Juno News - August 20, 2021


Canadians can’t trust the CBC

Topics
CBC election fact-checking and misinformation CBC bias and inaccuracies
Mentioned
Justin Trudeau Erin O'Toole Paul Merriman Rosemary Barton Clarissa Ward Chris Dorner Ken Follett
Money policy is your job, Justin! Will foreign affairs be an election issue？

Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

181.49

Word count

1,973

Sentence count

133

Harmful content

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we discuss the new role the CBC has been given by Facebook as an election fact checker, and how it could lead to a lot of misinformation and a really bad imbalance of power between the two major parties.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.040 It's Fake News Friday. I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:08.320 Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning in today.
00:00:11.040 So it is Friday and we decided to bring back a segment that we used to do here at The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:16.180 Bring it back for the election and it is going to be called Fake News Fridays.
00:00:20.460 We're going to do it every Friday throughout the entire election campaign.
00:00:23.980 We used to do this segment on the show. It was called This Week in Fake News.
00:00:26.960 And there's just so much misinformation, so much bad reporting out there that we thought it was important to bring it back to you for this campaign.
00:00:34.940 So keep an eye out for it every Friday.
00:00:37.140 Tune into The Candice Malcolm Show where I will unpack and deconstruct the most misleading headlines and the worst journalism of the week.
00:00:44.440 So let's get to it.
00:00:45.580 The first story I want to talk about today isn't fake news per se, but it will lead to a lot of misinformation and a really bad imbalance of power.
00:00:54.900 I'm talking about this story over at Black Locks Reporter.
00:00:57.840 They reported that CBC has been hired as an election fact checker for Facebook.
00:01:03.780 So reading from the story here, Facebook Canada yesterday named the CBC as an election campaign fact checker.
00:01:09.080 The Crown Broadcaster's French Language Service, Radio Canada, will monitor other media's news stories to ensure accuracy.
00:01:15.740 And I'll just keep reading here so we get a better understanding of what this means.
00:01:20.840 So this is a quote from Facebook.
00:01:23.940 It says,
00:01:24.180 When a fact checker rates a piece of content as false, we significantly reduce its distribution so that fewer people can see it, Facebook wrote in a 2021 Canadian election integrity initiative.
00:01:34.160 We notify people who try to share the content or previously shared it that the information is false.
00:01:39.540 And we apply a warning label that links to the fact checker's article disproving this claim.
00:01:45.000 And so according to a Facebook spokesperson, they say,
00:01:49.100 Every fact checking organization in our program is required to have a public appeals email address so that media who object to CBC's fact findings could file a complaint.
00:01:59.400 Well, that's sort of good news, isn't it?
00:02:01.180 Now the program was intended to fight disinformation and connect Canadians with credible information, Facebook wrote.
00:02:07.260 We are committed to doing our part to support civic engagement.
00:02:11.080 Now it's one thing that CBC routinely pushes out its own biased information, biased reports, but now they're the ones who are going to be put in charge of determining what is fact and what is not.
00:02:23.520 This is an incredibly dangerous power for one media outlet to hold, especially one like the CBC, the state broadcaster, who routinely engages in biased and skewed journalism.
00:02:33.200 They're open fans of Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party.
00:02:36.560 And if you doubt that for a minute, here's one clip from the last federal election of Justin Trudeau openly talking about his admiration for the CBC.
00:02:45.900 Or next, check out this incredibly softball interview between CBC host and news personality Rosemary Barton and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.
00:03:10.180 Once I'm done politics, I'm done politics.
00:03:14.740 Last book you've read or the book you're reading?
00:03:18.680 I just finished The Patch, which was Chris Turner's history of the oil patch.
00:03:28.920 Um, but I'm also about to start the new, uh, Ken Follett with, uh, the third, third book that is, uh, the sequel to, um, Pillars of the Earth.
