A Political Metaphore: The Liberal-Biased CBC
Who hasn't heard the self-serving advertising on the 'no-advertising' public broadcaster in Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with tiresome promo-boy and others lauding the CBC's new election-ready "free educational tool". The CBC has launched its federal election website to further its mandate to entertain and educate the public through its tax-dollars-receipts.
Promo-boy's tediously perky voice invites listeners to clue in and use the CBC Vote Compass. Designed to inform people where their political perceptions belong, with one political party or the other. Most people, one might assume, have a fairly accurate picture where their political views and predilections belong, having no need of an outside source to guide them to understand themselves better.
But there's something about these on-line questionnaires that intrigue people. Drawing them to take part in such offerings if only to see where a well-designed series of questions would place them. Clearly, many people who have taken the plunge and gone to the CBC site and responded to the 30 policy questions on how they view the political climate for the federal election have been surprised by the results.
Having read an intriguing observation on a suspected bias in the organization of the questions and their conclusions on the Blazingcatfur blog, out of curiosity I decided to give it a try. Responding to all of the questions, in an obviously slanted way that reflected an utter lack of neutrality and a decided curve toward the Conservatives.
The eventual conclusion was that I was informed I definitely was not inclined toward an NDP agenda, and while it mentioned nothing of the Conservatives although I pointedly chose "strongly agree" in selecting my candidate for Prime Minister as the current one, in trust and selection, I was placed in the Liberal camp.
Leading me to conclude that the CBC is complicit in supporting the design of an online tool that was meant to lead people toward support of the Liberal Party of Canada. Deny it they may, but the reality is that all those people who have drawn a similar conclusion on the basis of their experience with the lauded Vote Compass cannot be wrong.
Further enhancing many peoples' distrust of the CBC's political agenda.
Promo-boy's tediously perky voice invites listeners to clue in and use the CBC Vote Compass. Designed to inform people where their political perceptions belong, with one political party or the other. Most people, one might assume, have a fairly accurate picture where their political views and predilections belong, having no need of an outside source to guide them to understand themselves better.
But there's something about these on-line questionnaires that intrigue people. Drawing them to take part in such offerings if only to see where a well-designed series of questions would place them. Clearly, many people who have taken the plunge and gone to the CBC site and responded to the 30 policy questions on how they view the political climate for the federal election have been surprised by the results.
Having read an intriguing observation on a suspected bias in the organization of the questions and their conclusions on the Blazingcatfur blog, out of curiosity I decided to give it a try. Responding to all of the questions, in an obviously slanted way that reflected an utter lack of neutrality and a decided curve toward the Conservatives.
The eventual conclusion was that I was informed I definitely was not inclined toward an NDP agenda, and while it mentioned nothing of the Conservatives although I pointedly chose "strongly agree" in selecting my candidate for Prime Minister as the current one, in trust and selection, I was placed in the Liberal camp.
Leading me to conclude that the CBC is complicit in supporting the design of an online tool that was meant to lead people toward support of the Liberal Party of Canada. Deny it they may, but the reality is that all those people who have drawn a similar conclusion on the basis of their experience with the lauded Vote Compass cannot be wrong.
Further enhancing many peoples' distrust of the CBC's political agenda.
posted by Pieface | 7:41 PM
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