I sent this blog in on April 25th it still hasn't posted though they posted 2 more in between not sure what's wrong with this one any ideas readers?
Forgotten Issues
Following the election CBC’s website I sometimes come across articles that get me thinking like this one in the form of one of their reality checks: Food safety: the forgotten issue?
It got me to thinking about what issues aren’t being discussed at least not with much depth?
A few months ago Kevin Lacey, Atlantic Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation brought up the issue of the high salaries paid out to some the Chiefs on some of the Reserves (P.E.I. chief makes more than cabinet minister) Now this might not be being talked about because it is seen to be politically correct, it is still our tax dollars and in all the talk about tightening budgets and accountability why shouldn’t this issue be looked at. Some of my friends who are native are more disgusted at this then non-natives, one friend in particular was completely unaware of these extravagant amounts and was visibly angry as he explained how this was completely “unacceptable” taking into consideration “the number of people on reserves living in poverty and the lack of addiction support and other services that are often needed on reserves”.
Abortion. Ok it did poke it’s head up out of the sand last week (Abortion controversy heats up Saskatoon-Humboldt) , but no real truthful discussion about the issue, and no this is not a religious issue, I personally was Pro-Life for at least 10 years before I became a Christian. While the Conservative Candidate got in hot water for suggesting that funding be cut off to Planned Parenthood to me the bigger question is why are they getting funding at all and since Jack Layton and Michael Ignatieff state they are for a woman’s right to choose would they also ensure that equal funding is provided to Advocacy Groups that would counsel against abortion, so then women have an equal opportunity to make an informed choice. Both my children are adopted and my 9 year old son has been following the election with me and I had to explain to him what Abortion is after he heard about it being discussed and I explained what they meant about a woman’s right to choose, he asked “does that mean they think my birth mom should of not let me be born, that wouldn’t of been nice because I like living here and I know I’ve made you and momma happy” so this an emotional issue on all sides. I personally don’t think any politician will ever have the nerve to make abortion illegal, not even as part of some scary hidden agenda, but it would be nice to see party’s talking about promoting adoption over abortion, it would no negate “the right to choose” but would make sure as I said that informed choices are made.
A PEI Issue - The PNP Program/ Immigrant Nominee Program it is a hot topic in the province over the last year or so because of the abuse and political implication of Political Cronies receiving funding. While it is the provinces who dish out the monies it comes from the federal government and there is no talk about how there was not sufficient oversight by the feds to ensure the money was spent properly. The only thing I have heard about PNP was a discussion an accusation about the Liberal Candidate in Charlottetown benefiting from it through 3 companies he has a personal interest in.
These are just 3 which I can think of and I’m sure there are more, I would love to hear what issues you think are not being addressed in this election.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Should Canadians Expect More Objectivity from their Taxpayer Funded Public Broadcaster?
So below is the 1st post that the CBC wouldn't publish for the 1st 5 or 6 days they just didn't until I questioned them then they said they needed to talk about it and we did I made some minor edit more for style, they said they didn't like that I focused just on the CBC so I reworked the article to the one now below so that it is not just an article about media bias but whether the CBC as our public broadcaster should be held to a higher standard of Objectivity which i thought was a good issue to examine but obviously the CBC doesn't.
Originally Submitted April 15th then edited and resubmitted April 21st Still not published as of April 28th
Should Canadians Expect More Objectivity from their Taxpayer Funded Public Broadcaster?
“First get your facts, and then you can distort them as much as you please” - Mark Twain
The truth of the matter is this election isn’t really engaging the average Islander at least the people I talk to. Those of us who are political junkies are engaged but because of the really low amount of information coming from the local campaigns on the Island much of what we hear about the election is coming from the media. So I had to question the reliability of what we are hearing .
The other day I was talking to a friend of mine a long time Liberal who expressed these words to me while we were discussing media coverage of this election, “if the CBC doesn’t stop having such an anti conservative slant to all their election coverage people might think we’re paying them off”
Now I wouldn’t go far as my Liberal friend for instance the “your take” bloggers seem to be balanced and if nothing else from reading everybody else's bios there seems to be more people of the conservative persuasion (I’m not sure if this was intentional or just representative of the polling showing larger support for conservatives) But the fact of the matter I could see where one might think it’s biased such as the distinction made when racist comments are made by a Liberal Candidate the headline seems quite benign compared to if it was a Conservative who made the same comments, I’m not the only one who noticed this but it is a frequent comment to the article.
Or even the recent coverage of the Helena Guergis story seems to try and make it a scandal especially from the main headline and In-Depth Headline. It is not until actually reading the story you get the facts out though skimmed over really that the Tories got information about possible wrongdoing and then reported it to the authorities. This seems like the right thing to me but isn’t presented that way. If they had not reported it or took any action then I would understand it being a scandal, but why is doing what is right being portrayed as something bad?
