Volume 8, Number 9 - November, 1995

CBC GIVES O.J. TOP BILLING WHILE CTV REPORTS ON CANADA

THE CBC WAS CREATED TO ENSURE THAT Canadians would receive news about Canada, by Canadians. This objective was outlined in the Aird Commission on Broadcasting back in 1928: "There has been unanimity on one fundamental question--Canadian radio listeners want Canadian broadcasting."

The commission recommended that there be one public radio station for all of Canada and that existing private stations be expropriated by the state. In light of these recommendations, the Conservative government of Prime Minister R.B. Bennett created the predecessor of the CBC, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, in 1932. Private broadcasting stations were allowed to continue operating.

The Broadcasting Act of 1968 provided a specific mandate for the CBC: to "contribute to the development of national unity and provide for a continuing expression of Canadian identity." The Act was updated in 1991 and called for the CBC to "contribute to a shared national consciousness and identity." Presumably it was thought that the private broadcasters would be unable to fulfil these objectives.

The state or the United States?

Interestingly, on Wednesday, October 11, 1995--it was the private broadcaster that focused on Canada, while the CBC relayed news from south of the border. That was the day that the recently-acquitted O.J. Simpson did not have an interview with the American NBC television network. The CBC's top two stories reported this so-called event. Anchor Peter Mansbridge's introduction to the third story of the day relegated what is arguably the most important Canadian news event of the year, the Quebec referendum, to "other news."

In marked contrast, CTV billed protests in Ontario over the Harris government's cuts to social spending as the most important event in Canada that day. This was followed by three stories on the Quebec referendum, a commercial break, and then the O.J. "no show" story.

Who decides what's news?

The nightly lineup of the television news reports provides the viewer with an indication of the relative importance of each event. The first story is the most important event of the day, while the stories towards the end of the newscast are deemed less important. And every day there are hundreds, even thousands, of stories that are not reported.

The study of mass communications does not have a robust theory explaining what gets reported. Peter Desbarats, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of Western Ontario and author of "Guide to Canadian News Media," cites human interest, timeliness, relevance, proximity, and surprise value.

Considering the line-up presented by CBC on October 11, it would appear that the CBC values human interest over relevance. This is surprising considering that the 1986 Task Force on Broadcasting Policy found that the primary justification for the continuation of a public broadcaster was the fact that the CBC reports were longer, more analytical and appealed to a more highly educated audience than those of the private broadcasters. In short, they found that the CBC provided higher quality programming.

But when an American who was not interviewed on an American station gets top billing at the expense of informing Canadians about significant political domestic events, perhaps it is time to re-evaluate the rationale for Canada's public broadcaster.

Striking similarities between top stories on CBC and CTV

While the focus of the public and private broadcasters was very different on October 11, one wonders whether this is a trend, or a one-time occurrence? To answer this question, the National Media Archive conducted a one-month study of the lead story each night on CBC and CTV between September 1 and September 30, 1995. Each report was coded according to its geographic orientation and the topic. The primary finding was that there were no significant differences between the public and the private broadcasters. Eighty percent of the lead stories focused on a Canadian event and, as figure A shows, 43 percent of CBC and 50 percent of CTV reports focused on politics.

The Quebec referendum, native stand-offs, and health care reform were the top political stories on both networks. Crime stories were the second most reported event, constituting 27 percent of CBC and 17 percent of CTV lead stories. The third most reported event was disasters, which comprised 13 percent of the lead stories on both networks. This short analysis shows that CBC does not focus south of the boder more than the CTV does, but the question still remains--is the CBC necessary when the private broadcaster equals and sometimes exceeds the CBC in fulfilling its mandate.

First Five Stories: CBC and CTV Line-Ups on Wednesday, October 11,1995

CBC Anchor Introductions

Story #1

Good evening. By all accounts, it could have been the most-watched TV program ever. But it didn't happen. O.J. Simpson broke his promise, backing out of an interview with NBC news, the very day it was supposed to take place. Steve Futterman begins our coverage tonight.

Story #2

Well, obviously a lot of reaction tonight to Simpson's decision to postpone the interview. We're going to show you some of that reaction, beginning with NBC's Tom Brokaw, on his proposed line of questioning.

Story #3

In other news, a new TV ad in Quebec's referendum campaign caused a fuss today, even before it hit the airwaves. The CBC refused to run it and that led to charges by the "Yes" side that Ottawa is pulling the CBC's strings. More on that from Paul Adams

Story #4

The "Yes" charged on today with an amazing burst of optimism. Some supporters who were completely dejected just last week now believe they have a fighting chance thanks to the new leadership role given to Lucien Bouchard. We have two reports, the first from Tom Kennedy covering the "Yes" campaign.

Story #5

While the sovereigntist hopes continue to rise, Daniel Johnson continues his low-key campaign. In fact, the leader of the federalist forces is looking more and more like a shadow boxer, eager to fight, but with his opponent of choice, Jacques Parizeau, nowhere in sight, today he tried to lure him back into the political ring.

CTV Anchor Introductions

Story #1

Good evening. It was a small but noisy demonstration and may or may not be an indication of a trend. Ontario's new Conservative government met more protesters tonight and some of them got pretty rambunctious.

