Kamden Mulder writes for National Review Online about a recent error from Canada’s government-run broadcasting agency.
After directing staff not to refer to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as acts of terrorism, the Canadian Broadcasting Company has reversed course and published new guidance acknowledging that the term is in fact accurate.
Basem Boshra, the senior director of journalistic standards and public trust at CBC News, issued a memo earlier this month, first reported by the Toronto Sun, instructing staff not to refer to the events of 9/11 as terror attacks in accordance with the network’s “longstanding language guidance.” Boshra rescinded that guidance last week following significant backlash.
“After reviewing our current language guidance, we have decided to adjust it to clarify that direct attribution is not required for describing the historic events of 9/11 as terrorism,” Boshra wrote in a statement.
Before this change, the CBC required any reference to 9/11 as a terrorist attack to include an attribution to a different news source, public official, or government group. Reporters and editors at the CBC were directed to not use that wording out of their own volition.
“Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” Boshra previously wrote.
When describing the attack, reporters and editors should say that the “hijackings led to passenger jet crashes,” according to the memo, a copy of which was published by the National Post.
“The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. The World Trade Center (WTC in second reference) was destroyed,” the memo reads.
The CBC is Canada’s national broadcaster for radio and television and is funded by taxpayers.
When asked about the prohibition on use of the word “terrorism” to describe what was clearly a terrorist act, a spokesperson for the CBC explained that the concise and accurate term would only serve to confuse the audience.
