Last word on the CBC, the Anthem and the Principal

Ladies and Gentlemen, Before we do anything else, I want to offer you a warning. You may be disappointed in something I have to tell you. I have to tell you that I have to move on from some of the things that have occupied a considerable amount of time here.

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It's the continuing story of the CBC versus Canada. This story is similar to the other great piece of Canadian lore, Jack Layton versus Canada. The Dear Jack letter you responded to summarized what the majority of Canadians have been feeling about Jack's protest movement for several years. You responded by saying, “Thanks Charles for saying what so many of us have been feeling for so long.” But at some point, I have to wear the zebra shirt on this show and blow the whistle to declare that it's time to get off the ice. The game is over. The Jack in the Box is back in his box. His poll numbers are now down around his ankles, and he may be in the final months of his career as a federal sideshow. If the economy continues to struggle in Ontario and if Michael Ignatieff pulls the pin on the government this fall, and I expect he will, there is a very good chance that the Liberals will do very well in Ontario and be in a very strong position to take back territory that has been yielded to the NDP. Jack's riding which was once held by Liberal Dennis Mills, could very well go back into the Liberal column and Jack would then go back to a comfortable life teaching at a Toronto university, writing columns for the Toronto Star, and possibly a lot of punditry on the CBC. If Jack isn't running for anything, he is one of the finest conversationalists around. When I am seated on an airplane with him, he isn't downloading all that righteous stuff about how he is fighting for the poor, for the jobless and homeless and that would include an alleged young terrorist who may soon be kicked out of his home in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and sent back to his rightful home, a Toronto Mosque, where we are assured he will be deprogrammed and taught to accept the multicultural ways of Canada, taught to never again even think about throwing grenades at doctors if indeed that ever happened. His lawyer says it didn't and why would anyone argue with a defense lawyer, always an apostle of truth. And why would anyone believe an eyewitness who says he saw it happen. Afterall, the eye witness is an American soldier and they cannot possibly be as credible as the son of a terrorist. If and when young Omar is returned to Canada, I just hope nobody plays the National anthem in his ear every morning. That could turn him into a national security threat. And that is my cue to wrap up our conversation about the latest episode of CBC versus Canada. CBC versus the Tories. CBC versus ordinary Canadians who love their National Anthem. By now you know how the story played on the National this week. In some highly self-promoted CBC exclusive, the public broadcaster went Soprano again on the Conservatives. Those nasty Tories, responsible for so much human carnage, as the story went, deliberately misled the country into thinking that a principal of a high school in small town New Brunswick had banned the playing of Oh Canada. Because the Tories used the word ban which was taken right out of the headlines of local maritime newspapers and local CBC headlines, because the Tories in the House of Commons used that word ban, the principal received very ugly email from all over the country and even death threats. He had to get his phone number changed. He is now on a mental health leave, spending some time with a psychologist and is afraid of going back to teaching again. That's how the story played on the CBC, a Ten Minute Mini-Documentary, called Principal with Principles. We had Susan Ormiston, the reporter, on our show and she tried to explain how the Principal was unfairly attacked by the Tories and others because the public thought Oh Canada had been banned when in fact it was only moved. Moved from the daily morning ritual to a monthly ritual at student assemblies. If the public had known this, in the opinion of the CBC which just happens to coincide with the principal's opinion, there would have been no muss and no fuss and no nasty emails about the principal to my show or any other show. Yes, it's true that the man was portrayed as a moral leader to teachers and kids. The poor misunderstood small town school principal who wasn't trashing the anthem, just moving the anthem. The problem with the CBC’s revelation and the principal's explanation was that it was MISLEADING. Many shows including this one and virtually all the newspaper pieces and wire service pieces said the principal had decided to have the anthem played once a month in an assembly as opposed to every morning on the PA system. The principal made a poor decision in the minds of parents and when challenged, he chose to stick to his guns in the name of protecting the religious freedom of some children to - as he put it - not be subjected to this daily singing of Oh Canada. The email and phone calls continue to come our way. The story doesn't want to go away. But I really, really want to move on. And so today, I want to ask the question, "What have we learned from all this?" Many of you have asked me to assist in explaining how the sausage is made in these so-called journalistic flights of fancy, like this week's CBC exclusive. Peter in Mississauga, Ontario emails adleronline@gmail.com:

Mr. Adler, I think your audience would have been educated in the ways of "journalism", and enjoyed that education, if Susan Ormiston had been willing to be engaged by you in a discussion of her interview with Mr. Millett. Mostly from the angle of "how" she structured her interview with the N.B. school principal. Charles Adler, after having studied her interview, and Charles being knowledgeable about the manipulative techniques, re-soliciting information and emotions, would have posed questions to the CBC reporter about questions she asked and questions she did not ask of the school principal. Before Charles Adler would have embarked on such a dissecting of Susan Ormiston's interview, he would have obtained Susan's understanding and agreement that he was going to be "aggressive" in his questioning of her. In this case, I wouldn't want Ms Ormiston to be blindsided or to be the subject of "gotcha" journalism. Long ago, from my father, who was not a journalist, but a blue collar worker in a factory, I learned a lesson when I was still in elementary school. It has served me well. It is founded on the old saw, "Give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves." The "them" in this case being the CBC.

