On Second Thought: CBC Changes Foolish Guidance

Canada’s public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada said Friday it will make an exception to its long-standing policy against calling specific attacks “terrorism” and will use that term for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, after a staff memo restating the rule drew sharp criticism from U.S. and Canadian officials.

Like The Associated Press and other news organizations, CBC’s journalistic standards normally require reporters to attribute the word “terrorism” to officials or other sources rather than use it in the news organization’s own voice. A memo reminding staff of that practice circulated ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks.

The reminder prompted a wave of criticism. FBI Director Kash Patel, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Republican members of Congress and Canada’s Conservative Party all condemned the approach after media reports about the memo.

Basem Boshra, CBC’s senior director of journalistic standards and public trust, said in a late Friday blog post that the public broadcaster would treat 9/11 as an exception. A “leaked excerpt” of the language policy had created confusion that CBC needed to address, he wrote.

“We are doing so to remove what has unfortunately (and unintentionally) become an impediment to clarity and public understanding,” Boshra said. For future politically or ideologically motivated attacks, he added, CBC will continue attributing motives to officials and experts.

Culture Minister Marc Miller praised the change on social media as a “welcome change to what was a piece of pedantic and foolish guidance that caused legitimate anger.” Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree issued a statement shortly before Boshra’s post, saying the Canadian government “has always recognized 9/11 as the deadliest terrorist attack in history.”

Boshra also rejected claims that CBC had denied the attacks were terrorism. He said the network “has never said what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, was not terrorism” and had reported the findings of police, governments and the 9/11 Commission, but with attribution.

The controversy began after Toronto Sun columnist Warren Kinsella reported that staff were told “do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks.” Patel responded Thursday: “Any agency in Canada th doesn’t publicly reject this bastardization of history, and an insult to the souls lost during our largest terrorist attack in U.S. history will no longer have friend in this FBI.”