The Candice Malcolm Show - Fake News Friday ｜ An outrageous week for the CBC

00:00:00.000 Hey, and welcome along to another edition of Fake News Friday.

00:00:14.000 Yes, it is Friday, February 3rd, sifting through the blizzard of lies, staying afloat in the

00:00:19.260 whirlpool of deception and dishonesty.

00:00:22.020 I am Andrew Lawton, here to navigate the week that was through the lens of debunking the

00:00:26.800 Fake Rejoined, not as always, but as usually, with Harrison Faulkner.

00:00:31.480 Harrison, how has the week been good, sir?

00:00:33.320 The week's been pretty good, and I have to say, the Fake News Friday intro just keeps

00:00:36.920 getting honed in on, and it keeps getting better.

00:00:39.420 I will say, though, my week was going well, Andrew, until I woke up this morning and it

00:00:42.980 was negative 18 in Toronto.

00:00:45.480 I could really use some climate change these days.

00:00:47.760 I saw someone say that whenever it's cold out, it's always the weather.

00:00:51.500 Whenever it's too hot out, it's always climate.

00:00:53.380 Well, seriously, this is getting a bit ridiculous at this point.

00:00:56.520 I could really use a little bit of climate change this morning.

00:01:00.000 Yeah, I'd actually hoped that the weather forecast was going to be fake news, but alas, my car

00:01:05.060 this morning had several inches of snow, so that was how I started my day.

00:01:09.780 But let's get right into the thick of it here.

00:01:13.100 One thing you could always rely on is media wanting more government money.

00:01:18.160 This is the perennial story of subsidy.

00:01:20.500 Once you subsidize something, it will never have a life for itself outside of that subsidized

00:01:25.980 regime.

00:01:27.140 Canadian newspapers are being threatened, we hear.

00:01:30.760 So what do we have to do?

00:01:31.860 Bring on the government.

00:01:33.100 This is an op-ed that was in CBC that says,

00:01:36.720 Monopoly capitalism is plundering Canadian newspapers.

00:01:40.900 It's actually about the Competition Bureau that needs to step in and start breaking up some

00:01:45.720 of these big chains.

00:01:47.080 Part of this is, of course, that Post Media, the largest newspaper company in Canada,

00:01:51.000 just announced it's going to be doing several staff cuts.

00:01:54.600 I don't want to understate it here.

00:01:56.440 It's actually quite a significant workforce reduction after this company has already had

00:02:00.880 to do this time and time again in recent years.

00:02:03.400 They're also going to be selling off properties.

00:02:05.640 But the answer to this is that, well, monopoly capitalism is the problem, not an old business

00:02:11.100 model.

00:02:11.860 Yeah, Andrew, you can always count on the CBC.

00:02:13.960 Whenever they discuss stories like the failing local media, right, the fact that Canadians 0.99

00:02:18.760 can no longer get accurate news about where they live, wherever it is in the country, the

00:02:23.760 answer, the antidote to this problem is always more regulation, more government.

00:02:28.260 It's not just more funding from the government.

00:02:30.240 It's actually demanding that the government steps in and engages with these companies and

00:02:34.800 stops them from getting bigger or stops them from monopolizing.

00:02:38.280 I think everyone can get behind that message.

00:02:39.980 But it is funny, Andrew, how it always comes back to wanting more money from the taxpayer

00:02:44.580 and wanting more government regulation.

00:02:47.420 Like, that's the problem with Canadian media here.

00:02:50.420 The fact that we don't give enough of our money to journalists, it's laughable, especially

00:02:54.740 coming from the CBC.

00:02:55.940 Yeah, and when I mentioned the call for subsidy here, I should mention that Patricia Elliott's 1.00

00:03:01.080 primary goal here is to break up the so-called monopolies.

00:03:05.420 But the other side of this is that she's talking about the importance of Bill C-18, which is

00:03:10.520 the bill that forces the social media companies to subsidize news, a government-mandated subsidy.

00:03:16.980 She heralds the Local Journalism Initiative, again, another program where the government bankrolls

00:03:21.960 individual reporters.

00:03:24.000 And she says that, yeah, all of that's fine.

00:03:25.980 We need it.

00:03:26.560 But the media concentration problem is there.

00:03:29.520 So I think the challenge is that they have a very narrow conception of what media is supposed

00:03:35.180 to be.

00:03:36.080 And let's face it, you have independent media organizations like Rebel, like True North,

00:03:40.540 even like Canada Land.

00:03:41.760 It's not exclusively for media that has a more conservative editorial bent are growing.

