In an effort to address the “the challenges of the social media universe,” as Esther Enkin, the executive editor of CBC News, put it, CBC News has released new guidelines for all of its journalists.

The new guidelines, officially known as the CBC Journalistic Standards and Practices, was released this afternoon after having been approved by the board of directors.

The document entirely reorganizes the previous edition. It’s now loosely organized around beats, but there are number of sections around the use of social media.

First off, the document states that the CBC won’t give in to the urge of other news organizations and many blogs in posting first, and verify later.

It says “We are consistent in our standards, no matter what the platform, in disseminating information. If we would not put the information on air or on our own website, we would not use social media to report that information.”

Many CBC News staffers will be surprised to learn that these guidelines also apply to their personal use of social media.

In our personal social media activity, we are mindful of our professional association with CBC, and ensure what we do conform to CBC social media and conflict of interest policies.

These new standards are not dramatically different from other employee conduct documents that have been released in the last few years. However given the proliferation of social media, they represent a renewed effort by the corporation to protect the CBC brand when employees are using social media in their personal lives.

Implicit in this effort is the acknowledgement that social media is public and ever-present and that the lines between personal and professional lives are becoming non-existent.

Enkin said that the guidelines are not set in stone. “Our goal is to make this a living document. It is a tool to help our journalists make smart, ethical decisions in situations where there are many shades of grey, and to guide them to carry out the best public-service journalism we can provide,” she said this afternoon.

The new guidelines are available here. What do you think of them?

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	News & Journalism	Posted at 9:26 pm (17 Nov 2010)

As the case against Russel Williams unfolded in a Ontario courthouse last week, there was no shortage of horrifying details.

But thinking back to the blanket of media coverage, there was one single piece that really stood out in my mind, and it avoided the graphic details altogether.

It was a live piece of talk-and-tape with David Perry, a professional interrogator, on The National last Wednesday. The piece explained the interrogation techniques that broke Williams and lead to his confession.

The piece also broke format.

In a world where news stories are often two to three minutes long, this piece weighted in at more than 18 minutes.

Some of the single clips alone were five minutes long – unheard of in news.

On top of that the footage was poor, it was from surveillance cameras, no close ups, often you can’t even see Williams’ face.

But not only that, the clips were almost all silence.

In some cases 20 seconds or more of silence hang between the interrogator’s questions and Williams’ answers.

Put that all together and it’s hardly the sort of stuff you usually see on a newscast, yet the team on The National ran with it.

“We didn’t want to overproduce it,” Lara Chatterjee, the producer that put the piece together said. They let the tape speak for itself, without sensationalizing it.

It was a real gamble.

Not only was the piece live to air, but the clips were long, and Chatterjee insisted on not editing them down.

“I went through the entire two hours and forty minutes… and it was awful.” she said. “I sat at my desk with my arms around me… but we had to figure out how to make sense of it.”

She said the tapes, as raw and bare as they were, provided insight into Williams’ character.  She said “we got a look inside a number of things that we don’t normally have access to, the interrogation process, the mindset of a criminal, we tried to make sense of how this whole thing came about.”

The gamble to run with the tapes paid off, the ratings were the highest The National’s seen in months.

“Everyone that worked on that show that night, really took a risk and it really paid off,” Chatterjee said. “We did something really different and we really committed to it.”

It’s a great piece of journalism.

See for yourself. The video of  the first part of the “Interrogation of Col. Williams”, is here. The second part is here.

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	Behind the Scenes, News & Journalism, The National	Posted at 9:50 pm (26 Oct 2010)

The CBC has released the largest study ever of its news coverage.

The study was months in the making. It looked at whether the CBC was balanced in over 15,000 stories on TV, Radio and online. It also involved polling almost 3,500 people.

Jennifer McGuire, the GM and editor-in-chief of CBC News, said this afternoon that the objectives of the study were to better understand:

What Canadian news consumers understand by “fair” and “balanced” news coverage; [and] the degree to which Canadian news consumers feel these principles are being demonstrated through the various CBC News delivery platforms and competitor news organizations.

It’s a big study and I’ll spend some time going through it and provide my thoughts later this evening tomorrow.

