And all of that\u00a0might<\/em>\u00a0have been fine, had she disclosed to her CBC colleagues and to her audience that she had received thousands of dollars in speaking fees from RBC sponsored events and that her partner Geoff Beattie was an RBC board member.<\/p>\n In the wake of CANADALAND\u2019s reporting on these conflicts of interest, the UK\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0columnist George Monbiot\u00a0wrote: \u201cIt amazes me that [Lang] remains employed by CBC, which has so far done nothing but bluster and berate its critics.\u201d<\/p>\n Lang eventually\u00a0admitted\u00a0she should have been more forthcoming about potential conflicts of interest.\u00a0And CBC News pretty much conceded it had a conflict-of-interest problem when it\u00a0banned paid speaking engagements\u00a0for on-air talent.<\/p>\n Despite all of this, yesterday\u2019s review exonerates Lang.<\/p>\n Here are the reasons why it stinks:<\/p>\n 1. It makes stuff up.<\/strong><\/p>\n The review says that \u201cCanadaland suggests that Lang tried to \u2026 \u2018kill\u2019 the entire story.\u201d<\/p>\n No, we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n We never used the word \u201ckill\u201d in any of our reporting on Lang. We said she tried to \u201csabotage\u201d the story. It would have been impossible for her to kill it, as by the time she heard about it it had already been reported.<\/p>\n Why is that an important error?\u00a0Consider the fact that it\u2019s the same word\u00a0Lang herself used\u00a0in her original self-defence, and the word CBC news boss Jennifer McGuire\u00a0used in her defence\u00a0of Lang.\u00a0By exaggerating our coverage and using the same erroneous language, they sought to paint Lang as a victim of nasty trolls.<\/p>\n That a company PR talking point was copied and pasted into a supposedly objective internal review does not inspire much confidence.<\/p>\n The CBC review also says that \u201cAmanda Lang was accused by Canadaland of being in a conflict of interest because of her relationship with a member of RBC\u2019s Board of Directors.\u201d<\/p>\n Nope. Her CBC colleagues accused her of being in conflict, we just listened to them and told their story. The whole reason this story came out was because we were contacted by sources at the CBC who wanted Lang exposed.<\/p>\n And, when we spoke to her, the reporter who broke the RBC temporary foreign worker scandal thought Lang\u2019s behaviour was a problem, too.\u00a0From\u00a0our interview with Kathy Tomlinson:<\/p>\n I was very upset because of the perceived conflict of interest [Lang\u2019s various affiliations with RBC] created. Several people then questioned Lang\u2019s involvement in the story \u2013 and questioned why she did not reveal any potential conflicts to us up front.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"beattie](\"https:\/\/www.canadaland.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/beattie-lang.jpg\")
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