Juno News - December 08, 2023
Why are they blaming Pierre Poilievre for THIS?
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Summary
The CBC laid off 700 workers earlier this week, this despite a lofty $1.3 billion annual handout from the Trudeau government. But instead of blaming the CBC for mismanagement and wasting taxpayer dollars, the legacy media in Canada is blaming, you guessed it, opposition leader Pierre Polyev.
Transcript
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The CBC cut 700 jobs earlier this week. This despite a lofty $1.3 billion annual handout from
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the Trudeau government. But instead of blaming the CBC, instead of blaming the senior brass
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for mismanagement and wasting taxpayer dollars, the legacy media in Canada is blaming, you guessed
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it, opposition leader Pierre Polyev. It's Fake News Friday. I'm Candice Malcolm and this is
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Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning into the podcast today. Don't forget to like
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Okay, so last week I said that the legacy media had dwelled on what I thought was the stupidest
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story in Canadian media history, but apparently that is a pretty low bar because it seems that
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they are outdoing themselves week after week after week. So today I'm going to walk you
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through the latest faux scandal involving the CBC. Well, there is a real scandal involving
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the CBC. It's an absolute story of corruption and mismanagement over at the state broadcaster.
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But I'm going to talk to you about how somehow the legacy media has managed to spin this into
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something to be morally outraged at opposition leader Pierre Polyev, because that's just the
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world that we live in. So as you know, the CBC is funded by the Trudeau government. Elon
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Musk hilariously changed their logo on X when Elon Musk took over the company on Twitter and
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changed it to saying that it was a state owned media to allow viewers to know the truth that
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this isn't just sort of independent press. This is a state owned media company, just like
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the state owned media companies in communistic dictatorship. The CBC didn't like that. They
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pointed out that, hey, it's not all their money that comes from the government. It's not all
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their money that's forked over from taxpayers by the Trudeau liberals. It's just a fraction. So Elon
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Musk changed the logo on their Twitter account to say that they are 69 percent government funded,
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because apparently that's a precise number that they receive from the government. So according to their
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own reports in 2022-2023 fiscal year, the CBC received around $1.3 billion from the Trudeau
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government from our tax dollars. And that's not enough. Apparently, that's not enough. Because
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last week we learned that Google will be handing over $100 million to the legacy media in Canada.
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They won't just distribute it themselves, they'll actually hand it over to the Trudeau government,
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who will then get to dole out the cash themselves. So rather than Google just paying media companies for
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their input, they're doing it through the Trudeau government. So Trudeau gets credit,
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he gets to pick and choose which journalists are going to get another bailout, another payout,
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this time Google funds. Well, you would think that this money, $100 million, would go to local
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journalism, would go to small independent media companies, companies that the Trudeau government
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talks about how they are the ones that are struggling. You wouldn't think it would go to the
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state broadcaster, an organization that already gets $1.3 billion in taxpayer money. Well, if you thought
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that you would be wrong, because the heritage minister, Pascal Saint-Ange, says that it would
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be within the spirit of the government's new digital law, if the CBC Radio Canada were to receive money
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from Google, but suggested its share of the $100 million fund may be capped. Well, apparently,
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based on the formula that they seem to be using, CBC may be eligible for up to 33%, one third of this
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fund, because that's how many journalists they employ. Of all the legacy media journalists in Canada,
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one third work for the state broadcaster. So using that logic, they could get up to $33 million
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in additional money. And like I said, not all of CBC's money comes from the government. They also have
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a lot of their own assets. They're sitting on $444 million in real estate. Most of that is sunk into its
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very large headquarters in downtown Toronto. They also have headquarters in downtown Ottawa, downtown
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Montreal, downtown Vancouver. The Toronto property itself is assessed at something around $315 million.
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This is according to a report from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in October of this year. CBC also
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raises money through advertising. So it takes in nearly $200 million a year doing that. So CBC is flush with
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cash. CBC has more money than any other media company in the country, perhaps more than any other media
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company in the country combined. And yet on December 4th, we woke up to the news that the CBC is laying
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people off. They are laying off up to 700 people. This despite all of the money that I just laid out.
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And they go ahead and they announced this news three weeks before Christmas. Three weeks before
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Christmas, the state broadcaster decides to say, hey, guess what, CBC? Guess what, CBC employees?
