Story by Anja Karadeglija • Yesterday
The entrance to CBC's Toronto headquarters.© Provided by National Post
Twitter owner Elon Musk has changed CBC’s label to “69% Government-funded Media,” after the public broadcaster paused its use of the platform.
CBC stopped its use of Twitter Monday over being labeled government-funded, a term Twitter defines as having some level of government involvement in news content. “Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue,” CBC said.
CBC/Radio-Canada received $1.24 billion in parliamentary appropriations in 2021-2022 and earned $651 million in revenue, the biggest proportion of which came from advertising.
After the “T(w)itter Daily News” account posted about those numbers and a CBC tweet saying that government funding only covers a portion of its expenses, Musk responded: “Just trying to be accurate. Would they be ok if we said 70% govt funded?
He then changed the tag to “70% Government-funded Media,” tweeting “their concern has been addressed.” Another user then suggested Musk change the label to 69 per cent, suggesting he give “them the benefit of the doubt.”
“Good point, generosity is always the right move. 69% it is!” Musk tweeted, and changed the label again.
The broadcaster said Monday it had “sent a letter to Twitter asking them to reexamine the designation.”
Last week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asked Musk to apply the tag to CBC. On Monday, both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh accused Poilievre of turning to an American billionaire to attack the CBC.
After Musk changed the tag to “69% Government-funded Media,” Poilievre tweeted “There. Now everyone is happy.”
Twitter also tagged British public broadcaster BBC News and NPR in the U.S. as government-funded. BBC News objected, prompting Musk to change the label to “publicly-funded,” while NPR left the platform.
Twitter initially added the label to CBC’s account Sunday. The platform defines a “government-funded” media outlet as an outlet “where the government provides some or all of the outlet’s funding and may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content.”
Trudeau says Poilievre's attacks on CBC while running 'to American billionaires' for support 'telling' of values
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre of enlisting U.S. billionaires to attack Canada's public broadcaster, after Poilievre pushed for Twitter owner Elon Musk to label the CBC as "government-funded." Trudeau said that Poilievre was "attacking this Canadian institution, attacking the culture and local content that is so important to so many Canadians," and said Poilievre "runs to American billionaires" to "attack this institution."
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