00:03:48.260 It's the traditional business model, the legacy media that right now is in such dire

00:03:54.340 straits.

00:03:54.920 So I think that the answer to this is not going to come from some government bureaucrat

00:03:59.500 stepping in.

00:04:00.340 It's going to come from innovation.

00:04:02.120 And I don't know why no one who wrings their hands about the state of media actually entertains

00:04:07.700 that discussion.

00:04:08.660 And even in this CBC article, Andrew, Elliott, the author of this piece, talks about, and I

00:04:14.220 think she's a journalism professor.

00:04:15.560 She talks about how good independent journalism is actually being done.

00:04:19.980 Good local stories is, they're being done.

00:04:22.980 And they're not being done by these large corporate media giants like the National Post,

00:04:27.720 Post Media, Toronto Star, all of these big outlets that we know are failing.

00:04:31.860 So she admits that that is happening from independent small outlets.

00:04:36.240 Yet, of course, the antidote is just having the government step in and force social media

00:04:41.780 giants to pay these smaller companies.

00:04:44.780 There's no recognition in this article, of course, as you mentioned, Andrew, about the

00:04:48.680 success of independent outlets.

00:04:49.860 Like us at True North, we rely on donors to fund our journalism, and that journalism is

00:04:53.560 getting better and better.

00:04:54.680 We're breaking exclusive stories, it feels like, all the time now.

00:04:58.740 Like always, Andrew, the antidote from the CBC is more government, more regulation.

00:05:03.440 Who could have guessed?

00:05:05.200 Yeah, I mean, there is this weird impulse.

00:05:07.560 And sometimes people on the right are all okay with going in and busting up so-called monopolies.

00:05:12.080 But I think the big challenge here is that Post Media is not a monopoly.

00:05:16.520 There is actually a quite diverse media landscape in this country.

00:05:20.460 And sure, it's consolidated into a few different players.

00:05:24.320 But there's no barrier to entry, apart from capital, of someone else saying,

00:05:28.620 we are going to start a newspaper chain.

00:05:30.360 We are going to buy off a title.

00:05:31.800 And again, taking aim at a monopoly, or a so-called pseudo-monopoly, whatever they're

00:05:37.420 calling Post Media here, doesn't actually make sense when that company is not being

00:05:42.380 successful.

00:05:43.480 So it's not like you're going after Standard Oil, which is just so giant, it's raking in

00:05:47.800 all the profits.

00:05:48.540 It's like, it's not working.

00:05:49.940 So right now, I think that's proof that the problem is not monopoly capitalism.

00:05:54.400 So in any case, we will move on from there for now.

00:05:58.120 But let's talk about why media needs to innovate.

00:06:01.040 And we look no further, of course, than our old friends at the CBC, the paramount public

00:06:06.260 broadcaster, so significant, so integral to our lives, deserving of $1.4 billion a year

00:06:12.020 in taxpayer money, and without whom we would never know about the dietary habits of New

00:06:17.060 York vegans.

00:06:18.620 Yes, a fridge too far, living sustainably in New York City by unplugging appliances, a CBC

00:06:25.100 pickup of an Associated Press story about a Manhattan vegan named Josh Spodek, who has

00:06:32.640 decided to get rid of his refrigerator in his Greenwich Village apartment and go packaging

00:06:38.940 free and living virtually grid free.

00:06:41.640 And all of this is well and good.

00:06:43.140 And you may be wondering, why is this of interest to Canadian consumers?

00:06:47.060 And why should Canadian taxpayers have to pay for this?

00:06:50.240 And I still, after reading this, do not know anything apart from how Josh Spodek decides

00:06:55.780 to eat his vegetables.

00:06:57.440 $1.4 billion, Andrew.

00:06:59.480 It's like the number keeps going up almost monthly.

00:07:02.240 Last, I swear, almost last episode, we were talking 1.2.

00:07:05.520 But the reason CBC gets the money is because they have a mandate.

00:07:08.760 They have a mandate given to them by Parliament for this money.

00:07:11.840 And let me just read what that mandate says, and then we can see how this story about New

00:07:15.940 York City sustainable living from one hipster in New York City matches up with this mandate.

00:07:21.560 The mandate for the CBC, the reason why they get $1.4 billion from us, is to inform,

00:07:28.080 enlighten, and entertain, to contribute to the development of a shared national consciousness

00:07:32.880 and identity, to reflect the regional and cultural diversity of Canada, and to contribute

00:07:37.840 to the development of Canadian talent and culture.