While maybe the intention is one of bias or not I know it is actually having the opposite affect and is generating sympathy for the conservatives where really there should be none. So much so that my friend John (who I think has voted for all 3 main parties in his life) said he’ll vote for the Conservatives not because of anything they are saying but rather in his word’s “if the CBC seems to be so against him he must be doing something right”
Again my apologies to CBC it is just that it is the main news source for me and most of my friends so it tends to get picked on more than anybody else.
Ok before you all start screaming at me at commenting what about SUN TV or the National Post I would concede that probably every media source can be seen to have some kind of bias and indeed every individual has some kind of bias. I think that all media should strive to provide a balance approach to reporting, unfortunately that is not so, they often bring these biases in based on the owners/shareholders own biases they hire journalists/talking heads etc based on those.
The bigger question is should the CBC as a crown corporation be held to a higher standard when it comes to objectivity as we as taxpayers are their “shareholders” ?
Originally Submitted April 15th then edited and resubmitted April 21st Still not published as of April 28th
Should Canadians Expect More Objectivity from their Taxpayer Funded Public Broadcaster?
“First get your facts, and then you can distort them as much as you please” - Mark Twain
The truth of the matter is this election isn’t really engaging the average Islander at least the people I talk to. Those of us who are political junkies are engaged but because of the really low amount of information coming from the local campaigns on the Island much of what we hear about the election is coming from the media. So I had to question the reliability of what we are hearing .
The other day I was talking to a friend of mine a long time Liberal who expressed these words to me while we were discussing media coverage of this election, “if the CBC doesn’t stop having such an anti conservative slant to all their election coverage people might think we’re paying them off”
Now I wouldn’t go far as my Liberal friend for instance the “your take” bloggers seem to be balanced and if nothing else from reading everybody else's bios there seems to be more people of the conservative persuasion (I’m not sure if this was intentional or just representative of the polling showing larger support for conservatives) But the fact of the matter I could see where one might think it’s biased such as the distinction made when racist comments are made by a Liberal Candidate the headline seems quite benign compared to if it was a Conservative who made the same comments, I’m not the only one who noticed this but it is a frequent comment to the article.
Or even the recent coverage of the Helena Guergis story seems to try and make it a scandal especially from the main headline and In-Depth Headline. It is not until actually reading the story you get the facts out though skimmed over really that the Tories got information about possible wrongdoing and then reported it to the authorities. This seems like the right thing to me but isn’t presented that way. If they had not reported it or took any action then I would understand it being a scandal, but why is doing what is right being portrayed as something bad?
While maybe the intention is one of bias or not I know it is actually having the opposite affect and is generating sympathy for the conservatives where really there should be none. So much so that my friend John (who I think has voted for all 3 main parties in his life) said he’ll vote for the Conservatives not because of anything they are saying but rather in his word’s “if the CBC seems to be so against him he must be doing something right”
Again my apologies to CBC it is just that it is the main news source for me and most of my friends so it tends to get picked on more than anybody else.
Ok before you all start screaming at me at commenting what about SUN TV or the National Post I would concede that probably every media source can be seen to have some kind of bias and indeed every individual has some kind of bias. I think that all media should strive to provide a balance approach to reporting, unfortunately that is not so, they often bring these biases in based on the owners/shareholders own biases they hire journalists/talking heads etc based on those.
The bigger question is should the CBC as a crown corporation be held to a higher standard when it comes to objectivity as we as taxpayers are their “shareholders” ?
About this Blog
So a few weeks ago I applied and was chosen by the CBC to be part of their Your Take Community Blogger Team for the 2011 Election we were given instructions / general guidelines about what is appropriate for posting, make sure we are not defamatory etc. It was mine and other bloggers understanding that basically as long as we didn't post anything slanderous then we could count on our posts being posted well I and others on the team I have talked to have found that they will not post opinions that might challenge theirs. I have talked to the Production Team at CBC about my concerns and was assured it was not a matter of censorship but still some posts have continued not to be posted including the original one that began my concern. So after 2 weeks I have decided to start this blog and post what they won't and let you decide why they might not of wanted it published. BTW I am fiscally and socially conservative by nature but am not supporting any party in this election as I am feeling disaffected by the Conservatives as they try and move away from their conservative base towards the centre. So I approached this election deciding since I couldn't really agree with any of the Parties that I would vote for the Candidate in my riding who came and talked to me who I most liked or felt most comfortable supporting. None came so when I voted in the Advance Poll last Friday I used the Eeny Meeny Miney Moe method of choosing who I would vote for because I do believe I had a responsibility to vote.
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