CBC breaches own ethics code in hit piece on the Catholic Church

Prashanth Bala - stock.adobe.com

SELL THE CBC T-SHIRT

Take a stand against the mainstream media and show your support for independent journalism!

Shop Now

The state broadcaster's story accusing the Catholic Church of backtracking on a $30 million promise to support residential school survivors was called false and misleading by viewers and a silent correction to important details was made after publication. CBC's ombudsman agreed. 

Ombudsman cites @CBCNews for breach of its own ethics code as @PresidentCBCrc launches "cross-country" celebration of #CBC for "gold standard" on ethics. https://t.co/0avxMJFK1y #cdnpol @CBCSaskatoon pic.twitter.com/ABdToRTLID

— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) January 20, 2023

The complaint reads:

The report by CBC’s Jason Warick followed up on a pledge by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) to launch a $30-million national fundraising campaign to support reconciliation projects for former students of residential schools. 

The CCCB had announced the initiative in September of 2021, and promised more details by the end of November. CBC’s report indicated that as of late December, the campaign had yet to begin. 

However, the complainant rightly pointed out that fundraising to meet the commitment by the Catholic Church was already underway and even reported by the same journalist who wrote the flawed article in question: 

Various diocesan fundraising campaigns started as early as this summer; Mr. Jason Warick reported on some of them himself.

They are still accepting donations; here are some examples (some of which explicitly indicate a link to the $30 million national commitment). 

"It’s obvious that CBC knew about some of those local efforts," Nagler wrote in his decision which can be read here.