Management's Response to the Ombudsman's Annual Report July 2020

Management's Response to the Ombudsman's Annual Report July 2020

As the new Editor in Chief, it is my pleasure to respond to the CBC Ombudsman s Annual Report. Although I was only in my new role for the final month covered in the scope of this report, I want to acknowledge the many contributions of my predecessor Jennifer McGuire who steered CBC News through many of the stories and issues tabled in the report. As the new Editor in Chief the report is enormously helpful, as it distills a year's worth of issues, observations and complaints from our audience into a useful and motivating analysis, which can only help strengthen our journalism, as we emerge from this most unusual time. The Ombudsman s adjective of choice this year was tumultuous and I believe it s a word that aptly sums up the volatility of the past 12 months, in which remarkably, a Federal Election was relegated to the second biggest news event of the year for CBC News. The biggest of course is the new normal that we are working in right now, as the world copes with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ombudsman has made a number of useful observations regarding our coverage from the first few months of 2020, when this crisis erupted. For CBC News, and all the journalists who tell the stories that define this organization as the best in the business, how we go about our jobs and how we respond to and serve our audience has changed because of this pandemic, perhaps forever. That, however, is a matter for the coming year. I certainly agree with the Ombudsman, that both our coverage of the 2019 Federal Election and the COVID-19 crisis drew on our most essential and traditional obligations: bringing the audience facts and sharp analysis quickly, in very real time, so that Canadians were able to properly understand and make informed choices in their own lives, whether it be in choosing a government or caring for their families. 2

THE FEDERAL ELECTION We were particularly pleased at the scope and breadth of coverage of the Federal Election campaign. We correctly identified some key issues that would be top of mind for Canadians such as the proliferation of disinformation, and deployed resources against it. We innovated and experimented with new ways of reaching our audiences on social media, by text message and newsletter, and we sent our programs out into the various parts of the country to help draw Canadians together amid the very real differences in many parts of the country. There was some useful feedback from the Ombudsman from his three citizens panels, which reviewed our coverage for him: that despite our best efforts we may not have drawn out the regional stories as well as we could have. This is an important takeaway for us for the next election, which of course could be upon us at any time in this minority government situation. Reflecting regional concerns comprehensively has always been a challenge since so much of our coverage is understandably driven by policy announcements and related events by the various leaders, who inevitably spend most of their time campaigning in key swing ridings where the vote could go either way. Of course, it s our duty and purpose to surface the concerns of all Canadians, regardless of where the leaders are campaigning, and we will work more cohesively to achieve that in the future. Helping us in this regard is the fact CBC News, Local Services and Current Affairs have since become part of a new division. Galvanized by our pandemic coverage, we are working together like never before and regional reflection will be a top priority. This brings me to impartiality and balance. These two key principles of our Journalistic Standards are the most challenged and disputed by those who take issue with our coverage. It s understandable: politics is the place of ideas and debate, and our audience should expect to see their perspectives articulated on CBC News. That includes of course supporters of the more niche and smaller parties, and we note some improvement in reflecting those fringe parties is necessary for the next election. I am proud to say that the results from our external election monitoring process showed us to be both fair and balanced. All of our key broadcast programs, parts of CBC News Network, as well as our vast coverage online, including the Twitter feeds of more than 3

50 journalists, were analysed each day and assessed for equitable mentions, tone and balanced reporting. Their final assessment of our performance showed the totality of CBC News was balanced, and in fact, according to their own metrics, we outperformed all of our key competitors, which were tracked as comparatives. Still, that data and those numbers don t measure the perceptions that our audience forms based on our coverage, and we are aware of the consistent complaints from some Canadians that we did not fully reflect their values. This is an area of concern and much conversation, even outside of Election coverage, and is a strategic priority for CBC news, Current Affairs and Local in this next year. We recognize as well the Ombudsman's observation that the CBC/Radio-Canada decision to file a copyright infringement lawsuit against the Conservative Party in the final weeks of the campaign did not help public perceptions of our journalistic impartiality. We hope the quality of our reporting will speak for itself and reinforce for the public our high standards of balance, fairness and impartiality. Finally, I do acknowledge the Ombudsman s astute, if anecdotal, observation that the six story complaints we received that were addressed immediately by editorial staff upon receipt, all reflected a bias towards the Liberals. There can be many reasons for this, including the uptick of emails from those who engage with CBC News during Elections deliberately as a form of political activity, but regardless, this is interesting and useful feedback. TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY Last year, we spoke about the Trust Project and the commitment that CBC News would make in an international effort to help manage and combat deep fakes, disinformation, and the overall threat to the integrity of responsible media organizations. CBC News is now an active member of this Trust Project, which is an international partnership with Google, Facebook, and other media companies to increase transparency and accuracy in online news. Our policies on transparent labels, corrections, bylines, and links to our Journalistic Standards and Practices on digital news have become a model for other partners in the project. Radio-Canada is part of the International Fact-Checking Network, a unit of the Poynter Institute dedicated to bringing together fact-checkers 4

