Juno News - September 09, 2026


Americans FURIOUS over CBC editorial directive


Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

160.59

Word count

2,434

Sentence count

122


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 well adding to the cross-border tension is the republican party's decision to block the cbc
00:00:11.180 from its convention this after the public broadcaster told its reporters to stop referring
00:00:16.940 to the 9-11 attacks as terrorism that editorial edict lasted all of 30 minutes during which
00:00:24.700 time the Liberal cabinet expressed dismay over the move. The CBC reversed course, but
00:00:30.580 not before the Republicans made CBC persona non grata from its convention. Our guest today is
00:00:37.360 senior fellow for the McDonald-Orient Institute, Peter Menzies, who is also CRTC commissioner and
00:00:43.280 publisher of the Calgary Herald. Welcome, Peter. Thanks very much. Great to see you again.
00:00:48.140 What did you make of this move to begin with when you heard that CBC was going to make this
00:00:53.320 editorial change as far as labeling the 9-11 attacks. Yeah, that was a very poor idea on
00:01:02.160 their part. I mean, you do need actually to have policies on these things, because I can think of,
00:01:06.880 I mean, I can think of at least one CBC reporter who would happily use the term terrorist
00:01:12.000 to refer to the Israel Defense Forces, you know, when it comes to that sort of thing. So you do
00:01:18.120 have to have some sort of discipline on it. And I get that you're trying to do it to make sure that
00:01:23.100 You have, you know, some discipline around objectivity in news, but you also have to have a belief in objective truth, right?
00:01:32.400 And when it comes to objective truth, there is no question that the 9-11 attacks were terrorism.
00:01:40.140 And to be so pedantic about the application of a general principle, a rule of thumb that, you know, we're going to work with in this newsroom
00:01:48.640 And to ban the use of the word terrorism around something as objectively, obviously, terrorism as 9-11 was just, like, ridiculously bureaucratic.
00:02:01.260 Yeah, I think their rationale for doing that is that they saw it as a hijacking, which happened to end up with these planes hitting the two towers.
00:02:11.860 Yeah, that was almost the worst part was, let's call it this.
00:02:15.540 You know, it's, I mean, you get into these things where, you know, you want to call illegal immigrants, you know, undocumented aliens or visitors or something like that where, you know, you got to be very careful about that.
00:02:29.020 Were you hiding the truth?
00:02:30.280 Why are you doing this?
00:02:31.260 Who are you protecting?
00:02:32.880 That sort of stuff.
00:02:33.900 And journalism's first obligation at all times is to the truth.
00:02:37.820 And if you don't believe in objective truth, then you're going to do something like the CBC did.
00:02:44.580 and which ends up masking, I think, a certain cowardice journalistically
00:02:52.780 by not being able to simply take a stand and say this was terrorism.
00:02:57.520 Now, there are other incidents where it can be contentious.
00:03:03.680 So I understand the need for a policy.
00:03:05.740 Just its application is just absurd.
00:03:08.540 What about the CBC's decision to reverse course under political pressure to do so,
00:03:13.280 at least so it seems, because that happened within 30 minutes, as reported by Blacklock's
00:03:18.520 reporter, of this decision becoming public. And of course, there was that Warren Kinsella story,
00:03:25.360 and that spread. And then CBC said, no, we're not going to do that after all. So
00:03:32.280 it looks bad. It appears that they bowed to pressure from cabinet. Does it seem that way to
00:03:39.840 It sure looks like that. And I mean, to me, that's there's sort of two things here. One is their, you know, ridiculous application of their policy, right, which I think they were right to reverse or amend that. But the thing that might be even more worrying is the fact that somebody in cabinet said jump and the CBC said how high.
00:04:05.260 Now, that's just going to confirm that there's going to be a lot of your viewers and listeners who look at this and sort of go, well, so what?
00:04:11.860 We all know the CBC, you know, follows whatever the government tells us to do, which I think probably insults a good many CBC journalists, because I know that that's not the case for many of them.
00:04:24.480 But the way corporate politics can work and managerial career management can work, it certainly looks bad.