In the meantime, take a look for yourself, and if anything jumps out at you, please leave a comment below.

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	News & Journalism	Posted at 4:33 pm (05 Oct 2010)

One of the CBC News’ senior leaders is leaving the organization to pursue a consulting role in the media and communications industry.

Cynthia Kinch, a long-time news veteran who has covered more major stories than you’ve had hot meals, is well regarded across the network. “In her more than 30 years with the organization, she has been a leader, a trailblazer and a mentor. She has set an example for all of us– seize challenge, envision possibilities and celebrate success,” Jennifer McGuire, the GM of CBC News, said.

Kinch contributed to tons of high-profile projects during her time at CBC News. Most recently Kinch was involved in the news renewal project and tackled the massive project of rebranding CBC News Network.

McGuire’s full note is here.

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	News & Journalism	Posted at 9:37 pm (29 Sep 2010)

The President of the Manitoba Bar, Ken Mandzuik, says the CBC’s coverage of a Manitoba judge’s online nude photos is “tabloid journalism at its worst.”

The Manitoba Bar Association, a branch of the Canadian Bar Association, has filed a complaint with CBC President Hubert Lacroix.

The complaint says: “The emphasis of the story and the inappropriately graphic details of the allegations simply go too far, especially given the potentially damaging effect these allegations will undoubtedly have on the people involved.”

Last Tuesday, Cecil Rosner, the managing editor of CBC Manitoba, wrote an editorial to explain why the CBC is running the story: “We also recognize that in reporting stories, harm can often be one of the consequences. Some people pressure us not to report things.

But we are guided by the principle that important stories in the public interest must be told and, in doing so, we make our best efforts to minimize any harm that might ensue.

“This reporting was tabloid journalism at its worst,” Ken Mandzuik, president of the Manitoba Bar Association, said in the letter.

What do you think? Did we go too far on reporting the lurid details of this story?

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	News & Journalism	Posted at 10:04 pm (07 Sep 2010)

The CRTC has denied a request from Sun TV News for a mandatory license.

The license, if approved, would have forced cable and satellite company to carry the upstart station as part of the basic cable package, and forced consumers to pay the licensing fee.

The fees could have been substantial. CBC News Network earns up to $65 million a year from cable fees. Both CBC News Network and CTV News Channel currently hold the mandatory license, but they are being unwound.

Granting the license would have been an embarrassing about-face for the CRTC. They have previously said they would not grant any more must-carry licenses for news channels.

It would also have cast doubt of the CRTC’s independence given that Sun TV News is being headed up by Kory Teneycke a former high-level Tory operative.

For the CBC, the license decision means that CBC News Network will compete on a level playing field with Sun TV News once the CBC’s license is unwound.

Teneycke discussed the application with Kathleen Petty on her show, The House, in a testy interview last on June.

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	News & Journalism, The Media Landscape	Posted at 4:10 pm (16 Jul 2010)

When both CTV and Global recently announced new female anchors for their flagship newscasts, some began asking when the CBC would consider a woman for the anchor’s, chair, uh, spot, at The National.

Norman Specter lead the charge in the Globe on yesterday:

How embarrassing it must be for the Corporation — centre of all that is “progressive” and a paragon of diversity — that both Ms. Friesen and CTV’s Lisa LaFlamme have broken through the glass ceiling, while [the CBC is] still stuck in a single-X-chromosome world in the anchor chair

This odd ode lead to the CBC’s Senior Washington correspondent Neil Macdonald to respond in a letter to the editor today. Macdonald wrote:

Norman Spector seems to think the CBC should immediately replace Peter on the grounds of his gender, just because the other two anchors are women (TV’s Last Man Standing – July 14). Perhaps that’s Mr. Spector’s background as a government functionary asserting itself, but speaking as a career reporter, I’m encouraged to see Canadian television news maintain a highly visible meritocracy.

Incidentally, I seem to recall Barbara Frum anchoring The Journal and Pam Wallin co-anchoring CBC’s The National. But I am sure Mr. Spector, as an expert commentator on the Canadian media, had some reason for overlooking their accomplishments.

