CBC Ombudsman - J-Source

CBC Ombudsman: Controversy vs. Controversial

President of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms and spokesperson for a Christian school in Alberta, thought coverage of a dispute between the local school board and his school was biased. Continue Reading CBC Ombudsman: Controversy vs. Controversial
CBC Ombudsman: The “f” word — A threshold for its use in news

By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Curtis Hopkins, thought swearing on an online video of an eyewitness recording of a bus billowing smoke was in violation of policy. The video was a powerful account of a breaking news story, although the swearing was not critical to the understanding of the story. Since the crew…
CBC Ombudsman: Beware of generalizations

By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Mr. Marco Mura, objected to the characterization of the government of Turkey as “fundamentalist.” I agree that the term is too broad to be accurate in this context. Adjectives are seldom a news writer’s friend. COMPLAINT On December 7, 2016, The World at Six ran a feature about…
CBC Ombudsman: What do reporters need to reveal upfront -The case of Marketplace’s Weddings Inc.

By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Catherine Lash, said she would never have let a Marketplace crew into her wedding show if she had known who they were. The crew should have been more intentional in identifying itself. She was concerned that her company is tarnished because shots of the event are in the…
CBC Ombudsman: Bias by Omission

By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Art Toft, thought that merely reporting about the closing down of an activist group’s space because the building was being torn down was unacceptable. He believed it was biased not to mention the political positions taken by Beit Zatoun. He felt the article praised the organization. The politics…
CBC Ombudsman: Interpreting Perspectives

By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Hans Dekkers, thought that any discussion of the Middle East peace process must mention that the Palestinian Authority and Hamas do not recognize Israel’s right to exist, even when the article is an Opinion piece. In presenting opinion, the writer gets to frame the argument. Lack of this…
CBC Ombudsman: Olympic opening colour commentary

The complainant stated that Peter Mansbridge had injected biased and inappropriate comments into his remarks during the opening ceremonies of the Rio games.
CBC Ombudsman: Fairness in Ford Nation

By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Jacqueline Bell, thought that repeated use of the name of one candidate, Michael Ford, and references to the “Ford dynasty” on the day of a municipal by-election to fill the seat formerly held by Rob Ford, violated the need for balance and fair coverage. She was concerned this…
CBC Ombudsman: Quoting in Context – Editing interviews accurately

By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Frank Ramagnano, President of the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association, said he was unfairly quoted in a story about a female firefighter’s harassment and search for redress. He and other firefighters who wrote thought the story was unfair and condemned the whole fire service. There was no violation…
CBC Ombudsman: Truth in Syrian coverage—It’s not that simple

By Esther Enkin for the CBC The complainant, T.A. Anderson thought a piece on The National marking the fifth anniversary of the start of hostilities in Syria was distorted and biased. He thought there were many facts and perspectives that should have been included, and provided many links to that information. The story was far…

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