00:03:40.420 That's your, your nerdy side.
00:03:41.560 No, that's, that's my, uh, sci-fi nerdy side.
00:03:45.400 No, no, it's not, it's not sci-fi.
00:03:46.620 It's, it's just a sweeping historical epic, I'm sure, but I haven't started it yet, so.
00:03:51.260 They, they don't hide their bias.
00:03:52.560 They are open fans of Justin Trudeau.
00:03:55.220 And, according to True North's own fact-checking, we have found that the CBC have published several articles that were wrong or misleading.
00:04:03.580 Add to that the fact that the CBC sued the Conservative Party during the last federal election, a lawsuit that they ultimately lost.
00:04:11.000 And the fact that the CBC has hidden the ties of their contributors who had ties to the Liberal Party, while all, all the while claiming to objectively report the facts.
00:04:21.420 And Blacklock's reporter helpfully points out the fact that the CBC itself has gotten a lot of information wrong, a lot of reports wrong.
00:04:28.960 These are just a few examples of the things that the CBC has gotten wrong.
00:04:32.640 The network admitted inaccurately reporting that the AstraZeneca vaccine was 100% effective, which it is not.
00:04:38.920 They mistakenly claimed that Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman had COVID when he did not.
00:04:43.980 They garbled statements about the Middle Eastern conflict within the Green Party and its leader, Anime Paul.
00:04:49.700 They falsely claimed that the RCMP fatally shot a woman in Edmonston, New Brunswick.
00:04:54.920 They falsely claimed that the police fatally tasered a man in Winnipeg.
00:04:58.180 And they misidentified the first black MP elected to Parliament.
00:05:02.240 So the CBC is not exactly a steward of truth.
00:05:05.320 And again, this can lead to an incredible amount of misinformation being out there.
00:05:09.940 So the CBC already gets over a billion dollars from the taxpayer.
00:05:13.580 And now they get to potentially silence and regulate their competition.
00:05:18.560 They've admitted to getting it wrong several times.
00:05:21.160 Their own ombudsman had to call them out for misleading their own audience.
00:05:25.760 And so here we have a media company that just has way too much power in Canada.
00:05:30.360 And here we see they're getting even more power in a way that can really influence the election.
00:05:35.580 Because a lot of people go on Facebook to get their news.
00:05:38.280 And if all of a sudden it's not just the Silicon Valley titans that are tipping the scale and choosing what you can and cannot see.
00:05:45.400 It's also the CBC in that mix.
00:05:47.420 That's incredibly dangerous for Canada.
00:05:49.360 Incredibly dangerous for the state of independent media.
00:05:52.520 And just freedom of speech.
00:05:53.960 The ability to share news stories.
00:05:56.140 It's incredibly concerning revelation.
00:05:58.960 And that's why it gets the number one place in our fake news of the week, fake news Friday report.
00:06:04.480 But let's move on because we have a few other stories to cover.
00:06:06.940 So this photo made the rounds on social media.
00:06:09.480 I shared it with you on my show earlier this week.
00:06:11.960 It shows CNN Afghanistan correspondent Clarissa Ward.
00:06:15.620 And it shows two pictures of her.
00:06:17.420 The picture says a thousand words.
00:06:19.240 And really it exemplifies how the Taliban was able to take over the country so quickly.
00:06:24.560 Kabul fell very quickly.
00:06:25.660 And just how stark the difference would be under a Taliban rule where women basically have no rights and are forced to dress this way and don't have opportunities like education.
00:06:35.420 So it perfectly shows the contrast of just how quickly that country fell apart and how the West has failed them.
00:06:43.040 And yet the AP, the Associated Press in the U.S., decided to fact check this picture to let us know that it is missing some context.
00:06:51.760 It's lacking some context.
00:06:52.900 So the fact checkers over at AP were wasting their time trying to tell people that no, the story wasn't misleading.
00:06:59.320 No, it wasn't wrong.
00:07:00.340 It was just missing context.
00:07:01.740 And that context is simply that in the top picture, Clarissa Ward apparently is in a private compound.
00:07:06.580 So she was able to dress a little bit more Western, whereas the second one, she's out in the street.
00:07:11.620 But still, the fact that she had to wear that second outfit, the fact that she's forced to wear an abaya,
00:07:16.220 which is that long black garb plus the head covering because the Taliban are rural, that is accurate, that is true. 0.97