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	News & Journalism	Posted at 10:38 pm (15 Jul 2010)

Richard Stursberg the president of English programming at the CBC, hit back at critics who have been accusing the network of anti-conservative bias.

In a article in yesterday’s National Post, Stursberg said

Maybe a few observations about “bias” are in order, from an organization that has been accused of bias from most points of the political compass for much of its nearly 75-year history.

Here’s the thing. Rabid partisans — of whatever view — will never agree with the CBC’s coverage of their areas of interest, unless we provide unqualified and uncritical support for their opinions. Nothing else will do. Everything else looks like “bias.”

Our news is never — and can never be — usefully addressed to those whose minds are already made up.

The CBC has been facing complaints of bias for weeks prior to the launch of Sun TV News, a new conservative-slanted all-news channel.

Kory Teneycke, a former communications director in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office is behind the new venture. During the launch event last Tuesday he said CBC News is boring:

Canadian TV news today is narrow, it’s complacent and it’s politically correct. It’s bland and boring. Our aim is not to bore people to death, we’ll leave that to the CBC.

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	Executives, News & Journalism	Posted at 6:24 pm (24 Jun 2010)

A commentator pointed out that The Ryerson Review of Journalism has a fascinating article on the renewal process that changed the face of CBC News. It touches on the Hub, the relaunch of the supper hour newscast, The National and, yes, the issue of Mansbridge standing. Here’s a snippet:

In the months since the October relaunch, The National has in many ways returned to a calmer format. The new set remains, but the stories and nightly lineup have strengthened. The choreography has largely been done away with in favour of the camera focused on Mansbridge standing behind the desk. This can be credited to the show’s leadership under Harrison and Whitten, both of whom Stewart says kept the show functioning during the relaunch. Plus, they have succeeded in breaking away from what Whitten calls the traditional newscast format of intro, item, repeat. The National has been flashy, yes, but it’s also been consistently interesting.

Harrison and Whitten are both sensitive to the impact on the audience, but they also feel the show had to respond to the times if it were to continue. Whitten points to The National’s website and 10-minute downloadable podcast (updated every weekday at 6 p.m. ET before the main broadcast) as examples of the show’s attempts to adapt to the times. “It’s recognizing that, 10 years from now, are people really going to be still sitting waiting for 10 o’clock at night to get the news? And The National is a hugely important brand for CBC, so why have people wait until 10 o’clock at night?” Whitten says. “This was a pretty wide-ranging change in the way we do things. It didn’t really involve the set and whether Peter stood or not. And I think that gets kind of lost in a lot of the hubbub.”

The whole article is available here.

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	Behind the Scenes, News & Journalism	Posted at 7:49 am (09 Jun 2010)

The CBC released an interim report on its journalism and reporting this afternoon.

The report describes itself as “the most comprehensive and detailed examination” of CBC News in history. It was commissioned in January 2009 and this is the first glimpse at the findings. These interim findings are being released following weeks of criticism that CBC news coverage has a left-wing bias.

The executive summary of the report deals with both the tone of the CBC reporting and the amount of coverage the government receives. “Overall, the tone of CBC news is very close to that on competing sources,” the report says, noting that the tone on The National is very close to that on Global and CTV.

The study also looked at how much interview time each party received on from CBC News on both radio and TV at the network level. “The Conservatives had 70% of the interview time and the opposition parties 30%,” the study says. Comparing that to other networks, “the Conservatives had 74% of federal interview time on The National, 67% on the CTV National News, and 55% on Global National.”

Jennifer McGuire, the general manager and editor in chief of CBC News had this to say as the report was released:

Journalism isn’t a science. It isn’t a business. It’s unpredictable, sometimes chaotic. It’s frequently criticized. Some of our critics have skin in the game – the coverage we offer can have a material effect on their fortunes, as in the world of politics. We understand that.

In evaluating our political coverage, we see that the government gets more coverage than opposition. We have also evaluated the tone of our political coverage (with stories categorized as “positive,” “neutral” or “negative”). The majority of the coverage is neutral. However, the government attracts both more negative and more positive coverage than the opposition. Coverage of the opposition is more likely to be neutral. This is perhaps not surprising, since it is the government that makes decisions and is held accountable — and criticized — for them.

