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Petition Tag - media bias

1. TO THE Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in regard to recent media bias against innocent Pashtun

On Friday April 3rd, 2009, CBC broadcasted a documentary regarding the presence of Pashtun Taliban in Karachi, Pakistan. The claims, comments and conclusions made in this video report lack substance, and factual analysis. The report wholly subscribes to the views and opinions of MQM- an ethnic local political Party. Pashtun Community of Canada was outraged to watch this documentary, unfairly and untruthfully portraying Pashtuns in Karachi as Terrorists.

Karachi is a multi-ethnic and the biggest city of Pakistan. Approximately Two million (2,000,000) Pashtuns are living in Karachi who have gradually settled there since long. These Pashtuns have established businesses and are contributing the much needed workforce for the development of this metropolitan city. Over the past 50 years the Pashtuns have established themselves as successful entrepreneurs, business owners and dignified residents of Karachi. Ever since its economic and political interests started clashing in early 80s due to emergence of middle class Pashtuns, MQM has adopted anti Pashtun policy based on racial discrimination and ethnic killings.

Like the producer of CBC, we too are worried about the increased influence of Taliban across the region, but the CBC made a journalistic error by focusing only one side of the story and ignoring the consequences of this one sided documentary for the two million plus Pashtuns in Karachi; particularly for the newly arrived refugees forced by the Taliban and the military out of their homes and towns in the North.

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2. Citizens for Actually Unbiased Media Coverage of Public Education in Washington, D.C.

During the Summer of 2008, DCPS volunteers were dispatched throughout the city to survey residents on how involved they felt their community to be in public education.

Overwhelmingly, these respondents reported that they heard mostly bad news about their schools. In fact, 68% felt that news outlets mostly reported the bad, while 9% heard mostly good, and 19% heard both equally.

Another, similarly named group takes this data to mean that local news media should stop reporting "negative" news about the school system, presumably because it's bumming them out, or threatening their jobs.

We feel that the reason there's so much bad news about the schools is because there is, in fact, so much bad news to report. D.C. public schools, are, after all, the worst in the nation by several measures. And we feel that reporting on their problems is a public service.

Claims that there's "too much negative" news are silly at best, misguided and deceptive at worst. If your kids are in schools that aren't doing well, wouldn't you want to know that? Wouldn't you want to know why?

But if you were a teacher whose job might be at stake, would you want to see that same news? Probably not.

Think of who's saying there's too much negative news. And judge accordingly.

We think having more information, not less, is better.

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