KINSELLA: With the likes of CBC, no wonder many think 'media truth' an oxymoron

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Media truth.

For many, those words are an oxymoron — you know, two words that have the opposite meaning of the other. For many supporters of Israel and Western democracy, these days, “media truth” is just that. An oxymoron.

So: the New York Times, the ostensible newspaper of record, placing a photo of a child on its front page, and then falsely suggesting it was dying as a result of an Israeli campaign of starvation against Palestinians. Or most other media simply ignoring authentic footage of a skeletal Israeli man being forced by Hamas to dig his own grave — whose “state,” by the by, Canada just announced it would formally recognize.

The media has lost tremendous credibility over cases like these. Media have also lost a lot of legitimacy for playing fast and loose with the truth in the Israel-Hamas war.

The CBC, which all Canadian pay for with their taxes, has been among the notable offenders. Instead of presenting verifiable facts in a fair and balanced way, it has seemingly chosen sides, and presented a wildly-distorted view of the Hamas-Israel conflict.

This reporter has documented multiple examples of that at CBC. Many relate to Mohamed El Saife.

El Saife is paid by CBC to work as a “videographer.” A fawning essay about him was posted on the main CBC website at the anniversary of the slaughter of hundreds of Jews by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. A similarly-sycophantic profile of him was broadcast on CBC’s main news programs, on both CBC News Network and on its main network. There, he was described as CBC’s “eyes and ears” in Gaza.

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His “eyes and ears” apparently see and hear things differently than many of us. El Saife says “Israel” — he puts the Jewish state’s name in quotation marks, to suggest that it is a fiction — is an “occupation army that violates the dignity of of the bodies of martyrs.” He has accused Israel of “massacring” citizens in the Gazan city of Khan Yunis, without any proof.

He has published an A.I.-generated image of a Palestinian child wearing wings, and chased by demonic-looking weapons-toting IDF troops.

And, now, we learn about a new example of CBC’s “eyes and ears in Gaza” conducting himself in manner that many journalists never would: the raw footage he sends that is ultimately seen by hundreds of the network’s journalists. These are actual quotes from the footage — the “shot lists” — he sells to CBC:

• “The Jews destroyed everything beautiful…”
• “Even the donkey that God gave us so we could make money, the Jews killed him…”
• “The Jews didn’t leave us trees or leaves.”
• “The Jews destroyed everything.”

A veteran CBC journalist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “CBC’s so-called freelancer in Gaza is gathering interviews with people who blame the Jews for the war. And those interviews are shared inside the CBC with hundreds of employees in emails. It’s a form of systemic antisemitism. It exposes Jewish and non-Jewish employees to hate and it normalizes dehumanizing language about Jews. Both CBC and its union have created an unsafe workplace for Jews.”

The CBC’s journalist union, for its part, has shown little interest in protecting Jewish journalists who are under siege in their own workplace. Last week, the Canadian Media Guild issued a statement on Gaza that entirely blames Israel for the bloodshed — and doesn’t even mention Hamas. It accused Israel of “inhumane treatment” of civilians — not Hamas.

Says one anonymous CBC journalist: “The public already has concerns about the credibility of CBC journalists. This destroys our reputation, because it tells the public we’re not neutral. We take sides.  And our union hates the Jewish state.”

Asked about their statement or the criticism, the union did not respond.

Asked about the continued use of Mohamed El Saife, CBC spokesperson Chuck Thompson said: “CBC News does tens of thousands of interviews every year. At any given time, we hear objectionable things in these raw interviews, which are then vetted and managed against standards of responsible journalism. The statements … are no exception to that practice.”

I’m not sure a majority of Canadian Jews would agree.