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You're probably going to lose your job. We're going to be laying off a whole bunch of people,
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and it's going to be happening now. I have no idea why any big company, large corporation would
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decide to announce news like this during the holidays over Christmas. It just seems completely
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cold and heartless of the state broadcaster, especially in the wake of all this news that
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they're going to be getting even more money. They're probably going to be getting another $33 million in
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addition to the $1.3 billion that they get. Well, according to a report from the Journal de Montreal,
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indicates that 600 to 700 employees across the country would soon be out of work.
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These anticipated layoffs affecting both English and French services mark a significant reduction
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in CBC's workforce with over 300 positions in Quebec alone on the line. So the whole thing just looks
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really, really bad. And then on top of that, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation swoop in with more
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devastating news about the CBC. Well, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the CBC doled
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out $16 million in bonuses last year in 2022. They handed that out to their staff, to the senior
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management. About 1,100 employees received that total of $16 million. And it gets worse. According to
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these records, since 2015, CBC management has received almost $185 million in bonuses and pay
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raises with an average of $23 million spent per year. That includes $80 million in bonuses and raises
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since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. A time when the entire economy is contracting and most private
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companies are laying people off. Most media companies, private media companies are laying people off.
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The CBC is growing through government funding. They are giving out bonuses to their fat cat
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bosses. So not everyone was okay with this. Well, even CBC's own employees started noticing this,
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noticing the huge contradictions, the utter mismanagement that is happening over the state
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broadcaster, where you have $1.3 billion in taxpayer money going to an organization that is laying people
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off at Christmas time while also giving out millions of dollars in bonuses. So here is CBC host Adrienne
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Arsenal grilling her boss. Kudos to her for asking these tough questions. But she's grilling her boss.
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This is the CEO of the CBC, Catherine Tate, talking about how they just don't know if they're going to
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give bonuses this year. They just haven't really discussed it. They haven't decided yet. And it's none of
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our business anyway. Here's that clip. I'm just just curious about something. I'm going to presume
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no bonuses this year. I mean, the Canadian taxpayer federation said a freedom of information request
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showed 16 million were paid in bonuses in 2022. Can we establish that that is not happening this year?
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It's too early to say where we are for this year. We'll be looking at that like we do all our line
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items in the coming months. So there's a there's a chance bonuses could still happen at a time when
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jobs are being cut? Again, I'm not going to comment on something that hasn't been discussed at this
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point. So Catherine Tate is an absolute clown. Look at her with a big grin on her face. After announcing
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that the CBC would be laying people off over Christmas time, you could even see the host was upset. She
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seemed troubled. Her voice was even a little shaky when she was asking that question because it's such an
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emotional traumatic thing that's happening over at the state broadcaster. And there's you know,
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the CEO is just saying like, whatever, we'll figure it out later. Okay, so if you're a regular Canadian,
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a normal person, and you're viewing all this, you're you're observing that there is something
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seriously wrong with the state broadcaster. The CBC is clearly mismanaged. They clearly don't know
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what they're doing, clearly bloated, so far removed from the economy and from the realistic restraints
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that are happening in the economy. They're just living in their own little bubble. And I
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think a fair minded Canadian would look at the situation and just say this needs to change.
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This isn't right. This isn't how our government should be run. This isn't how taxpayers should be
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spent. If you're a liberal, though, if you are a partisan liberal, you see this as an opportunity to
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defend the CBC to say that the CBC is worth defending and shame on those conservatives because
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you will recall that Pierre Polyev wants to defund the CBC has said many times that he plans to defund the
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CBC. So you had Trudeau's heritage minister jump out there and start defending the layoffs,
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defending the CBC and blaming the conservatives. So here is the heritage minister once again,
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blaming conservative cuts, blaming the Harper government who has not been in power for what,
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almost nine years, blaming them for the CBC's current management in 2023. Here's that clip.
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I'm completely opposed to the vision of the leader of the opposition that thinks that
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he can defund CBC and that it won't affect Radio Canada. This is wrong. The two are intertwined.
