Brodie Fenlon

You mentioned some historical examples.

One semi-recent one that comes to mind is back in 2023, there was another leaked memo about Hamas with a similar directive from the CBC, "Don't refer to Hamas as terrorists unless it's with attribution." CBC's editor-in-chief, Brodie Fenlon, wrote a blog post explaining it, and he went on a podcast with Canadian Jewish News to explain the reasoning.

Here's what he said.

Our approach has been this way for decades, at least 30 years, maybe 40 years.

Reuters does not have specific instructions for this exact situation when it comes to 9/11 in their style guide, but it does refer to attackers as, quote, "terrorists" in a 2011 pamphlet for Reuters journalists specifically for covering 9/11.

So it's using that language in its own publications from its editorial standards desk.

So you're telling me that Brodie Fenlon's argumentation is rooted on facts that are wrong?

Well, let me keep going here.

Welcome to Northstar, the flagship podcast of the Canadian Jewish News and made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Gronowski-Gluskin Charitable Foundation.

On October 19th, 2023, CBC News' Editor-in-Chief and General Manager Brodie Fenlon came on the CJN's North Star podcast to explain why.

And so today, in light of the new scandal over the CBC and 9-11, we're bringing you that conversation where Fenlon also said that these journalistic standards... could be changed.

And so

exactly what happened.

I'm Ellen Besner, and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like for Thursday, October the 19th, 2023.

Brodie Fenlon is the CBC News Department's editor-in-chief, and he's also in charge of program standards.

And while he's overseeing the round-the-clock coverage of the current war, including placing teams of reporters in the conflict zone, he's been receiving tons of letters and emails from the audience here in Canada, including plenty of complaints about how the CBC is covering the story.

I think it was more of a communication failure.

And if you read what Brodie Fenlon, his blog, that explains it in much more detail.

And if you needed to remind your employees, then just direct them to the policy and to the... that blog that Brody wrote a few years ago.

And that was all that was needed.

And so I think that that has just really led to an atmosphere in newsrooms where people just don't have contact with people outside of our bubble.

And in, in fact, the CBC's Brodie Fenlon has acknowledged that dynamic in a, in a public event at, called Trust Talks that I covered a while back.

I, um, I'm, I'm laughing because I don't fit the mold that you're talking about.

I only went to a two-year college degree, which my detractors love to remind me of.

But I, I think it's, uh, it's gone far beyond that.

And, um, the coverage, I think that th- the, the order that day, and it was an order by George Aitchison who is the CBC's, um, news director of, of journalistic standards, ordering and, and having, uh, Brodie Fenlon, who was their news editor in chief, d- demand a- and, and, and tell all the CBC reporters they had to comply with this order to not refer to Hamas as a terrorist organization right when the m- right when they're literally in the middle of this slaughter.

Still on the ground.

Still, still killing people, yeah.