For the past couple weeks I've been writing about some of the political drama taking place in Canada at the moment. Earlier this week, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre called for a no-confidence vote against Liberal Party PM Justin Trudeau. As expected, Trudeau survived that effort thanks to two smaller left-wing parties that backed him up.
In the midst of all of this, one Canadian news outlet, the CTV Television Network or just CTV, demonstrated how far some in the media are willing to go to attack conservatives and defend Trudeau. Specifically, CTV edited a statement made by Poilievre, making him say something he never said and putting it in a context he never intended.
All you need to really know to follow this is that Trudeau's Liberal Party recently created a new dental plan for children and seniors and Trudeau has repeatedly claimed that Poilievre and the conservatives want to put an end to this plan. So here's what CTV did in a "news" segment about the dental plan.
Canadian viewers of CTV were presented the following voiceover by CTV’s Cristina Tenaglia: “A week after Singh nixed his pact with the Liberals, the Canadian government released ads, noting that close to 650,000 Canadians have already received (dental) care.”
At this point in the voiceover, CTV cuts to a clip of Poilievre standing in a hallway answering reporters’ questions...
Tenaglia’s voiceover resumes, and, with Poilievre’s image now in a hallway in the frame, Canadians are told: “While the continuation of the plan appears safe for now, the events of the last week have raised new questions over the plan’s future.”
We know this next part is supposed to be scary because Poilievre is now squarely in the frame and is presented as saying, “That’s why we need to put forward a motion,” suggesting that Poilievre had been referring to the dental program. Only the Conservative leader didn’t actually use that phrasing, and he was not referring to the dental program.
What Poilievre actually said was "That’s why it’s time to put forward a motion for a carbon tax election." In other words, he was calling for a no-confidence vote, exactly as he has been for weeks. His comments had nothing to do with the dental plan. But CTV combined words from an entire paragraph to make him say, "That’s why/ we need/ to put forward a motion." You can see visually how they produced this sentence here in a statement put out by Poilievre' spokesperson.
Yesterday’s so called “apology” from @CTVNews doesn’t cut it. This wasn’t a simple “misunderstanding”.
— Sebastian Skamski (@Skamski) September 24, 2024
Until they explicitly acknowledge their malicious editing & omission of context to undermine @PierrePoilievre, Conservative MPs won’t engage with CTV News & its reporters. pic.twitter.com/6UbfdTo1hg
Poilievre made a point of calling out the company that owns CTV.
Video : Pierre Poilievre calls out Bell Media / CTV for editing two video clips of Pierre speaking together, to make a false narrative for their news story. pic.twitter.com/UdukXxsRO7
— Bruce McGonigal (@bruce_mcgonigal) September 24, 2024
CTV apologized on-air for the edit. They also published the same statement on X, blaming the dishonest report on "a misunderstanding during the editing process."
— CTV National News (@CTVNationalNews) September 23, 2024
We all have misunderstandings from time to time but editing a politician to say something he didn't say so we can bring the other party's talking points to life seems like more than a misunderstanding. As you can see in that Sebastian Skamski tweet above, the conservatives didn't buy the claim that this was only a misunderstanding and demanded a real apology for "malicious editing."
CTV eventually realized as much and fired two people involved. They also issued a follow-up statement which no longer claimed this was a "misunderstanding." Instead it says "two members of the CTV news team are responsible for altering a video clip, manipulating it for a particular story."
— CTV National News (@CTVNationalNews) September 26, 2024
What we don't get from this statement is an explanation for why these two staffers did this. What motivated them? Meanwhile, some in the Canadian media have turned this story around and suggested Pierre Poilievre went too far accusing the company that owns CTV of intentional bias.
Kate Harrison calls CTV out:
— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) September 24, 2024
"That is journalistic malpractice"
"They were taken out of context and when you are the fifth estate, you are in the accountable game like politicians.. for something so egregious"
"(Conservatives) want the facts reported as they are"
1/2 🧵 pic.twitter.com/GiYIR3GDy7
Even when they get caught intentionally lying, the media are still eager to present themselves as the victims.
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