.
Despite the corrections of experts in the field, CBC
errors
continue, violating the basic “Responsibilities of
the Press” endorsed
by the network itself:
"… freedom of the media and the constitutional
protection that it enjoys require responsibility to
the public it serves. The broadcast media in particular
have an obligation to be fair, accurate, thorough,
comprehensive and balanced in their presentation of
information. This is unmistakably true of a public
broadcasting agency, which is accountable through
its Board of Directors to the Parliament and people
of Canada."
To help the public better understand this serious
problem, and to inform viewers about the distortions in
CBC coverage of the issue, we have initiated “CBC Climate
Watch”, the first entries of which are as follows:
Tracking the CBC's coverage of climate change science:
-
November 21, 2007: Read
letter from NRSP Allied Scientist Dr.
S. Fred Singer, Distinguished Research Professor
at George Mason University and Professor Emeritus
of environmental sciences at University of Virginia,
requesting a review of apparent violations of the
CBC’s Journalistic Standards and Practices in the
CBC Fifth Estate programme, The
Denial Machine.
-
November 14, 2007: NRSP critique
of CBC Web page article, Wording
climate change policy no easy task (Eve Savory,
CBCNews.ca).
-
November 13, 2007: Read
letter from CATO Senior Fellow in Environmental
Studies climatologist Dr.
Pat Michaels requesting a review of misrepresentations
in the CBC Fifth Estate programme, The
Denial Machine, and the CBC Radio programme,
The Trial of Kyoto.
-
November 12, 2007: Read
letter of complaint from NRSP Chairman Dr.
Tim Ball requesting a review of violations of
CBC “Journalistic Standards and Practices” by the
Fifth Estate staff in the preparation of The Denial
Machine.
-
November 12, 2007: Read
submission of Australian climate data analyst,
John
McLean “About the CBC Programme broadcast on Australian
TV, ‘The Denial Machine’”.
-
November 5 - 9, 2007: Five part
series “CBC’s continuing denial of the climate
science debate - Like the network itself,
The Fifth Estate has violated its own mandate with
‘The Denial Machine’” published in Canada Free
Press:
Click here
to read the whole article.
back to NRSP News
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