CBC (mostly) Watch (actually more of a 'sporadic' CBC watch, as I'm too busy to do much right now and nobody seems to care anyway - but the propaganda is just so obvious I have to say something sometimes - so herein a partial record for when I or someone gets time for some 'academic' style analysis)
by Dave "Siam Dave" Patterson

source


Friday Sept 19 - 6 am PEI national 'news' - still on the 'apology' issue - the intrepid 'reporter' goes and finds three people who think the guy should resign, and nobody from the other POV, as 'background' to their 'story' on how that darn person is not resigning, even though some higher ups at the CBC think he ought to, in their petulant childish way. Right on impartial 'journalism' - I guess I'm the only one in Canada who thinks this is idiotic. And meanwhile, we wait and wait for something on a real issue, such as the SPP/NAU, Banketeering, democracy, etc.

- 6.30 'news' - it's a PEI story that a Lib candidate is 'recycling his old campaign signs'. You bet. Sure beats talking about democracy or banking or the SPP or any real issues etc.

Thursday Sept 18 - PEI news 6:30 am - making a big issue about some guy joking about 'hopes the person who died on PEI from listeriosis was Wayne Easter' - cheap joke, common sort of thing in ANY circle normal people move in, but the CBC is going to take it seriously and make a big issue out of it. Dumbing down in action, by PC people - this sort of thing is nothing more than childish, adults understand that this sort of joke is made, and is nothing more than that, a joke. Perhaps a bit tasteless, but hardly the stuff over which normal adult people get outraged. Big momma in action. (and the 'joking' as reported on the newscast - '...this may be death by a thousand cuts - or should that be cold cuts...' - I should never think this stuff cannot get more pathetic. But on a major CBC provincial news cast? This would get laughed out of a journalism school course ..... dumbing down in action. Nonstop. And if they want to censor the politician for the tasteless joke, why do they make equally tasteless ones themselves? As always, one rule for us, another for you.

- and making a big issue of the NDP candidate who did some drugs 'live' - some people might think this a perfect opportunity to talk about how most Canadians want pot legalised, but no, the PC CBC is all holier than thou about it all. This is a real issue that needs talking about, and real issues is one place we are NOT going during this campaign, insofar as the CBC has anything to do with it all.

- Ottawa news, 8.30, story on Pettawawa, not much interest in the election at Pettawawa, but it's a way to remind people about how both the Cons and Libs have 'agreed' on the 2011 withdrawal, so we don't need to talk about this much, right? Who cares what Canadians think about this all, eh???? But we do manage to get a few comments about how that date - 'may be too soon' - we're very definitely not going to hear from the majority of Canadians who want withdrawal now, as in ASAP, or ask politicians why they don't care what Canadians think about this, but let's get this little 'support the mssion!!! story in .... that's is indoctrination at work, constant small reinforcements sneaking in under the radar, and influencing what people think ....

- lady on the current 'doing the mail', just happens to mention her new book about the very serious situation of women in Afghanistan (you wavering people, we're doing GOOD STUFF THERE!!!!]]]] - blatant, very obvious what is happening from outside the box. Virtually never do we hear anything talking about how most Canadians do not want to be there, or how we got involved very undemocratically, etc.

Wednesday Sept 17 - the current - interview with Dion, Tremonti pretty aggressive, obviously dislikes Dion (all rightwing complaining about 'lefty media' notwithstanding), but he handled himself very impressively - have to wait and see how she deals with Harper - aggressive is ok, as long as it is evenly distributed amongst all candidates ...

- always stories of interest to be told, like the one from Fredericton today about the Down syndrome political activist - again, this would be fine, if we were also getting the story of, for instance, Connie Fogal and CAP, and why they continue to spend so much time fighting when the mainstream media continues to ignore them, even though they seem to speak for so many Canadians ....

