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 CBC and the Liberal Party.
00:00:00.080It's Fake News Friday. I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:08.360Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning in today.
00:00:11.020So it is Friday and we decided to bring back a segment that we used to do here at The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:16.240Bring it back for the election and it is going to be called Fake News Fridays.
00:00:20.520We're going to do it every Friday throughout the entire election campaign.
00:00:24.020We used to do this segment on the show. It was called This Week in Fake News.
00:00:27.020And 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.
00:00:35.000So keep an eye out for it every Friday.
00:00:37.200Tune into The Candice Malcolm Show where I will unpack and deconstruct the most misleading headlines and the worst journalism of the week.
00:00:45.640The 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.
00:00:54.960I'm talking about this story over at Black Locks Reporter.
00:00:57.920They reported that CBC has been hired as an election fact checker for Facebook.
00:01:03.840So reading from the story here, Facebook Canada yesterday named the CBC as an election campaign fact checker.
00:01:09.140The Crown Broadcaster's French Language Service, Radio Canada, will monitor other media's news stories to ensure accuracy.
00:01:15.800And I'll just keep reading here so we get a better understanding of what this means.
00:01:24.220When 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.
00:01:33.920We notify people who try to share the content or previously shared it that the information is false.
00:01:39.600And we apply a warning label that links to the fact checker's article disproving this claim.
00:01:45.080And so according to a Facebook spokesperson, they say,
00:01:49.140Every 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.
00:01:59.460Well, that's sort of good news, isn't it?
00:02:01.240Now the program was intended to fight disinformation and connect Canadians with credible information, Facebook wrote.
00:02:07.320We are committed to doing our part to support civic engagement.
00:02:11.140Now 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.
00:02:23.540This 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.
00:02:33.260They're open fans of Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party.
00:02:36.660And 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.
00:03:00.260Or next, check out this incredibly softball interview between CBC host and news personality Rosemary Barton and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.
00:03:15.020Last book you've read or the book you're reading?
00:03:16.960Um, the, just finished, uh, the, um, the patch, which was, uh, Chris Turner's, uh, history of, uh, of the oil patch.
00:03:29.420Um, but I'm also about to start, uh, the new, uh, Ken Follett with, uh, the third, third book that is, uh, the sequel to, um, Pillars of the Earth.
00:03:55.280And, according to True North's own fact-checking, we have found that the CBC have published several articles that were wrong or misleading.
00:04:03.600Add to that the fact that the CBC sued the conservative party during the last federal election, a loss that they ultimately lost.
00:04:11.040And 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.
00:04:21.500And Blacklock's reporter helpfully points out the fact that the CBC itself has gotten a lot of information wrong, a lot of reports wrong.
00:04:29.000These are just a few examples of the things that the CBC has gotten wrong.
00:04:32.700The network admitted inaccurately reporting that the AstraZeneca vaccine was 100% effective, which it is not.
00:04:38.980They mistakenly claimed that Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman had COVID when he did not.
00:04:44.020They garbled statements about the Middle Eastern conflict within the Green Party and its leader, Anime Paul.
00:04:49.760They falsely claimed that the RCMP fatally shot a woman in Edmonston, New Brunswick.
00:04:54.960They falsely claimed that the police fatally tasered a man in Winnipeg.
00:04:58.240And they misidentified the first black MP elected to Parliament.
00:05:02.300So the CBC is not exactly a steward of truth.
00:05:05.380And again, this can lead to an incredible amount of misinformation being out there.
00:05:09.980So the CBC already gets over a billion dollars from the taxpayer.
00:05:13.640And now they get to potentially silence and regulate their competition.
00:05:18.600They've admitted to getting it wrong several times.
00:05:21.200Their own ombudsman had to call them out for misleading their own audience.
00:05:25.800And so here we have a media company that just has way too much power in Canada.
00:05:30.400And here we see they're getting even more power in a way that can really influence the election.
00:05:35.640Because a lot of people go on Facebook to get their news.
00:05:38.340And 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.
00:06:26.360And 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.
00:06:35.080So it perfectly shows the contrast of just how quickly that country fell apart and how the West has failed them.
00:06:43.100And 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.
00:07:01.780And that context is simply that in the top picture, Clarissa Ward apparently is in a private compound.
00:07:06.780So she was able to dress a little bit more Western, whereas the second one, she's out in the street.
00:07:11.440But still, the fact that she had to wear that second outfit, the fact that she's forced to wear an abeya, which is that long black garb, plus the head covering, because the Taliban are rule, that is accurate.
00:07:33.200Trying to say the Taliban isn't that bad?
00:07:35.100Interestingly, this is a short article that the AP did.
00:07:37.320So within the short fact check, it included this line.
00:07:40.440It says that the Taliban spokesperson said that the Taliban would honor women's rights within the norms of Islamic law without elaborating.
00:07:49.300The Taliban encouraged women to return to work and allowed girls to go to school, handing out headscarves to them.
00:07:55.920So without any irony, they're fact checking this picture that went viral that is an accurate picture.
00:08:01.580It's an accurate picture showing what's going on in Afghanistan.
00:08:04.200And 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.
00:08:12.020They're not fact checking the Taliban.
00:08:13.880They're putting the Taliban's statement out as fact in their fact check.
00:08:19.680And on that same vein, of course, the CBC jumped right in to that.
00:08:22.980Look at this headline, Taliban vow to honor women's right within Islamic law in Afghanistan.
00:08:28.140They took that same Taliban PR message and they're parroting it.
00:08:31.560They're putting it out without enough skepticism, without doubting it and just saying, you know, Islamic law for women isn't really that bad.
00:08:39.480It is so sickening to see the mainstream media pushing the Taliban lines and defending the Taliban.
00:08:46.040Why on earth would they defend the Taliban?
00:09:00.240So the headline here, CBC, Aaron O'Toole opposes mandatory vaccination for federal public servants and travelers.
00:09:07.240So the CBC published a hit piece on the conservatives attempting to paint the conservative position on mandatory vaccines for federal workers as somehow controversial, somehow anti-vaxxer, even though it is the exact same plan as the liberals.
00:09:21.160The truth is that the liberal plan and the conservative plan both include exemptions for federal workers who wish not to get vaccinated.
00:09:28.160The CBC knows this is an election wedge issue and they choose to take the liberal talking points and turn it into their own story.
00:09:35.400They're painting the conservatives as being anti-vaxx and anti-science.
00:09:47.440It says, Conservative leader Aaron O'Toole said late Sunday he is opposed to mandatory vaccines for federal public servants and instead prefers a regular rapid testing regime to keep workplaces safe from COVID-19.
00:09:57.760O'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.
00:10:05.560And 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.
00:10:13.400But there are some exemptions for workers with variable health conditions.
00:10:25.000And that's why it's even worse and even more concerning that the CBC is given that power to fact check over at Facebook.
00:10:31.860They are trying their very best to skew this election, to push their friend Justin Trudeau, to make sure that he wins.
00:10:38.540And 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.
00:10:47.340That's why independent media is more important than ever.
00:10:50.380I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.