A number of journalistic experts rounded up by the Globe and Mail all agree that the base of columnists writing viewpoints stuff for CBC.ca needs to be diversified.
The question, said Donna Logan, founding director of the University of British Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, is "whether the public broadcaster has a sufficient variety of opinions. And I certainly agree with him [Cruickshank] that it does not." Logan is a former managing editor of national radio news at the CBC and subsequently program director. She also helped to write the CBC's handbook on journalism standards and practices.
She said Mallick has every right to say whatever she wants, but that the CBC equally has the right to publish it or not.
"I think they need to be careful to present a balanced view. People expect that of a public broadcaster. I feel they could achieve a better balance than they do. I'm certainly not as critical as a lot of people about calling them left-wing. I think it's mushy liberalism sometimes that causes this, not any arch left-wing view," she said. ...
Craig Silverman, Montreal-based author of Regret the Error, a book and related website analyzing the effect of mistakes and corrections in the news media, says commentary is new terrain for the public broadcaster.
"I think in the CBC's case, it might be a symptom of an organization that has traditionally focused on so-called objective journalism trying to wade into the waters of commentary, and perhaps attract a Web audience through that kind of outrageous commentary," said Silverman, who also writes on office life for The Globe and Mail.
"I think to a certain extent, CBC hired Heather Mallick to inject some opinion and perhaps even some controversy. In that respect, they got what they paid for," Silverman said.