CBC Bias Reaches New Heights - Insulting Catholicism--compared to Little Mosque......

westmanguy

Council Member
Feb 3, 2007
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A CBC pilot program that portrays altar boys as druggies and the Catholic communion host as "munchable snack food, possible poker chips and a repository for drops of LSD" has sparked a complaint accusing the public broadcaster of blasphemy.

"Catholics should not have to pay for shows where their most sacred rituals and images are considered a starting point for dramatic licence," said the Catholic Civil Rights League, which intends to lodge a formal complaint today with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for airing The Altar Boy Gang.

"With this program, the CBC has moved into the area of blasphemy of sacred rituals."

The Toronto-based Catholic rights group says the CBC is guilty of a "double standard" by lacking sensitivity about the country's most dominant religion, while it hired a Muslim Canadian consultant last year to ensure that Islamic practices were respected in the program Little Mosque on the Prairie.

Two 30-minute pilot shows of The Altar Boy Gang, produced by Sienna Films of Toronto, were broadcast last Friday with the help of more than $600,000 in funding from the Canadian Television Fund, which supports the production of distinctively Canadian TV programs.

Under Canadian Television Fund rules, the CBC makes its own decisions on how to spend money provided by the fund, which is both publicly and privately sponsored, said MaryBeth McKenzie, the CTF communications director.

The CBC website describes The Altar Boy Gang as a show about "teenage boys who use their 'vocation' as altar boys to be bad."

CBC spokesman Jeff Keay said yesterday The Altar Boy Gang will not become a CBC series. He said, however, that he thought the premise of the pilot shows did not cross the line.

"Part of trying to produce compelling programming it to not be afraid of images that someone could find disturbing and I think this, while some people could have found it offensive, it falls within the realm of reasonable," said Mr. Keay.

"We certainly intend no disrespect of the Catholic Church or any other religious organization."

Mr. Keay said the CBC has received no other complaints about the shows.

Joanne McGarry, the civil rights league's executive director, said she watched the two pilots and "personally, the part where I cringed the most, was the desecration of the host."

She said she intended to send a formal complaint, by today, to CBC president Robert Rabinovitch.

"We think the religious faith of all Canadians should be respected in our programming," said Ms. McGarry.

"The Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation are sacraments of the Catholic Church, held sacred to Catholics throughout the world and respected in the spirit of religious freedom by almost all Canadians."


http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/...9-11d016c4074b

COMPLAIN TO THE CBC TODAY: http://www.cbc.ca/contact/index.jsp

What a bunch of bs.

SO hypocritical and biased.

The most dominant religion has its rituals taunted by the mother corp. and the Muslim show gets a consultant on how to respect the Muslim rituals.
 

Kreskin

Doctor of Thinkology
Feb 23, 2006
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Druggie roles are reserved for the non-faithful? I didn't know that.
 

westmanguy

Council Member
Feb 3, 2007
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*sigh*

Public Broadcaster
Tax Dollars

Muslim Faith Respected
Catholic Faith Disrespected

Ahem.
 

Pangloss

Council Member
Mar 16, 2007
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Calgary, Alberta
How about a story where priests rape and abuse children? And then the Cardinals can cover it all up - hey even the pope can get in on the action. Doesn't even have to be fiction.

Gee, and I thought religion taught ethical behaviour.

Ooh - bad altar boys. Gimme a break.

Pangloss
 

Kreskin

Doctor of Thinkology
Feb 23, 2006
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I don't support a religion dictating what is fair game, and not, on CBC.
 

westmanguy

Council Member
Feb 3, 2007
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The fact is the CBC was PC with Islam and was offensive with Catholicism.

Thats bias.

On a public broadcaster funded by you and me.
 

Kreskin

Doctor of Thinkology
Feb 23, 2006
21,155
149
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The fact is the CBC was PC with Islam and was offensive with Catholicism.

Thats bias.

On a public broadcaster funded by you and me.
The dynamics of the shows seem quite different. Muslims living in Saskatchewan were the brunt of the jokes. That series made international headlines. I say give the CBC credit for going into situations others are afraid to. Looks like this could be another.
 

Dexter Sinister

Unspecified Specialist
Oct 1, 2004
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Regina, SK
The fact is the CBC was PC with Islam and was offensive with Catholicism .
You think so? Watch "Little Mosque on the Prairie" a little more carefully, and note in particular how most of the Muslim men are portrayed, the internal dynamics of the Muslim households, and who's really running things. It's not PC in Muslim terms, it's just too subtle for the flaming radicals to spot it. I vote with Kreskin and Pangloss on this one.
 

