CBC in trouble?

[Bonam]

The all news radio station here in Vancouver had a story that the Twitterers screwed Elections Canada by adopting a code. Like I just bought no apples (Green), twelve oranges(NDP), seven strawberries and 14 blueberries. By now you can figure it out for yourself. How would that one work out in court if the feds decided to play hardball?

The results were widely available without any "code" in mediums such as google groups, usenet, and IRC. It's funny that in all the hubbub about the new social media like twitter and facebook, everyone seems to have forgotten about the older forms of social media

[kimmy]

I would expect that even if [email protected] or #/TwitGirl can try and sneak one past Elections Canada, you'd think Canada's public broadcaster would play by the rules. And, as an organization with far wider viewership than @TwitGirl, their breach of the rules would have to be considered more serious as well.

But the real question remains: why doesn't Elections Canada just smarten up? They could solve this problem themselves without threatening to prosecute people.

-k

[betsy]

When Milewski was boo-ed by supporters for questioning Harper, somebody in the crowd yelled to Harper: you should start with the CBC!

Actually, CBC should be just like CTV. We need to tighten our belt, don't we? I should think that by this time, CBC ought to be able to make it on its own legs, just like CTV.

Cutting the CBC loose and giving some funding to Arts and Culture instead will be more practical.

[Molly]

But the real question remains: why doesn't Elections Canada just smarten up? They could solve this problem themselves without threatening to prosecute people.

-k

Not really. You see, while EC has the official count, every candidate and candidate's agent has the same information by virtue of having witnessed the counting. It's perfectly legitimate for them to share that information with one another... so long before EC is prepared to offer up a report, the information is already legitimately dispersed among hundreds of people.

They can threaten to prosecute folks to try to plug that *ahem* leak, but I can't imagine what they could do to prove who leaked it, short of sequestering everyone who has anything to do with the election at all- EC staff, candidates, campaign workers-- everyone.

[Black Dog]

I listened to CBC radio one last night because I was on the road. During the talk after the election the term "they" was the term used when referring to the Conservative party and "Canadians" was used when referring to the Liberal party. They explicitly said several times, after Harper had more than 60 seats that they "were not in a position to declare a Conservative majority" and claimed that the vote was too close to call. Somehow the CBC sees the Conservative party as not Canadian. They talked about the defeat of the liberal party being a defeat for the canadian people, that the absense of the liberal party would lead to right/left polarization and US style politics. The commentators were clearly upset, the tone of the program had a very somber tone, and one commentator in particular had a quivering voice and had trouble composing her speech.

There is no question in my mind that the CBC has a very strong liberal base. They call themselves a "Canadian" broadcaster but somehow they equate "Liberal" with "Canadian" and they carry the opinion that people who don't vote liberal somehow don't hold Canadian values.

Link or it didn't happen.