Stay out of decisions about who covers Alberta legislature, government told
‘No circumstances’ where government should decide who gets to ask questions, report says
By Michelle Bellefontaine, CBC News Posted: Mar 18, 2016 4:28 PM MT
The Alberta government should stay out of decisions about who should be allowed to cover press conferences, veteran journalist Heather Boyd has concluded.
Boyd, the retired Western Canada bureau chief for the Canadian Press, said that decision should be left to journalists to protect governments from the “perceptions of bias.””This is not a perfect solution, and several journalists have made it clear they do not believe they should be subject in any way to control by their peers, but it appears to be the best compromise.,” Boyd said in a report released Friday.
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But most agreed on one thing, she said: “There are no circumstances whatsoever under which a government should decide who gets to ask it questions.”
Ezra Levant, the controversial former lawyer who owns and operates Rebel Media, is not pleased with Boyd’s findings.
Submitted to CBC Feedback on March 20, 2016:
Yesterday (March 19, 2016) in your latest example of tyrannical yet childish and pointless comment section censorship, the following comment was exorcised:
“I suppose by “true journalism” you mean the same crowd that told us about babies and incubators. Saddam’s Nukular Bombs, “ISIS,” and “Russia stole Crimea” and “Russia invaded Ukraine?”
I’m no fan of Levant, but judging by the daily struggle of corporate media just to stay relevant- never mind staying in business – most people have concluded “true journalism” leaves a lot to be desired. “
The comment was in response to:
“Erza Levant hiding under the guise of a journalist deserves as much access to press conferences as Gawker.
Both can come however they are an embarrassment to true journalism.”
Well, it’s true. I’m old enough to remember that you did in fact tell us tales about Iraqi soldiers throwing babies out of incubators at Kuwaiti hospitals and stealing the incubators. I remember Nayirah al-Sabah’s testimony. I remember Lynden MacIntyre’s Fifth Estate documentary which “exposed” the hoax, and which breathlessly ran video from CNN and other outlets EXCEPT FOR CBC. And of course I remember your “reportage” of “Weapons of Mass Destruction.”
And you have reported in events in Ukraine as if it is a Russian invasion and as if Crimea is occupied.
And newsrooms are laying off. Newspapers are closing. The National Post is on death’s doorstep.
So what was inaccurate about the comment? Did I hurt your wittle feewings?
With regards to your announcement that you will be requiring “real names” in your comments section, I am here to tell you I will NEVER post in my real name. I am not afraid to write to my local political critters, with my real name and my real address and my real phone number and my real signature and tell them what is on my mind. I am not afraid to tell “my” local M.P. Robert “Rob” Nicholson or Stephen Harper that they are war criminals and belong in The Hague for what they participated in with Afghanistan, Ukraine, Libya and now Syria. Hell, I put it in writing and mailed it to the RCMP. You can read it on my own website, www.LettersToTheBeast.com, where all of my comments you deleted also end up, by the way. If you forget the URL, don’t worry. Just type in CBC content disabled into The Google. It’s the first link that comes up after yours.
But there is no way in hell I’m going to give Richard Warman, Harry Abrams or Terry Wilson the means to put me in a prison cell next to Arthur Topham whenever they decide to do a google search of commentary critical of israel. I am not going to put my job in jeopardy for the same reason. I am not going to risk my own physical well-being every time I cross the border for saying mean things about the current criminal u.s. government, its nobel peace-prize-winning president or its former like-minded psychopaths-in-chief.
If you want a bunch of happy talk praising CBC and what a wonderful job it does telling us stories about each other from coast to coast to coast, telling us how great the Liberals and NDP are and how horrible and dangerous Kevin O’Leary and Donald Trump are, that’s all you’re going to get.
But I can assure you, sending critical opinion underground where your precious sheep can’t hear it won’t silence us and won’t change anything.
And, by the way, Hillary Clinton is a war-mongering psychopath, she is in legal jeopardy, she does look great in orange, and mass-shooters are all on SSRIs or other prescription medication. John McCain does appear in numerous photographs with “ISIS” and “Abu-Bakhr al-Baghdadi” (aka Simon Elliot). Typing in John McCain and ISIS DOES give us hundreds of thousands of examples of those photographs. The u.s. government HAS been supplying “ISIS.” The fact that you block such comments, again, changes absolutely nothing.
So, yeah. You’re full of (excrement), CBC. And, as a taxpayer, I own part of this place and I have every right to complain and make my voice heard.
Letters To The Beast 