Sooner or later, every news organization gets sucked in by a questionable story.
Best practice suggests the appropriate way to deal with this is to admit everything as soon as you realize what happened, say you’re really, really sorry, and then try extra hard thereafter to ensure it never happens again.
It’s embarrassing, and not very pleasant, but it enhances your credibility in the long run – or, at least significantly reduces the damage to your reputation.
CTV Calgary seems to have missed this essential lesson when it got fooled by claims about a robocall poll that purported to show, in the words of the broadcaster’s original online story, that a majority of Albertans think minors seeking abortions should be required to tell their parents.
Given the murky story that has emerged since CTV published that report, it seems unlikely that the release of the interactive voice response technology poll at a time Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party were pushing anti-trans measures, including a plan to make schools to inform parents if children want to change their names or pronouns, was entirely coincidental.
When CTV filed its original story early Monday afternoon, there had already been negative online commentary suggesting something was wrong with the poll, so there was really no excuse for the network not to have been suspicious of the claims by a company calling itself “National Public Research Canada.”
Consider what a polling company called Canadian National Public Research and its parent company PrimeContact Research Group then had to say:
“We at PrimeContact and its subsidiary Canadian National Public Research, are compelled to publicly denounce a recent poll disseminated by CTV, sharing a polling company’s name that is very similar to our company name,” a statement says.
“It is our opinion that CTV has irresponsibly published findings from a highly dubious source, identified as ‘National Public Research Canada,’ a ‘company’ with absolutely no ties to our organization, Canadian National Public Research.”
Accusing CTV of “audacity” for circulating a survey that “blatantly lacks … methodological rigour and transparency,” the statement continued: “We categorically refute any association with this poll and cast serious doubt on the existence and ethical standards of the so-called ‘National Public Research Canada.’”
This is a position that doesn’t really require colourful adjectives to describe!
The legitimate pollster included a copy of its complaint Monday afternoon to CTV, which suggested the network retract the story, and the reporter’s entire embarrassing response: “I wrote the article at the recommendation of my boss, Dawn Walton.”
Respected Alberta pollster Janet Brown added her two bits on social media: “Strong and justified condemnation of @CTVCalgary and @ctvedmonton. Thank you @PrimeContact.”
On Tuesday afternoon, CTV published a substantial rewrite of its original story, with a new headline reading “Questions raised over survey on parental consent for abortions in Alberta,” including a note explaining that the man behind Alberta Blue Strategies, Richard Dur, is also the director of the Pro-Life Alberta Political Association.
Pro-Life Alberta is the “political party” set up to allow Albertans to get tax credits for making donations to the anti-reproductive-rights organization that is allowed to exist by Elections Alberta. As an aside, some legislative change is obviously required to remedy that situation – change that the UCP is unlikely to be enthusiastic about, since Pro-Life Alberta doesn’t run candidates against it in most ridings and in effect acts as an auxiliary to its campaign machine.
One minute before it published its revised version of Monday’s story, CTV also posted a new story that began, “A province-wide poll on parental rights for minors in Alberta seeking abortions was conducted by a company belonging to a Calgary-based conservative call centre, CTV News has learned.”
That story quoted a statement it received from Mr. Dur’s polling organization defending the survey and making clear its leader’s anti-abortion beliefs. “Anyone who questions the veracity of the results is welcome to put their money where their mouth is and see for themselves: a majority of Albertans recognize that parental rights should include consent and/or notification when their minor child wishes to undergo the irreversible surgical procedure of abortion,” it said.
Meanwhile, independent journalists and researchers were also looking into the poll.
Duncan Kinney at The Progress Report published a story saying corporate documents show “National Public Research Canada” is a subsidiary of Alberta Blue Strategies, which he described as “a conservative voter contact firm and call center run by Richard Dur.”
“National Public Research Canada is not a member of the Canadian Research Insights Council, the industry body for polling firms in Canada,” Kinney also noted, quoting CIRC CEO John Tabone saying “this research clearly does not comply” with the organization’s standards.
As reported by Mr. Kinney, Anti-Hate Canada also dug in to the metadata attached to the announcement of the poll and tied it to Alissa Golob, executive director of another anti-abortion group, RightNow.
