Aboriginal leaders accuse CBC of allowing website readers to promote racism

18 posts / 0 new

Fri, 2009-02-13 12:46

Stargazer

Quote:

The Southern Chiefs Organization distributed printouts of comments left by CBC website readers in response to stories on aboriginal issues in Manitoba, British Columbia and other provinces. Dozens of the comments suggested natives were drunks, criminals or incapable of supporting themselves.

"Those (comments) definitely have no place in the public domain," said Grand Chief Morris Swan-Shannacappo.

Swan-Shannacappo said he has seen similar comments on other media websites which allow readers to post their thoughts, but his organization is singling out the CBC partly because it is federally funded and should be held to a high standard of accountability.

Steve Ashton, Manitoba's acting attorney general, called the comments offensive and racist, but said there is little the province can do. Because the CBC is federally regulated, the chiefs organization should take its complaint to the federal human rights commission, the RCMP or the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, he said.

It never stops...

Fri, 2009-02-13 18:34

laine lowe laine lowe's picture

I do hope Grand Chief Morris does take it to federal authorities.

The CBC online comments are a disgrace in general and should be held to a higher level of accountability. The sad fact is that their portal provides carte blanche to racist garbage to comment.

That said, there really is a horrible apartheid reality in Manitoba that Attorney General Ashton should be addressing. You can see it at play in hiring practices, housing, policing, etc.

Fri, 2009-02-13 19:36

Michelle

Yeah, the CBC comments are generally racist, sexist, and all around disgusting. No news agency would accept letters to the editor with such filth as regularly graces the CBC discussion areas.

And they DO delete comments sometimes, so it's not like it's just completely unmoderated.

Fri, 2009-02-13 19:37

Michelle

Stargazer, do you have a link? I'd be interested in reading the rest.

Fri, 2009-02-13 19:40

Unionist

The moderation is contracted out to some outfit called ICUC.

Fri, 2009-02-13 19:48

RosaL

I complained to cbc saskatchewan once about a post of the kind the Southern Chiefs Organization cite. Nothing happened.

Sat, 2009-02-14 08:44

Stargazer

Here's the link.

http://www.friends.ca/news-item/7756

Sat, 2009-02-14 09:00

LeighT

sometimes we've had limited successes improving specific problems by having lots of people write the CBC Ombudsman.

Sat, 2009-02-14 09:11

Unionist

They should just eliminate comments altogether, if they can't (or won't) vet them properly. I never read those comments. I come here for discussion.

Sat, 2009-02-14 09:42

#10

Lard Tunderin Jeezus Lard Tunderin Jeezus's picture

It is amazing how the haters completely swamp the CBC boards. But they're a bigger target than rabble. And we know that it only takes a couple in one thread to utterly derail an intelligent conversation.

Can you imagine the shrieking from the forces of fascism if they were to ban the whinging right-wing whackjobs on the CBC site like the moderators do here?

Can't have that, can we? We wouldn't want our public broadcaster facilitating an intelligent dialogue between our citizens, would we?

Sat, 2009-02-14 10:03

#11

Michelle

Well, let's hope that if the CBC does take the easy way out and just closes comments altogether that all those assholes don't start streaming onto smaller web forums - like ours!

Sat, 2009-02-14 11:32

#12

Unionist

Luckily, we have brilliant, progressive, and sensitive moderators with ample time on their hands. Bring 'em on!

Sat, 2009-02-14 12:56

#13

Ghislaine

Maybe the CBC could give you a great-paying gig Michelle - they could certainly use your services!

Sat, 2009-02-14 13:14

#14

RosaL

All the cbc needs is someone to go through the comments on their sites and remove the offensive ones. That doesn't require sensitivity or skill - just some moral insight.

Sat, 2009-02-14 15:00

#15

Unionist

RosaL wrote:

All the cbc needs is someone to go through the comments on their sites and remove the offensive ones. That doesn't require sensitivity or skill - just some moral insight.

As I said above, RosaL, the CBC and many other web presences appear to use contract services like [url=http://www.icucmoderation.com/][color=red]ICUC Moderation Services Inc.[/color][/url]. I believe the figure they gave for CBC posts screened every year to be 200,000. In my humble taxpayer's opinion, this is a complete and total waste of their time and my money, besides the fact that it doesn't appear to succeed in filtering out all the filth. Simple solution: Stop the comments. They are of no value to anyone. Web forums can be set up at virtually no cost, or existing ones (like this one) can be used by those who can't restrain their fingers.

Sat, 2009-02-14 15:57

#16

Stargazer

I agree with that unionist. It's far better to have a CBC we forum than it is to allow unchecked racism in the comments section.

Sat, 2009-02-14 18:37

#17

Michelle

Ghislaine wrote:
Maybe the CBC could give you a great-paying gig Michelle - they could certainly use your services!

Heh. Actually, I've always thought it would be interesting and perhaps fun to moderate discussion forums where there is no particular political leaning or ideological slant set out in the policy. :) Challenging though, I'll bet! And I doubt they'd want anyone who has been so blatant online about their political slant, or they'd be accused of bias.

Besides, their moderation isn't really "moderation" I don't think, at least not as we know it here - they just remove comments that are offensive, don't they? Which is part of moderation, of course, but I don't think there's any back-and-forth between the participants and moderators, is there?

They certainly need something, though. And I can see where they would find it difficult to figure out where people cross the line from average, run-of-the-mill ignorance into outright offensive racism.

Unfortunately, right now on the CBC articles, even extreme examples of racism and sexism are allowed to stand.

Sat, 2009-02-14 21:40

#18

Slumberjack

The only moderation I can detect at CBC.ca is when they step in occasionally to delete profane pissing match postings. Racism is allowed free reign, but say the work fuck and they get offended. In displaying the sort of vile comments that are standard fare on their online news articles, it would be similar to an anchor reading racist viewer comments on TV, after a program like the National. Actually, they allow it there as well. I've never noticed moderator posts in any of their online articles.