Sunday, February 06, 2011

To the CRTC and proposal 2011-14: Canada needs MORE truth in its news, not less

To the CRTC regarding its proposal to "ease" the ban on publishing or broadcasting false or misleading news in Canada:

Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2011-14 calls for "easing" the ban on the broadcasting or publishing false and misleading news in Canada.

What kind of gaggle of compromised, corrupt fools would even consider such an idea?

We need MORE truth in our news not less.

You may not be aware that there is a country called the United States of America and back in 2001, it had a number of high-profile corporate scandals in which executives cleaned out investors and employees alike, cooked the books, and made off with billions of dollars.

This occurred, partially, because false and misleading financial information was broadcast daily on channels like CNBC, which amateur investors turned to looking for market tips. Analyst Jim Cramer was particularly singled out, after the scandals hit and dust settled, for advising viewers to BUY particular stocks that he himself was SELLING at the very same time.

That's what you call a conflict of interest.

But I guess the CRTC knows a thing or two about conflicts of interest, what with your mission to create policy to protect the Canadian public, but taking your marching orders from Bell Canada and other corporate interests.

And "easing" the ban (whatever that means -- we either have a ban or we don't) on false and misleading news would make it easier for the Conservative Party of Canada to further erode our sovereignty and freedoms because those news stories wouldn't reach the Canadian people.

We're already struggling to get decent answers to questions about how much pollution the tar sands of Alberta, for instance, are bound to cause when fully exploited.

Or, hearing about how the Conservative Party nixed the long-form census to avoid generating data that contradicts their policies and philosophy behind those policies.

If the CRTC had its way, the Canadian people would have merely heard in the news that we weren't having the census this time around.

Also, how would the Canadian public keep abreast of the latest outrages from the CRTC?

No doubt this yet another example of how the CRTC has been utterly co-opted by corporate interests, particularly those who want to bring a FoxNews North TV channel to Canada. (I realize it's already on its way, but your ridiculous proposal would pave the way for FoxNews North to air the same skewed and untrue faux news it does in America).

Unacceptable.

Once again, the Canadian public is not part of the CRTC's deliberations or equation. We are the sheep and cattle that wealthy corporate and political interests want to manipulate with false and misleading news.

The fact that the CRTC would even entertain such an idiotic, wrong-headed proposal is all the proof I need to know that the CRTC should be abolished, dissolved and disbanded. Every single person associated with that damnable outfit should be sent scurrying back into the industries from which they came.

Let the corporate and political manipulators of this country use their lawyers and lobbyists to do their bidding -- not this farcical "oversight" committee which is led by a man who doesn't even use the Internet.

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