In its rewrite of Tuesday’s story, CTV quoted Ms. Golob defending seeking parental consent for abortion. There was no mention of her possible connection to the poll.
“CTV Calgary have still not properly explained themselves for this shambolic debacle of journalism malpractice,” Mr. Kinney commented in his story.
As of this morning, there has been no apology or additional explanation from CTV for its original story and no promise to try to do better.
Alberta tax dollars helped fund this so-called poll. That’s because, unlike other advocacy groups, contributors to the Pro-Life Alberta Political Association receive generous political tax credits. They even brag about this on their website.
For years, this bogus political party has been raising more tax-creditable dollars than any other party not named the NDP or the UCP. What used to be a slight edge over the smaller political parties grew to a yawning chasm last year. As reported to Elections Alberta, in calendar year 2023, the Pro-Life APA raised 452K from contributors, compared to Alberta Party (105K) and the Alberta Liberals (99K).
How much did the NDP raise? More than the UCP. No one cares about either of those other parties.
The smear campaign on MSM continues, the seeds being planted to discredit are sprouting up like mold spores.
PP during his presser when asked about his position on Marlaina’s policies said to the reporter, “even you the media are spreading misinformation”…
if CTV wants to regain their credibility, I would think that they would do some actual investigation on the 5W’s as to how this story started.
So the story of no rats in Alberta is no longer true??
And while we’re at it, PP has now shown his true colors, wait black is not a color is it.
Compassion for the unwashed masses….hey ho Pinocchio!!!
Drink your own medicine David Climenhaga. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network issued an apology and retraction last night for getting this story wrong. Stop quoting them as a credible source of information when they are not.
Pierre: The story I linked to includes the apology and has been corrected. Nothing in my story refers to the matter that was corrected and apologized for. DJC
If you follow the link that was provided you will see the error (which had nothing to do with DC’s story) was acknowleged and corrected very quickly. This is how a proper journalistic operation handles errors. Compare to alternative right wing based media outlets that never admit errors and typically double down on easily provable misinformation.
Hey Pierre, I’ll make it easy for you. Here’s a quote from the header of the antihate.ca story:
“Correction: A previous version of this story suggested that Campaign Life Coalition posted a report based on the parental right’s poll on or around February 1st, before it was public. We did research, but ultimately misinterpreted, how Google ascribes dates to its search results and made an error on that basis. To be clear, we have no evidence to suggest that Campaign Life Coalition had any foreknowledge of the poll. This error appeared online for fewer than three hours. We care deeply about journalistic ethics, which is why we are addressing this quickly, comprehensively, and transparently. We genuinely apologize for the mistake.”
The link to Google re dates is :
https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/03/help-google-search-know-best-date-for
There! That’s how competent, responsible, ethical journalists do it.
Richard Dur.
Now he looks like a delightful person. No doubt homeschooled in the ways and means of the Lord, to be his soldier in His cause on earth…and Heaven.
I find that the abundance of neck-beards that flood the ranks of these Pro-life/Christian/Weirdo brigades causes me to believe that the only way these guys can get a date/married is via arranged-marriage or forming some political activist group, inspired by the templet of Gilead.
Only in ‘Berta? Yes.
CTV Calgary has shown its bias. As for the reporter, sometimes you have to make tough calls in life. If your boss tells you to do something that’s unethical or puts you in harm’s way, you have the right to challenge the order and refuse. If your boss fires you, you have the right to sue for wrongful dismissal. If you go along with your boss’s orders, then it’s on you. You own it. From the partial admission, it seems this was not a complete rewrite by an editor after the story was submitted. Being a pushover has consequences.
Preschoolers blame their invisible friends. This is not a good look for an adult in a position of responsibility working at a news outlet.
Since CTV Calgary has opted for the gaslighting option and not apologized in any meaningful way, nor shown contrition, we know who butters their bread. The weasel words indicate they are not reputable and should not be trusted from now on.
We are living in 1984.
Love the yellow phone! Its almost an antique, its certainly “vintage”. Its clearly a good example of the mind sets of CTV who published this “poll”. Who were they trying to kid? Who would even believe a poll like that? I’m no journalist and the closest I’ve ever come to it is writing letters to the editor. What I do know is reputable media check their facts and then check them again, especially if the information is a tad “off”.
