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The trouble started near the end, when Galloway asked what regular Facebook users can do. Hirsh stated the obvious: Nothing.

Instead, given all we know about Russian-propagated fake news and privacy breaches and hiring PR people to portray criticism of Facebook as anti-Semitic — all reported on CBC platforms — Hirsh asked another question: “Why does CBC trust Facebook? Why does every outlet on CBC tell its listeners to go like them on Facebook?”

Galloway, sounding slightly alarmed, noted that all media do that.

“I don’t care about the other journalistic entities,” Hirsh shot back. “Why does CBC continue to engage in commercial relationships with Facebook now that it’s clear to us that Facebook is a threat to democracy, and CBC as a public broadcaster should be strengthening democracy?”

Good question! Right?

Apparently not. After many hours of getting kicked around on Twitter, CBC Toronto managing editor Tim Richards released a note explaining the problem. We learn that Hirsh’s segment was a “technology column,” whatever that means, and that radio columns (?) come with certain obligations under CBC’s journalism standards and practices (JSP). They include accuracy, and CBC contends Hirsh fell short when he claimed “(CBC) programmers (are) mandated to promote Facebook,” and when he said Facebook complained to CBC “every time (he) appeared on CBC to talk about (the company).”

Radio columnists also have to “weigh the views … on the opposing side of the argument” and avoid stating “personal opinions or preferences,” which doesn’t conform to any other definition of “columnist” I’m aware of — including the one apparently in effect at CBC’s opinion site. As many have observed this week, CBC’s website is full of meticulously archived twaddle: from the lobotomizing daily partisan exchanges to a bewildering segment in which Proudest Boy Gavin McInnes justified the Mi’qmak scalp bounty.