Would the supporters of CBC like the idea of our left wing state broadcaster joining forces with an outfit like National Review to work on election coverage here in Canada?

Not bloody likely, despite National Review being a widely respected organization, it is simply too conservative for our state broadcaster. So why then is it seen as acceptable for CBC to partner with the far left group ProPublica to track and analyze Facebook ads in Canadian elections?

ProPublica was founded when a pair of wealthy billionaire donors to the Democratic Party decided they needed to fund journalism. In addition to millions from Herb and Marion Sandler, who also fund the left wing Center for American Progress, ProPublica is backed by a long list of left leaning foundations.

Among the list of donors, the Foundation to Promote Open Society, set up by none other than George Soros.

Now this doesn’t mean Soros is going to be dictating news stories at CBC HQ but why on earth would CBC want to give it’s critics George Soros to wave around as further proof of their left wing bias? Soros has a history of funding projects in an attempt to change the political landscape in his direction.

He has funded projects to try and flip local political races to the Democrats, he has funded state races and he funds a lot of journalism, all of it in a left wing direction.

So what exactly is CBC doing with ProPublica?

They want you to help them track political ads on Facebook by installing an extension on your web browser and then reporting to them, through the extension, when you see a political ad on Facebook as opposed to a non-political ad.

That information will be fed into a database of political ads that can be analyzed by CBC and other news organizations and help us dig up and research news stories. The information in the database is crowdsourced, so the more people who use the extension, the more entries will appear in the database and the more news stories CBC will be able to tell.

So in order to track the creepy tracking of Facebook, CBC and ProPublica want me to install an extension that will track my browsing and report it back to them. Not something that I’d like to be involved in.

I’m sure whatever stories come out of this won’t be biased at all.

A few major problems with this, beyond the creepiness.

The people taking part will be self-selecting CBC listeners and viewers which means a strong likelihood that they will be Liberal or NDP voters and far less likely that they will be Conservatives. I suspect this project will also attract people that are determined to showcase wrongdoing, real or perceived, in political parties or movements that they do not support.

Finally, this extension only works on Chrome and Firefox browsers on a desktop or laptop, it doesn’t work if you are browsing Facebook on your phone or tablet or are using a different browser. In Canada, mobile browsing far outstrips desktop, so this will be at best a self-selecting and limited take on what Canadians are actually seeing.

That data will then be crunched by left-leaning CBC and the crusading and far left ProPublica as they search for stories that will likely confirm their own biases.

What could go wrong?

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Have you heard that I have a new show coming?

This has been in the works for a while, I’m adding a new project to my already busy schedule. So not leaving radio or giving up writing, but taking on something new.

It’s a fun concept that hasn’t been done before and I hope you like it. Give the video below a look see and sign up for the mailing list below so I can let you know when we are fully able to launch.