By just typing in number of abortions in Alberta a C.B.C. article dated 3 May 22 informed readers, “74,000 surgical abortions in Canada in 2020 almost 12,000 of which happened in Alberta.” That alone would have caused me to check further and even go ask some others the question.
Was this sloppy journalism? Was this an attempt to change the narrative on abortions in Alberta? Was this the start of an attempt to restrict abortions in Alberta? Of course it does make one wonder if any UPC types helped this along or knew about it, etc.
It is much like the issue you wrote about recently, parents being notified about children using another name more consistent with who they felt they were. What is scaring these UPC types about “children” having the same human rights as adults? As I understand it, kids are classified as adults at 18 in Alberta. Doesn’t make sense to invade a person’s privacy at 17, or 16, etc. when on their 18th birthday it no longer applies.
A lot of parents do not want to know their child is pregnant and a lot of people under 18 don’t want their parents to know they are pregnant. We all have heard of teenagers coming out and being thrown out of their homes by their parents or beaten up, etc. Those same style parents would do the same thing if their child was pregnant.
It reads more like these UPC types are in favour of placing children in dangerous situations which could leave them beaten and/or homeless.
What is the UPC really up to? Controlling “children” seems a tad off. There are more pressing issues regarding children. Why doesn’t the UPC do a little work to assist families to live above the poverty line? Why doesn’t the UPC ensure children with disabilities receive the health care they require in a timely manner and offer diagnosis for such things as autism, etc. at an early age. How about affordable quality day care for children? No, No, No. Not happening in Alberta. they have more pressing things to do like try to control the bodies and lives of people under 18. Wonder if their next proposal will include being able to beat their children or declare them property of their parents. Perhaps if the laws were changed parents could have control over the inheritances their grandparents left the child, excluding the parent of the child.
Does make me wonder what these people are really up to and what the game is. Wonder if any one at CTV Alberta will be looking for a new job?
Perhaps this was a method to provide information to a national party who isn’t all that “progressive”–trial balloon……..
they are sharpening wedge issues. I would like to think that the LPC and NDP are aware of what is going on and initiate countermeasures, but I see no evidence of this so far.
Everyone who denounced the poll should take him up on this: “…put their money where their mouth is and see for themselves: a majority of Albertans recognize that parental rights should include consent and/or notification when their minor child wishes to undergo the irreversible surgical procedure of abortion…”
Can’t see any reason why someone might want to keep an abortion secret from their parents, right ? Jfc this is dark.
Children know how their parents will react to a specific situation. They know when not to mention anything.
If the parents are pregant, fine they can make a choice with no need to consult any one. If you can get pregant before 18, then you are old enough to make the decision on your own. No one is going to be pregnant for you or go through birth for you. Parents do not need to have a say in their child’s decision to have an abortion, it is not their body.
“National Public Research Canada”? That makes it sound like a Crown corporation.
They lie like they breath. Some very clever propagandists are involved in all of this. You think the parliament hill bouncy castles and the plethora of flags were organic?
Oh, Jeez! Please don’t tell me these nesting dolls go all the way back to Russia!!
Aside from the fact that ‘dodgy’ and ‘deceptive’ (apparently) characterizes the political class generally and specifically, inquiring minds also want to know, “Has the lobbyist/radio talk show host cum politician ever been to sea?” HINT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__QmUvZCNaI
Or, more appropriately, according to that old sea shanty, “She wasn’t fit to shovel sh!t from one place to another.” [‘The Great Political Swindle’, ongoing],
+ one brazillian for the Pistols reference! Bravo!
The song itself has been covered by many artists, e.g.,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHEX9EpIL7o
And sailing songs are a part of the history, as it is, on a watery planet I suppose:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvOPucs7dC0
Right on schedule the far right tries to roll their largely successful bullying campaign against trans teens to pregnant teens. Cisgender Male teens somehow still escaping the wrath of the far right, huh.
Something has been bugging me about this conservative outrage about parental rights and vulnerable children. Around 0.009 of Canadian children underwent “top” surgery in Canada last fiscal year, (numbers per the yellow national post) of course they framed it as “hundreds” but out of the nearly eleven million children in Canada thats … not a lot.
You know what is a lot ? The nearly 17% of those children that live in hunger in this country in the same time period.
