I broke this article off from a larger one I wrote a few days ago, which had Olivia Chow and her CBC division as the article’s lede. This was the last half of that bigger article, now edited. Practically no news media has even to this day had the balls or the honesty to expand on this subject of the CBC’s expense scandal, except that one rogue non-left-wing news channel. And that presents a bigger scandal.
CBC Gate
For a while there I’d started wondering if the new name for the state-owned broadcaster was “Duffy-gate.” The conservative-loathing CBC has been trashing Conservative senators at every turn with regard to the Senate expense scandal, or what they strive to have you think of as the Conservative Senate scandal-nado apocalypto armageddon-gate.
Trashing the Conservatives is my prerogative. Not theirs. Reporting on the senate scandal is their job.
They have been doing this breathless, alarmist Conservative senate scandal reporting, almost as injudiciously as their “man-made global warming “alarmist reporting, even while they are now quietly admitting that their own CBC President, Hubert Lacroix, has been mired in an expense scandal of his own. And it has been going on for many years. Since 2007. And they’ve known about it since June of last year — and didn’t report it to us for all those months.
This week CBC featured a “news story” on their site’s front page which was… not about that. It was about the fact that Olivia Chow airily said, while skating, that the Toronto election is “pretty far away!” Yup. 
That was the article. See my blog entry for proof.
June of last year is about as “pretty far away” as the next Toronto election. And the CBC has been hiding this while reporting on the senate expense spending scandal, over-emphasizing the word Conservative with OCD-like rigor. This is the expense scandal that they call the Conservative Senate scandal, or Duffy-gate.
In case you didn’t know, or didn’t attend journalism 101, state-owned news media reporters should not call anything “-gate” unless it’s Watergate.
When I said they’re only quietly admitting their own guilt, I do mean they’re only quietly admitting it now. There is no news item at CBC.ca. No big Olivia Chow-style hyperventilating feature on their web site over nothingburgers. I searched.
And by the way there’s nothing anywhere else in the mainstream media either, except at Sun.
This admission was buried on the CBC’s completely unknown “corporate” (“corporate?” Dear God) web site, cbc.radio-canada.ca, which nobody ever goes to or sees, ever.
Hilariously, their headline on this “non-story” is “CBC/Radio-Canada’s continued commitment to transparency.” Well not as much “hilariously” as “insultingly.”
Here’s a snippet from their “nothing to see here” non-story at that non-news corporate web site:
Neither the President’s office nor the people who process expense claims were aware of the appendix to the bylaws .The total amount of Ottawa-related expenses dating back to November 2007 was $29, 678.11. The President and CEO claimed these expenses in accordance with the practice in effect when he came in.
Notice a couple of things: first of all, they admit that none of them even knew their own bylaws. No accountants, no secretaries, no auditors, nobody. They “weren’t aware,” they say, as if ignorance is an excuse in this case, and their ignorance means it’s not bad. It sounds like the senate expense scandal only worse.
Also notice the nuance of their smarmy “reporting.” This practice of illicitly reimbursing the CBC president and CEO has been going on not just since he was hired in 2007, but before that. The new President and CEO merely claimed expenses “in accordance with the practice in effect when he came in.” So they were doing this before he came in, too? Did they then count-up all that illicitly reimbursed cash paid-out before 2007 as well? How long has this been going on? Why stop at just 2007 when the practice merely resumed?
Apparently they don’t have the resources to investigate this, as all their reporters are busy researching Stephen Harper’s sweater choice. Or they’re on full fawn alert at the Liberal policy convention.
Again it’s not just the CBC. Neither the Globe and Mail, any Postmedia papers, CTV, Global, nor any other mainstream news media seem to have the resources to cover this scandal, nor report on the shear hypocrisy of the CBC. The most nefarious aspect of this CBC expense scandal is that it happened without even being reported as a major story. That in itself is a scandal, particularly if you take into consideration the manner of their other reporting on expense scandals.
So while Media-Gate would be more inclusive, and I know how the liberals all love the inclusiveness, it’s being called CBC Gate. I am absolutely sure CBC will agree to this moniker. They call that other one “Duffy-gate.” And on March 9, 2008, I wrote a blog entry about CBC politics anchor Don Newman proclaiming that he was utterly compelled to call one of their phony anti-Conservative stories “Nafta-Gate,” on the sound scientific basis of “that’s what it’s being called!” — yes that’s a direct quote.
Expert hates the term “NAFTAGATE”…“but I’ll use it anyway!” – CBC host: “that’s what it’s called!”
…After Don Martin’s comments, the state media Politics host, Don Newman, declared this: ”…On ‘NAFTAGATE’, with all due respect to you, sir, that’s what it is being called!…” [laughing heartily].
All the mainstream media made the bed when they all obsessed over Duffy and
Wallin and Brazeau (but not Liberal Mac Harb of course), and when they started calling things (only Conservative things) “-gate.”
Well now they can lie in it together — a concept with which I’m sure they’re totally comfortable.
UPDATE:
Friday 2:20 PM PST – It seems that when, back in 2006, the CBC sent legal papers to my home threatening that they would be “monitoring your site,” meaning this PTBC web site, they still are doing that. At least that’s one possible explanation for their suddenly writing up a story about this CBC-Gate scandal on their CBC.ca news site, just now. I’ll post about that in a separate post. Hint: they didn’t refer to it as “CBC-Gate.” So it’s bull.
HERE is the new post
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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RT @JoelJohannesen: CBC-Gate
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RT @JoelJohannesen: UPDATED: CBC admits to bad expense claims by CEO since 2007, under heading “CBC’s continued… http://t.co/CKgjqqfqdC