COMMENTARY: Troubling viewer complaints leads to internal scrutiny

By Bill Roberts

WHEN YOU RUN A television network, you get used to complaints. It’s the price of doing business. Canadians are discerning viewers who demand a great deal from this country’s broadcasters – and rightly so.As a multi-faith and multicultural channel, VisionTV is subject to its fair share of criticism. Some complaints, however, are more troubling than others. In 2007, the upset occasioned by a VisionTV broadcast featuring a controversial Muslim scholar led network management to undertake some serious self-examination. In a decision issued earlier this month, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CSBC) concluded that VisionTV did not violate the industry’s code...