Oh…not the CBC

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image  I was surprised to find that state-owned CBC competitor, the citizen-owned CTV, was reporting that the state media was projecting that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the Iranian election.  I’m usually the only one who correctly calls the CBC the “state” media—or the “state-owned” media.

Turns out CTV was talking about the IRANIAN state media, not the CBC.  You understand the confusion.

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For its part, the CBC, Canada’s state media, also clarifies it right from the get-go and writes that “Iran’s state media declared hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the victor in Friday’s hotly contested presidential election…”.

They later refer to “state television”, however, but in that case it was clear from the context that they meant IRANIAN state television.  And still later, they mention “Iran’s government-owned telecommunications provider”.  Funny thing is that in their story, the state-owned CBC refers to their CBC reporter in Iran, but they don’t put “state media” in front of CBC, or “Canada’s government-owned telecommunications provider” in front of CBC.

image Helpfully, however, they do take the trouble to refer to one candidate as “conservative” (by which we know they mean the likes of nutbar Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ahmadinejad-style extremists), while their opponent was, wait for it… “a moderate”.  This is kind of like earlier this week, when they blatantly referred to a U.K. fascist party that elected two members to the European Parliament, as “right wing”.  You know, like conservatives here are “right wing”.  So we have right wing, conservative, nutbar extremists, and fascists all in the same little box.  Wrapped with a giant but not necessarily “government-owned” CBC bow.

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It’s a case of failing to define terms in all the right places.  Don’t worry, they still rarely fail to call the war on terror the “so-called war on terror”, or even better, “George Bush’s so-called war on terror.”  They don’t want you getting confused over political labels.

Good job, CBC.

 

Joel Johannesen
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