Complaints received by the CBC Ombudsman for English Services continued to decline this year for the fourth year in a row. The number of reviews requested also continued to decline.
However, in his report [pdf], Vince Carlin chastised CBC News for failing to identify sources in a number of instances.
…Relevant information about either a source of information or a presenter was left out—information which would have been useful for a viewer / listener / reader in understanding the story. Does the person quoted have an interest in the story, or an ideology to propagate? In order to maintain our standards of fairness, it is vital that we provide that information.
CBC management says it’s already taken steps to correct this. In its Response to the Ombudsman [pdf], management said:
…The Editor in Chief has already taken steps to ensure that proper attention is given to this issue. The Ombudsman’s observation has been directly drawn to the attention of senior programmers along with a request that they review best practices with their teams. They will also emphasize among all staff the importance of providing context so that the audience can weigh and judge information given by a particular source.
Carlin also warned that even programs which fall under CBC’s Factual Entertainment division are “presumably subject to Journalistic Standards and Practices.” He writes: “I think it important for producers in
that area to be aware of the implications of policy on their programs.”
During the fiscal year 2006-07, the office received 1,817 complaints, communications and expressions of concern, including 1,326 about information programming. There were 65 fewer communications about information programming than last year, which was an election year.
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Interesting and fairly serious comments in there about The Hour:
“The selection of guests, however, was an area that needed to be addressed. In many situations, guests from a countervailing viewpoint were not always evident.”
That sounds great, but does it mean fewer people know about the ombudsman, fewer people think they can get anywhere, or simply that CBC is avoiding controversial issues?
All three of those options are unfavourable reasons why this could have happened.
Oddly, just today I received a response from the Mr. Carlin in the mail today regarding my complaint over advertisements included in the CBC Radio podcasts.
I’ve noticed a few times where they don’t give credit to their sources, such as one time they were showing footage of an incident that happened in my community, someone filmed it and put it on youtube, the people who put it on youtube run a pretty successful site that deals with stuff of that matter, on the Youtube video it showed the websites name in the corner, CBC cropped it out and didn’t reveal that the video was made by them, but made it seem as if they were the people who filmed the video.
Complaints go down when people get fed up and just quit tuning in. Look at your market share numbers - this shouldn’t be much of a surprise
The Hour only has guests from one side of the political spectrum!
I suppose if you were living on the dark side of the moon you might not notice that.
Why do all Canadians pay the CBC to present only the views from the far left?
Is that fair?
Is that one of the new Canadian values?
Is that ethical?
Oh, wait, it is the CBC we’re taking about, so they wouldn’t know what ethics are.