Outrage in Canada After CBC Tells Journalists Not to Call 9/11 Attacks ‘Terrorism’

Canada’s public broadcaster has ignited a firestorm after an internal directive instructed journalists not to independently characterize the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as acts of terrorism, instead directing them to use language describing the hijackings and subsequent plane crashes.

According to an internal CBC memo signed by Bassam Boushra, a senior official responsible for journalistic standards, reporters and editors were instructed to describe the events by stating that hijackings resulted in passenger planes crashing in Washington, Pennsylvania and Manhattan, and that the World Trade Center was destroyed.

The internal guidance was disclosed by political consultant Warren Kinsella in a Toronto Sun column and subsequently reported by the National Post.

The directive quickly drew sharp criticism from Canadian politicians and Jewish organizations, who accused the CBC of sanitizing the nature of one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in history.

Conservative Member of Parliament Rachael Thomas called the guidance completely disgraceful, arguing that it dishonors the victims, their families, survivors and emergency personnel who responded to the attacks.

Thomas stressed that the Sept. 11 attacks were an act of terrorism, period.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Canada also condemned the broadcaster’s policy, describing it as a complete collapse of journalistic standards.

CBC pushed back against the criticism, saying reports that its journalists were instructed to declare that 9/11 was not terrorism are inaccurate.

CBC spokeswoman Kerry Kelly said the guidance reflects a longstanding editorial policy under which terms such as “terrorist” and “terrorism” should generally be attributed to governments, experts or other authoritative sources rather than presented as the broadcaster’s own characterization.

The controversy echoes criticism CBC faced following the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, when employees were similarly instructed not to refer to Hamas terrorists as “terrorists” in the network’s own editorial voice.

The Sept. 11 attacks, carried out by Al-Qaeda terrorists in 2001, killed 2,977 people, including 24 Canadians.

Adding to the controversy, the Canadian government itself officially describes the events of Sept. 11 as terrorist attacks on its government website.

{Matzav.com}