CTV News vice-president Richard Gray informed Members of Parliament that a recent video aired by the news outlet, which misrepresented comments from the opposition leader, was an unprecedented event in his 33-year career.
“This is a deeply regrettable situation. In my 33-year career in television news, this is the first time I have encountered something like this,” Gray stated during the Oct. 10 committee meeting. “I hope that our response demonstrates the importance we place on upholding our commitment to fairness, objectivity, and the truth.”
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Gray verified that one of the individuals was a reporter who modified a script after it was approved by the producer. The other was an editor who pieced together fragments from two segments of a statement, creating a clip that had not been spoken to address a technical issue with the original recording.
When questioned about their motives, Gray mentioned that the reporter altered the clip “to remove the reference to the carbon tax with the explanation that the story was being shortened for time.” He clarified, “There was no specific request for that reporter to alter their story for time.”
Conservative MP Andrew Scheer challenged the reporter’s explanation, questioning if the alteration was genuinely due to time constraints.
“The words that were cut out were ‘carbon tax election.’ I timed it. That took about 1.2 seconds. So you mean to tell me that there was no intention to mislead Canadians, and they had to cut this for length, and that it would be understood that the quote from the Conservative leader was about a carbon tax election, despite removing the words ‘carbon tax election,’” Scheer stated. “Do you see why we are finding it very hard to accept that?”
Gray responded that the explanation was provided by the reporter and denied any attempt to spread disinformation or deceive the audience.
Noé Chartier contributed to this report.
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