A post that pretended to be a screengrab from a CBC news report was deleted by the office of NWT MP and minister Rebecca Alty after Cabin Radio queried it.
Following a Wednesday news conference about the Mackenzie Valley Highway and Grays Bay Port and Road in Yellowknife, Alty posted an image that gave the appearance of being a screenshot from a CBC website or app.
Under the CBC’s logo and the words “breaking news,” Alty’s post showed a headline that had more in common with the wording of a federal government news release than anything the CBC actually published.
Asked whether the minister was sharing a bona fide CBC article or had simply mocked up a CBC page, Alty’s press secretary said the post was “being fixed.”
It was subsequently deleted and replaced by a version that does not carry the CBC’s logo, though the replacement post remained formatted to look like a news website.
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Alty and many other MPs routinely screengrab and share news headlines. The NWT’s MP has also occasionally framed announcements as “breaking news” in language more common to newsrooms than politicians.
Staffers on Wednesday said they accepted that the version under the CBC logo was a different matter, attributing the post to an error in internal approvals.
“Earlier today, the incorrect graphic was posted on Minister Alty’s social media. Immediately after it was brought to our attention it was corrected,” said Patrick Vaughan, the minister’s communications director, in an email to Cabin Radio.
“Steps have been taken to ensure that mistakes like this do not occur again.”
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CBC senior director of public affairs Leon Mar, reached by email, said: “As the post in question no longer exists, we have no comment.”
The ability to distinguish news from other online material has been eroded as social media proliferates and technology progresses.
Journalists now operate against a tide of AI-generated content and, in Canada, a ban implemented by Meta that seeks to prevent the circulation of genuine news on Facebook and Instagram.
Alty’s mocked-up post also comes at a time when audiences are already unsure of the CBC’s impartiality, according to recent research at the Senate level.
Earlier this month, a Senate committee report suggested – among other recommendations – that the CBC’s journalism “be subject to regular oversight to ensure impartiality and balanced reporting.”
“The report notes public trust in the media, and specifically in CBC/Radio-Canada, has been declining for years,” a summary published by the Senate asserted.
