Source: Mediacaster

While offering up kudos to Canada's public broadcaster for launching its own investigation of its news practices, industry watchdog Friends of Canadian Broadcasting says "shame on CBC" for "making extravagant claims about their current efforts".

Friends spokesperson Ian Morrison notes in an Internet blog and written release to the industry that in terms of gender balance and representation of visible minorities, CBC does well.

In terms of geographical balance, CBC's English-language news services on radio, TV and the Web do a reasonable job, as well, "although they pay less attention to Western Canada than other outlets, over-cover Ontario, and radically under-represent Québec."

However, Morrison points out, "balance" in news coverage means much more to most observers.

Surveys conducted for the report and analyzed in its Executive Summary note just two indices dealing with actual news content.

Morrison points out that one suggests that CBC News is no more negative - and actually slightly more positive - in its treatment of both the government and the opposition than other broadcast news organizations.

The other indicates that CBC's The National gives a slightly larger proportion of air time to members of the federal government (and correspondingly less to members of the opposition) than either the CTV National News or Global National.

To see the documents and supporting material from the CBC study, visit http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/10/05/f-jennifer-mcguire-news-balance-report.html

For more information about the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, visit http://www.friends.ca/

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