Source : The Province

Public broadcaster accused of 'feeding' bias against U.S.

TORONTO -- The findings of a Fraser Institute report blasting the CBC for anti-American bias are "patently false," a CBC spokeswoman said yesterday.

The right-wing think-tank said CBC's television news coverage is overwhelmingly critical of the U.S. and is responsible for feeding anti-Americanism in Canada following the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

But Ruth-Ellen Soles said CBC News takes fairness and balance "very seriously."

"The Fraser Institute set out to prove a position they had already reached. We do not find their conclusions credible and we reject them categorically," she said in a written statement.

Soles said the report itself found the majority of references to the U.S. on The National newscasts were positive or neutral and it did not outline how it determined coverage was "negative" or "positive."

Researchers for the think-tank say they found the bias by examining The National in 2002.

They chose that year because it followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but was prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

"Whatever the cause of Canadian anti-Americanism, it is unquestionably exacerbated by CBC TV News," said Barry Cooper, co-author of the paper and managing director of the institute's Alberta Policy Research Centre.

The report looked at 2,383 statements in 225 stories that referred to America.

Almost 50 per cent of the statements were neutral. But the number of negative comments (34 per cent) more than doubled the number of positive ones (15.4 per cent) on issues such as Canadian and U.S. relations, terrorism and the buildup to the war in Iraq.

"Despite the relatively short period of time since the 9/11 attacks, the CBC 's coverage of America during 2002 was overwhelmingly critical of American policy, American actions and American purposes," Cooper wrote. "The CBC, in short, helped turn the joint outrage of Canada and the U.S. at the terrorists into mistrust and animosity between the two neighbours."

Cooper acknowledged that it could be argued that the media is generally negative about all things so it should not come as a surprise that the public broadcaster was more negative than positive toward the U.S.; but the "scope and depth of the negativity is worth noting," he added.

© The Province

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