CBC Ombudsman | Apr. 09, 2003 | Eugene Harasymiw
Complaint re Janice Stein

From: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 5:47:26 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Ms. Janice Stein

Dear Mr. Bazay:

On March 24, 2003 we wrote to you expressing our profound displeasure at the recent appearances of Ms. Stein as some sort of "expert" on the Iraq war. In your response you indicated you would forward our concerns to senior management.

Today, Ms. Stein again appears on CBC, supposedly enlightening viewers with her "insights" into the Iraq conflict.

Let us make ourselves perfectly clear. Ms. Stein possesses no expertise whatsoever in Middle East affairs, at least not that she has succeeded in exhibiting in her TV appearances to date. What is more, she is completely partial, such that any notion of objectivity coming from someone of her ilk is entirely illusory. In short, Ms. Stein is an irredeemable idiot. She should be removed from any coverage of the tragic events in Iraq, events that she treats with smug smirks that accompany the racially motivated swill that oozes from her stone-cold racist heart.

Remove her, honourably.

Eugene Harasymiw, LL.B.
Chair
Civil Liberties Standing Committee
Alberta Ukrainian Self-Reliance League
Edmonton, AB

From: CBC Ombudsman [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 9:21 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Ms. Janice Stein

Dear Mr. Harasymiw,

The CBC does not adopt as its own the opinions of any of the commentators who are engaged to pass judgment on public affairs. The CBC's role is to ensure expression of the widest possible range of views. You evidently disagree with Ms. Stein's views. That is your right. Just as it is Ms. Stein's right to express her views, and just as it is the CBC's right to reflect her views as well as the views of the many other commentators who appear in CBC information programming.

Yours truly,

David Bazay
CBC Ombudsman