WikiLeaked cable calls out CBC for stereotyping Americans

Among the thousands of leaked documents released by whistleblowing site
WikiLeaks this week is a cable warning Washington that certain CBC
programs perpetuate negative American stereotypes, at the potential cost
of U.S. — Canada relations. WikiLeaks reportedly has 2,600 cables written by US diplomats in Ottawa.

The cables, which the National Post says it has obtained copies of, include one that blames CBC programs like The Border for “insidious negative popular stereotyping” of Americans, while another suggests that Canada displays an “inherent inferiority complex.”

The National Post reports:

“In the document focused on the CBC, U.S. officials claimed that the public broadcaster has ‘long gone to great pains to highlight the distinction between Americans and Canadians in its programming, generally at our expense.’

“They complain that The Border features negative stereotyping such as episodes that featured CIA rendition flights, schemes to steal Canadian water, and ‘the Guantanamo-Syria express.’

“In the 2008 memo, the unnamed officials also chastise the CBC comedy The Little Mosque on the Prairie for its stereotypical and negative view of U.S. border officers.

” ‘We need to do everything we can to make it more difficult for Canadians to fall into the trap of seeing all U.S. policies as the result of nefarious faceless U.S. bureaucrats anxious to squeeze their northern neighbour,’ concludes the cable.“