00:07:40.060 This story has absolutely nothing to do with the CBC mandate.

00:07:45.900 And yet it just gets put out there, and it's like, oh, you know, we're just trying to reach

00:07:50.040 our daily quota of articles, Andrew.

00:07:51.460 We're just going to talk about this New York City hipster without a fridge, because that

00:07:55.900 is exactly what Canadians pay us to do.

00:07:58.520 It's hilarious, really.

00:08:01.080 I mean, I'm not even going to get upset about this.

00:08:04.140 It's just funny at this point.

00:08:05.340 I pointed this out on Twitter a few days ago, and I was like, you know, why would we at all

00:08:10.820 care about this, was basically the subtext of my tweet.

00:08:13.980 And a few people pointed out something that I had missed initially, which is that keeping

00:08:18.180 up on all the latest trends in New York is probably tremendously relevant to the CEO of

00:08:23.080 CBC, Catherine Tate, who you may recall lives in New York.

00:08:27.480 She has a $5.4 million home in Brooklyn, a little bit of a ways from Greenwich Village,

00:08:33.040 but not too far if you take the Metro.

00:08:34.940 So perhaps the New York City coverage is just to keep Catherine Tate happy over in the remote 0.89

00:08:41.120 head office in New York City there.

00:08:43.020 Yeah, that's great.

00:08:43.720 Just a little bit of top-down editorial control by Catherine Tate saying, you know, we're not 0.79

00:08:48.840 covering my local stories enough, guys.

00:08:51.240 We're covering all of your local stories.

00:08:53.100 What about my local journalism?

00:08:55.000 This is my local journalism initiative.

00:08:56.580 That's what Catherine Tate is saying.

00:08:58.100 We need to get these hipsters in New York City more coverage for their refrigerator-less, 1.00

00:09:02.880 sustainable living.

00:09:04.080 Incredible.

00:09:05.040 You know, and for those who wanted to know, I guess we have to do the story justice here

00:09:09.040 and bring it to completion.

00:09:10.440 What appliances does he have if not a fridge?

00:09:12.920 I know all Canadian news consumers care about this.

00:09:15.800 He cooks with an electric pressure cooker, occasionally a toaster oven, but fear not, he powers them with

00:09:21.860 a portable solar panel and a battery pack.

00:09:24.980 Although he has to bring it up and down 11 flights of stairs to recharge it on the roof

00:09:30.500 of his building every day because the sun don't shine on whatever floor he's on.

00:09:34.640 So now you know.

00:09:35.900 This is, we can all go about our days there.

00:09:38.320 You know what?

00:09:38.880 We have kind of a good CBC theme going on here.

00:09:41.280 So let's bring it back to Canada, but keep the CBC commentary running here.

00:09:46.120 There was a bit of an interesting exchange in the House of Commons foyer this morning when

00:09:52.540 Pierre Polyev, the leader of the Conservatives, was commenting on the withdrawal by the Liberals

00:09:58.960 of their amendment banning hunting and farming rifles and shotguns.

00:10:04.480 And Pierre Polyev was commenting on this and he had this rather unique exchange with a CBC

00:10:09.860 reporter.

00:10:10.340 I'll let it speak for itself.

00:10:15.860 Because we know his agenda.

00:10:17.080 He said it right here.

00:10:18.820 There are some guns, yes, that we're going to have to take away from people who are using

00:10:23.440 them to hunt.

00:10:24.480 Do you feel he's going to reintroduce guns?

00:10:27.260 Oh yes.

00:10:27.980 He'll reintroduce this either in this parliament or he'll dream that, God forbid, if he ever

00:10:33.400 got a majority, he would ram it through.

00:10:34.980 And that's why the only way law-abiding hunters and farmers will be able to protect their way

00:10:42.060 of life is to elect a conservative majority government led by Pierre Polyev.

00:10:46.620 It shows good faith that maybe he heard what you were saying and heard what people are saying.

00:10:52.000 Good faith.

00:10:53.300 Good faith.

00:10:53.860 You are definitely with the CBC.

00:10:55.800 You think that anything about this process has been good faith.

00:10:58.700 No, I would have to...

00:10:59.660 No, like, I mean, you've got to ask, obviously you're from the CBC, you're trying to help

00:11:04.540 them out of a bad situation, but the reality is this.

00:11:07.500 He introduced, he introduced this amendment, he, he, no, it's, it's CBC is trying to carry

00:11:12.880 Trudeau's water again.

00:11:13.900 I'll give an answer to the question.

