The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is a "Canadian federal Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster for both radio and television." The structure is comparable to the BBC in the UK.
And now the Canadian government broadcasting corporation is drawing fire from conservative conspiracy theorists in the United States.
Leading the charge is President Donald Trump's eldest son, Don Jr., and the President's favorite TV show, Fox & Friends. But their ire is not because of an editorial calling for Trump's removal from office or anything criticizing his presidency.
Their outrage is reserved for a CBC Christmas broadcast of a family comedy film. Someone noticed that when the CBC broadcast the film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York as part of their holiday content, a cameo by Donald Trump was missing.
Don Jr. called the move "pathetic."
On Instagram Jr. took the manufactured slight and outrage even further.
Fox & Friends called it censorship.
Trump appeared in the 1992 film for less than 10 seconds.
Watch Trump's cameo here and judge for yourself how vital it was to the film.
Home Alone 2 Donald Trumpyoutu.be
By all accounts, the price for filming in the historic Plaza Hotel in Manhattan—at the time owned by Trump—was giving Trump a cameo in addition to any other payments and fees. Trump eventually lost the hotel and sold it at a loss during one of his bankruptcies.
But why was Trump's pivotal, Oscar worthy scene cut from the film by the CBC?
Most films appearing on broadcast TV run for 2 hours, which includes commercial breaks. The run time for an unedited Home Alone 2 is 120 minutes, or 2 hours.
When CBC gained the broadcast rights in 2014, cuts to accommodate commercials had to be made. First to go were scenes with zero impact on the plot—like cameos wedged into the film to appease a property owner's ego.
The CBC answered the criticism with exactly that information.
People wondered why no one noticed the missing cameo before Trump was impeached.
Except at least one person did notice.
The missing cameo did not escape Garrick Kozier's notice when he caught the 2015 CBC broadcast of the film.
That's right.
The Trump cameo never appeared in the CBC broadcast version of the film. Because of commercials.
Not to be deterred by things like facts, Don Jr. and other conservative talking heads still whinged about the 100% fabricated slight online.
Their righteous indignation did not go over well.
The most vigorous mocking was reserved for Trump Jr. though.
Sorry Don Jr. and friends. You'll have to find a real issue to be "triggered" by before you get any sympathy from people who can perform research and debunk propaganda.
Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram