CTV and the Silence of the Sheepdogs
Operation Mockingbird Never Died. It Just Got a Pension Plan.
This morning, CTV News served up the kind of breakfast bulletin that would make a Cold War propagandist weep with joy.
Story One: The sexual assault trial of five Canadian Junior Hockey players from 2018.
Story Two: A Siberian plane crash near the Chinese border.
Story Three: Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein — again.
Story Four: A sentencing in the U.S. for the murder of four college students.
Story Five: Provincial healthcare funding talks.
What didn’t make the cut?
Today’s sentencing of Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, two ordinary Canadians turned peaceful dissidents who stood — unarmed, unpaid, and unbowed — for your Charter Rights.
Not a mention. Not a whisper. Not a chyron scrolling across the screen.
This Is Not Journalism. It’s Narrative Management.
Remember Operation Mockingbird? That charming little CIA plan to infiltrate the press and ensure the right stories got told the right way?
Well, it never really ended. It just got privatized. Outsourced. Padded with DEI officers and slick graphics. Today’s Mockingbird isn’t in Langley — it’s in your living room, your airport lounge, your government-subsidized CBC feed.
This morning’s CTV lineup was a masterclass in distraction and misdirection:
Rehash a 6-year-old scandal to keep Canadians ashamed of their national identity.
Point to a plane crash near China to stir low-grade Cold War paranoia.
Drag Trump and Epstein back out — not to uncover anything new, but to remind you that America is still the real freak show.
Highlight a U.S. sentencing to make you feel grateful your own justice system is… well… ignoring Charter rights and freezing bank accounts instead.
Talk about provincial healthcare to keep Canadians squabbling over scraps, never asking where the federal billions actually went.
But Tamara Lich and Chris Barber?
The faces of a peaceful, working-class revolt?
The ones who dared honk in the face of tyranny?
Nothing.
Because their story doesn’t fit the script. It reminds people that freedom is messy, defiant, and — worst of all — contagious.
A Controlled Silence Is Still a Lie
When the media buries dissenters and amplifies distractions, it tells you everything you need to know about where power lives — and who it fears.
CTV’s job isn’t to inform you. It’s to shape you. Shape your fears. Shape your outrage. Shape your silence.
And if you’re still watching it like it’s Walter Cronkite behind the desk, I’ve got a CERB clawback notice to sell you.