worldwide. Along with BBC, New York Times and Microsoft, we are leading efforts to develop Origin, an open standard for proof-of-provenance based approaches to fight AI-generated deep fake video news. This is a new application of established technology to digitally verify the authenticity of our news content when it appears on other online platforms. CBC/Radio-Canada is also a member of the AI and Media Integrity Steering Committee at The Partnership on AI, a coalition of leading technology, media and civil society organizations defining responsible uses of AI. Additionally we are providing educational information on fake news, especially for younger audiences on our social and video platforms, which included a special misinformation edition for Snapchat Discover. We continue to work with schools to help develop curriculum on understanding disinformation. Part of the commitment to transparency is acknowledging when we don t get something right. That is the foundation of the relationship between CBC News and the Ombudsman s office. We recognize the Ombudsman s strong desire for a more public way to reflect notable corrections made on broadcast programs, and that this has come up in previous reports. We are committed to fulfilling this promise, and will begin piloting possible ways in the coming months. We also recognize that there are many avenues available to build and maintain trust through the work our journalists do each day. That commitment is largely manifested of course through our Journalistic Standards and Practices, which guides all the work that our field staff and programming teams do. So we appreciate the Ombudsman pointing out for us another way that this trust can be eroded if we are not diligent enough, through the behaviour of our journalists in live news conference situations. Certainly during an election campaign, but noticeable too during this COVID-19 pandemic, there are a multitude of live news conferences; often a dozen a day, with most if not all carried live on CBC News Network. Here, the audience can watch our journalists do the news gathering that normally goes unseen: posing questions that seek accountability. 5

Often in these situations, our reporters who are experienced in cutting through spin or message track responses might ask questions in ways that some may feel are pointed or overly aggressive. We acknowledge that we need to regularly reinforce with our journalists that proper decorum and respect should be observed at all times, because the public needs to know that these standards are respected at all times during the news gathering process. HEADLINES - GETTING THEM RIGHT That trust and integrity is also tested every time we publish or go to air with something new. We respect that the Ombudsman has drawn our attention to his concerns about the number of complaints related to headline writing, and the fixes needed to bring the published work better in line with the articles they support. To that end we have asked our senior digital leadership to review our headline writing guidelines and policies to ensure that we frame our journalism responsibly, and capture the overarching import of our journalism without either overselling or undermining it. We have already issued guidance about some aspects of our headline choices for example, by insisting that our use of direct quotes in headlines should be reduced. We recognize too that even greater care needs to be taken for our Opinion section as a headline can be seen by the public as a CBC News position on an issue, as opposed to representing the view of the author. We are undertaking a comprehensive review of opinion and how it is presented on CBC News. COMMENTING We appreciate there is an increased demand and growing frustration among Canadians who seek to comment on our journalism and who feel they have been arbitrarily prevented from commenting without a proper explanation. This is an important area for us, and we have already created a regular touchstone meeting with the senior leadership responsible for commenting, as well as the Directors of Journalistic Standards at both CBC News and Radio-Canada, where commenting issues are discussed. There are wider concerns around commenting which also need further investigation. This includes the growing amount of hate-filled, and offensive material, the rise of deliberate 6

misinformation and intent by some commenters to hijack conversations and distribute misleading information. We have a thorough set of commenting guidelines, which the public is alerted to when they choose to comment on stories, and have updated them recently to help combat the growing amount of disinformation posted in the comments sections. We acknowledge that as the public broadcaster, we need to provide a respectful forum for this kind of exchange, but we cannot allow hateful and malicious comments to dominate the discourse. It is a resource challenge as much as it is an editorial one. We commit to improving and communicating a reinvigorated commenting policy. OUR PERFORMANCE Once again this year, while perfection may be our goal, it s obviously an unrealistic one. However, we are pleased that of the more than one thousand complaints to the Ombudsman s office and after the various processes were pursued, there were only 16 instances of policy violation or room for improvement of those complaints deemed worthy of a possible review. That s not to suggest that we did not make changes ourselves, in response to some of the complainants, as the Ombudsman noted in his analysis of the Federal Election, but we would like to stress that this engagement with our audience is a place where we learn and get better ourselves. For that we appreciate the Ombudsman s careful consideration and adjudication of what the audience felt was wanting in our coverage. IN CONCLUSION We appreciate the reminder from the Ombudsman of a number of societal issues that our audience engaged around as well. It s true that the undercurrents for almost every story, event, or international conflict even this COVID-19 crisis lie rooted with who we all are: our upbringings, our passions, our beliefs and convictions. So yes, climate change, blackface, a decision not to vaccinate, racial divisions, vaping, gun control, pipeline politics, the Middle East, and U.S. President Donald Trump have all provoked and engaged our audiences throughout this past year. 7

News is ever-changing, and our job is to respond to, reflect, and investigate the relevant and real conversations and debates across this country. On behalf of CBC News and our General Manager Susan Marjetti, the leadership team and our journalists working across Canada, let me express my gratitude to the Ombudsman Jack Nagler for his steady hand and thoughtful guidance this past year. We look forward to building on our strengths and addressing any issues in this year ahead. 8