The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — a government-funded media outlet that receives $1.6 billion annually from Canadian taxpayers — issued internal guidance instructing its journalists not to refer to the September 11, 2001 attacks as "terrorist attacks." The memo, first reported by Toronto Sun columnist Warren Kinsella, instead describes what happened that day as "hijackings" that "led to passenger jet crashes."
Passenger jet crashes. Like a scheduling error at LaGuardia.
The directive came from Basem Boshra, CBC's Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust. His title alone deserves a slow clap. The man in charge of "public trust" at Canada's national broadcaster decided that the word "terrorist" — applied to an attack that killed 2,977 people, including 24 Canadians — needed to come with an asterisk. According to a CBC spokesperson, the network's "longstanding language guidance regarding the terms 'terrorist' and 'terrorism' is a preference for the use of these words with attribution."
Maybe this is the reason?
With attribution. Meaning CBC journalists can say the word "terrorist" only if they're quoting someone else saying it. They can't state it as fact on their own. Al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes, flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, murdered nearly 3,000 people, and CBC News needs a second opinion before calling it terrorism.
The backlash was immediate. Travis Dhanraj, a former CBC news presenter, posted a blunt response: "9/11 WAS A TERRORIST ATTACK." All caps. No hedging. No attribution needed. House Republicans weighed in as well, asking the obvious question: "What possible motive could there be for sanitizing the worst terrorist attack" in modern history?
Good question. And it's worth noting that nobody at CBC has answered it. The memo doesn't explain why the guidance exists. It doesn't cite a single complaint, a single incident where calling 9/11 a terrorist attack caused harm. It just instructs journalists to stop doing it — weeks before the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
This is a broadcaster that takes $1.6 billion a year in public funding. Canadian taxpayers — including the families of those 24 Canadians who died on September 11 — are paying for a newsroom that won't call their loved ones' murders what they were.
The 25th anniversary is September 11. CBC's journalists will cover it. They'll show the footage, interview the survivors, maybe even mention the death toll. They just won't be allowed to say the one word that explains why it happened.
That's not journalistic standards. That's editorial cowardice with a style guide.