Canadian Heritage committee  That's a complaint I've heard at CBC for many years. It's something that we take seriously. I think if you really did a forensic investigation of The National in the past two, three, or four years, one would conclude, and I know the figures bear this out, that isn't nearly the ca

Canadian Heritage committee  This has probably become the most important kind of issue confronting us as we cover the world. It relates to our coverage, as you point out, of Gaza. It relates to our coverage of northern Lebanon, all sorts of areas. I think we're blessed with a lot of experienced people. I've

Canadian Heritage committee  That is a real challenge. There are two ways of dealing with it. One would be that we do draw on locally based journalists and people, whether it's in Gaza or--a few years ago--in Chechnya, from those places where we are prevented from going. Also, I think what we do is cover the

Canadian Heritage committee  With respect, I don't think I accept your characterization.There is no one who woke up that morning and said, “Let's wilfully ignore a rally of 7,000 people”. I could quite happily go back.... You know, I'll go back after this meeting and retrace that, but there is no day when th

Canadian Heritage committee  We do it by the leadership that exists in those locations. I think one of the enduring strengths of the CBC and Radio-Canada is the quality of the news and program leaders, not only in the large centres like Toronto or Montreal, but across the country. I think there's a greater

Canadian Heritage committee  In terms of this case, I tried to describe it in the sense that there was an investigation as to what happened, there was an apology issued, and we were able to determine that there was no untoward motive.

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, it wasn't intended to go on air. I think that's the big issue.

Canadian Heritage committee  Definitely, and I think there was a determination that this kind of thing will not happen again. In preparation for this meeting, I did review. There were, I'd say, six or seven instances in the past two or three years of where, mainly through inadvertence, through the kinds of p

Canadian Heritage committee  Your second reference is hypothetical. I think the decision by the CBC in choosing stories is the same as any other news organization, where we evaluate the news value of a particular story against the news value of other stories that are available. I don't have the particular de

Canadian Heritage committee  I think that's a great challenge for all media organizations, and I think our desire to kind of expand the Rolodex, so to speak, to ensure that there's a true diversity of views, is something we're obsessed with. We actually monitor, in a very minute, statistical way--for example

Canadian Heritage committee  I think we are very conscious of trying to avoid that. I think the potential is there, and it's obvious that it's there. But I think there is such a range of voices in any kind of CBC news or current affairs operation that I think in a sense we're protected from that, as long as

Canadian Heritage committee  Mr. Chair, can I just, for 30 seconds, respond to the gentleman's reference to this photo? I was just checking my notes. I think if you're referring to a photo that was on cbc.ca that was tied to the Kyoto Accord, what happened--your description did not connect with my recollec

Canadian Heritage committee  We do that. I made reference to it in my opening remarks. We do this on a continuing basis throughout the year. We certainly do it when we are focused on special events such as elections or a major foreign international crisis like the Iraq situation, for example. We create citiz

Canadian Heritage committee  Oh, God.

Canadian Heritage committee  No, and I'll take note of the person's name. Thank you.