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We need a strong public broadcaster from coast to coast to coast, not only in Quebec or in
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French language and minority situation. The public broadcaster is offering services across the country
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in both official languages, but also in eight indigenous languages. It's unique. It's essential. And even
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while most of our private broadcasters no longer have the resources to send journalists across the
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world to bring back a Canadian perspective on what's going on globally, CBC Radio Canada is essential into
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providing those types of services. They are present in every region of the country, even though a lot
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of newsrooms have closed. So they are providing local and regional information that would not be
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available if the public broadcaster didn't exist. In my opinion, Pierre Poiliev is attacking every
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democratic institution. CBC Radio Canada is one of them. And we need to support them and make sure that
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the service is still strong and across our country. Never miss a good opportunity to blame Harper,
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blame a government that hasn't been in power since 2015 for things happening in 2023. Justin Trude,
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the prime minister, also jumped in on this nonsense. Here he is also in French, blaming Harper for the
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current mismanagement at the CBC. We will always support CBC Radio Canada and its services to local
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communities throughout the country. One of the first measures we took as a government
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was to cancel the Harper government's cuts to our public broadcaster. We supported local journalism
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and media, and that's very important during this difficult time. That's why we brought in Bill C-18.
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At a time when, unfortunately, the leader of the opposition is not doing anything about this issue,
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we will continue to support local media and journalists in Canada. And final clip here is
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Trudeau's heritage minister saying, quote, we need a public broadcaster to support democracy.
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Now, the decision that we need to make as a country is, you know, we need a public broadcaster
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to support our democracy. What should it look like in the current situation in the future? What it looks
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like? Imagine that logic that you need a bloated, propped up state broadcaster that is funded by one
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party that openly supports one party. And somehow you need that in order to support your democracy.
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These people are just absolutely so out of touch and so insane with the things that they say. Well,
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opposition leader Pierre Polyev noticed all of this was going on. It's one of his marquee signature
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policies that he wants to defund this terrible bloated organization. And so he jumped in and just
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just simply noticed that all of this was happening. Noticed that the CBC was laying people off. And
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here is what he tweeted. He shared a story, a CTV news story, saying that CBC is cutting 600 jobs,
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some programming as it slashes its budget. And Pierre Polyev says the following. He says,
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CBC is broke again and laying off staff. This is after they paid $99 million in bonuses to incompetent
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executives and liberal talking heads. I'll bet none of Trudeau's favorite mouthpieces will be let go.
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They'll get more bonuses. And then he shares the CTV story. So this is a pretty standard criticism
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from the opposition leader from Pierre Polyev. This is pretty much what we've come to expect to
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him. This is fact based. Everything that he says is true. He's simply pointing out to his followers
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and to Canadians that the CBC is letting off 10% of their workforce and that they're probably going to
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give out bonuses anyway. So I don't really see anything wrong with Pierre Polyev's posts. I think it's
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accurate and I think it's fair, but that is not apparently what many, many people from the legacy
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media saw. So apparently taking their cues from the government, they jumped in and they started to
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attack Polyev, not the CBC. They didn't attack Trudeau. They didn't attack the CBC for this callous
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move to lay people off over Christmas time. They attacked Pierre Polyev for the crime of noticing that
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this was all happening. So here's Charles Adler, a very well-known, former conservative talk radio
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host. He writes, could you be any colder to people losing jobs? Could you be any more cruel to people
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keeping theirs? Is this projection? Do your staffers need to suck up to you to keep their jobs? If they
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don't provide a sufficient level of sequious, do you cut them like fish? I don't really understand
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what Charles Adler is going on and on about, like as if somehow Pierre Polyev noticing that the CBC was
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laying off staff means that somehow Pierre Polyev mistreats his staff. I don't really understand his line
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of reasoning or his basis for that tack. It seems pretty baseless. Next, we have Bruce Arthur, who is a well-known
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liberal talking head on the CBC. And he writes, reveling in the pain of laid off workers is not a
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nice look. Next, you have Steve Marr, a journalist over at McLean's. He writes, this seems cold. Imagine
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if you were one of the people laid off having had to tell your family you have lost your job just before
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Christmas. See, I agree with Steve Marr that it's very cold and it's very sad that the CBC would do this,
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but I don't understand what that has to do with Pierre Polyev noticing. Why aren't you getting mad at the
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CBC? Why are you getting mad at Pierre Polyev? It really just makes no sense to me. Next, we have
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Amber Mack, who is a author, writer and a radio host. She writes this, let me fix this for you
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since you're struggling with the human part of political leadership. And then she writes, CBC
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is laying off 600 people just weeks before the holidays. This is difficult news for these media
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professionals and their families during what is already a challenging time for so many Canadians.
