Is the CBC speaking on behalf of the CCP?

 

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) prides itself on seeking truth in “all matters of public interest”. Accuracy, fairness, balance, impartiality and integrity are all the buzzwords the publicly-funded broadcaster cites as its principles. However, last week, in a scathing and biased attack against the Epoch Times, the Canada’s national broadcaster has failed the public in an epic piece of poor journalism.

The media saga began on 29 April 2020, when the CBC, carried a story with the headline “‘Racist and inflammatory’: Canadians upset by Epoch Times claim China behind virus, made it as a bioweapon”. A YouTube CBC reporting of the same sensationalist news-making item was taken down after it was overwhelming downvoted. A day later, the same story, with some new twists, was uploaded, with the comments section suspiciously turned off.

The story is centred on the personal remarks of a lady from Kelowna, Canada, who said she felt the Epoch Times was “racist and inflammatory”. She expressed her worry that the free copy of the Epoch Times she received in her mail contained “anti-Communist Party messaging could inflame racial tensions in Canada”. 

Original headline on 29 April 

 

Media outlets often have certain political leanings. That is an accepted, or rather a cherished, fact of living in a liberal democracy. In Canada, there is a whole spectrum of media outlets from the Star to the Globe and Mail to the National Post and Toronto Star that each have have reported negatively on the way the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) has handled the outbreak of the coronavirus, which to date has claimed close to 300,000 lives and infected over 4 million people worldwide. Even the CBC reported on this just two weeks earlier.

What is inflammatory is the suggestion that anti-Communist Party sentiments is equal to racism and inflaming racial tensions in Canada. How would a Caucasian person living in Kelowna be able to offer valuable commentary on racism or what Chinese people feel? If anything, to presume that all Chinese people would be offended by anti-Communist Party sentiments, is in itself a racist presumption. As the publisher of the Epoch Times, Ms. Cindy Gu, rightly stated, “Some people may have erroneously conflated criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with criticism of the Chinese people”. To equate Chinese people with the Chinese government or the cruel authoritarian regime in Beijing is the very source of racial tensions that the CCP has willingly tried to stoke across the globe. It is unfortunate the CBC has knowingly or otherwise played into the hand of the CPC. Through this poorly researched and cobbled together piece of writing, the Canadian public is funding the latter’s propaganda efforts. 

  Modified headline on 30 April

Another major flaw of the CBC’s reporting was interviewing the Canada Post carrier, who claimed that the Epoch Times is saying the “coronavirus is part of a bio-warfare agenda by the Chinese people”. If he had bothered to read the contents of the paper, no such claim is made. Such suspicions have been raised, and until China opens up to the world about the true source of the coronavirus, it is right to raise such suggestions. Even world leaders and other media outlets have suggested that the virus may have originated from a biolab, which has not been disproven because the Chinese government has refused all independent investigation into the virus. In fact, the CCP has banned all research into the virus within China. More importantly, why does the personal opinion of a postal carrier matter when his job is to deliver, and not arbitrarily judge the contents of and censor, mail? Rightly, the Canadian Federal government decided that the Epoch Times does “ does not appear to meet the required criteria of the offence of wilful promotion of hatred”. 

The rest of the story is a smear campaign questioning the validity of the Epoch Times as an independent media outlet. It has never been a hidden fact that the Epoch Media Group, which The Epoch Times falls under, is sympathetic to the Falun Gong religious movement. However, what is wrong with a media outlet with particular religious beliefs? Would a story carried by the Christian Science Monitor or the Jewish Chronicle receive similar disapproval and unprofessional attempts by the CBC to dig into their source of funding or perspectives? Foreign Policy, the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, Time magazine and so many other international media outlets have all over the past months carried articles that are extremely critical of the Chinese Communist Party, and have pointed to the Chinese government’s mishandling and attempts to cover up the coronavirus and misinformation campaigns. Where is the outrage of the Canada Post postal worker for spreading supposed hatred and xenophobia? 

Modified headline, yet again, on 1 May

The search for the truth and unrelenting investigative journalism of the Epoch Times has won it accolades and awards around the world. Indeed, Ms. Gu was decorated with the 2012 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her valuable contribution to Canadian society. Without the likes of the Epoch Times, who else is there to continually expose the horrendous human rights abuses, corruption and immorality of the CCP, which is the shame and bane humanity? Which other media outlet but the Epoch Times would regularly highlight and remind the world of the live harvesting of organs, the mass incarceration of Uyghurs, the abuse of Hong Kong democracy advocates and a whole host of Beijing’s coverups and propaganda efforts? Just imagine if the publicly-funded CBC were to run stories openly attacking news media that enjoys the support of and carries the voice of dissidents of Iran, North Korea, or Tibet.

The inflammatory headline of the exact same story was changed no less than three times over the course of three days. The headline is now a much toned down “Some Canadians who received unsolicited copy of Epoch Times upset by claim that China was behind virus”. It is now accompanied by an Editor’s note admitting that the earlier headline incorrectly stated the Epoch Times had claimed the virus as a bioweapon.

However, the fact that this unfortunate media saga has been played out exposes CBC’s unfortunate bias, and the lack of professionalism of its reporters. It underlines the failure of the CBC to live up to its self-proclaimed principles, and highlights the need for independent, investigative media outlets that are not afraid to speak truth to power like the Epoch Times.