Anti-Americanism and the CBC...

The Canadian Statistical Assessment Service (CANSTATS) has published a report on Anti-Americanism and the CBC. They examined coverage of the US on the National during 2002.

Despite the relatively short period of time since the 9/11 attacks, the CBC’s coverage of America during 2002 was overwhelmingly critical of American policy, American actions, and American purposes. The CBC has certainly claimed an important agenda-setting role for itself. To the extent it deserves the reputation it covets, the corporation is at least partly responsible for enhancing and sustaining anti-Americanism in Canada following the 2001 terrorist attacks. The CBC, in short, helped turn the joint outrage of Canada and the United States into mistrust and animosity. In so doing, the emphasis of the CBC coverage was on what we have called “emotional” criticism rather than “rational” criticism of US policy based on Canadian national interests.