CBC reporter Neil Macdonald gratuitously attacks Israel (yet again)

(This column originally appeared at HonestReporting.ca and is reprinted with permission.)

True to form, CBC Senior Correspondent Neil Macdonald continued his modus operandi of twisting unrelated domestic and world affairs stories into criticisms of Israel.

In a February 25 CBC.ca “analysis” report about the governing Liberals being “just as capable as predecessors of making promises it knows it can’t keep”, Macdonald somehow managed to drag Israel into the story by stating (emphasis added):

“That same foreign minister, Stéphane Dion, stood in the Commons last week and savagely denounced the Conservatives for tabling a motion condemning Canadians who support the economic boycott of Israel begun by the Palestinians a decade ago.

It was disrespectful to Canadians who support the boycott in good faith, and divisive, and just more wedge-issue Tory politics, and governments should not stifle debate in a democracy.

Then the Liberals voted to support the motion, all the time assuring Canadians how upset they were to be forced into doing so.

I watched the debate. “Antisemitism,” which absolutely exists, was mentioned at least a hundred times. “Illegal settlements,” which also absolutely exist, were not mentioned at all from what I heard, and I listened to almost all of it.”

Macdonald’s apparent obsession with Israel’s alleged misdeeds has seen him continually and gratuitously attack Israel, this time via Israel’s supposed “illegal settlements." What the settlements have to do with the way the Liberal Party governs Canada is beyond comprehension.

HonestReporting Canada has exposed many of Macdonald’s journalistic transgressions, and his most recent one saw the previous Harper government criticize Macdonald’s reporting as being a “bizarre conspiracy theory” when he claimed that Canada was “threatening hate charges against those boycotting Israel”. Ten other of Macdonald’s journalistic transgressions can be found here.

We’ve said in the past that CBC journalists are tasked to be politically neutral and must embargo their personal views in their professional work. Macdonald’s apparent obsession with Israel seems to be the exception to the rule, allowing him to use CBC resources and platforms to attack Israel, time and again.

Enough is enough. It’s time for the CBC to acknowledge that a problem exists with Macdonald’s reporting.