US Influence Campaigns Directly Shaped Canadian News
CBC News bends to Republican-backed grievance campaign
There isn't a world imaginable where you, the reader, is unaware of the current US-Canada trade war. It's dominated the news cycle, and has been the focus of this newsletter over the past week. However, though US officials continue to post childish and cruel jokes about Canada while Carney responds with a tut-tut, the US materially shapes news coverage in the country.
The story is a tad convoluted, but stay with me here. Davide Mastracci of The Maple wrote a good summary of the situation, that I highly recommend you read. But in summary, the Toronto Sun published an article containing a leaked memo from CBC reminding reporters they should not refer to the Sept. 11 2001 World Trade Center attacks as a "terrorist attack." Their style guide explained, while it is not seriously contested in many cases, its application can be uneven. As a result, "The words, themselves can become impediments to reporting."
This is an extremely normal thing to have in reporting. But the Toronto Sun article led to high-profile Republicans, including FBI director Kash Patel and US ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra to critique the policy. Subsequently, Canada's Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree issued a statement, followed by an editor's blog from CBC confirming they will change the language around 9/11. Effectively, this decision confirms that the US is an exceptional target of terrorism, to the detriment of every other nationality in the world.
While Mastracci's piece is important for understanding the spinelessness of Canada's public broadcaster, there is another pressure tactic that Trump's Republicans deployed against the outlet. In a letter that specifically cited CBC's editorial language guide on terrorism, sent after the policy was reversed, the Republican National Convention (RNC) revoked accreditation for CBC and Radio-Canada to report on their September 9 and 10 congregation.
It's important to note that CBC and Radio-Canada have not been the only news outlets where press access was recently attacked by the Trump administration. The New York Times, Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal were all denied accreditation to cover the Group of 20 finance meeting North Carolina. However, CBC and Radio-Canada specifically drew ire from Republican voices over a report published by a far-right Postmedia outlet.
Scott Martin
Though this letter and revocation took place after the changing of editorial guidelines, it remains an important dynamic of Canadian news media. Right-wing events within Canada have a history of denying accreditation to critical outlets, typically targeting smaller newsrooms like The Maple and Canada's National Observer. Considering the US government's repeated attacks on freedom of the press, this tactic was bound to come for Canadian outlets.
Indeed, CBC News is the punching bag of the extreme right; from Pierre Poilievre to Elon Musk. Political retribution during the collapse of trade talks with Canada was a conclusion that should have been seen far in advance. But it wasn't. So after the first real test of external pressure from the USA on Canadian news institutions, the CBC caved. The 9/11 language controversy originated from a right-wing outlet owned by a parent company that is itself owned by a New Jersey hedge fund. It was elevated by far-right voices looking to influence Canada. Still, CBC capitulated. For its trouble, it was effectively banned from reporting on the RNC.
CBC is a crown corporation, with enough flaws to fill several in-depth reports. Due to this position, it is often the primary target of coverage and criticism in the news media criticism sphere. Considering this, if this is how easily our public broadcaster can be swayed, it's time to question how the business interests of private news corporations can be indirectly, or even explicitly, shaped by US influence. In many ways, the media frenzy of the Trump administration's executive order to rename Lake Ontario shows how deftly these forces can control the narrative of coverage. Rather than the news focus including discussion of solutions, public projects to protect workers or what average Canadians can expect in their every day lives, it spent time and energy on a propagandistic branding exercise with little material effects.
If this is how the CBC bends under pressure from US entities, there's little hope the system as a whole will maintain integrity under more explicit attacks on their reporting.