The interim report is available here.

The executive summary is available here.

The full report will be available later in the fall.

What do you think of the findings so far?

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	News & Journalism	Posted at 1:31 pm (01 Jun 2010)

Is the CBC biased?

CBC president Hubert Lacroix aims to find out.

According to the Ottawa Sun:

The CBC has commissioned a study to determine whether its news is biased, the president of the public broadcaster told the Senate finance committee this week.

“Our job — and we take it seriously — is to ensure that the information that we put out is fair and unbiased in everything that we do,” CBC President Hubert Lacroix said.

He said CBC asked outside experts to conduct an independent review of its news gathering and delivery last year.

Lacroix’s comments come on the heels of weeks of criticism from Conservative loyalists who disagreed with the CBC’s decision not to acknowledge that one of its house pollsters and frequent guest on the air also donated substantial sums to the Liberal Party. There’s more on that here.

The study itself was commissioned in January 2009. Results are expected this fall.

What do you think? Is the CBC biased?

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	News & Journalism	Posted at 8:33 am (14 May 2010)

^{courtesy: The Globe and Mail}

Conservative party strategists continue to accuse the CBC of a liberal bias.

On Friday Tory supporters seized on a viewer-inspired poll that came from a former Liberal candidate.

This is the latest round in an ongoing war of words between conservative loyalists and the CBC. The whole thing started weeks ago when Frank Graves, a pollster who frequently appears on Power & Politics with Evan Solomon, admitted that he had given the Liberal Party some advice on wedge politics. “I told them that they should invoke a culture war,” he said to the Globe and Mail at the time.

That provoked Doug Finley, a conservative strategist who is often described as Stephen Harper’s political hammer, to send out a fund-raising letter to the party faithful. “This episode demonstrates – once again – that we Conservatives are up against a powerful array of vested interests,” Finley wrote.

He then pleaded with them to fight back by first writing to the CBC ombudsman, and second by making a contribution “to the Conservative Party of $200 or $100 right now by following this link. Unlike the Liberals, we can’t count on the vested interests.”

Some Conservatives took Finley’s appeal to heart.

John Walsh, president of the Conservative Party of Canada, sent a  letter to the CBC ombudsman suggesting that the CBC’s relationship with Frank Graves, the pollster, is improper, because the CBC hasn’t acknowledged his political affiliations. Over the last few years Graves has donated $11,000 to the Liberals.

The whole thing then landed on Jennifer McGuire’s desk. She’s the boss of CBC News.

McGuire said the CBC uses Grave’s polling firm because it won the selection process. She said one of the criteria of that process is that polling firms have to “make a specific declaration that they were not affiliated with any political party.” She also said that the CBC confirmed that Graves has no client relationship with the Liberal party, but “we do not require firms or individuals to report on their voting history or donations to political organizations.”

“We believe that his commentary… is within the bounds of normal political analysis and discourse,” McGuire said.

Whether you agree with McGuire or not, it’s worth remembering one thing.

The CBC has become a lightning rod for both the right and the left.

And in both cases the cycle is essentially the same: furious accusations closely followed by fund-raising.

The whole ordeal reminds me of previous efforts from the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

The last time they rattled the cup, they said they’d learnt of secret Conservative plans to slash the CBC budget. Only a donation could save the CBC.

It’s essentially the same tune this time, a Goliath of well-funded vested-interests up against a flat-broke David. And once again the CBC is stuck in the middle.

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	News & Journalism	Posted at 8:17 am (12 May 2010)

Kevin Newman’s unexpected announcement that he’s leaving Global National left many people scratching their heads.

The move surprised many because Global’s early evening national newscast is pulling in solid numbers, and, he could have easily stayed on for another several more years.

Newman said he has no future plans. He said he’s going to take a break for a while and re-evaluate. “Time for rest and renewal. After 10 amazing years August 20th will be my last Global National. Lots of time to say good-bye,” he wrote on his Twitter account.

The move has led to speculation that Newman may have his eye set on hosting the national newscast at CBC or CTV. Howard Bernstein, a former TV producer for CBC, Global and CTV, said he believes Newman’s agent has already been contact by CBC, CTV or both.

