Omar F*****G Khadr is getting $10.5 milion

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Jordan Peterson is the unquestionably the most well-known and influential academic in Canada at the moment. Is there another professor in the country whose videos get 50k views on Youtube on the same day they're posted? Regardless of what you think about his politics, he's a genuine public intellectual. One would imagine the CBC would be doing the proud Canadian thing and featuring him in all sorts of flattering profiles and discussions. Instead, the one interview they did with him was embarrassing in its lack of professionalism.

Oh FFS.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by rubecube

The ones rooted in bigotry.

Originally Posted by rubecube

Oh FFS.

For someone who has historically taken at least somewhat nuanced positions on political issues, you've been doing more and more of this sort of thing lately. What's the deal?

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

For someone who has historically taken at least somewhat nuanced positions on political issues, you've been doing more and more of this sort of thing lately. What's the deal?

Do you think Cliff's spin on Jordan Peterson accurately reflected why the CBC might not be so keen to do a portrayal on him?

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

A great many Canadians believe the reserve system should be done away with and indigenous Canadians should be treated like everyone else, for example. You will never hear anyone on CBC radio even hint that such an opinion in widespread, let alone treat is seriously or give it any kind of credence.

Jordan Peterson is the unquestionably the most well-known and influential academic in Canada at the moment. Is there another professor in the country whose videos get 50k views on Youtube on the same day they're posted? Regardless of what you think about his politics, he's a genuine public intellectual. One would imagine the CBC would be doing the proud Canadian thing and featuring him in all sorts of flattering profiles and discussions. Instead, the one interview they did with him was embarrassing in its lack of professionalism.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunde...says-1.3241602

http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/in...ting-1.3532810

http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/21...-act-1.3533613

[Makarov]

Do we really measure the influence of academics by YouTube views?

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Makarov

Do we really measure the influence of academics by YouTube views?

Hopefully Harvard has a spot open for Joe Rogan.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Do you think Cliff's spin on Jordan Peterson accurately reflected why the CBC might not be so keen to do a portrayal on him?

Well, this is sort of off the point, but I'm happy to respond to it - I suspect that the reason they aren't likely to feature him except as a pariah has to do with CBC's alignment with that perspective. I happen to think Peterson's a kook, but probably for entirely different reasons than you do and probably for different reasons than those underlying CBC's rationale for not presenting him as a public intellectual but rather as some sort of Canadian alt-right-esque figure.

That being said, using him as a specific example, I looked up their reporting on the McMaster incident and this article certainly seems perfectly fairminded. On the other hand, there was apparently some controversy about an interview he did on CBC radio where the host was fairly unprofessional and did everything possible to attempt to convey to the audience a sense of disgust at even having to talk to the guy. That interview is linked to in this article, which states that "Peterson's unpopular views have earned him a train of protestors wherever he goes, and that train pulled into Hamilton on Friday when the professor showed up on McMaster campus". So they're pretty clearly blaming him for people shouting him down, there, and the balance of the article contains quite a bit of transparent ideological bias. I'm not sure why you wouldn't just stick to the objective version.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

I happen to think Peterson's a kook, but probably for entirely different reasons than you do and probably for different reasons than those underlying CBC's rationale for not presenting him as a public intellectual but rather as some sort of Canadian alt-right-esque figure.

Except if you're going to use his YouTube views as a reason for portraying him, it kind of should be framed as the latter because that's where those views are coming from (and of course the outrage clicks).

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Well, if you're going to define as a bigot everyone who disagrees with you on social and cultural issues (even in the broad sense), then I guess calling youtube personalities like him "alt-right-esque" isn't such a leap. Though I don't know why you wouldn't just save time and go straight to "Nazi".

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Makarov

Do we really measure the influence of academics by YouTube views?

Okay, then highest profile among the general public. The point is that if another professor had the social media profile of Peterson but different politics, the CBC would be fawning all over him. The CBC doesn't even pretend to be impartial or even-handed any more when it comes to any subject touching on identity politics.