00:04:35.220 I mean, that's the story I'd like to see people pursuing, right?
00:04:39.460 Now there was the initial story, right?
00:04:41.680 But what I'd like to know now is I'd like to see journalists pursuing the who called who, you know?
00:04:47.780 who called who and who said what to who and or who made sure they didn't actually have to make
00:04:54.180 a phone call or send an email and knocked on somebody's office door, raised an eyebrow and
00:04:59.280 said, would you consider? Yeah, hard to imagine that if it was a conservative government
00:05:06.740 expressing displeasure as something the CBC did, that they would reverse course the way they did.
00:05:11.760 So this feeds into the idea that the CBC, at least editorially speaking, and its news department is almost an extension of the Liberal Party of Canada.
00:05:21.720 Is that fair?
00:05:23.640 That's certainly the way a lot of people will see it.
00:05:25.820 It certainly feeds that.
00:05:27.880 And I think it's up to the CBC to address it and tell us, you know, be transparent.
00:05:32.500 Tell us what happened.
00:05:34.060 I mean, journalists and news organizations are always looking for transparency from people.
00:05:39.460 We don't have it in this case.
00:05:42.740 The CBC is a public broadcaster.
00:05:44.820 It's funded with your money and mine and all your viewers and listeners.
00:05:49.980 And we have, what was that old phrase in journalism?
00:05:53.200 The public has a right to know, right?
00:05:55.920 And we do.
00:05:56.980 So I'd like to know, you know, if you're clean as a whistle, just tell us how you did it, right?
00:06:03.380 If you're not, tell us how you did it.
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00:07:15.200 But what does it reveal in terms of the tone deafness in the CBC? I mean, did they not
00:07:21.980 realize what this would do, that it would spread, that our American cousins would get wind of it
00:07:29.800 and possibly say, what? Tell you about what's going on. Yeah, no, that's what you look at right
00:07:39.020 away is, you know, if you've had any experience in the real world with these things, you look at it
00:07:44.480 and you go, what were you thinking, guys, right? Like, you've actually had this policy for years,
00:07:49.860 right um why don't we just kind of stay quiet on this file this year right like even if you didn't
00:07:57.940 want to change it why bother sending it out you know i mean there's i mean cbc employs just about
00:08:04.760 one in three of the journalists in the country this country right now not all of them agree with
00:08:09.560 that policy right so there's a good chance somebody's going to leak it to somebody um which
00:08:15.520 is which is what happened and all of a sudden you're just like you're in and particularly this
00:08:21.220 time when there's so much tension between the u.s and and canada you know like the fbi director
00:08:26.600 cash patel just came out right away and said pretty much you guys depend on us to report to
00:08:34.060 you when you have terrorist activity in your country because we see it first right now you
00:08:40.140 know, if you still want to get that, you will do something about this, right? Or you will let us
00:08:45.860 know that you believe this was terrorism. And CSIS and then public safety, just like that,
00:08:52.900 said, you betcha. And came out like, because that's not something we can put at risk. But it
00:08:58.140 did illustrate how, you know, just a news decision can actually become an international incident
00:09:06.040 and wound up putting the country's security at risk.
00:09:10.180 I mean, that wasn't the intention.
00:09:11.980 It might not have gone that far,
00:09:13.880 but especially 25th anniversary, like, man, oh, man.
00:09:17.960 Yeah, if it was a private broadcaster,
00:09:21.140 you could almost overlook it, you know,
00:09:23.240 if they were particularly radical in their views.
00:09:26.940 But the CBC can't help itself, I think.
00:09:29.500 Their radical ideology eventually rears its ugly head.
00:09:32.980 And they just, I don't think that they can help themselves, even if they tried.
00:09:38.320 Well, I think it illustrates that their culture is out of touch with mainstream public opinion, right, in terms of that.
00:09:44.280 I mean, there are always going to be people.
00:09:46.480 There are people who think that 9-11 was some sort of CIA plot.
00:09:51.180 There's all kinds of conspiracy kooks out on these issues, left and right.
00:09:58.000 But you have to understand, you have to use a phrase in journalism,
