Facts or innuendo; Lanny Davis vs Indira Naidoo Harris

Lanny Davis, a friend and advisor to the Clintons, was interviewed by CBC's Indira Naidoo Harris about Hillary Clinton and her potential appointment to US Secretary of State. The interview was on the CBC1 show The Current, this morning. Setting aside the issues of Clinton's qualifications, Mr. Davis absolutely ripped Ms.Harris for using innuendo rather than facts.

It was refreshing to have someone demand facts- especially after the lapses of the CBC as noted in previous posts on this blog. Normally, I find The Current interesting and informative, but this morning they were caught with their pants down- They're too used to defensive guests, I suppose.

UPDATED

a condensed transcript from CBC Radio’s The Current for Friday,
Nov. 21, courtesy the National Post

CBC: say again?

This morning's dumb errors from CBC one's DayBreak (Montreal).

"Is someone purposely blowing up gas pipelines in BC?"- Mike Finnerty
Say again? No, woodland elves are accidently planting 'party charges".

"France's flamboyant French president"- anonymous news reader
Say again? As opposed to France's flamboyant Finnish president?

It's the story: Facts and journalism

"look, don't try to get me to say something I don't believe in"
-Wolf Burnett, marathoner and former Olympic torch bearer.

I heard an interview with Wolf Burnett on the CBC local morning radio show. The host, Mike Finnerty had been trying to get Mr.Burnett to admit there was a political aspect to the Olympic torch relay. This of course in reference to the protests on behalf of Tibet.

The point is that journalist frames the story, rather than reporting. The most egregious example is the Fox news slogan "We report.You decide" Fox regularly beggar's the question by their choices of what they report. But virtually all news gatherers recontextualise news to suit their own "tribal" bias.

Although I feel Mr.Burnett is mistaken that the Olympics is about peace and freedom, I don't appreciate hearing 84 year old holocaust survivors being badgered by journalists. The truth is, the CBC couldn't get an interview with anyone else, say a spokesperson from the Chinese consulate, who would offer a more germane argument as to why the Olympics isn't political. Again the the Olympics have always had political biases . The Third Reich used the 1936 Olympics to promote its racist ideologies(and failed), and the Warsaw Pact nations used them to trumpet its social successes under communist rule.

But the interview this morning was a cheap shot. I'm glad Wolf Burnett called the interviewer on it.

Better late than never?

This morning the local CBC radio morning show reported on a speech given by the new mayor of Ottawa, Larry O'Brien. Six weeks prior to the election he gave a speech saying he would fire a large number of city bureacrats.

Why didn't the CBC, who had taped this speech, report it when it happened? It was the closest thing to a policy statement O'Brien made during the election, other than opposing the light rail system(what does he care, he drives a Mercedes). Yet it isn't until a month after the election we hear about this.

I don't believe in shooting the messenger, except in this case, it seems the messenger was incompetently late.