I've been a listener of CBC radio for 30 years, and this was the most embarrassing interview I've ever listened to, from the have you stopped beating your wife headline to the absolute unwillingness or inability of Off to engage with the subject intellectually.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/...ouns-1.3786144

And I'm not some Peterson fanboy. But the unwillingness to even engage with the issues he raises betrays the narrow-minded and dogmatic way the CBC has come to treat social issues in recent years. They've become just another polarized echo chamber.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Well, if you're going to define as a bigot everyone who disagrees with you on social and cultural issues (even in the broad sense), then I guess calling youtube personalities like him "alt-right-esque" isn't such a leap. Though I don't know why you wouldn't just save time and go straight to "Nazi".

That's not what I said though. If the alt+right is holding him up as a figure, and they're the ones driving most of his YouTube views, then that should be addressed if we're using his Youtube views as a reason to do a profile on him, or should that just be ignored?

[rubecube]

I guess I should add that I don't entirely disagree with everything Peterson says (I do think he's a bit of a dick), but Cliff's characterization of him was deliberately misleading/incomplete, IMO.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by rubecube

That's not what I said though. If the alt+right is holding him up as a figure, and they're the ones driving most of his YouTube views, then that should be addressed if we're using his Youtube views as a reason to do a profile on him, or should that just be ignored?

Are the alt-right holding him up as a figure and driving most of his youtube views, or are you just labeling the people who listen to him as alt-right? That's not a rhetorical question... Given what I know of the guy - which is exclusively the result of seeing him being interviewed by other people, I've never seen a video he himself has put out - that didn't seem to me to be the case. I mean, he basically gained prominence as an opponent of bill c-16; are you suggesting that the only people who agreed with his positions on that were members of the alt-right? He's since become mainly a symbol of opposition to campus political correctness. Would that make the people who are generally aligned with him on that topic (say, Jon Haidt, Gad Saad, Greg Lukianoff) also alt-right?

We've officially de-railed this thread now by the way. Good job everyone. We did it.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Are the alt-right holding him up as a figure and driving most of his youtube views, or are you just labeling the people who listen to him as alt-right?

No, I'm mainly talking about who is watching, commenting on and sharing his Youtube videos on social media. He has become a symbol for all of the things you've mentioned but he's definitely also gained popularity and notoriety with the anti-trans crowd.

[Resolute 14]

nm

[rubecube]

On a side note, do you think Peterson is one of those types who insists on people referring to him as "doctor?"

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I guess I should add that I don't entirely disagree with everything Peterson says (I do think he's a bit of a dick), but Cliff's characterization of him was deliberately misleading/incomplete, IMO.

What was misleading and incomplete about it?

You contend that the CBC is a centrist media outlet. Maybe Peterson is so far to the right that he's beyond the pale (though frankly, he isn't even all that right on most issues). So surely we can come up with some Canadian public intellectuals who are too far to the left for the CBC to lend any legitimacy to...

...

Yeah, I got nothing.

[Wormius]

Stop petering up the thread!

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Stop petering up the thread!

I dunno, I could use another 10 pages of this new and fresh debate on the right-left political climate and how the media fits in. It's all just so new and fresh.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

What was misleading and incomplete about it?

You contend that the CBC is a centrist media outlet. Maybe Peterson is so far to the right that he's beyond the pale (though frankly, he isn't even all that right on most issues). So surely we can come up with some Canadian public intellectuals who are too far to the left for the CBC to lend any legitimacy to...

...

Yeah, I got nothing.

Sorry, but which leftist Canadian intellectuals do you see the CBC profiling on a regular basis? I guess you could argue that David Suzuki has been given a platform over the years but most of his CBC content hasn't been all that political compared with his off-site persona. I could also be wrong on that because I kind of tune out Suzuki.

I guess guys like Strombo have always skewed left but I'm not sure I would consider them part of the news side of CBC.

I'm actually not even sure what you're wanting the CBC to do with Peterson. Are you saying they should be producing a puff piece on him?

And you know exactly what I mean. The guy has been accused, rightly or wrongly, of being transphobic and inflaming anti-trans sentiment. When you leave that out of your description of him and just point to his YouTube views, it comes across as dishonest.