Mark Campbell

The term yellow journalism ("based on sensationalism and crude exaggeration") never meant anything to me until I watched the Fifth Estate's "The Mormon church in Canada: Where did more than $1 billion go?". Did you miss the episode in question? No problem, let me summarize it for you. "The Mormon church in Canada (not the real name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but a handy epithet for lazy journalists) receives voluntary tithing donations from its members. In Canada, the church doesn't do enough charitable giving with these funds, at least to causes of which the CBC approves. In Australia, they same church does too much charitable giving. Isn't that appalling? Even worse, in Australia they do all this charitable giving through unpaid volunteers, no paid professionals at all. Isn't that suspicious? We found no evidence of legal wrongdoing, nor even of any governmental investigations in progress. However, we found a handful of disgruntled Mormons (there's that handy, lazy term again) in various stages of leaving the church, or who have already left. Despite the fearful consequences of speaking out, they managed to pluck up the courage to go on national TV. Church leaders have addressed the issues raised in this episode before but none of their substantive comments were aired. Instead, we showed some grainy and unflattering footage from a press conference and extracted a few clips that support our points, though how is not at all clear. We even tried to ambush church leaders at their worldwide headquarters but they were too wary to set themselves up for a further smear. Surely they have something to hide." I could go on, but the pattern is clear. Watching this episode has diminished the credibility of all past and future Fifth Estate "journalism". I now wonder how many other CBC exposés were, or will be, similarly "based on sensationalism and crude exaggeration". It's not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that should be ashamed, but rather the CBC and the journalists involved in this episode. It wasn't a trashing; it was just trash. In closing, here's a provocative title: "The CBC in Canada: Where did more than $1 billion go?" Oh, now we know.