Tuesday Sept 16 - the Current - second part - another long segment on May - as somebody said, any PR is good PR, and if the objective is getting May well enough known to get that anti-Harper vote well split up among the Greens, NDP and Libs, they're doing, I would suggest, a very good job. Still haven't heard a word from anyone about SPP, or money supply, even though I have written everyone about Banketeering, it's completely ignored by all the mainstream people who remain firmly in the box comments with 'issues' and commentary etc, same old stuff, nothing important, although they all pretend, of course, to be important and serious

- the whole focus of this show is that Canadian are waaaaaay behind the Americans in using the net for politics - not a word about the role of the media in this, the role of major left wing websites in preventing organising between elections, the role of the mainstream media in marginalising any useful websites, etc. propaganda all the way. Very clever propaganda, but all designed to create the Cdn narrative

- the interviewee jesse brown complains about parties not giving Cdns the info they need - do they not see the 'irony' here???? Isn't it the MEDIA supposed to inform Canadians?!?!? Shouldn't we be talking about the media NOT doing this? Most of my comments to Cdn newspaper 'comment' boards are removed, including the CBC sites - how obvious can it be what you are doing? But that's the Canadian narrative - the media are wonderful people who give Canadians all the information they need - and apparently most Canadians believe this, and will not think about anything the media does not tell them to think about, or have no opinions not sanctioned by the media.


Monday Sept 15 - the Current giving more attention to May and the Greens - a party with no elected MPS, but not a day goes by May is not in the news, or on the radio being interviewed by someone - compare with CAP, who has had not a single word of press, although they speak for things a lot of Canadians care about, that nobody else does .... May getting attention like this would be good if the other minor parties and issues got the same sort of exposure, to let the voters know what was going on in their country. What would happen if the CBC et al gave the same attention to the SPP, or democracy and PR in Canada, or whether or not the Libs and Cons actually care about what Canadians think about the Afghan mission, and etc. Spin spin and spin - they want the vote split, so they give May attention.


Sunday Sept 14 - 09:00 Halifax national news - still at it, this is not even subtle any more, first a story from Quebec about how 'disillusioned' Bloc voters are turning to Harper, and then a quote from Harper about how all other parties have moved to the left, leaving the center for him - complete bullshit, but that is the narrative they are creating for the history books - 'centrist' Harper attracting Canadians and the loser lefties falling behind (actually, obviously, Harper is well to the right, and the NDP pretty centrist, with the Libs kind of center right leaning far right - but we are NOT going to talk about those parties being right wing, or get involved in any discussions about how the NDP actually have policies closer to what most Canadians believe in - the narrative that Canadians are being told to believe is that the Libs and Cons are centrist and represent Canadians, and the NDP are just the lefty fringe. And most Canadians are well enough trained to accept this crap without thinking about it at all, and then voting for the people who are wrecking their country rather than people who want to save it. And they are going to push May more to make sure the anti harper vote is well divided, on cross country checkup today. Apparently I am the only one in the country who has any fucking clue what is going on - how successful the indoctrination has been, and is. God give me a place to get out of this craziness!!!!!!!


Friday Sept 11 - CBC Charlottetown news - 06:30am, still slagging the Libs - the candidate 'tries' to explain the carbon tax (obviously it is 'too difficult' for people to understand, is the CBC narrative of this 'story', and 'trying' indicates that it is too difficult etc) - they get a few interviews with people who say they don't understand it, golly!! poor little simpleton citizen me!! - but none, of course, from people who say it is perfectly clear and no problem - always, always always creating the narrative - this will be in the history books, the carbon tax was too difficult to understand, etc .... then the interview with the candidate, the little CBC reporter saying over and over and over again that he doesn't understand it, cannot find anyone who understands it, 'don't you think this is a hard sell..'? etc and etc - this is way beyond spin, it is outright propaganda .... not a single 'ordinary' person who confirms that it's no big deal, it's easy to understand, etc - just on the message, over and over and over - same game as never talking about any of the few very important things I write letters about (and others, no doubt), and then saying there is nothing important or interesting in Cdn politics or politicians, etc. blatant - and pretty much everyone in the country is so indoctrinated they cannot see it happening ....

