The Media Accountability Project  

On February 19, CJPME learned that CTV News corrected an article following several CJPME complaints. This article was about Selina Robinson’s resignation following her racist comments about Palestine.

The article introduced Selina Robinson’s comments as being about “the region where Israel was founded,” which clearly erases the history of Palestinians and their land. While we initially asked them to describe Robinson’s comments as a reference to Palestine– instead of “the region on which Israel was founded” – they opted to remove “the region.” The sentence now reads: “The B.C. NDP’s minister of post-secondary education is stepping down from her cabinet position, days after sparking widespread outrage by saying Israel was founded on a “crappy piece of land with nothing on it.” Although this is not the edit CJPME was hoping for, we recognize CTV’s attempt. Moreover, the article stated that calls for her resignation were made by “pro-Palestinian groups and others,” but omits any mention of the other groups that supported her resignation. CTV has since added the Jewish Faculty Network to its list of groups in support of her resignation.

Albeit small, these changes mark a small win for CJPME. This article was initially published on February 5^th, and a letter expressing our concerns was promptly emailed on February 6^th. Lacking a response from the author/editors, CJPME launched a MAP Alert for our media responders on February 12^th.  Disappointed by CTV’s continued unresponsiveness, we sent another email on February 15 asking that they promptly make the initially requested edits.

"It is disappointing that certain voices are taken at face value and that specific interpretations are selected as an attempt to frame the action of the man climbing the front of the Mount Sinai hospital as antisemitic while disregarding that this framing contributes to anti-Palestinian racism (APR) left unacknowledged in your article."

"The only space and voice you give are a one-sentence paragraph to one of the organizers, Toronto4Palestine, which doesn’t even correctly assess their intentions behind the rally: to bring awareness to Rafah amidst Israel’s assault. I, therefore, ask you to balance the article by adding more context about the protest by giving voice to the organizers and the protesters."

Since the organizers and the protesters are given space after people who did not attend the protest, the central issue of the article turns around false accusations of antisemitism.

By consistently placing comments from one group above comments from another, CBC inevitably suggests a hierarchy of perspectives to the reader. Relegating voices that are critical of Israel or sympathetic to Palestinians to disadvantageous locations in the article, whether unintentional or on purpose, further marginalizes Palestinian narratives.

"Overall, your article provides very little critical analysis of the antisemitism report you describe in your story. It comes across as a platform for pro-Israel groups who want to undermine the credibility and character of people who support Palestinian liberation and criticize Israel."

Overall, your article fails to provide any critical analysis of the arguments from the letter of the Jewish community leaders or the written statement from the Centre for Jewish and Israel Affairs (CIJA). This makes your article come across as very obsequious and one-dimensional. Beyond this major journalistic failure, there are many other shortcomings of the article.

"Expressing sympathy for the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinians is not antisemitic.  Neither is opposing a brutal campaign of Israeli violence that has killed tens of thousands of civilians.  Nevertheless, your article is written a way that suggests that they are and gives a platform to Canada’s pro-Israel lobby’s outrageous claims." 

"For her children’s books to be removed from the public shelves of a local Jewish Public Library on grounds of antisemitism is yet another disappointing example of the career costs of expressing Palestinian solidarity. I hope this decision will be reversed, as any child has likely left the library more informed, conscious, and accepting after reading one of her books."

"While I am glad that people are slowly waking up and not wanting to carry on a business-as-usual approach, I must say that I feel resentment that it took this long and an ICJ ruling just for us to be seen as credible interlocutors."