Canada's COVID Media Disaster

Breaking the rules and failing every ethics test.

Last Thursday, May 18th 2023, an earthquake occurred. On that day three senior journalists described under oath how Canada’s mainstream media broke the rules and failed every ethics test during the COVID era.

Media coverage of the Freedom Convoy was so obviously dishonest because journalists had, by then, gotten used to torquing the news outrageously. After two years of mindlessly parroting every official COVID talking point, they’d ceded their independence so thoroughly they no longer cared about the audience to whom they were meant to be delivering a public service. Taking orders from above, they were playing follow-the-leader.

Last Thursday, at a National Citizens Inquiry hearing, Marianne Klowak talked about resigning from CBC Winnipeg. In disgust and despair. After 34 years on the job. In her words:

I had witnessed in a very short time the collapse of journalism, news gathering, investigative reporting. And the way I saw it is that we were, in fact, pushing propaganda.

The above quote, along with the video at the top of this post, is from the first 10 minutes of her testimony. This is a CBC insider speaking. Describing how a once-great media institution failed Canada at the very moment in which we were in desperate need of open debate and well-informed decision making.

In her words, the CBC “shut down one side.” It silenced and discredited anyone who challenged the official government narrative. In her words,

we had elevated and designated ourselves as the gatekeeper of the truth. We no longer believed our audience was capable of critically thinking for themselves.

Marianne makes it very clear. The CBC deliberately ignored newsworthy events. It deliberately misrepresented events. To someone who believes journalism is about truth telling, this was intolerable. Here’s how she explains it:

As a veteran journalist, I had solid contacts in the community. I had people calling me with stories. So I was seeing, and I was hearing, and I was absorbing all their stories of suffering and pain. And they were sharing them with me. And these stories weren't being told.

Some of those were from the vaccine injured. Some were from people who had lost their job because of their vaccination status. Those whose families had been blown apart, and they'd been ostracized. University students who were depressed over repeated lockdowns and mandates. And parents who were calling me, that were agonizing on whether they should vaccinate their child or not.

So all these stories were sitting inside of me, they were left with me. And I felt the crushing burden and the weight of their truth not being given a voice. And it affected my well being because these people trusted me and I felt I had failed them and I had let them down.  

Marianne testified for more than an hour. I’m currently working with a transcript of her full remarks. It’s 20 pages long. There’s a lot of startling stuff there.

next installment:

A Powerful Story of Grassroots Unity: Refusal to cover 2,000-strong protest 'unconscionable.'