Canadian gov’t-funded panel claims media showing ‘both sides’ of a story helps spread ‘misinformation’
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The Council of Canadian Academies argues that fair and balanced reporting creates opposition to policies such as climate change.
(LifeSiteNews) – A Canadian scientific panel that receives funding from the federal government seemed to assert in a new report last week that the standard journalistic practice of showing two sides to a story is to blame for a rise in media “misinformation.”
The Council of Canadian Academies noted in its report released January 26 titled Fault Lines Expert Panel on the Socioeconomic Impacts of Science and Health Misinformation that some “journalistic norms contribute to misinformation such as the tendency to present both sides of a debate as having equal weight.”
The Council’s report, which was sponsored by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), claimed that the journalistic practice leads to an artificial “false balance of perspectives even in cases where the science is conclusive.”
“The effects of a false balance in media have been observed in public discourse on climate science, genetically modified organisms and nuclear power,” the report stated.
ISED had asked the Council of Canadian Academies “to examine the socioeconomic impacts of science and health misinformation and disinformation on the public and public policy in Canada.”