In a scramble for dollars, CBC is putting its journalistic credibility on the line

The past decade or so has not been an easy time for news organizations in Canada and elsewhere.

There’s the one-two punch from tech giants like Google and Facebook who pick off the reporting done by traditional media and publish their stories, without paying, on their platforms. Then they scoop up the advertising dollars that would fund local news operations.

And, of course, there’s the outgoing (one hopes) president of the United States whose legacy will include deriding the news media as “fake news” and an “enemy of the people.” Donald Trump’s relentless and spurious attacks have chipped away at the credibility of newspapers and broadcast news.

So much so that far too many people now believe their high school pal’s Facebook post about managing the pandemic than they believe the doctors and epidemiologists who routinely appear in stories these days.

Credibility, as most any journalist will tell you, is the bedrock of any news organization, be it mainstream media or a new platform. Which makes the CBC’s plan to launch a new initiative that disguises paid advertisements as news at this particular moment all the more curious.

Worse, it has put its credibility — credibility built by decades of world class journalism — up for sale.

Its new brainwave is called Tandem, and it promises, according to the CBC’s Media Solutions (read ad sales department) website, to “combine your brand’s subject expertise with our credibility and experience in digital, audio and TV production to create intelligently designed multiplatform branded content campaigns.”

That’s a lot of ad speak to say that Tandem will produce ads that look and sound like the real stuff that’s on CBC News platforms.

Of course, none of this would be an issue if CBC’s funding were even remotely close to what other public broadcasters receive. It isn’t at the bottom of that list — but it’s very close.

I spent three decades at CBC News in a range of different jobs. In my last role I was almost completely divorced from journalism, and more and more focused on how to stretch the rapidly dwindling number of dollars in the news budget.

The chronic underfunding and a perpetual fear of more cuts is no doubt the driving force behind a plan that will trade credibility for ad dollars.

Current employees are up in arms and have been pushing CBC’s president and her team to stop Tandem. And a group of several hundred former CBC journalists and employees — among them Peter Mansbridge, Adrienne Clarkson and two CBC presidents past — are hoping to have their objections heard by the CBC’s board and/or the CRTC.

The corporation takes great pains to say it will ensure Tandem content is distinguishable from the podcasts, programs and stories that are produced by its journalists. It will do some version of what private sector news organizations use when they publish paid content.

For instance, some differentiate ads masquerading as news by putting “Advertorial” on the story. It’s supposed to indicate that while this thing may look like a duck, swim like a duck and quack like a duck, in this case it’s not a duck.

That sleight of hand may get the CBC a pass from its audience although that remains to be seen. What it won’t do is endear the corporation to private sector news organizations who have been vociferous in their opposition to what they see as the CBC poaching their ad dollars for its digital platforms.

Canadian news organizations of all stripes and types are under financial pressure. While Tandem may be a threat to more of their advertising dollars, there is a more worrisome impact it will have on Canadian journalism in general.

We have seen in the Trump era that chipping away at the credibility and veracity of one news organization — be it the New York Times or CNN as examples — eventually chips away the credibility of all news media. As that happens, more and more news consumers are less and less willing to trust what they see or hear from their current sources.

Eventually they turn away. And that is when they start relying on that guy they knew in high school who posts his version of the day’s news on Facebook.

That won’t be good for anyone. Or for our democracy.

The chronic underfunding and a perpetual fear of more cuts is no doubt the driving force behind a plan that will trade credibility for ad dollars