Where’s the outrage from Pawliver and co! ? Where’s the deluge of articles from the NP attacking Trudeau for this outrage ? Millions of children going hungry every day in a G7 country !?!?
All they want to talk about is trans kids, and now right on schedule as many called it, abortions.
What a disgusting bunch of unconscionable hacks. I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire.
These right wingers want control over something and about all they can get control of is children, minors. There is something weird about these people who spend so much time thinking about children’s bodies and what they do with them and what they plan to do with their genitals, etc.
With interest, what is the outstanding of the well remediation, and how much is subsidized from funds that be allocated for health care and education?
Two can play at this game…
Just to let you know that the Liberals did try to pass a school lunches bill (because with the high cost of groceries) they want ALL kids to get at least one meal a day and PP and his cronies voted against it. And that in spite of their continual harping on hungry Canadians.
A great example of what I’m talking about, rather than try to effectively combat poverty, like breaking up the grocery oligarchs that are the reason grocery bills are so high, subsidizing fresh produce/ staples ? Housing ? Good jobs that provide dignity living wages AND job security ??
The cons can’t support their non bill for same reasons the liberals can’t do anything meaningful about poverty, they’re both corporate capitalist parties.
Rents are out of control, even compared to the UNITED STATES, job growth is stagnant, and if you believe inflation is over I have a bridge for sale that would really help my bottom line….
Apologies if I’m being overly facetious, or if you missed that it was a rhetorical question. This whole thing, the culture wars ? It’s bullshit, and it’s happening because they know it’s the only thing keeping the hands of the masses off the throats of the bosses.
David, off topic but would you please explain in your next blog post how to renew my subscription. I had thought it was automatic but now see it is not.
Really appreciate what you do.
Laurie
Laurie: The newsletter has been a bit of a problem since the online application that I was using to send the newsletter introduced changes and new fees, then pulled the plug on me when I got too many subscribers. The newsletter appears haphazardly and readers report difficulties subscribing. I am working on an alternative with my web service provider, but in the meantime, I have asked for the subscription button to be removed until we can get it fixed. Bear with me. I have hopes. DJC
My subscription is paid via my paypal account automatically. I got the notice from PayPal for last months charge to my cc card.
The other real question is if any of this “parental rights” nonsense (started by divorced dads I’ll remind you) is in violation of the UN convention on the rights of the child, which Canada ratified in 1990 (under a conservative no less).
Because I haven’t read the whole thing (yet) but I’m guessing, yah, it does.
I guess fox is spelled CTV in Canada.
And people seem to think that PP’s government won’t be coming for reproductive rights. Their message discipline is very high, but once in a while the more careless volunteer operatives will let it slip in their brigadeing on CBC comments sections and the like.
Things just jet more bizarre by the day.
CTV is a far-right organization that will publish any drivel that promotes conservative ideology. Or in this case, twist some incomprehensible BS into a crisis that only more nonsensical conservative farm excrements could rescue.
As anyone who has watched 10 minutes of the corporate criminal enterprise could attest anything bad is Liberal malfeasance while all goodness is naturally conservative generosity.
It is really shocking how many of these reporters have bought into the lies these Reformers have fed them refusing to print any letters to the editors outlining the damage they are doing to us. Canadians had better wake up and realize how dangerous Reformer Pierre Poilievre is to this country like the former conservative MLAs warned me about. Reformers will do anything, or say anything to get elected then change it after being elected. He is getting a lot of support from mindless, easy to fool, seniors just like we have seen in the past. Deniers who only believe what they want to hear, can’t handle the truth they aren’t man enough.
I got called a liar recently for daring to suggest that there are still 54 fires burning in Alberta from last summer. This guy didn’t believe there would be fires in the winter. Apparently this senior fool has a hard time understanding about underground fires burning in peat moss and doesn’t want to hear about how dangerous they can be. They will likely start more fire’s next summer. I fought one years ago on a family member’s farm that was headed towards their house. Not knowing where you could walk safely was the major problem.