00:10:02.320 You need to speak to people in a voice which they find familiar, right?
00:10:07.180 And if they don't, you're just detaching from them, right?
00:10:11.060 You've got to tell them that some harsh truths sometimes that they might not like,
00:10:14.900 but you've got to speak to them in a voice that they find familiar,
00:10:17.420 and the CBC doesn't do that.
00:10:19.820 It has occurred to me that if the CBC had referred to it as a false flag,
00:10:24.240 that there might be some elements in America that would be not there.
00:10:29.680 Yeah, for sure.
00:10:30.660 I would say, yeah.
00:10:32.320 But I have to ask you, what about the Republicans jumping on this, you know, with both feet as soon as they got wind of it, you know, barring the CBC from their convention?
00:10:45.720 Does that does that bother you a little bit?
00:10:48.060 Yeah, it does. I mean, I mean, I guess a lot of people would look at it and their first reaction would be, well, you know, you you you reap as you sow.
00:10:55.400 You had it coming sort of thing, but I don't believe that journalists should be barred from things in terms of that.
00:11:02.800 I felt the same way when during Mark Carney's leadership campaign, he barred Western Standard from his meetings and rallies in Edmonton, just for no particular reason.
00:11:15.100 I mean, you could say Western Standard is unashamedly conservative, so of course they're going to get banned, right?
00:11:21.060 So if you use that logic and you approve of that, then you would approve of this, but I don't approve of either. So you can't do that. I mean, you can do it legally. It's a private event, technically, but they're going to cover it whether they sit there and watch TV and take notes and send it that way and pick up clips from somebody else, whether they're accredited or not.
00:11:44.240 If you were the prime minister, would you ask the GOP to reconsider as a goodwill gesture and allow CBC to cover it as an accredited media source?
00:11:56.920 No, I would not, because that would be inserting political power into the CBC.
00:12:07.400 It's too late for that, though, isn't it?
00:12:09.060 Well, I know, I know, I know, I know. But I mean, you're asking me if I was Prime Minister. There's lots of guys who, if they were Prime Minister, would do it. But if I was Prime Minister, I would not, if I was Prime Minister, I wouldn't be subsidizing media.
00:12:22.700 You know, I mean, if I was prime minister, there'd be a much different CBC construct than you see today.
00:12:30.020 But I don't like the idea of going on bended knee to somebody asking on, you know, somebody's behalf.
00:12:38.020 I mean, that'll probably sort itself out eventually.
00:12:41.000 But, you know, like right now, the Republicans are really kind of happy to stick it to the CBC.
00:12:47.440 I mean, they stick it to their own, what they view as left of center news organizations all the time.
00:12:54.220 So, I mean, why wouldn't they slap the CBC around a little bit on this one?
00:12:59.960 When you and I were at the CRTC together, I mean, there were debates about the CBC.
00:13:03.960 I seem to recall starting to myself on occasion.
00:13:08.980 Would there even be a CBC if you were prime minister?
00:13:14.140 Yeah, I think there's a need for a public broadcaster in Canada.
00:13:18.560 I think one of the ways the CBC could actually be useful these days
00:13:22.460 is in filling in what you call news deserts and that.
00:13:24.840 I think the North desperately needs a broadcaster, radio and TV.
00:13:30.080 It's disconnected.
00:13:31.200 I mean, the whole purpose, the original purpose of the CBC was a good one.
00:13:36.520 Now, it's lost its way in many ways, but I think you do need to have one.
00:13:43.200 and and but it's how you have one how do people find you online Peter oh well
00:13:52.500 they can actually look up my sub stack it's called the rewrite and I do a
00:13:58.140 weekly critique of of media the good the bad and the ugly we point to good
00:14:03.840 journalism we point to bad journalism and we try to explain how people can do
00:14:09.420 it better. Thank you so much for coming on the show. We hope you come back. Oh, thanks so much.
00:14:14.320 It's been a pleasure and great to see you again. Great to see you as well. Thank you. Peter Menzies.
00:14:19.540 If you enjoyed the show and appreciate independent journalism, please consider becoming a premier
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00:14:31.380 Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.
00:14:39.420 Thank you.