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Here's a form letter complaining about bias media coverage of Global TV as well as other stations, plus a list of regulators who govern behaviour of media and journalists.

THREE TARGET MEDIA REGULATORS:
1. Consumer Protection BC.
Email: [email protected]

2. Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.

Email Address: [email protected]

3. Canadian Association of Journalists
Box 280
Brantford, ON N3T 5M8




THE FORM LETTER:

Dear Sir/Madame:

We all remember the false and misleading behaviour of the news media during the technology "bubble" of the late 1990s and early 2000s. In both the US and Canada many people lost substantial sums of money due to the cheerleading of certain media outlets. After the dust settled it was found that many of these media outlets and "economic correspondents" had conflicting interests - owning the stock of companies they were actively reporting on and actively pumping.

The same is happening today in Canada with news reporting of the current real estate market. Many reporters and news organizations, most notably Vancouver's branch of Global TV (CTV network), are delivering hyped up media and false/misleading reports on the status of the real estate market in BC. I believe this is also true for CTV's Toronto reporting. A defining characteristics of such coverage is (i) one-sided reporting (i.e. "prices are about to take off"), and (ii) interviews with real estate agents and staff of real estate companies who have a clear conflict of interest in the current market. The behaviour goes beyond sensationalist headlines designed to boost circulation and sell ads - these news correspondents appear to be actively pumping the market for personal gain.

This is a request for you to improve the transparency of media reporting on real estate investment holdings.

Please request Global TV and other major news organizations adopt the following simple policy: All news reporters covering the real estate market must disclose if they own investment property in the region that is covered in their report. Note disclosure of their principle residence is not required, only investment properties that they do not live in.

Similar policies are used for stock market analyst reporting on TV and radio every day. This is not a significant expansion of existing conflict of interest policies, and real estate investment property should be monitored and tracked similar to other types of investments.

Examples of poor journalism and potential conflict of interest can be found here:

1. CTV Global TV, Vancouver Evening News, 6pm, Tamara Taggart reporting.
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.1137076

2. Michael Campbell, Global TV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVyr1UzOzoo

3. CTV "Soft Landing"
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/bankers-e...-1.1105197

Thank-you: