B’nai Brith study finds CBC Israel coverage heavily skews pro-Palestine

The taxpayer-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is systematically biased against Israel in its reporting about Hamas, according to a damning new study released by B’nai Brith Canada.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The taxpayer-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is systematically biased against Israel in its reporting on the conflict with Hamas, according to a damning new study released by B’nai Brith Canada.

The white paper analyzed hundreds of English-language CBC online articles and video segments published between Oct. 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025.

The study found 55.5 per cent of sampled items were classified as pro-Palestinian, 6.7 per cent as pro-Israel, and 37.8 per cent as balanced or neutral.

“The results indicate a consistent directional pattern across CBC’s coverage,” B’nai Brith Canada said in its release.

The study examined a population of 499 CBC items and conducted detailed coding on a stratified random sample of 299 reports. The sample included CBC articles and videos that directly addressed the Israel-Hamas conflict, such as reporting on military operations in Gaza or Lebanon, diplomatic initiatives, humanitarian conditions, hostage negotiations, and Canadian involvement. Videos and articles that referred to the conflict incidentally or where less than 10 per cent of their content related to the subject were excluded.

Researchers assessed each item across four dimensions of what the report describes as structural bias: framing, selection of contextual information, presentation and language, and sourcing.

All four bias dimensions occurred in a majority of items. All four were present in more than four out of five Palestinian-favouring items and fewer than one in five Israeli-favouring articles or videos.

“These findings do not suggest factual inaccuracy, unethical conduct or deliberate advocacy by CBC journalists,” the report states. “They point instead to recurring structural patterns that, in aggregate, produce a skewed interpretive environment.”

The report also breaks down results by format, finding that video coverage was more likely to be classified by direction than written reporting.

Among articles, 52.5 per cent were classified as pro-Palestinian and 3.3 per cent as pro-Israel, while 44.2 per cent were categorized as balanced.

Among video segments, 60.2 per cent were classified as pro-Palestinian, 11.9 per cent as pro-Israel, and 27.9 per cent as balanced or neutral.

Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy for B’nai Brith Canada, said the organization released the study to raise accountability concerns rather than to allege misconduct.

“The point of this investigation is not to undermine the CBC’s factual credibility or suggest it is wilfully distorting its coverage,” Robertson said. “We are releasing this research because Canadians value the CBC and deserve balanced, fair coverage of geopolitical issues.”

As a publicly funded broadcaster, CBC is subject to the Broadcasting Act, which requires it to strive for balance and impartiality in its reporting.

“The CBC must be prepared to take constructive criticism if it wishes to regain the confidence and trust of all Canadians,” said Simon Wolle, chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “Our study is important because the CBC’s journalism shapes public opinion. When its reporting is unbalanced, it can be taken out of context or manipulated to serve certain political ends.”

B’nai Brith Canada is calling on the CBC to meet with its researchers to discuss the findings and conduct internal structural reviews of its conflict-related coverage. The report recommends periodic internal audits focused on aggregate patterns in framing, sourcing, contextual completeness and presentation, rather than reviews of individual journalists or stories.

“Our efforts to hold the CBC accountable do not end here,” Wolle said. “We would like to cooperate with the CBC, moving forward, to produce balanced, unbiased reporting.”

A CBC spokesperson told True North the broadcaster was made aware of the study earlier Monday but was not consulted prior to its release.

“Since the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, CBC News has published thousands of stories on the conflict in Gaza on all of our platforms; the sample examined by the B’nai Brith study includes only a portion of that coverage,” said the spokesperson.

They added that all CBC coverage is bound by its Journalistic Standards and Practices, which require adherence to the principles of fairness, accuracy, balance, integrity and impartiality.

“In adhering to those principles, CBC News is accountable to the independent CBC Ombud. It’s worth noting that since the start of the conflict in Gaza, the Ombud has conducted formal reviews of several audience complaints regarding our Gaza reporting, none of which have found CBC’s coverage of the conflict violated our journalistic standards of impartiality,” said the spokesperson.