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Letter to the Ombudsman at the CBC
November 9, 1998
Ottawa, Ontario
Attached is the text of a letter sent today from the Prime Minister's Office to the Ombudsman at the CBC.
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PMO Press Office: (613) 957-5555
November 9, 1998
Mr. David Bazay
Ombudsman CBC
P.O. Box 500
Station A
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1E6
Dear Mr. Bazay:
I received, late on Friday, November 6, a letter from Bob Culbert and Sandy McKean of the CBC. Their letter constitutes the second and final CBC response to my letter of complaint, addressed to you on October 16, regarding the CBC's coverage of the controversy surrounding security at the 1997 APEC Summit.
The November 6 letter deals with the actions of Terry Milewski and states that, notwithstanding the documentary e-mail evidence of his conflict of interest revealed by The Vancouver Sun and The Province last month, the CBC "strongly rejects the notion" of Mr. Milewski's bias and "argue(s) his on-air reportage speaks to issues of fairness and balance."
Indeed, according to the CBC, Mr. Milewski's conflict of interest is simply a "point of view" and his e-mails can be explained by "a sense of humour which comes across, not only in conversation, but also in the tone of his personal correspondence." I needn't point out the glaring double standard employed here; if such a defence were used to explain the behaviour of any other public figure, I doubt it would, for a moment, withstand the scrutiny of the media - including the CBC.
While dismissing outright any claim of bias in Mr. Milewski's work, the CBC states: "we cannot condone a reporter offering or seem (sic) to be offering advice on legal strategy to anyone involved in a story. Also we cannot condone a reporter sharing questions submitted to one party in a story to another party in the story."
Presumably, while it has "concerns" about and "cannot condone" methods employed by Mr. Milewski, the CBC does not see any link to his - or the network's - reporting. We must conclude that the CBC has deliberately, and for its own purposes, ignored a fact that would be obvious to it in any other situation: that a flawed and highly questionable process can only yield a flawed and highly questionable result.
In a letter to you dated October 22, I appealed the CBC's interim response regarding its coverage. With today's letter, I am appealing the CBC's final response.
Sincerely,
(Original signed by)
Peter Donolo
Director of Communications
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