Ok Peter, and to all others who are curious about media sausage processing, I am going to make this short and sweet. It is generally child's play to pick up the very pungent odor of CBC sausage. And folks, I want you to know that you can play this game at home when you watch any of these so-called investigative reports, exclusives, and mini-documentaries when the CBC decides to go Soprano on their favorite target, the Tories. Here’s what you can do to play the game at home by yourself or with any members of your family who may enjoy the game of armchair journalism. First, you must understand the agenda which is transparent to anyone who has been watching for years. Like every good spaghetti western, there is a hero and a villain. The spaghetti at the CBC is always the same. The Villain is the Conservative. It could be the Conservative party, their leader, their followers, anybody that is in anyway connected to them. They are the villains of the piece. Who are the heroes? Their victims. On different nights, you have different victims. There was a time not long ago when Stephane Dion was portrayed as the victim of unfair Tory attacks. But a couple of months ago, the wheels fell off that agenda, when Peter Mansbridge was caught on camera in a pose that prior to that would have only been seen off camera. He was seen laughing at Stephane Dion. This was the night when Stephane and his crew were to respond to a prime ministerial address on the economy. The tape arrived late to the studio and it was so poorly made that it looked like Mr. Dion had no shoulders. Just a head. It was a head shot to his credibility and at that point Peter Mansbridge and his sidekicks just lost it. They could no longer carry this sad tune about how the Tories are picking on Mr. Dion. Once they were caught on camera laughing at Dion, that dude was done. Now this week, this emotionally interesting former Green Party Candidate who once showed up for a community meeting wearing a space suit and carrying body bags, he was protesting Canada's effort to help the folks in Afghanistan, he is a peace guy. He is a pacifist. Anyway, the pacifist principal was this week's victim of Tory attacks and Peter Mansbridge this week wasn't laughing at a loser. He was offering his patented somber look. Mr. Somber was introducing the piece about a principal who was paying a heavy price for his principles. His principle being the right of his students to not be subjected by, oppressed by, or damaged by the words and music of Oh Canada. Until this principal came along nobody in this country was aware that for some children, Oh Canada is the equivalent of Musical Water boarding. The principal was trying to rescue them and those brutish Tories who don't care about children of religious minorities unfairly attacked the principal. Now if you still want me to give you a quick clinic on how to know when you are being snowed, simply ask yourself this question. What is the CBC doing to corroborate their case, to bring real compelling evidence that their desired conclusion is correct? This one as I indicated earlier is child's play. First, you have to focus on their portrayal of the victim. That's what always matters to most. You know they are always going to put the Conservatives in the worst possible light. Forget about that. Just focus on how they portray the victim and whether or not they have anything of substance to make the victim credible, believable. In the case of this victim, the principal, according to the CBC, was a very well respected principal and was highly regarded by the parents and his peers. Everything was going really good until the evil Tories decapitated his career with their lies and bullying. So as you sit there watching the piece ask yourself whether the CBC is supporting the idea that the principal is indeed what they claim he is, highly regarded. And as you watch, you need to ask questions like this: 1) Why are there no clips of parents in this small town telling us how much they admire the principal? Are parents in small towns not interested in having strong role models for their kids? Where are the parents in this mini-documentary? 2) Why didn't they interview any other teacher who could put in a good word for the principal, if he was indeed misunderstood because the public was missing important facts? If the teachers were really supportive of his decision to yank on Oh Canada's chain, why are we not seeing any teachers on camera telling us this? Couldn't they find at least two or three? But there are none. 3) And, what about the children? The children would know who these other children are whose parents don't want them to be musically water boarded. Why aren't there any children on camera saying they are happy with the principal's decision to protect some of their friends who might be harmed for life by Oh Canada? And I could go further and further. The principal supposedly is now a marked man in this small town. The townspeople are angry and want him run out of town. If there is that much anger and if the environment is that threatening could the CBC have found at least one or two wicked looking townspeople. You know the kind. Pasty white, middle-aged, fat, dead eyes, decaying teeth and not wearing the kind of Harry Rosen suits that Peter Mansbridge wears. Ok, by now folks I think you get the point. If the CBC cannot find people to support its preordained conclusion, the conclusion may be less than accurate. And maybe none of this would matter if we weren't giving the CBC a billion dollars a year. A couple of years ago, a well-respected Canadian author appeared on this show telling me that the CBC journalism was vital to Canadian life because in her words, "they keep the other journalists honest." I thought she was pulling my leg. But she meant it. And so I thought wowwww…I guess the brain washing was incredibly effective. If you do so-called news shows that do not entertain, that have very little flash, very little mirth, no laughter, just those two familiar CBC gears, sadness and despair, kind of like the face of the New Brunswick principal, if that's what you are doing, some people, especially those in the chattering classes see it as HONEST. I honestly feel they are being taken on an airplane ride where the pilot isn't Sully, it's the sulking New Brunswick principal....Bon Voyage!!!! I'm Charles Adler