Radio-Canada is on its knees

DAY

What cowardice! What aplaventrism! What a lack of backbone!

By agreeing to apologize (without having committed the slightest fault), Radio-Canada has just knelt before the CRTC, before the woke lobby and , let us remember, in front of a single individual out of a population of 38 million who was hurt by the use of the word nigger.

THE CBC'S BAD FAITH

But coming from Radio-Canada/CBC, nothing surprises me anymore.

Let me tell you an anecdote.

Last week, I I wrote a column entitled: The torture of Ricardo Lamour. 

I was referring to an extraordinarily complacent interview that the CBC did with Mr. Lamour, the man whose complaint to the CRTC for the use of the word “negro” led to a reprimand against Radio-Canada. 

The CBC text that summarized the interview with Mr. Lamour noted that for him, the complaint in question had been a “torture” that had lasted two years.

However, since the publication of my column, as if by magic, the CBC completely removed the word “torture” from its text and replaced it with the word… “process”!

You admit that it is not the same thing at all.

And for the many readers who consulted the CBC text after reading my column, it cast doubt on the reliability of my commentary .

I asked the reporter who did the interview (Antoni Nerestant) and Brodie Fenlon (CBC News director of news) to explain to me why the script had been edited on such a critical point. Neither of them got back to me. 

It was CBC Communications Manager Chuck Thompson who contacted me: “Small story edits were made after publication. initial. This is normal practice for developing stories.

Um, this is not a “little review”. And the problem is that this clearly contravenes CBC/Radio-Canada Journalistic Standards and Practices.

It is written in black and white: “Editing a published article alters the integrity of our archives and risks damaging our credibility. (…) Any modification to an original document is recorded in order to preserve the transparency of the process.

Indeed, it undermines the credibility of the CBC to modify a text to make disappear a word that sows controversy.

It's not a detail. While on the French side (Radio-Canada), prominent personalities signed forums to be indignant at the CRTC's decision, on the English side (CBC) a journalist conducted a complacent interview with the complainant. And when a French media (Le Journal de Montréal) points out the absurdity of the situation, the CBC changes its text on the sly, neither seen nor known, and does not warn its readers. 

QUOTE VALLIÈRES

When some fifty headliners from the public broadcaster denounced the CRTC's reprimand, the Canadian Press interviewed Ricardo Lamour. He replied that he was disappointed, but not surprised. Then he quoted the black American author and activist James Baldwin: “The power of the white world is threatened each time a black man refuses to accept the definitions of the white world”.

However, this is not a question of black or white. It's a matter of common sense. Can we quote the title of a book on the air?

With the apologies of Radio-Canada, we can say that Ricardo Lamour has won.

It's a small victory for man, but a great defeat for freedom of expression and freedom of the press.