Letter to CBC Radio

On CBC Radio One's Sunday Edition program, host Nora Young had a fascinating discussion with author Andrew Keen. I felt compelled to send her this letter:

Your in-depth discussion with Andrew Keen about Web 2.0 and the ongoing death of MSM was extremely interesting.

While I agreed with several of his concerns about where people are now getting their information from, I believe he was off-target on several key points.

First off, he seemed to be in denial about the fact that the wave of technology can not be held back. Things have changed and there is simply no going back.

Second, if the Mainstream Media (MSM) does eventually die, it will not be the fault of technology. All the blame will lie collectively with the members of the MSM themselves. With Internet access, one still has the ability to get one's news strictly from MSM websites. But most choose not to. Why? Because most people have come to realize that straight news, without any editorial spin, is very rare these days. Now that people have the ability to avoid such spin or to avoid spin that doesn't sit well with their own world view, they choose to exercise this freedom.

Many Canadians and Americans criticize the spin of Fox News in the U.S. I would suggest to you that Fox News has gained its great success BECAUSE of the spin from other media outlets ... including your own.

Any journalist who claims they have no bias is as ignorant as a person saying that they have no accent when they speak. We all do! It's simply a matter of perspective.

I am deeply troubled by the many unsubstantiated beliefs of many, often fed and supported by websites run by anonymous wackos with some personal agenda. The key to moving beyond them is not for the MSM to dismiss them out of hand but to do things better. This means having staff of all political inclinations and striving to be first to be correct, not first to be first!

Case in point, if an anonymous survey were to be done of all CBC employees, do you think there would be some semblance of equal representation of political views? Please don't insult me by saying 'Yes'. For left and extreme left do not constitute a balance. This may begin to explain why fewer and fewer Canadians are listening to and watching CBC news and information programs these days. Your organization is fortunate to be funded by the generosity of the Canadian taxpayer. Without that, your fate would surely be the same as the rest of the MSM.