TenPenny

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 9, 2004
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Location, Location
The fact is the CBC was PC with Islam and was offensive with Catholicism.

Thats bias.

On a public broadcaster funded by you and me.

You've missed an important point. People feel free to make fun of themselves; when it's making fun of others, they tread carefully. People who have grown up in the Catholic faith feel that they know enough about it to make fun of it, while they don't feel comfortable doing the same about another religion without some guidance.

By the same token, many blacks refer to themselves as Nggrs, but white people don't go there.

Same concept. The writers of this show felt that they could make fun of their own religion. Simple as that. It's not a leftist CBC conspiracy, despite your wish to make it so.
 

Pangloss

Council Member
Mar 16, 2007
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Calgary, Alberta
Dexter Sinister:

No. I don't think we are in agreement. I am much closer to Ten Penny's last post, and would I think, go a little further: the ideas represented by religion are no more immune to critical examination than any other. The behaviour resulting from those ideas is similarly subject to examination and indeed ridicule, if that is what the art calls for.

Please notice I used the lower case "a" for "art."

Let's make fun, without restraint, of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Humanism - every philosophy, every world view, every religion - and let the strong survive.

Pangloss
 

Liberalman

Senate Member
Mar 18, 2007
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CBC does a good job with the fewer dollars they get from the government.

CBC is cutting everything down to the bone.

I was talking to a person that works in the CBC and this person said that a lot of the sets are gone and a lot of sections are being cut and they are doing this by getting rid of position as the people retire.

It is too bad that Canada has a government that does not care about Canadians.

Conservative party does not care about women, aboriginals, new Canadians, and they do not like the French or more specific Quebecers.

The Conservative party feels that CBC is not meeting their needs in providing American programming to Canadians.

This is a good example of the Conservative party’s view that Canadians are not worth investing in they would rather hire American firms to produce all television shows that are shown in Canada.

I was looking forward to a spring election so we could kick the Conservatives out of government but Steve (as Bush Jr. calls him) Harper is not man enough to call an election so we get to watch Canada burn while our Prime Minister plays his violin.
 

Walter

Hall of Fame Member
Jan 28, 2007
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CBC does a good job with the fewer dollars they get from the government.

CBC is cutting everything down to the bone.
You must work for the CBC to come up with this stuff. The CBC still shows up for interviews and other newsworthy events with more people than any other network, and these are just the English stations; the French side of the CBC brings along their own large group.
 

Dexter Sinister

Unspecified Specialist
Oct 1, 2004
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Regina, SK
Dexter Sinister:

No. I don't think we are in agreement. I am much closer to Ten Penny's last post, and would I think, go a little further: the ideas represented by religion are no more immune to critical examination than any other.
I think we are, but I'm sure not going to argue about that. ;-) In fact I've often said more or less what you've just said, religion has to take its lumps in the world of ideas the same as anything else does, it doesn't automatically deserve respect just because it has the religious label on it.
 

Dexter Sinister

Unspecified Specialist
Oct 1, 2004
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Regina, SK
You must work for the CBC to come up with this stuff. The CBC still shows up for interviews and other newsworthy events with more people than any other network, and these are just the English stations; the French side of the CBC brings along their own large group.
And what's that got to do with anything, assuming it's true? I presume you think it's a useful criticism of the CBC; actually it's irrelevant to the topic at hand. CBC's very good at news coverage, one of the best in the world, which might have something to do with the resources they devote to it, but this isn't about CBC's news coverage.
 

Walter

Hall of Fame Member
Jan 28, 2007
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And what's that got to do with anything, assuming it's true? I presume you think it's a useful criticism of the CBC; actually it's irrelevant to the topic at hand. CBC's very good at news coverage, one of the best in the world, which might have something to do with the resources they devote to it, but this isn't about CBC's news coverage.
I was responding to a post on this thread. I thought that was the idea of a forum.
 
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#juan

Hall of Fame Member
Aug 30, 2005
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When is it going to dawn on people that CBC is a service. CBC broadcasts in French and English, as well as seven or eight first nation languages. CBC broadcasts in the north and the far north where there is no sign of the so-called competition. CBC is as much a part of Canada as the Maple Leaf. The revenue that CBC does bring in pays a substantial part of the costs but a lot of the services CBC provides don't bring in any revenue at all.