I have no concrete information on this, but there has been so much talk for over a year that I have to believe where there is smoke there must be fire.

He also said with The National’s revamp, Newman might be the right fit. “If younger and flashier is what CBC wants, Peter is not the flavor of the day anymore. Is Kevin Newman the right person to replace Peter? Is there anyone else?” he wrote.

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	News & Journalism	Posted at 8:10 am (10 May 2010)

A survey of national CBC Radio News reporters has been leaked online.

The survey results paint a dispiriting picture of morale amongst national radio news reporters.

The survey revealed that 90 per cent of the reporters feel that the ‘radio culture’ is much worse than it was a year ago, many of them felt that the storytelling ideals of depth, intelligence, and investigation were disappearing under the news integration process.

The radio news division has for years maintained a strong concept of a unique radio ‘culture’. Ninety per cent of the reporters said this culture is an important factor in the success of the service. But they also said it’s in jeopardy. “Our culture is dying,” one reporter commented.

Most of the comments revolved around the loss of radio craft, the increased workload, and the perception that TV staff don’t understand radio and yet they’re swamping radio positions, especially senior positions.

Now before everyone gets the impression that this survey is indicative of a crisis at CBC News, it’s worth noting that this was a survey of less than 30 national radio reporters.

It doesn’t paint a picture of morale at the CBC in general, or even at CBC News in general. Nevertheless it does point to a problem in some quarters.

“The problem is not the HUB per se. The problem is that radio news has been overwhelmed by TV and no one up there seems to realize it or more importantly, care,” a reporter commented.

The survey was done in the wake of the news integration, in which the assignment desks for radio, online and television were brought together under the same department, called the Hub, to better coordinate and assign the news gathering process.

Cathy Perry, the Executive Producer of CBC News, was instrumental in creating the Hub.

“We’ve all been through a tremendous amount of change. And not all of it has been easy,” she said.

Perry, who worked in radio news for years, also said “radio assignment was the thing we changed the least… We hoped to protect radio in the issues of assignment and craft.”

“We still have radio reporters whose primary responsibly is radio. And TV reporters whose primary responsible is TV, because we want to protect their craft,” she said.

But she admitted that the integration has been hard, “It’s a learning process for everybody,” she said.

That sentiment was echoed last December by Todd Spencer, the Executive Director of News Content in a note to staff. He said the Hub had notched some significant achievements since it launched, but “it’s not perfect.” He wrote that there are no overnight successes in a change of this magnitude.

Perry said that the management team within news is reacting to the survey. She said they had a conference call about it, and they’re trying to make some immediate changes to address the concerns of the radio reporters. She said there are ongoing discussions about other changes.

“We’re talking about how to make the hub work better for everybody.”

We’ve had a bit of revolution, we brought everybody together. it hasn’t been easy, but the hub is only six months old.”

I asked her if these issues are growing pains, or something else. To which she replied it’s hard to tell. “If we’re still having this conversation in 5 years, then we’ll know.”

Perry said that she thought it was unfortunate that the survey ended up online. “I think we just hurt each other here,” by doing that, she said. “We should be able to have these debates and share opinions without having it go out on the internet.”

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	Behind the Scenes, News & Journalism	Posted at 2:39 pm (21 Apr 2010)

Sharon Dunn, who anchored CBC news shows in the maritimes and Toronto, is a big fan of Wendy Mesley. Dunn says she’s got what it takes to become the first female permanent national news Canadian anchor.

In a post on the MacLeans blog Dunn says:

Known mainly for her work on CBC’s Marketplace, and a regular contributor to The National, Mesley has that extra something, that star quality that Mansbridge has always lacked. Armed with all of the credentials for the job, including three decades of reporting experience, Mesley also connects big-time, diving headfirst through that lens and into the hearts of the audience… Crusty old judges and mean-spirited spinsters all like Mesley. A modern day Mary Tyler Moore—warm and human, making the occasional flub, as she tilts her head one way, then the other with that disarming grin, anchor Mesley keeps gaining fans.

What do you think of Mesley’s work on The National or Marketplace?

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	News & Journalism	Posted at 6:26 pm (24 Feb 2010)