00:11:15.500 He introduced this amendment with hundreds and hundreds of firearms owned by law-abiding,

00:11:22.800 lawful, licensed people.

00:11:25.020 He then attacked anyone who disagreed.

00:11:28.520 He tried to use fear and divide and conquer as he always does.

00:11:32.140 And he reiterated his plan in December to ban hunting rifles.

00:11:36.300 The only reason Trudeau has put his tail between his legs and paused this plan is because my

00:11:42.800 team and I forced him to do it.

00:11:45.960 But if he ever got the chance, make no mistake, he will ban hunting rifles.

00:11:49.720 And the only way to prevent that is with a conservative majority government.

00:11:52.240 So, Andrew, it's good to see that we have some politicians now calling out the CBC, especially

00:11:56.860 on the conservative benches, because for a while they were just kind of going out there

00:12:01.620 berating conservatives, clearly doing the government's bidding and never really getting

00:12:07.180 called out for it.

00:12:08.000 And it is really refreshing to hear Pierre Polyev take a CBC journalist to task.

00:12:12.580 And he's right, too.

00:12:13.700 The idea that this whole, that any part of this process was conducted in good faith by the

00:12:18.660 government is an absurdity.

00:12:20.820 It's a joke.

00:12:21.300 Look, there's no way that they can possibly claim that unless, of course, you're on the

00:12:25.340 take from the government, unless, of course, you receive $1.4 billion from the government

00:12:29.840 and the opposition are now saying they want to defund you.

00:12:32.960 That then would make sense for the journalists like this to be talking this way.

00:12:36.820 But really, it's an absurdity for them to be saying that this was conducted in good

00:12:40.540 faith.

00:12:41.480 And thankfully, Pierre Polyev put this journalist in his place.

00:12:45.260 Yeah, and I've long said that politicians in Canada in general, certainly conservative

00:12:50.900 politicians, need to stop accepting the premises of bad questions.

00:12:55.000 And I literally said on my show many months ago that Pierre Polyev should be available

00:12:59.440 to the media, but he should take a page out of Ron DeSantis' book and actually flip the

00:13:03.880 script.

00:13:04.220 And I'm not saying he was taking my advice, because I think he has a bit of that instinct

00:13:08.140 on his own.

00:13:08.900 But I was glad he did that and brazenly, blatantly said, yeah, they're carrying water for the

00:13:13.520 Liberals right now.

00:13:14.320 Well, it's exactly what Pierre Polyev, I think, needs to do.

00:13:16.820 As the year goes on, as we get closer to 2025, the journalists inside the House of Commons,

00:13:24.240 the Parliamentary Press Bureau, are going to continue to get sharper and sharper with Polyev.

00:13:28.820 And until such time as conservatives have a leader that is going to actually fight them

00:13:33.420 on these issues, then it's going to be a bloodbath for conservatives.

00:13:37.500 The journalists are never going to give them an inch.

00:13:39.960 They're certainly not going to treat them the way they treat the Liberals right now.

00:13:43.040 So it's good to see it.

00:13:44.380 It's good to see that the leader of the opposition isn't hiding away from the parliamentary press,

00:13:50.240 but instead is taking the fight right to them.

00:13:52.440 It's a good thing to see.

00:13:54.320 Yes, very well said.

00:13:56.360 Let us know what you think in the comments.

00:13:58.460 Make sure to subscribe.

00:13:59.520 And if you support the work that True North does, not just on Fridays where we let our,

00:14:04.400 well, metaphorical hair down, but throughout the week as well.

00:14:07.700 Please do head on over to donate.tnc.news.

00:14:11.140 I'm Andrew Lawton.

00:14:12.080 My thanks to Harrison Faulkner.

00:14:13.800 Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

00:14:15.780 And we will see you next time.

00:14:17.180 Bye.

00:14:17.520 Bye.

00:14:17.720 Bye.

00:14:18.360 Bye.

00:14:31.800 Bye.

00:14:32.940 Bye.

00:14:33.380 Bye.

00:14:33.980 Bye.

00:14:34.820 Bye.

00:14:35.040 Bye.

00:14:35.520 Bye.

00:14:35.940 Bye.

00:14:36.340 Bye.

00:14:37.300 Bye.

00:14:41.340 Bye.

00:14:43.260 Bye.

00:14:43.440 Bye.

00:14:43.780 Bye.

00:14:44.380 Bye.

00:14:44.900 Bye.

The Candice Malcolm Show - February 04, 2023

Fake News Friday ｜ An outrageous week for the CBC

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