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So, you know, this is like a very plain sort of diplomatic response you would expect from a
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government official who is trying to cover the fact that they had any involvement in this.
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But that is not what you expect from the opposition leader. You expect accountability from the
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opposition leader. You expect them to hold the government's feet to the fire and be critical.
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So, no, that's not the response that I would expect from the opposition leader. Good thing
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that the opposition leader is not relying on the legacy media to write his talking points. Next,
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we have Lana Payne, who is the national president for UNIFOR, so a union boss. She jumps in and she
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says, this is what happens when someone has never had a real job in their lives. Absolute lack of empathy
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for people losing their job. Okay, I'm sorry, this person is a union boss and she's railing into a
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elected official, a member of parliament who has been a member of parliament for a very long time.
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Somebody's never had a real job in his life. I'm sorry, is he being a union boss,
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somehow more honorable and more of a real job than being an elected official, being a parliamentarian,
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someone who goes to committees, who speaks in parliament, and then someone who gets elected
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a leader of their party and leads the party, like runs the office. I mean, I understand that it's
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not a private sector job and you don't have to worry about the bottom line, but neither does a union.
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It's not like the union has to go out there and make sure that they keep their customer base happy.
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That's not what a union boss does. They just collect money, compulsory collection of money from
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the union members. So sure, Pierre Polyev hasn't ever run a big company, but he still has a real
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job. I don't understand the claim that somehow running a major political party, being the leader
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of the opposition, running a huge staff, being a parliamentarian, being elected an official,
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like how is that not a real job? I don't even understand the criticism. Final critique comes from
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Rachel Gilmour, who I don't even know why we give her the attention of showing what she says.
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She's, she's sort of irrelevant. She's a former journalist and now she's unemployed. But anyway,
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she writes, this dude sees layoffs happening and further mocks and attacks the staff. Meanwhile,
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he's been a politician making six figures his whole adult life. A real man of the people here,
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folks. So this person is just clearly very, very envious and jealous of the fact that Pierre Polyev
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has a job and makes money. And somehow the fact that he has a job makes money, that means that he can't
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relate to other people and that somehow noticing the CBC is laying people off means that he's mocking
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those people. I don't see that at all. You know, it's really interesting because journalists spend
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their entire day, it seems, on Twitter. They just sit on Twitter, they read the news all day,
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and they can't help themselves but to jump in and comment on every single story. And you'll notice
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this. If you jump on X or Twitter, you will see that almost all of these legacy media journalists
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comment on every single story that comes out as they happen in real time. Anytime that there's
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anything interesting happening on Twitter, click on the tweet, and you will see tons and tons and
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tons of legacy media journalists just commenting on it. And I think this is a real problem for those
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journalists and for their credibility because the reality is that most of these folks are left-wing.
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That's just their persuasion. That's their worldview. That's how they say things. They like Justin
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Trudeau. He's their guy. And they can't help but just defending him. They can't help but criticizing
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Pierre Paglia because they really, really despise the guy. And they can't help but defending Justin
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Trudeau because they really, really like the guy. And it comes out, right, if you wanted to be a
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respected journalist who's neutral, who we don't know who they vote for, we don't know which side
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they really go for, which I think is how journalists used to be, I think 15, 20 years ago, you didn't
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really know who the journalists that you were reading or watching. You didn't know how they vote because you
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didn't really know what they were thinking all the time on every single issue. You just saw the things that
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they were writing about and the things that they were presenting on in their professional capacity.
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But now that these journalists just spend their whole day on Twitter telling you their little
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thoughts on every single minor story that's popping up, we can see their true colors. We see the reality
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of how left-wing they are, of how much they love Justin Trudeau, of how deranged they are when it comes to
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conservatives and when it comes to Pierre Polyev. And I think this really is a perfect example. We should be
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looking at the CBC and blaming them. We should be looking at the Trudeau government and blaming them
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for enabling the CBC with so much money, so much more money than the previous government. As they
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point out, Harper government didn't give the CBC that much. CBC gets a lot more under Justin Trudeau.
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That's all a problem. And rather than looking at that critically and criticizing it as you would
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expect a professional free media to do, that's not what they do. They're blaming Pierre Polyev,
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which again tells you everything you need to know about these legacy media journalists. Thank you so much for
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tuning in. This has been Fake News Friday. I'm Candace Malcolm and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.