Why our state broadcaster is trustworthy and theirs isn't

We made a day of it visiting my dear daughter's new house in Oshawa. It's the first brush with house ownership for any of our kids. She bought into the real estate market a few months before GM announced they were shutting down their Oshawa operations. Looks like she's got her father's knack for timing the markets!

I think Oshawa's going to be OK because of its proximity to Toronto. She's a 45 minute commuter train ride from downtown, where you might get a 400 foot no-bedroom condo for the same money she paid for a thousand square foot semi with two baths and a yard. As long as our leadership in Ottawa can't figure out that they need a housing policy to match their immigration policy, housing prices are bound to continue rising.

Had the state broadcaster on the car radio for a good part of the trip. We don't think of the CBC as a "state broadcaster" of course. "Regimes" have state broadcasters. We have a free press instead. The discussion at our state broadcaster was about the arrest of American Paul Whelan in Moscow on espionage charges. The fact that Whelan was born in Canada gives the story an Canadian angle. So far so good.

Then the CBC brought in a couple of experts. First expert; Bill Browder. Bill needs no introduction for anyone who follows current events. His story, as enthusiastically presented by mainstream media outlets across the West, surely disqualifies him as an objective commentator on anything Russia related. He's got a major axe to grind with Bad Vlad, and he's readily handed a platform anytime he wants to air his grievances. The fact that he may be a little less than the freedom loving truth-teller he presents himself as is never brought up.

So Browder gets ten minutes or so to rehash his tale of woe, and then our CBC brings in another "expert" who is given another ten minutes to agree with everything he said. This second expert is Julia Davis, who has made quite the career for herself as a leading academic Putin basher. She is currently affiliated with the Atlantic Council, which is essentially the PR arm of NATO.

Then the on-air voices talk about something else.

This is exactly the format that "regimes" use to inculcate their subjects with official state propaganda. Tell only one side of the story over and over again. Ignore any counter-stories.

So how is our state broadcaster different than the propaganda organs of the "regimes?"


We're the good guys! Our propagandists only tell truths... theirs are all liars.