CBC blocking emails from angry listeners, watchdog says by Chris Cobb
Source : Ottawa Citizen
September 3, 2008
OTTAWA - A Canadian radio and TV watchdog is accusing the taxpayer-funded CBC of blocking email complaints sent by listeners to the broadcaster's president and chairman.
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, which launched a campaign Saturday against the format overhaul of CBC's Radio Two, says complaints sent to CBC president Hubert Lacroix and the executive assistant to CBC chairman Timothy Casgrain were rejected. Each email was bounced back with an automatic message saying the system sending the emails - a message transfer agent or MTA - has a "poor reputation."
An MTA is an email delivery system typically used by political parties and advocacy organizations to raise money or awareness. The U.K.-based firm used by Friends of Canadian Broadcasting also numbers Save the Children, World Vision and Greenpeace among its clients across the world.
Friends launched the campaign against the Radio Two changes in newspaper ads on Saturday. The ads accused CBC management of confining classical music to a listening "ghetto," and directed listeners to a Friends website where they can use an electronic form to send complaints to Mr. Lacroix, Mr. Casgrain, CBC board members and federal party leaders. Only the Lacroix and Casgrain emails have cbc.ca addresses.
Friends' spokesman Ian Morrison says tests by the MTA showed the two email addresses were working properly and receiving at 1 a.m. last Saturday, but by 9 a.m. - shortly after the newspaper ad appeared - the addresses were bouncing messages sent through the Friends website back to complainants.
"It's more than passing strange," said Mr. Morrison yesterday, "that messages would go through addressed to these two people at 1 a.m. on Saturday and then the newspaper appears and all of a sudden at 9 a.m. we start getting messages from people complaining they are getting bounces. I conclude it's extremely likely that some human intervened to block the messages and put a false reason in - that this was an MTA of poor reputation."
The CBC had all day Tuesday after the long holiday weekend to fix the problem but didn't, said Mr. Morrison, who added that the protest campaign had so far generated 1,500 complaints.
"I'm reluctant to conclude that at a policy level the CBC would say 'put a block on citizens communicating with us," he said. "I would like to think it was some junior person who wanted to unclog a mailbox for a senior executive. If they maintain it was because of the reputation of the server they have a problem because they are denigrating the reputation of a very respectable company."
CBC spokesman Jeff Keay rejected Mr. Morrison's accusation, calling it "an outrageous claim."
According to the corporation's IT staff, Mr. Keay said, the CBC email system is working fine and Mr. Lacroix had received messages - "though not many" - about Radio Two's new format. "It is not our practice to block emails," he said.
Radio Two's new format, which includes more jazz and popular music, was launched on Tuesday.
Mr. Morrison said he has printed the messages of protest and sent them by courier to Mr. Lacroix.
© Ottawa Citizen
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, which launched a campaign Saturday against the format overhaul of CBC's Radio Two, says complaints sent to CBC president Hubert Lacroix and the executive assistant to CBC chairman Timothy Casgrain were rejected. Each email was bounced back with an automatic message saying the system sending the emails - a message transfer agent or MTA - has a "poor reputation."
An MTA is an email delivery system typically used by political parties and advocacy organizations to raise money or awareness. The U.K.-based firm used by Friends of Canadian Broadcasting also numbers Save the Children, World Vision and Greenpeace among its clients across the world.
Friends launched the campaign against the Radio Two changes in newspaper ads on Saturday. The ads accused CBC management of confining classical music to a listening "ghetto," and directed listeners to a Friends website where they can use an electronic form to send complaints to Mr. Lacroix, Mr. Casgrain, CBC board members and federal party leaders. Only the Lacroix and Casgrain emails have cbc.ca addresses.
Friends' spokesman Ian Morrison says tests by the MTA showed the two email addresses were working properly and receiving at 1 a.m. last Saturday, but by 9 a.m. - shortly after the newspaper ad appeared - the addresses were bouncing messages sent through the Friends website back to complainants.
"It's more than passing strange," said Mr. Morrison yesterday, "that messages would go through addressed to these two people at 1 a.m. on Saturday and then the newspaper appears and all of a sudden at 9 a.m. we start getting messages from people complaining they are getting bounces. I conclude it's extremely likely that some human intervened to block the messages and put a false reason in - that this was an MTA of poor reputation."
The CBC had all day Tuesday after the long holiday weekend to fix the problem but didn't, said Mr. Morrison, who added that the protest campaign had so far generated 1,500 complaints.
"I'm reluctant to conclude that at a policy level the CBC would say 'put a block on citizens communicating with us," he said. "I would like to think it was some junior person who wanted to unclog a mailbox for a senior executive. If they maintain it was because of the reputation of the server they have a problem because they are denigrating the reputation of a very respectable company."
CBC spokesman Jeff Keay rejected Mr. Morrison's accusation, calling it "an outrageous claim."
According to the corporation's IT staff, Mr. Keay said, the CBC email system is working fine and Mr. Lacroix had received messages - "though not many" - about Radio Two's new format. "It is not our practice to block emails," he said.
Radio Two's new format, which includes more jazz and popular music, was launched on Tuesday.
Mr. Morrison said he has printed the messages of protest and sent them by courier to Mr. Lacroix.
© Ottawa Citizen
