CBC got it wrong on cigarette labels story

scribblet · February 28, 2011

Here we go, we just can't believe everything we read in the media, supposition and innuendo hmmm

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2011/02/26/17419896.html

OTTAWA – CBC’s ombudsman says a TV broadcast last December on CBC’s flagship newscast The National, that accused the Harper government of bending to pressure by the tobacco lobby, missed its mark.
The item, reported by Diana Swain, concluded that the government had “shelved” plans for tough new labels on cigarette packages because tobacco company lobbyists pressured the government.

“The National’s conclusion of a causal relationship, in which the lobbying seemed to be the reason for the shelving, was insufficiently supported to meet CBC’s Journalistic Standards and Practices that call for facts and evidence to arrive at conclusions,” CBC ombudsman Kirk LaPointe wrote in a carefully worded nine-page report released late Friday.

In fact, the new anti-smoking labels weren’t shelved at all but were unveiled by the government a few weeks after the broadcast was aired.

LaPointe delivered his ruling in response to a complaint about Swain’s item by Dimitri Soudas, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s director of communications. LaPointe notes that it is only the second time an individual in Soudas’ position has gone to CBC’s ombudsman with a complaint about the state broadcaster’s coverage.

The last time was in 1998, when officials in then prime minister Jean Chretien’s government were unhappy with CBC reports on the way Mounties conducted themselves at an APEC meeting in Vancouver.

The complainant then was Peter Donolo, who is now the chief of staff to Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. In 1998, the CBC ombudsman found no basis for Donolo’s complaint.

Soudas, then, becomes the first top official in a Prime Minister's Office to convince CBC’s own ombudsman of a serious error in a CBC story.

cont...

Mr.Canada · February 28, 2011

Smoking is a disgusting habit that only the weak partake in.

bush_cheney2004 · February 28, 2011

Just more "false and misleading news" from the CBC.

Bitsy · February 28, 2011

It this complaint was only the second one every lodged by a government communication director against CBC, I think that speaks of remarkable fair and ethical journalism by CBC.