Friday, October 14, 2011

O’Leary’s ‘nutbar’ remark breach of policy, CBC ombudsman says

CBC’s ombudsman says Kevin O’Leary’s heated remarks during an interview with author Chris Hedges violated the public broadcaster’s journalistic standards. The watchdog says hundreds of complaints were filed after Mr. O’Leary called the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist “a nutbar” during CBC News Network’s The Lang & O’Leary Exchange on Oct. 6. The remark came during a seven-minute segment about the Occupy Wall Street protests unfolding in the United States. “There is room at the inn for a range of views, but there is no room for name-calling a guest,” CBC ombudsman Kirk LaPointe writes in a decision dated Oct. 13.
“O’Leary might have been genuinely curious about Hedges’s views, but his opening salvo only fed contempt, which breached policy.”
LaPointe says CBC News correctly issued a private apology to Mr. Hedges after the interview but should also have apologized on air.
A CBC spokesman was not immediately available Friday to say whether that recommendation would be implemented.

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