Roger-Luc Chayer
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation / CBC Network is one of the world’s foremost symbols of quality media with television, radio and social media. Equivalent to the BBC or major US networks, Radio-Canada has earned this reputation thanks to its exceptional financial resources, which come mainly from grants from the Government of Canada (which finances the Crown corporation with our taxes), advertising revenues and royalties paid by channel users such as RDI.
Unlike TVA or CTV, the Crown corporation is the only one to receive a large portion of its funding from the Canadian state. As such, it must deliver superior information because it is accountable to Canadians. We are all accustomed to the blunders of TVA that delivers us poorly written news, with many mistakes of French or spelling, but now that for several months, the same phenomenon occurs on the CBC.
We can sometimes see mistakes on RDI with the titles scrolling at the bottom of the screen, but there will never have been so many elementary mistakes in the texts presented on the Facebook page of Radio-Canada to such an extent that As publisher of Gay Globe Group and taxpayer, I find it insulting that our national media is allowed to publish texts that seem to be written by people who have definitely not mastered the French language necessary for such functions. Worse, from the point of view of writing, broadcasting, posting or supervising the newsroom boss, no one intervenes and we let material that is ashamed be spread.
Here are some examples, all observed over a 24-hour period: « Living in a CHSLD costs more and more, but fewer residents get help from the state », « REM: Four bills come out of the haze « This community is driving up the population of the province and revitalizing its economy » or « Tump (rather than Trump) Nobel Peace Prize? »
Not only is this type of news published, notified by members of the Facebook page repeatedly of the existence of faults, Radio-Canada does nothing to correct them.
On December 14, 2017, exasperated by the poor quality of the news published, I officially lodged a complaint with the ombudsman of the Crown Corporation who intervened so that the newsroom could be explained. I received an email shortly after from a news editor who admitted that some news had faults and that the public could report these faults by using a function at the bottom of each article.
Is it really up to the public to review and correct the mistakes of journalists who are yet subject to a code of ethics could not be clearer on this issue? « We strive for excellence and respect for best practices in our journalistic work. », « Journalistic Standards and Practices (NPJ) apply to news, current affairs and public affairs staff and news content. products, broadcast and put online by these teams. « , » The credibility and brand image of the CBC’s information should not be compromised. « News for you Radio-Canada, it missed!