It was one of the most ludicrous “news” items I had seen in a very long time.
On Friday’s Global BC Newshour (my once BC-beloved old alma mater) anchor Chris Gailus informed viewers that RCMP had seized several weapons from a South Surrey home after a video surfaced on social media showing people at what seemed to be a wedding … and several of those attending were dancing and waving weapons (I counted six … some of them looked like pretty high-powered rifles! Yikes!!!).
“Surrey RCMP will be working with multiple partner agencies to advance the investigation and identify the people in the video. Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the Surrey RCMP,” Gailus told viewers.
Help identify them?
Pretty difficult when Global BC deliberately BLURRED … covered up … for the full length of the 24-second video all the faces of those dancing and waving guns !
At first, I laughed: thought it was a joke.
All viewers could see on Global BC were people dancing, several wearing Sikh turbans, and several waving around some fierce-looking long guns … but all the faces were blurred out.
How could Global BC do that? Especially when police are seeking public assistance identifying those waving weapons!
Dumb, spineless decision-makers … or deliberate?
No doubt in my mind the “cover-up” makes it much more difficult for anyone to help police by positively identifying those waving firearms in the video.
I have attended many weddings … including a Sikh marriage ceremony and the celebrations afterwards …as well as weddings and special occasions involving many other faiths, but I’ve never witnessed any where guests danced around waving guns!
That would be a news story to me!
Fortunately, CTV Vancouver had better “news” sense … and recognized their responsibility in the public interest.
Especially since police advised the incident had happened locally, in South Surrey!
CTV News at Six showed the same video, also explained Surrey RCMP would like the public’s help to identify those waving guns … and on CTV, there was no “cover-up”: viewers could clearly see the faces of several bearded men wearing turbans in the video, and a woman as well, dancing and waving rifles.
And there was also something else I found really interesting…
CTV “promoed” the story in the opening of their show and broadcast the piece about 3 minutes into their News at Six show.
Global did not promo the story in their opening and broadcast their voice-over item later, about 14 minutes into the Newshour.
I believe CTV not only demonstrated much better news judgement and provided the help police requested to identify those waving the guns but also showed much more respect for their viewers’ “right-to-know”.
CTV’s coverage, in fact, was closer to how the once-grand BCTV would have covered the story … although we would have gone even further and followed up, getting more details in interviews with the cops, actually showing the guns that were seized, talking to neighbours and even seeking out the actual homeowner where the gun-toting celebration occurred.
Why the “cover-up” at the Newshour?
Global BC … and, in particular, News Director and Station Manager, Bhupinder Hundal … owe viewers an explanation of why the Newshour censored the video, making it more difficult for anyone to help police identify any suspects and denying viewers’ their basic right to see the pictures, uncensored.
Something doesn’t seem right.
Harv Oberfeld
(Watch for a new blog topic next Monday … on Pierre Poilievre’s plan to defund the CBC. And follow @harveyoberfeld on “X” for FREE First Alerts to new blog topics on this Blog as soon as they are published.)