- and then in the national news, a long story on Layton and Harper attacking the same Green Plan - so blatant!!!! (one can only figure that the powers that be are determined Dion gets nowhere near being PM, and Layton has been persuaded one way or another to pull a Broadbent, and help Harper get his majority ...) - EVERYTHING they do in relation to the election, or politics, is spin and propaganda - 'reporting' that any journalism school would not allow, the CBC picking a POV, finding a couple of interviews to support it, and no POVs from the other side - utterly amazing, only the most passive citizens could accept this stuff. And apparently most do. Although we will never know how much protest there is in the form of emails etc sent to the CBC or anywhere else, as of course they never print them or acknowledge them. (stuff on message boards is almost irrelevant, as nobody can read them all, and they have a much lower credibility factor than 'real stories by 'real' reporters' etc, but even so, the CBC is not allowing most of my attempts to get people at least aware of Banketeering, and they cut things asking what role the media is playing as well - out of the box stuff, criticizing the media all citizens must trust!!

- right up to the interview with Palin that gets 'reported', as the 'reporter' complains about 'the harsh-faced interviewer' - oh you poor little lady!! big bad man!!! such impartial 'journalism'!!


Thursday Sept 10 - the Current - interviewing Jack Layton, Tremonti on full attack mode, interrupting him, shouting at him, etc, obviously unhappy with what he says, pretty embarrassing .... we shall see later when she does others if she attacks the same way .... (Layton defends himself very well, sounds very good - which evidently upsets Tremonti somewhat, interrupting, aggressive, shouting - reminds me of her getting mad at Barrie Zwicker last year)
- and in the third half hour(!!) they do a profile of a kid they call somebody interested in politics etc - this seems like a good thing, but first, why does one person get this publicity, this endorsement from the official media? It is gatekeeping - this guy is ok is the message, a role model for the listeners, etc. And it is propaganda, in the sense of 'look at ytour great CBC talking about ordinary people that you should know about' - etc. It's good to give this kid some exposure, but he knows little, and this is putting out the idea that he is someone worth listening to on a broader level, when really he is very innocent, and very in the box - so listening to him is to encourage more of the same. Which is what 'they'; want, but which is not good for our future. (also a note on the guy who made the piece - obviously again a 20-something, who thinks he is cutting edge, but would still be in journalism school in a country where we had real journalists) - as always, this is not that offensive in itself, but it's the people they do NOT cover who SHOULD be covered that underlines that this is, in reality, propaganda, and creating the Cdn narrative (this kid will get in the history books as an example of how the media 'reached out' to ordinary Cdns, but there will never be any mention of the issues they do want people thinking about, such as banketeering, or CAP, the SPP, etc., Propaganda, no other way to put it, when you see the full picture from outside the box.)

Kevin O'Connor, Regina, CBC news - a 'prof' talking about how Canadians agree with many things in the American election - obviously a piece as part of 'creating the narrative' - the things they choose to talk about, as opposed to the things they do not ....

- and then in Sounds like Canada - more on how 'boring' the Cdn election is, as opposed to that wonderfully interesting American election - all you folks just go home, sit down at your tv, no point in voting, everything's just boring etc and etc - it gets so frustrating sometimes when I want to be screaming at people about how important this is, but the media that people very mistakenly trust is just putting them to sleep - and how obviously all the politicians are involved in the scam, as May is on talking about cooking, laughing and having a good time - part of the 'nothing here to see folks' game - creating the narrative. We have amazing speakers in Canada, such as Connie Fogal, but they won't let her talk .... the choice of guests on these shows is the same thing - guests who talk about these things, but not the opposite - (and they are sophisticated propagandists - very scripted to make certain points and not talk about others - these people are way ahead of me .....)