Story #2

An accusation of lying in the Quebec referendum campaign today and a demand for an apology. Quebec Liberal leader Daniel Johnson said Premier Parizeau has been lying to Quebecers about the economic impact of separation, but the demand for the apology came from Bloc Quebecois leader Lucien Bouchard, now firmly in charge of the campaign for separatism.

Story #3

Bouchard and his separatist forces accused the federal government today of interfering with broadcasters in the referendum campaign. The separatist are angry the CBC is refusing to run a "Yes" committee commercial and they say the Prime Minister's office is pulling the strings behind the scenes. But CBC says the ad won't run because it takes material out of context

Story #4

And there's new evidence today that Canadians would say "No" to any special deals with an independent Quebec. An Angus Reid poll of Canadians outside Quebec says 71 percent are against the idea of economic and political association. It also found 78 opposed to a separate Quebec using the Canadian dollar and 77 percent are opposed to an independent Quebec using Canadian passports.

Commercial Break

Story #5

O.J. Simpson suddenly decided today he's not ready to face the court of public opinion. The former football star backed out of a highly publicized interview on NBC tonight because his lawyers were concerned about the tough questions he would be asked.

Source: The National Media Archive.

Coverage of Employment Equity Heats up in 1995

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY IS A TOPIC THAT has been given little, but consistent coverage over the past few years. It creeps into television news when the government announces initiatives and quotas imposed on the

CBC . . . presented balanced arguments about employment equity.

public and private sectors. However, apart from the initial description of the policy, television news has not engaged in serious debate on this topic. As figure B shows, during the latter part of the 1980s and the early 1990s, television news was not particularly concerned with employment equity.

However, as the employment equity initiatives of the past decade have begun to be reversed, specifically with the election of Mike Harris in Ontario, coverage of employment equity has taken on a more prominent agenda. CTV's attention to employment equity in the first half of 1995 was greater than that network's coverage of it in the entire previous two years. CBC's 1995 coverage to date is slightly less than its attention to the issue over the past two years.

CBC balances arguments on employment equity

Probably the most surprising result in this study is that although viewers might expect that coverage would focus on the decline of employment equity programs, CBC in fact presented balanced arguments about employment equity. As is shown in figure C, arguments in favour of employment equity programs have been presented only slightly more frequently than employment equity's opponents, who argue that it is unfair and has negative effects.

The reason for CBC's balanced approach was that it was able to provide background pieces examining employment equity and devoted some of its Prime Time Magazine coverage to this issue. Individuals such as University of Alberta law student Ezra Levant provided much of the discourse against the quota system as he discussed the hiring policy at his law school.

On January 10, 1994 CBC reporter Neil McDonald quoted from a letter Levant wrote to the student newspaper: "You better get in the proper line. There is one lineup if you're aboriginal. If you're a woman there's another lineup. Both of these are on fast tracks. If you were unfortunate enough to be born Ukrainian, Jewish, Italian, Polish or Greek, well, your race is not one of the designated groups. How utterly condescending, how humiliating to women and aboriginals. How racist."

CTV's coverage gives more attention to employment equity proponents

In contrast, CTV's coverage of the issue has given twice as much attention to the arguments in favour of employment equity as arguments against it. Arguments in favour of employment equity, such as that government remedies are needed, far outweighed any arguments that employment equity is unfair, presented by its opponents.

On December 12, 1994 the federal government introduced legislation enabling government to better enforce employment equity laws. Craig Oliver covered the story for the CTV News. In his report, lengthy statements were made in favour of the legislation by Human Resources Minister Lloyd Axworthy, Chairman of the Canadian Human Rights Commission Max Yalden, and a federal government employee who believed that he had been wrongly passed over for promotion for the past 26 years. The only statement which questioned the legislation was made by Reform M.P. Sharon Hayes who stated: "What it does is work against people getting a job because of merit."

Craig Oliver closed his report with the statement: "The start was actually seven years ago when employment equity was first introduced nationally. Since then, target groups are still unrepresented, severely so in the case of aboriginals and disabled persons. So Ottawa's decided that since gentle persuasion was only partially successful, arm-twisting might do better."

Employment equity advocates appear more frequently than opponents

Despite CBC's balanced approach to the issue, that network was similar to CTV in its use of sources. Both networks presented more individuals who described themselves as employment equity advocates than those who described themselves as opponents (see figure D). Much of this disproportionate coverage occurred in 1994. Only in 1995 did the networks begin to rely more on people who opposed employment equity.

Summary of Findings on Employment Equity

CBC balanced its arguments on employment equity. Statements by advocates promoting employment equity legislation were presented only slightly more frequently than opponents arguing that employment equity is unfair and has negative effects.

CTV's attention to the issue has given twice as much attention to the arguments in favour of employment equity than arguments against it. Arguments in favour of employment equity, such as that government remedies are needed, far outweighed any arguments that employment equity is unfair, presented by its opponents.

Despite its balanced approach to the issue, CBC, like CTV, presented more individuals who described themselves as employment equity advocates than those who described themselves as opponents.

Methodology on Employment Equity

Results are based on 18 CBC Prime Time, 4 Venture, 1 Sunday Report as well as 10 CTV News stories from January 1, 1994 to August 12, 1995.

All stories appearing during that time were coded, representing a total population rather than a random sample of stories.

Further information or details on the coding design and methods may be obtained by contacting the National Media Archive.

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