A Senate committee says the CBC should face regular outside reviews of its news coverage after witnesses raised concerns the public broadcaster’s reporting is viewed by some as ideological or politically biased.Blacklock's Reporter says the Senate transport and communications committee made the recommendation in its report, Local News Matters: Rethinking CBC’s Role In A Changing Media Landscape.“Witnesses testified that CBC news content is sometimes perceived as having an ideological or partisan bias,” said the report.Senators recommended the Crown corporation “periodically conduct analysis by outside experts on the news content and current affairs by CBC news services in order to assess its fairness and balance.”The committee said complaints about CBC impartiality could not be dismissed.“The issue of impartiality was raised by a few witnesses,” wrote senators. “These allegations of bias are serious and undermine trust in the public broadcaster.”Marie-Philippe Bouchard, CBC’s CEO, denied the broadcaster’s coverage is politically slanted during committee testimony last October.“The notion that we are politically oriented is really against everything that we believe and the independence that we so importantly preserve,” she said. “That is protected by the Broadcasting Act and other instruments of the law.”CBC editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon also defended the broadcaster, saying it was the most accountable newsroom he had worked in.“Bias? You know, I’ve worked for a number of different news organizations, a number of private media,” Fenlon testified.“I can say the CBC is the most accountable and held to the highest standard of any organization I’ve ever worked for, and I’ve worked for a number of them — Sun Media, the Globe & Mail and others,” he said.Fenlon said CBC journalists are regularly required to defend their work and are subject to review by an independent ombudsman.“But I hear the concerns about bias and we take them seriously,” he said. “We talk about them regularly. Where do we need to course correct?”.However, Fenlon acknowledged in Access To Information emails obtained June 1 that CBC coverage does not always meet expectations.“We don’t hit the mark in every story, every newscast, every program,” he wrote to staff.Sen. Andrew Cardozo, an Ontario senator and CBC supporter, also told the committee concerns about bias were legitimate.“There is a sizeable part of the population that believes the CBC is biased, that it has a political approach, that it is preachy,” said Cardozo, a former Toronto Star contributor.“As a strong supporter of the CBC, I would say, by and large, your reporters are very unbiased,” he said.Cardozo said some CBC journalists appeared to scrutinize opposition politicians more aggressively than government members.“There are two or three people who do ‘fact check’ Opposition members more than they do government members, consistently and quite aggressively,” he said. “Either you fact check everybody or you don’t fact check everybody.”
