OTTAWA – Multiple episodes of a talk show airing on CHOI-FM (Radio X, 98.1, Quebec City) have been found in violation of broadcast standards, says the Canadian Broadcast Standard Council (CBSC).
Dupont le midi is broadcast weekdays from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm and features discussions among host Stéphane Dupont and co-hosts about social and political issues and current events. The CBSC said that it received a number of complaints from different people about various comments made on separate episodes that aired between 2008 to 2010.
The first decision examined a discussion about social assistance. The hosts made statements about the dollar amounts that social assistance recipients receive and expressed the view that a single mother is better off collecting welfare than working at a paying job.
The CBSC received a complaint from the Front commun des personnes assistées sociales du Québec which explained that the dollar amounts noted by Dupont le midi were entirely inaccurate. The CBSC’s Quebec Regional Panel explained that, while the hosts “are entitled to hold and broadcast their own derogatory and disparaging opinions regarding social welfare and aid recipients, they owe it to their audience that the basis for their argument be based on sound, rather than misleading, information.” The Panel also agreed with the complainant organization that the program had repeatedly distorted the numbers and had inappropriately presented them with the factual authority that flows from hosting a radio show, thus violating clause 6 of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) code of ethics.
The CBSC’s next decision involved multiple episodes during which the hosts discussed suicide. Host Dupont expressed his view that suicide was a cowardly act, that no problem in life is bad enough to justify suicide, that suicide should not be glorified, and that suicidal people need “a kick in the butt” rather than “a helping hand”. In the context of various discussions on the topic, the program provided the names of two individuals who had recently committed suicide. The CBSC received complaints from people who knew those two individuals, who objected to the fact that their names had been broadcast, and who took the position that the program had insulted the two men.
The majority of the Panel concluded that the program’s overall message was that suicide should not be considered a solution to life’s problems and that it had not disparaged the two suicide victims as individuals because “[t]he host and his colleagues were careful to draw the distinction between the individuals and their decision to commit suicide.” The majority of the panel also had no problem with the revelation of the broadcast of the men’s names on air because that information had been publicly available from Internet sources. Two adjudicators, however, dissented to the decision, finding that Dupont’s harsh treatment of suicidal people was “potentially dangerous”, and his dismissive attitude towards the problems of “two specific and named individuals” was insensitive.
The final decision examined a discussion about Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating January 2010 earthquake that had occurred in that country. Host Dupont stated that he had not made any donations to aid the Haitians because one could not be certain that the people in need would actually receive the money. He complained that he had seen on the news a group of healthy Haitians just sitting around waiting for government handouts. He also characterized the Haitian government as thieves, and referred to the city of Port-au-Prince and Haitians as criminals.
Although the panel concluded that these comments were not abusive or unduly discriminatory, it did find that their cumulative effect constituted an unduly negative portrayal of Haitians contrary to clause 3 of the CAB equitable portrayal code.
In all of the decisions, the panel also found violations of Clause 9(c) of the CAB code of ethics for the broadcast of coarse language including various French religious epithets and the English ‘f-word’.
