The editor-in-chief of CBC News said two reports of ethical breaches on the part of senior business correspondent Amanda Lang “made false assumptions and left out important facts.” The first report published Monday morning by Canadaland’s Sean Craig alleged that Lang attempted to “sabotage” a story produced by investigative reporter Kathy Tomlinson about the Royal Bank of Canada’s plans to replace Canadian employees with foreign workers. The report alleges that Lang “lobbied aggressively” for the CBC to tone down their coverage of the scandal, including during a conference call that involved Tomlinson. Lang, according to Canadaland, has spoken at events sponsored by RBC at least six times. RBC spokesperson Rina Cortese confirmed with Postmedia that Lang has spoken at “a very limited number of RBC-sponsored events in the past” but “the only other professional relationship we have with Amanda is the same as with other journalists.” The Canadaland report said Lang’s attempts to suppress the story were initially successful, with an item on World at Six about RBC dropped “without explanation.” CBC News editor-in-chief Jennifer McGuire said this is not the case. “We did not kill a story on the World at Six on Monday, April 8, 2013 as Mr. Craig implies in his blog,” said McGuire in an emailed statement. She said CBC spoke to the producers who organized the call in 2013, as well as more recently, and although the call involved rigorous debate, “there was no ‘sabotage,’ and the notion that ‘Lang’s efforts to scuttle the story were successful, at first’ is categorically untrue. The story rolled out on all platforms,” said McGuire. Canadaland said their report is based on an interview with Tomlinson’s husband as well as multiple, anonymous sources from within the CBC. Canadaland editor Jesse Brown told Postmedia in an email the publication was approached by three independent sources, all of whom the editorial staff consider “highly credible.” Brown also said another source had agreed to go on the record but then immediately changed their mind, apparently due to pressure from an unnamed person. “Our sources indicated that her behaviour was bizarre and irregular. One key source in particular told us that Lang had never inserted herself into the process in this way before,” said Brown. Earlier in the day, Senior CBC News producer Don Spandier tweeted that the piece was aired as planned, reported by CBC Ottawa journalist Tom Parry.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 01:24:39 +0000