Supriya Dwivedi Exits CFMJ (Global News Radio 640)/Toronto, Files Complaint Alleging Company Failed To Enforce Standards Against Misinformation

Dwivedi (Photo: Twitter @supriyadwivedi)

SUPRIYA DWIVEDI has resigned as morning co-host at CORUS News-Talk CFMJ-A (GLOBAL NEWS RADIO 640 TORONTO)/TORONTO, and she has filed a complaint with the CANADIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION alleging that CORUS was responsible for an increase in racist comments and threats due to failing to enforce standards for its talk radio programming.

VICE reports that DWIVEDI's resignation letter to GLOBAL NEWS SVP WARD SMITH pointed to the station's hosts airing “false narratives about refugees, Muslims, Sikhs, and other targeted groups,” drawing a response from CORUS attorney HOWARD LEVITT claiming that the company “did everything possible to protect her and others from racism and misogyny,” blaming her for being unable to "tolerate the trolls of social media" and suggesting that "she does not belong in talk radio as practiced in NORTH AMERICA." He said that attacks against DWIVEDI came from the public and that CORUS is not responsible for them. VICE quoted from LEVITT's letter that he wrote, “She accepted a position in talk radio on a station with a significant conservative listenership, where commentators express strong and divergent opinion and the public responds accordingly…. Attacks from listeners and others on social media, as well as having other hosts with contrary opinions to her own, are a fundamental constituent of the job she accepted.”

DWIVEDI, co-host, with MATT GURNEY and later MIKE STAFFORD, of "THE MORNING SHOW," joined the station in NOVEMBER 2016 and was the only person of color in the lineup. She said that she resigned after a listener sent in a comment that said, “Instead of all the hating on white men you pompous little c--t maybe you should be protecting your daughter against BLM thugs who will eventually rape your daughter.”

CORUS provided VICE with a statement saying, “To suggest that CORUS tolerates, let alone encourages, the dissemination of misinformation is simply not true. It is unreasonable to suggest that the content of any of our programs is designed to provoke hateful commentary against any of our employees. We were proud to provide SUPRIYA DWIVEDI a platform to share her commentary and opinions not just on radio, but across our television and online platforms. In the same way we were committed to her freedom of expression, we remain committed to the freedom of expression of our other hosts and commentators.”

Emails from SMITH to DWIVEDI viewed by VICE asserted, “In a talk radio station, where we have hosts and guests with strong and differing opinions, there will invariably be guests and hosts whose views other hosts will find to be ‘inaccurate.’ It is impossible for any station to police that unless, of course, we only hired hosts and required guests whom all had monochromatic views. But that was never this station.”

Her response, according to VICE, was that she does not take issue with those with conservative opinions (a position backed by GURNEY, who was let go in FEBRUARY 2019) and understands that trolling is "an industry-wide problem" but objects to "people making demonstrably false comments on air and rarely correcting them," and the company's inaction.

A statement sent to VICE from CORUS said, “To suggest that CORUS tolerates, let alone encourages, the dissemination of misinformation is simply not true. It is unreasonable to suggest that the content of any of our programs is designed to provoke hateful commentary against any of our employees. We were proud to provide SUPRIYA DWIVEDI a platform to share her commentary and opinions not just on radio, but across our television and online platforms. In the same way we were committed to her freedom of expression, we remain committed to the freedom of expression of our other hosts and commentators.”

Read VICE's report, including more details about the on-air and listener comments that prompted DWIVEDI's complaint, by clicking here.

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