Alan K. Spiller: It appears that you and I are on the same wavelength. You definitely know what you are talking about, and you have the life experience to prove it. I get exactly what you are saying here. Postmedia owned newspapers, especially The Edmonton Sun and Calgary Sun, will never publish any letters denouncing these phony Conservatives and Reformers and the damage they are inflicting upon us. The Edmonton Journal and The Calgary Herald are getting just like that too. Anyone who is smart enough to take these phony Conservatives and Reformers to task, gets called nasty names in the comment sections of these newspapers. I recall someone being called a communist for opposing the nonsense the UCP were doing. The columnists, such as Licia Corbella, Lorne Gunter and David Staples give heaps of praise to the UCP, and to the CPC, without looking at the facts. These columnists don’t have the integrity, like the ones we used to see. All we get from these phony Conservatives and Reformers is being cheated out of our oil and tax wealth, which costs us billions of dollars, the priciest shenanigans, which also cost us vast sums of money, destroyed jobs, ruined public services, such as healthcare, so it can be privatized, more cuts to the public education system, more poverty, increased crime, a rise in municipal property taxes, a desecrated environment, and sky high utility costs. I remember reading about someone saying they knew people who went to a fancy dinner where Ralph Klein was speaking. They said that one of the people went to use the washroom, before they went home. When they got out of the washroom, they said that they heard Ralph Klein saying that he could tell these people anything, and they would believe it. Danielle Smith and Pierre Poilievre are just like Ralph Klein was. We never saw this level of foolishness under Peter Lougheed.
It must be a bit embarrassing for a supposedly reputable news organization like CTV to fall for something like this. Of course, it is partly there own doing. In a era of cut backs, there was probably no one to as rigorously check out stories as in the past before putting them out.
Perhaps the pollster/political party/anti abortion people figured this out, they seem good at getting around the rules and other things. Or maybe they just got lucky and caught CTV at a bad moment when they weren’t paying enough attention. In any event, once the deception became clear CTV should have become much clearer about the nature of the poll and who did it an the relationships involved, but unfortunately sometimes embarrassment leads to wanting to bury things under the carpet instead.
In any event, it seems despite using the tiny political party as a front, the social conservative movement is feeling more confident of its power in the larger political world in Alberta. So the real story behind this might be attack trans rights today, abortion rights tomorrow. Oh wait, the poll was already about the latter. So it actually wouldn’t require much effort to put together that story, just a bit more insight, but unfortunately apparently more than CTV could muster in this case.
lol, CTV is faaaaaaaaaarrr from reputable. They’re not even good at being hacks.
The robo-calls have geared up. The last one I got was a real doozy! Somewhere between “would you like fries with that” or “would you like to be fried”. Are we this stupid?
Imho: one word..
Discredit
I suppose it’s just pure coincidence that CTV gets caught in a “gaff ” ,right after Marlaina getting roasted by Vassey Capalos for 12+ minutes. No where to hide when you’re live on air and don’t have a script to follow. Seems vaguely familiar to the email story with CBC ; and I agree with Ranger that CTV seemed very Con-servative biased. at least up until now.
With the job cuts announced today by Bell, it will be interesting to see who is left doing the news @noon just from Toronto. I have been boycotting CTV since their hit on Lisa Laflamme; but younger family still preferred it to CBC , which they call seniors TV.
Given PP’S penchant for defunding the CBC, I’m going to make a prediction that after the CRTC makes it’s announcement later this year, we are going to see a reserection of Sun TV ,especially if PP has his way.
Be prepared for Fox News North….maybe Tucker was up here doing a job interview, who knows.
The strings that bind !!
Ya it would take a neck beard to fake poll about abortion. Choice. Remember whose it is and it ain’t dude and his band of funda men talists. Every sperm is not sacred guys so if the right thinks they’ve got a winning ticket on this, look to the south. Or look to their own recent escapade around childrens’ rights to gender choice. The right intentionally polarises hot ticket issues because hate is happier on the right and a galvanising force.
Meanwhile, what else is ucp gov up to while Dani leads the media by the nose on her little trip to Ottawa and brekky with Doug etc? Opting 3 parks out of the system barely got a puff of smoke. What she gonna do with that land? Clearcut or mining? What else is going on? Media so shoestring no investigative arms left just reactive media full of holes and citizens finding out important issues when it’s too late to act because the groundwork is laid or the deeds are done.
Meanwhile, we do have righteous wingers working in media thus the poll fiasco.