CBC will continue to send reporters to Afghanistan
CBC/Radio-Canada will continue to send journalists to cover events in Afghanistan, CBC news executive Jamie Purdon told the Globe and Mail. This after two Radio-Canada journalists were injured after a roadside bomb exploded beside an armoured vehicle in which they were travelling.
News directors at Global National, CTV News, CBC News, Canwest News Service, the Toronto Star, Canadian Press and The Globe and Mail have all stated they will all continue to send journalists to Kandahar to cover the war and allow them to be embedded with Canadian Forces while on patrol.
“We’re pretty conscious about sending people out into these areas. Everybody who goes gets … hostile environment training. But you can only do so much preparation; some things are just unforeseen,” said CBC director of newsgathering, Jamie Purdon.
Mr. Purdon said although the close-knit newsroom has experienced a range of emotions about the incident that severely injured cameraman Charles Dubois and shook up correspondent Patrice Roy, CBC journalists who have reported from Afghanistan in the past were fully aware that an attack involving journalists alongside soldiers was inevitable. Regardless of the risks, Mr. Purdon said the CBC will continue to bring stories from Afghanistan to Canadians.
|
Email This Post |
| News & Journalism |
Good. This is work that needs doing, whether it’s the soldiers’ or the reporters’.
Out of self-inflicted cut-fears, CBC will continue the Conservative agenda of whitewashing the travesty of Afghanistan. “AfCanada”- a propagandrama Program on CBC radio- is pure and sickening shlock. The Dept. of Defense directs the CBC Afghanistan news.. whitewashing why we are fighting and killing confused Muslims at all- it is aimed at diffusing legitimate dissent and discussion in Canada. While this is going on, the CBC editorial directives are anaesthising the news that Karzai will bring in the Taliban to his government. Peter McKay will not recognise nor dialogue with these terrorists- but he will- shortly. The Canadian Armed Forces PR priorities and staff deployment is reminiscent of the agenda of Gobbels in the Third Reich. Watch for Mr. Hillier, the Chief of the Defense staff, running for office. The CBC News department has sold itself out to the Canadian Military- who are themselves desperately seeking evidence that there is a valid reason why we continue with this criminal charade. Karzai was an imbedded CIA operative from day one: 9/11- and he continues to lead his country nowhere. The CBC has become the Chameleon Broadcasting Corporation and a press release champion of the Defense Department. CBC’s pleading with Quebecers to endorse Canada’s singular futile operations in Afghanistan is disgusting.
Anyone who can call Afghanada pro-war propaganda with a straight face has, I think, not been paying attention.
I called Afghanada schlock… pure and driven upchucking schlock. Today’s episode #25 is about a sargeant female soldier going through the pitfalls of undergoing a field hospital pregnancy test… leading to a tiny Afghan baby stuggling in her crib to survive- and through her conveniently loosing the baby. It’s propaganda- because it’s set in a country we are at war with terrorists in. Stylistically its just puerile earcandy. I listened to the whole episode while I typed this. If this were the only item pushed onto us, I wouldn’t even mention it.
But today…. Friday, September 21, 2007- I quizzed my nine year old daughter on the way to school this morning about what she learned from the author who visited her Early Years School on Thursday and her presentation on Afghanistan. My daughter recalled a litany of negative information- all centered on fear and female oppression. When asked for one thing positive about Afghanistan she said that they paint their buses with different colors. This is followed up today with a field trip to our local Canadian Forces Base.
I see this as pernicious national and religious profiling and it dovetails with a concentrated propaganda effort by the Canadian Military and Media to counter the growing negative reactions against news of how our military operations in Afghanistan are being compromised. I believe this has no place in our classrooms- no matter which age group is targeted. If Afghanistan needs to be presented to our kids- it should be done so in a less socially biased and negative manner.
Funny thing is, I don’t hold much with our current government on a lot of other things. Wildlife, women’s issues, climate change, funding for court challenges and so on being examples. Afghanistan may be the only issue I agree with them on the value of sticking with. And even there, I think their behaviour may be undermining getting the things done that need doing over there.
Anyway. Back to Afghanada.
I listened to Episode 25 – I wish they’d introdue titles to these things so I could remember them more clearly! – on Friday myself, and while the ending of this part of Pat Kinsella’s storyline was almost certainly one of two or three predictable options to be taken to minimize leading cast roster disruptions – and we’ve seen it before on TV drama as much as on the radio – I can’t say that I’d call it schlock or propaganda by any means. Not just yet.
I would like to see the audience stats on Afghanada… obviously there are sterling examples of good radio writing and presentation. Michael Enright had two full hours of Afghanabanter on Sunday Morning this week… that was worth sifting through because it was packaged and promoted as news feature. My neighbor is going back to Afghanistan in February. Three of his room mates were killed on one terrible day on his last tour. Consider this: There are four to a room over there… and someone bumped him from that day’s mission. He should have come home- like all his roommates- in a Maple Leaf. He has a wife and two sons- and that family is the world’s greatest neighbour to me. I can’t listen to Afcanada… knowing what he and every serving soldier has to return to over there- and what he, his family, and his Country daily stands to loose. These Canadian Soldiers will lay down their life for this country… and for others, too. But when the government they are there to protect won’t burn and eradicate the poppy field harvest that feeds and fuels the Taliban- it begs the deeper question ‘why?’ and an accompanying ‘Whom does the bell toll for?
Afghanada gets about 300,000 listeners every week. It is extraordinarily popular across the country.
Reassuring in its way, that info. Thank you.
For what it’s worth, there’s also a Facebook fan group devoted to the show that’s been in operation for about two months now.