Wednesday Sept 10 - hourly news 09:00 Ottawa
derek stofel from Afghan - Teleban has 'ramped up the propaganda' telling Cdns that the new PM better 'withdraw from Kandahar or more troops weill be killed'; - sounds a lot more like CBC proaganda to me, and the dumbed down language the 'reporter' uses - 'ramped up' on the CBC, really, these guys wouldn't even get jobs running messages back and forth when the CBC was real ....


Tuesday Sept 9 - CBC morning news (8:00 Ottawa, Judy Madrin)
slagging China again, Anthony whatever about a prisoner sentenced to death who killed some cops - similar things happen in America all the time, but NEVER does the CBC do anything more than report in a neutral tone of voice, none of this 'look at them damned commies we're just so outraged!!' stuff. The prisoner, he notes '.. says something that must terrify the authorities' - people criticize the US all the time, but NEVER again do we hear anything like this - when people criticize the US government, THEY are in the wrong, when they criticize the Chinese, they are heroes - always so obvious, at least from out here in outside the box land ....

- and on the current, a 'documentary' about Americans moving to Russia during the 30s and winding up in 'Stalin's gulag' - now next week we will wait for a story on the American Japanese that wound up in the American gulag, no doubt, just to be fair, or how the Americans today have the highest prison population in the world, and the most executions, and are violating human rights everywhere by forced labor for corporations, and etc hahaha sure we will, right CBC?? Again, the propaganda is obvious because they always criticize others, but never 'us' or especially the Americans, who are one of the greatest human rights abusers the world has ever known, not that you'd ever figure that out from listening to the CBC or other Canadian media ....

- the guy mentions 'leftists' who went to Russia, gratuitous slagging again .... American 'leftist' press .... lots of talk of Russian / 'leftist' propaganda, never a word about American 'rightist' propaganda, then or now .... talks about reporters of the time not talking about obvious Russian problems - but the CBC or others in Canada never talk about modern American reporters refusing to talk about current problems with the media or anything else to do with 'great America' - the CBC the same - so obviously propaganda by the CBC when you understand the bigger picture - just at a much greater level of sophistication than in earlier times ....


Sunday Sept 6 - the big surprise election announcement! (at least Perry's first question is 'why now?', as if everyone hasn't been talking about this for two weeks. And the 'analyst's' first comment is again to let everybody know that they are supposed to see Dion as a weak leader, as they've been hammering endlessly for the last 18 months. "Is Dion worth the risk??" - interesting that Petty mentions 'the campaign narrative' - which they are already composing - Dion the loser, Layton has no chance to win, Harper is very leader-like. No question which way this one is going - con majority. People of Canada conned bigtime.
Petty's issues - listeria, health care, environment, economy, job losses, energy costs, jobs are safe, Afghanistan,

(note - this was obviously a 'special breaking news!! broadcast' that was long in preparation, with tape clips at the ready etc)

- third hour of Sunday morning - a special on talking about the election, with various guests - isn't it interesting that they could arrange all of this in the 90 minutes or so since the election was actually called!!!! - scripts and all - ...... the narrative is being created, and apparently nobody in the country besides me is aware of it. I suppose there are others, but there's no way we're getting time on the mainstream media.


Sat Sept 5 - the house, election coverage begins, with a look at Dion - hammering hammering as they have been since he was elected - mention 'left of center' crowd in the bit on Dion (let's count the times Harper gets referred to as right wing) -


Friday Sept 4 - Current - leaving Afghanistan Cdn ambassador, on to do his bit to ramp up support for 'the mission', never miss a chance - 'how do you explain what is happening, even though it looks bad?' - blatant 'we're really winning and doing good stuff!!! - and they are really bad, bad guys and we have to keep fighting for truth and justice!!'

Propaganda.

'The goal of the Afghan gov is to build a new free Afghanistan - right. led by corrupt warlords.
and etc. deconstruction of the things this interview does NOT talk about could fill pages.
- some obvious scripting as well, to 'address the concerns of Canadians' - the obvious reason for such 'interviews'

- but interview doing a good job of pretending to 'ask the hard questions!!'. right.