The state broadcaster acknowledged an inaccurate fact check of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre in a recent publication.
In December, Poilievre released a documentary-style video titled Housing Hell: How we got here and how we get out, in which the Conservative leader delves into Canada’s housing crisis. The video amassed millions of views on social media platforms.
On January 12, the CBC published its own video in an attempt to “fact check” Poilievre. The report, titled Housing experts weigh in on Pierre Poilievre’s latest video, features so-called housing experts and what they “thought Poilivre’s video got right and what it missed.”
As first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, four days after the CBC published its “fact check,” the state broadcaster issued a correction.
“In a video presenting housing experts’ reactions to a Conservative Party video about housing affordability, CBC News incorrectly referred to average monthly mortgage costs when evaluating the video’s claim that it takes ‘66% of the average monthly income to make payments on the average single-detached Canadian house,’” wrote CBC on the Corrections and clarifications page of its website.
“In fact, the Conservative video claim refers to median income and home ownership costs, which include property taxes, utilities and other costs not mentioned in the Conservative video.”
CBC went on to say that its video “has been edited to remove inaccurate mortgage comparisons and clarify information about the report.”
The CBC’s latest blunder raises questions about its reliability given it was designated a fact-checker by Meta.
As part of the 2021 Canadian Election Integrity Initiative, Meta, which owns and operates Facebook and Instagram, designated CBC as a fact checker.
“When a fact checker rates a piece of content as false, we significantly reduce its distribution so that fewer people can see it,” said Facebook.
“We notify people who try to share the content or previously shared it that the information is false and we apply a warning label that links to the fact checkers’ article disproving the claim.”
While speaking before a House of Commons Heritage Committee in 2019, CBC CEO Catherine Tait said that the state broadcaster’s goal was to steer people away from “disinformation.”
“How do we protect and defend our citizenry from this unbelievable tsunami of disinformation?” said Tait. “In a sense, we become a beacon for truth.”
Tait said she will make an effort to keep CBC accurate, however, she acknowledged that no one is above making mistakes.
“But the journalistic standards and practices state very clearly, we measure,” said Tait.
The Corrections and clarifications policy states that all errors be tracked for all 27 television and 88 radio stations nationwide.
“CBC News is committed to transparency and accountability to our audience whenever we make an error or need to clarify a story,” it said.
However, access to information and privacy records reveal the outlet has not kept track of all significant errors for public disclosure, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
“The CBC News department does not maintain records,” revealed the records.
