The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has found CTV National News in breach surrounding the inaccuracy of a report in April on capital gains tax.
The report, from CTV National correspondent Heather Wright, which aired on the late night edition of the newscast on April 25, focused on changes announced in the federal budget that, for any capital gains over $250,000, two-thirds would be taxable. The first graphic used an example of a cottage sale, providing numbers erroneously labelled “taxes owed,” which it confused with “capital gains inclusion rate.”
Viewers complained to the CBSC about the graphic’s inaccuracy, in addition to other aspects of the report, including comment that average cottage owners would have to pay more to keep or maintain their properties. One complainant pointed out that there were no additional costs to maintaining a cottage as capital gains tax is only incurred when the property is sold.
While agreeing the graphic was erroneous, CTV did not consider other aspects of the report to be problematic.
The CBSC’s English-Language Panel examined the complaint under the CAB Code of Ethics and RTDNA Code of Journalistic Ethics, regarding accuracy and the full, fair and proper presentation of news, concluding that the clear error in the graphic, as well as other elements that misrepresented the tax changes constituted breaches of those codes. It also concluded that CTV should have corrected the error on-air promptly.
While some complainants had argued the report was biased in that it presented a negative slant against the federal Liberals’ budget, the panel concluded that, “although the report contained inaccurate information, it was not biased against any political party and it did contain a statement from one person who supported the capital gains tax change.”
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