A CBC reporter’s word choice about Israel that raised eyebrows on social media was unintentional, the network claims, blaming a “teleprompter glitch.”
Power & Politics guest host J.P. Tasker said during a broadcast of the state broadcaster’s flagship politics show that “Israel started the Hamas war.”
A clip was posted to X, where it garnered hundreds of thousands of views and almost exclusively negative backlash.
Rowan Thee Stallion, an online commentator, shared the original post.
“CBC News doing their part to foment anti semitism & create a dangerous environment for Canadian Jews with your taxes as John Paul Tasker recklessly claims ‘Israel started the Hamas war,’” said Rowan in his post. “When can Canadians expect an apology?”
While not exactly an apology, Power & Politics replied to the post.
“To clarify: There was a teleprompter glitch that cut off part of the prepared script, which read: ‘That’s just the latest protest taking place in Canada, since Israel declared war on Hamas following the October attacks that left 12-hundred dead.’ The error was not intentional,” said the X account.
Interestingly, the Power & Politics’ X account’s bio reads, “This account is no longer being updated.”
The attempt at clarification didn’t seem to dampen the concerns.
“Do your reporters not know facts? They only read what they are told?” asked Rebel News’ Yanky Pollak.
Most of the other replies to the Power & Politics’ comment were users criticizing the CBC and Tasker.
“I’m having a hard time believing this excuse. I have CBCNN on while I work. It’s 99% coverage of poor Palestine. Your coverage lacks what we see on social media each day. Not once have you played the thank you video from Hamas leader to Trudeau and Joly,” wrote one X user.
J.P. Tasker has not posted to his own X account in over one and a half months.
True North reached out to CBC and Tasker for additional comment but received no response by the time of publication.
