OPINION:
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has announced that its reporters may describe the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as “terrorism” without attribution — that is, quoting a third party. Hallelujah!
In an earlier leaked memo, the CBC management instructed its reporters and editors not to refer to the attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people died, as “acts of terrorism.” That is about as absurd as not calling Pearl Harbor a sneak attack or not designating the Holocaust an act of genocide.
The initial memo sparked outrage. Rachael Thomas, a Conservative member of Parliament, called it “absolutely shameful.” Ms. Thomas declared: “The CBC is choosing to redefine terrorism in a way that downplays the atrocity of 9/11. Refusing to call it an act of terrorism dishonors the victims, their families, the survivors and the first responders who witnessed the horrors of that day.”
In trying to defend its initial policy, the CBC huffed: Well, we did not say our reporters had to deny that it was terrorism, but they could use the word only when quoting a so-called qualified expert. Such as who, al Qaeda?
The CBC also argued that many other media outlets had similar policies. That is true and equally shameful.
It is no secret that news media, here and abroad, are dominated by liberals. Their goal is not to report the news objectively but to cover it in a way that advances their agendas.
The media go out of their way to downplay the reality of terrorism and the threat it poses to Western civilization.
For instance, whenever possible, they avoid calling the Hamas attack on Israel of Oct. 7, 2023 — in which more than 1,200 people were massacred — an act of terrorism, instead calling it an “incursion” or an “armed attack.”
By the same logic, they refuse to identify a terrorist as a Muslim if it can be avoided. Even when the perpetrator says he is a Muslim and that the act was committed to advance radical Islam, they still refuse to acknowledge the obvious.
They also refuse to distinguish between legal and illegal immigration, lumping them together.
Strangely enough, the media do not need attribution to call a phenomenon evidence of global warming or to designate an incident as racist. When it comes to journalistic standards, one size definitely does not fit all.
In a way, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. brouhaha is useful in showing just how far the media will go to distort coverage to promote their ideology.
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