For the first time, the CBC has responded publicly to Quebecor Media’s campaign against CBC-Radio Canada.
This media slap-fest has been ongoing for a while, and it’s about the dullest fight in town.
Since 2007 Quebecor has been trying to inflict death by a thousand paper cuts on the ceeb.
Its lawyers have been filling hundreds of access to information requests, getting entangled in legal fights, and this week they launched series of thinly-veiled Sun Media stories and editorials.
Although this whole thing started in Quebec, it’s since spilled into English Canada.
This week, Brian Lilley, of Quebecor’s-Sun-Media Parliamentary Bureau, lead the charge.
Early in the week he wrote a story of the CBC’s ‘anti-Americanism’, then followed that followed that with another story about how many trucks are in the CBC fleet, and finished off the whole week with a story on executive salaries.
Now, I don’t mean to imply that the journalism in the stories isn’t solid.
There’s a good deal of important information in the Sun Media stories; the fact that CBC executives paid out $800,000 in bonuses just prior to laying 800 workers, as Lilley uncovered, is alarming, as is some of the other stuff he’s dug up.
But the larger question I ask myself is what’s the motive?
Is this journalism in service of Sun Media’s readers? Or is this journalism in service of Quebecor’s business objectives?
I’ll leave that question for you to decide, in the meantime, here’s what the CBC’s Bill Chambers, the VP of communications, said this week:
We have not always had a perfect record on Access to Information, nor do we now. In the first weeks of being subject to the Act, we received approximately 400 requests from David Statham, Michel Drapeau and their partners, who have publicly acknowledged working for Quebecor Media. The extraordinary circumstances caused by this unprecedented volume has been recognized by both the Office of the Information Commissioner and the courts, including the Federal Court of Appeal in a judgment rendered last week against Mr. Statham.
Chambers went on to say:
As part of our belief in freedom of the press, we affirm fervently Quebecor’s right to pursue information relevant to the public interest, even from within CBC/Radio-Canada. As stewards of a public institution charged with “informing, enlightening and entertaining” Canadians, we will, in the same breath, try to ensure that the public is aware when anyone’s treatment of that information is distorted or misrepresents the truth. The Sun Media series has demonstrated how easy it is to select and twist facts to further a self-interested campaign.
What do you think?
Several CBC employees recently took part in Movember, a mash up of November and mustache.
According to Wikipedia Movember is “an annual month-long event involving the growing of mustaches during the month of November… to raise awareness and funds for men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer and depression.”
Ryan Couldrey, a CBC employee who also works as a photographer, captures the hair-raising results in Toronto. Click here to see the individual profile shots.
There were also Movember events in Ottawa and Vancouver.
In Vancouver, participants got the Mayor to officially proclaim the month of November as Movember. They even managed to persuade the mayor to grow his own mustache.
In Ottawa, “Stu Mills was also a participant in the Movember festivities, growing his very own “Stu Manchu” and drawing attention from the likes of singer-songwriter Jim Bryson.” Bod LeDrew a former CBC staffer and contributor, said in the comments, “Stu was the top Movember fundraiser in Ottawa, with more than $11K raised!”
In total Canadians raised $19,890,551 during the Movember fund-hair-raising drive.
Congratulations to all who participated.
The new CBC Ombudsman, Kirk Lapointe, has set up a 
