EXCLUSIVE DOCS: CBC managers promise to double down after racial checklist controversy

'The entire leadership team of our division and I are 100% behind all the efforts to broaden and deepen our journalism by bringing more voices and perspectives to our stories,' wrote CBC's Brodie Fenlon in an email to staff.

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Tara Henley revealed the existence of the race checklist in a Substack article explaining why she left the CBC

To work at the CBC now is to accept the idea that race is the most significant thing about a person, and that some races are more relevant to the public conversation than others. It is, in my newsroom, to fill out racial profile forms for every guest you book; to actively book more people of some races and less of others.

Rebel News obtained the diversity tally document through access to information to which every guest, contributor, panelist, and even 'man-on-the-street' style interviews were subject.

You can see that document and our previous coverage here.

In a follow-up investigation to our previous report, Rebel News filed for access to information for CBC management's response to the disclosure of the race catalogue document. Brodie Fenlon, the editor in chief and executive director of daily news at CBC's news division addressed the controversy in an email to staff with the subject line, “Some journalism notes as we begin the new year”:

"I wanted to address a piece published yesterday by a former CBC employee which made waves on Twitter and was picked up, amplified and republished by the usual suspects.

I'm sorry someone felt that it was necessary to disparage and discredit the work of so many of her colleagues who are building a more inclusive, more representative and more relevant CBC. Her attack on the content tracking pilot which I celebrated in an editor's blog earlier this year was particularly unfair and disingenuous. As you know, this important work is about being more representative of the population of our country.

I want you to know that Susan Marjetti, Kathy Perry and the entire leadership team of our division and I are 100% behind all the efforts to broaden and deepen our journalism by bringing more voices and perspectives to our stories.

This work is mission-critical to our success, to our relevance, and to our very survival in a changing Canada."

CBC's viewership has dwindled in recent years.

According to a report in the Western Standard, though CBC receives $1.5-billion of taxpayers’ money annually, data from the CRTC show the CBC has dropped to less than 3.9 per cent of viewership across Canada in 2018-2019 — a whopping drop of 25 per cent in just one year.

READ THE DOCUMENTS HERE:

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