Source : National Post

Chalk up a win for HonestReporting Canada (HRC), a group that monitors the media for anti-Israeli bias.

On October 23, RDI — a television news channel run by Radio-Canada, the French arm of CBC — broadcast Paix, propagande et Terre promise, a documentary that at many points constitutes crude anti-Israeli propaganda. Following the broadcast, HRC mobilized its followers, and Radio-Canada’s French Services ombudsman, Julie Miville-Dechêne, soon was deluged by complaints. Ms. Miville-Dechêne subsequently launched an investigation, the results of which were released Monday.

In her report, Ms. Miville-Dechêne slams Radio-Canada for broadcasting Paix, propagande et Terre promise. Produced by a hard-left organization whose advisors includes Noam Chomsky, the documentary argues that Americans aren’t learning the truth about Israel’s allegedly “colonial” predations because (by Ms. Miville-Dechêne’s summary) “Israel controls U.S. print and electronic media.” Militant pro-Palestinian groups were given a direct role in researching the film.

What’s worse, the documentary was introduced by Radio-Canada host Simon Durivage as if it were state-of-the-art. In fact, the documentary was produced in 2003, two years before Israel’s evacuation from Gaza. And so the film’s repeated denunciations of Israel’s “occupation” of Gaza are not only one-sided, but also obsolete. Given all this, the ombudsman rightly concludes, “this documentary should not have been broadcast.”

Congratulations to HonestReporting Canada for holding CBC/Radio-Canada to account. As for our public broadcaster, it deserves both criticism and praise: criticism for letting such a documentary get on air, but also praise for addressing the issue through its ombudsman office. (The same was true of the recent controversy surrounding Heather Mallick’s poisonous ramblings on the CBC Web site, which received well-publicized censure from ombudsman Vince Carlin.)

Canadians would prefer not to see propaganda broadcast on taxpayer-funded channels. But when it does happen, it’s nice to see the CBC admit its mistake.

© National Post