CBC President Catherine Tait blames the lack of trust in public institutions on social media which is widely used by independent journalists.
In an effort to counter opposing views CBC President Catherine Tait has kicked off a cross country tour to market and advertise the state sponsored broadcaster to Canadians.
“Social media and the volume of information spewing out from so many channels has led to this kind of undermining of our trust in public institutions,” said Tait in a video.
“At the end of the day, the antidote to disinformation is more good, high-quality, credible journalism.”
CBC News Vancouver host Anita Bathe started the conversation by talking about a “narrative” she claims many say was created by former US president Donald Trump about the media being fake news.
“I myself struggle often to defend what we do here and the great journalism that we do,” said Bathe.
“What do you say to the people who say that the media is feeding lies?”
Tait said she wants CBC employees to feel proud of the “truth telling” it does and claimed CBC journalism to be the “gold standard” and CBC’s journalism standards and practices are “the highest in the country.”
Tait said for media to to build trust it needs to continue to do what it does adding CBC needs to earn this trust.
Tait cited a study done by the University of Victoria which said trust is earned by affinity, ability, and authenticity. She said being “true to our word and delivering credible news is the purpose of the public broadcaster.”
With the increase in views to its website during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Tait, people recognized CBC’s value. When a natural disaster strikes, journalists are present on the scene and in the affected area throughout the duration of the recovery process.
CBC is looking to identify and support emerging talent, it will be meeting with with about 200 producers in British Columbia to talk about what CBC does.
For The Nature of Things, CBC will conduct workshops to recruit disabled and non-white filmmakers. She said that CBC is the only broadcaster in Canada that primarily airs content from independent producers when people consider its influence on the community of independent producers.
Tait then bragged about the government injection of $1.5 Billion dollars of tax payer money CBC can spend on producing content.
“If you look at the entirety of our production output, we have a $1.5 billion economic impact throughout the country, coast to coast to coast, in terms of that production activity,” she said.
Quillette associate editor Jonathan Kay mocked the cross-country tour.
“Or maybe … just hire a president who can run a network that produces content that people actually want to watch, hear, and read (without being told that doing so is their civic responsibility),” said Kay.
Binda said the
Canadians don’t feel like they can trust CBC to hold the Federal government accountable when $1 billion of taxpayer money is its only source of income or at least the vast majority said Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) British Columbia Director Carson Binda.
“They won’t bite the hand that feeds them,” said Binda.
https://taxpayer.com/petitions/defund-the-cbc-and-end-media-bailout – sign our petition to bring some accountability back to Canadian media.
In February the Canadian Taxpayers Federation launched a petition to bring accountability back to the state broadcaster by ending the on going dumping of $1.4 billion dollars of taxpayer money into its bank account and ending the $600 million media bailout to other media outlets.
“That’s bad for taxpayers, but you know that’s also bad for the media’s credibility when it should be holding governments accountable,” said the CTF.
“You should be able to choose which media organization you want to support.”