00:07:22.500 So why is AP wasting their time trying to tell us that it is not true?
00:07:26.860 It just shows how preoccupied the mainstream media is with what?
00:07:31.660 Trying to defend the Taliban?
00:07:33.140 Trying to say the Taliban isn't that bad? 1.00
00:07:35.060 Interestingly, this is a short article that the AP did.
00:07:37.260 So within the short fact check, it included this line.
00:07:40.380 It says that the Taliban spokesperson said that the Taliban would honor women's rights within the norms of Islamic law without elaborating.
00:07:49.260 The Taliban encouraged women to return to work and allowed girls to go to school, handing out headscarves to them. 0.96
00:07:55.880 So without any irony, they're fact checking this picture that went viral that is an accurate picture.
00:08:00.500 It's not distorted media.
00:08:01.520 It's an accurate picture showing what's going on in Afghanistan.
00:08:04.160 And then they include a quote from the Taliban lying and saying that women will have rights and they don't bother to fact check the Taliban.
00:08:11.960 They're not fact checking the Taliban.
00:08:13.800 They're putting the Taliban's statement out as fact in their fact check. 0.95
00:08:18.100 It's just so ridiculous.
00:08:19.620 And on that same vein, of course, the CBC jumped right in to that. 0.92
00:08:22.940 Look at this headline, Taliban vow to honor women's right within Islamic law in Afghanistan.
00:08:28.080 They took that same Taliban PR message and they're parroting it. 0.96
00:08:31.500 They're putting it out without enough skepticism, without doubting it and just saying, you know, Islamic law for women isn't really that bad. 0.63
00:08:39.420 It is so sickening to see the mainstream media pushing the Taliban lines and defending the Taliban.
00:08:45.980 Why on earth would they defend the Taliban?
00:08:48.020 It makes no sense.
00:08:49.160 And it is just absolutely enraging, especially to see the state broadcaster doing that.
00:08:53.720 OK, I want to get to one more story for Fake News Friday.
00:08:56.640 This one we covered here at True North.
00:08:58.860 We did our own fact check.
00:09:00.200 So the headline here, CBC, Aaron O'Toole opposes mandatory vaccination for federal public servants and travelers.
00:09:07.200 So the CBC publish a hit piece on the conservatives attempting to paint the conservative position on mandatory vaccines for federal workers as somehow controversial, somehow anti-vaxxer,
00:09:17.600 even though it is the exact same plan as the liberals.
00:09:21.100 The truth is that the liberal plan and the conservative plan both include exemptions for federal workers who wish not to get vaccinated.
00:09:28.040 The CBC knows this is an election wedge issue and they choose to take the liberal talking points and turn it into their own story.
00:09:35.340 They're painting the conservatives as being anti-vaxx and anti-science.
00:09:38.720 But this isn't the case.
00:09:40.300 The CBC never mentioned the fact that the conservative plan is basically identical to the liberal plan.
00:09:46.020 So this is from the article, it says, Conservative leader Aaron O'Toole said late Sunday he is opposed to mandatory vaccines for federal public servants
00:09:52.620 and instead prefers a regular rapid testing regime to keep workplaces safe from COVID-19.
00:09:57.700 O'Toole said the liberal plan is a divisive one and Canadians instead want a reasonable and balanced approach that protects their right to make a personal health decision.
00:10:05.500 And of course, they buried the fact that the government announced last week that it would require vaccination across the federal service by the end of September.
00:10:13.680 But there are some exemptions for workers with variable health conditions.
00:10:18.240 So again, it's the same position.
00:10:19.620 It's the same position.
00:10:20.680 The CBC is somehow reporting that it is different.
00:10:23.440 You can't trust the CBC.
00:10:24.700 And that's why it's even worse and even more concerning that the CBC is given that power to fact check over at Facebook.
00:10:31.820 They are trying their very best to skew this election, to push their friend Justin Trudeau, to make sure that he wins.
00:10:38.500 And that's why it is so important that Canadians not get their news from the legacy media and not get their news from places like the CBC because you cannot trust them.
00:10:47.280 That's why independent media is more important than ever.
00:10:50.320 I'm Candace Malcolm and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.