PlayStation 5 Sales Reach 93.7 Million Units Despite Sales Slump in Q4
Sony has reported that 93.7 million PlayStation 5 units have shipped since launch, with 1.5 million sold in the latest quarter.
Twitter Labels CBC ‘Government-funded Media’, Public Broadcaster Disagrees
After Elon Musk’s Twitter slapped the ‘Government-funded Media’ label onto the U.S. National Public Radio’s (NRP) Twitter bio, the non-profit media organization quit the social network in protest. Originally the first label was “state-affiliated media,” used for other state outlets from nations such as Russia and China.
NPR is both privately and publicly funded but quit Twitter, a move it says is to protect its credibility.
Many were calling for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to similarly gain a ‘Government-funded Media’ label and on Sunday, Twitter did just that.
The CBC protested the move, saying on Sunday, “Twitter’s own policy defines government-funded media as cases where the government “may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content,” which is clearly not the case with CBC/Radio-Canada.”
“CBC/Radio-Canada is publicly funded through a parliamentary appropriation that is voted upon by all Members of Parliament. Its editorial independence is protected in law in the Broadcasting Act, as we said in our statement from last week,” said the public broadcaster.
“In addition, our journalism is independent and subject to our Journalistic Standards and Practices, as well as an independent complaints process through @CBCOmbud and @ombudsmanrc,” said the crown corporation.
Canadian taxpayers fund the majority of the CBC’s annual budget, which was $1.24 billion as of its 2021-22 annual report.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said in response to the move, “now people know that it is Trudeau propaganda, not news.” Poilievre was one of many that asked Musk and Twitter to similarly add the government-funded label to the CBC last week.
How does Twitter determine government-funded media accounts? The social network says, “government-funded media is defined as outlets where the government provides some or all of the outlet’s funding and may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content. We may use external sources similar to this one in order to determine when this label is applied,” referring to this list of publicly funded broadcasters on Wikipedia (yes, it lists the CBC).
Other outlets such as BBC News have a ‘Publicly-funded media’ label, which differs from government-funded, as these organizations get “license fees, individual contributions, public financing, and commercial financing,” as per Twitter’s guidelines.
What do you think? Should the CBC have a ‘Government-funded Media’ label on its Twitter account?
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
Other articles in the category: News
Nintendo Switch 2 Will Cost $679.99 in Canada Starting on September 1
Nintendo Switch 2 will soon cost an extra $50 in Canada starting on September 1st as Nintendo reacts to the market.
CBC Had a Subscription Documentary Channel. Now It Wants Taxpayers to Fund a Free One
The CBC is shutting down its subscription-based Documentary Channel on August 31 and replacing it with a free ad-supported streaming channel launching this fall, backed by a $7 million funding increase for Canadian documentaries. The national broadcaster framed the move as a modernization push, pointing to declining cable subscribers and shifting viewing habits as the...
If CBC disagrees with the label, all they are to do is stop taking our tax dollars and waste them.
Simple.
CBC is one of the only reputable news outlets remaining in our country, and arguably the only media organization producing actual Canadian content. (Whether Canadian entertainment is good is certainly up for debate) And yes, it is without a doubt “government funded media” so there’s nothing inaccurate with the label. I think what was frustrating was the initial labels bundling state-controlled groups with organizations with editorial independence.
That said, what difference does this make? Will we label shareholder funded media to highlight the obvious biases they may hold? Highlighting the source of funding does not indicate whether the media is factual or externally influenced.
What Twitter is continuing to do is only going to hasten its downfall. Selling verification checkmarks is ultimately the same thing they’re doing to NPR, CBC, etc. Rather than encouraging verified voices that bring value to your platform for free, you are pushing these accounts away, creating a space that is untrustworthy and open to manipulation.
At this point, you’re only kidding yourself if you think only “un-labelled” or “pay-to-play” accounts are operating without bias or ulterior motive.
I’ll go out on a limb and assume you were serious in your comment.
The only way someone would consider CBC “reputable news source” is if they ONLY watch CBC. That’s 3.8% of Canadians.
People have the right to know where a “news” outlet funding comes from… you’d want Fix News to be associated with Ruppert Murdoch and his right wing bias – because that puts everything they say in perspective.
The same applies here: one good look at Rosemary Barton and you know who’s paying her hyper-inflated salary.
No one can convince me that CBC will ever bite the hand that (generously) feeds them.
Note that I limited my comment to the”news” aspect…if we get into the other content that CBC puts out, it’s a real tragedy all together.
In many cities CBC radio is in the top ratings
Yes, but radio is a dying media, so it’s probably not really hard to get in the top ratings
So then they should be able to stand on their own, without extorting hardworking Canadians.
There’s been too many incidences of CBC showing bias and giving misinformation, and not admitting when they are wrong. CBC leaving Twitter only benefits Twitter.
They are government funded, so what’s the problem?
CBC is not any more government funded media than BBC, yet they complained and managed to change their status to “publicly funded”. Because it pleases Musk to change it. CBC complained and got the reduction from 70% to “69% government-funded”, with some snide remarks from him to go along with it. Goes to show how petty and vindictive he can be.
As it literally has a written (by politicians) agenda and its entire Board is appointed by the PMO, the “Government-funded Media” greatly understates what consumers should know about it.
But then again, critical thinking has pretty much been completely replaced by Marxist “critical theories”, anyway.