CTV News says it has parted ways with two staff members who altered and manipulated a clip of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on a recent newscast.
CTV news also apologized “unreservedly,” as the party had demanded over edits made to an interview he gave CPAC about the Conservatives’ recent non-confidence motion.
“A report on Sunday’s CTV National News broadcast did not meet our expected and required high editorial standards. We sincerely and unreservedly apologize for the manner this report went to air and the false impression it created,” it said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
It said an internal investigation found “two members of the CTV News team are responsible for altering a video clip, manipulating it for a particular story,” and that they are no longer members of that team. It didn’t elaborate.
Poilievre’s words had been edited to make it appear that he said a sentence he never uttered, and the report misframed it to suggest he was attacking the federal dental program when he was speaking about a “carbon tax election.”
The party’s media spokesperson, Sebastian Skamski, had said the party would no longer engage with CTV News “until they explicitly acknowledge their malicious editing & omission of context to undermine Pierre Poilievre.”
CTV News’ Omar Sachedina had previously aired a statement apologizing to Poilievre and the party: “Last night, in a report on this broadcast, we presented a comment by the official opposition leader Pierre Poilievre that was taken out of context. It left viewers with the impression the conservative non-confidence motion was to defeat the Liberals dental care program. In fact, the Conservatives have made it clear the motion is based on a long list of issues with the Liberal government including the carbon tax. A misunderstanding during the editing process resulted in this misrepresentation. We unreservedly apologize to Mr. Poilievre and the Conservative party of Canada. We regret this report went to air in the manner it did.”
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