Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

[August1991]

http://www.insidethecbc.com/steven-and-chr...-file-cancelled

Well at least we know why some conservatives are unhappy this week.

Steven and Chris? I had to go to google about that one. Bon débarras.

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CBC? Here's the best rant that I have ever read:

The CBC will never be able to exorcize its left-wing missionary zeal -- for global warming, for Islam, for big government, Barack Obama, multiculturalism, public health care, human rights commissions and so on. And it could never survive on private donations or ad revenues. So the only thing to do with Mother Corp is to pull down its office buildings and stations and pour salt in their foundations.

And I mean radio as well as television.

There is no moral or philosophical justification for using one billion of taxpayers' dollars to subsidize the viewing and listening tastes of a shrinking percentage of the population and the ideological hobby horses of CBC executives and editors.

National Post

And then, this is a great defence of the CBC:

There are two -- and only two -- arguable justifications for public broadcasting in this country: cultural nationalism and intellectual elitism. Everything else is spin from the CBC's (highly energetic) PR department.

Of the two justifications, the nationalism one is the weakest....

That leaves elitism -- a more promising (if less politically attractive) avenue for justifying the CBC's annual consumption of $1-billion in public cash.

On that subject, here's a guilty confession. Though I've spent a good part of my National Post career railing against the CBC's left-wing bias (anyone remember a noisy 2003-era op-ed feature called "CBC Watch"?), I listen to The World at Six and As It Happens every day during my evening commute.

National Post

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Technological changes over the past few decades impose some major changes in our way of doing things. Ask Soviet bureaucrats. I suspect people in the CBC face a similar (if less painful) fate... y compris Guy A. Lepage et Radio-Canada.

Edited March 21, 2009 by August1991

[Michael Hardner]

The CBC needs new ideas in order to stay fresh. CBC Liberalism feels as old as the hills, yet the war against neo-conservatism continues for some reason.

We have public healthcare, do we need to continually talk about the need for it ? Maybe some of the criticisms of public health care could be explored, so that something might be done ? Can we expect a huge bureaucracy to take on bureaucracy ?

Fill out a form if you want to find out...

[Alta4ever]

It is time to defund the CBC sell off the assets and be rid of the thing.

[jdobbin]

It is time to defund the CBC sell off the assets and be rid of the thing.

I look forward to Harper running on the platform. Instead, it will likely remain as part of his secret agenda.

[Wild Bill]

I saw this recently and sadly I missed the author's name. Perhaps someone can tell me who said it:

"The CBC is led by 45 year olds telling 35 year olds how to appeal to 25 year olds."

[capricorn]

Wild Bill, Robert Fulford said something similar to your quote.

In mass communications, which demands spontaneity and imagination, they show little originality and barely a hint of daring. This comes through when they acknowledge, condescendingly, that they are appealing to the young. The melancholy results usually appear to be the work of 30-year-olds instructed by 45-year-olds on how to appeal to 20-year-olds.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/f...ureaucracy.aspx

[M.Dancer]

I saw this recently and sadly I missed the author's name. Perhaps someone can tell me who said it:

"The CBC is led by 45 year olds telling 35 year olds how to appeal to 25 year olds."

"The melancholy results usually appear to be the work of 30-year-olds instructed by 45-year-olds on how to appeal to 20-year-olds."

Robert Fulford.

[Wild Bill]

"The melancholy results usually appear to be the work of 30-year-olds instructed by 45-year-olds on how to appeal to 20-year-olds."

Robert Fulford.

Thanks to both you gentlemen!

Bob's a smart man.

[August1991]

I look forward to Harper running on the platform. Instead, it will likely remain as part of his secret agenda.

Now there's the true paradox.

BBM Nielsen has just released the ratings for the week ending October 7. The CBC is back in the top 30, with Hockey Night in Canada, Rick Mercer Report, and The Tudors, though it failed to crack the top 10.

Random link

Top 30?

No one in English-Canada watches or listens to CBC. CBC-TV/Radio is usually third or fourth or worse in its various markets. About 5% of English-Canadians listen to CBC regularly. [i am making up these stats so correct me if I'm wrong.]

Logically, it should be a vote winner to get rid of the CBC. Explaining why it's not would go far in explaining why modern democracy doesn't really work. Consider that the CBC's anual subsidy of $1 billion amounts to about $30 from each Canadian.

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Let me add that Radio-Canada achieves very high ratings in Quebec both in TV and radio and so any talk of eliminating the CBC subsidy would likely involve transferring Radio-Canada to the Quebec government or to some entity subsidized by Quebec.

[jdobbin]

Now there's the true paradox.

Harper can't come out and say he will kill CBC because it means going after Radio Canada as well. They would go down to 0 seats in Quebec.

No one in English-Canada watches or listens to CBC. CBC-TV/Radio is usually third or fourth or worse in its various markets. About 5% of English-Canadians listen to CBC regularly. [i am making up these stats so correct me if I'm wrong.]

You are making up the stats in CBC Radio.

CBC Radio One in the last quarter scored number 2 in Winnipeg.

CBC Radio One last winter was number 1 in Calgary.

And so it goes. I've done this list before and it has generally shown some of the best ratings in a generation.

So I am saying that people who say no one listens to CBC Radio are probably lying.

Logically, it should be a vote winner to get rid of the CBC. Explaining why it's not would go far in explaining why modern democracy doesn't really work. Consider that the CBC's anual subsidy of $1 billion amounts to about $30 from each Canadian.

CBC TV in Canada certainly has had problems.

It should try the strategy that worked for CBC Radio.

Let me add that Radio-Canada achieves very high ratings in Quebec both in TV and radio and so any talk of eliminating the CBC subsidy would likely involve transferring Radio-Canada to the Quebec government or to some entity subsidized by Quebec.

If CBC was solely about the ratings, you might have a point. It is an instrument of public policy though. As such, they should be trying to be different from private broadcasters.

[jdobbin]

Bob's a smart man.

Fulford and his wife used to work for the CBC and he has praised the CBC in the past.

He doesn't deal with the highly rated Radio Canada or the highly rated CBC Radio. Most critics seem to focus on CBC TV.

[cybercoma]

I just wanted to toss out a perspective on CBC, that is not necessarily my own, but I find it an interesting consideration:

The death of CBC is a symptom of global cultural integration. The CBC, initially, served the function of uniting a nation as diverse as the UN General Assembly. In order to strengthen political borders and state sovereignty, the CBC served the function of a mutual focus of attention for Canadians. Television is becoming a thing of the past--if video killed the radio star, the internet killed the television networks. The world inches towards cultural integration that extend beyond the borders of nation-states. People receive more information from the internet these days than either newspapers or television and that information is more globally oriented than ever. As we move towards a global culture, the CBC becomes a vestige of the times when state-sovereignty and national unity were more important than global citizenship. As the world becomes more united, services that resist global integration, such as the national-identity fostering CBC, will go extinct. If you agree with a world without borders, one global culture of humanity, then the death of the CBC should bring a smile to your face as global integration becomes realized.

Edited March 26, 2009 by cybercoma

[Michael Hardner]

The death of CBC is a symptom of global cultural integration. The CBC, initially, served the function of uniting a nation as diverse as the UN General Assembly. In order to strengthen political borders and state sovereignty, the CBC served the function of a mutual focus of attention for Canadians. Television is becoming a thing of the past--if video killed the radio star, the internet killed the television networks. The world inches towards cultural integration that extend beyond the borders of nation-states. People receive more information from the internet these days than either newspapers or television and that information is more globally oriented than ever. As we move towards a global culture, the CBC becomes a vestige of the times when state-sovereignty and national unity were more important than global citizenship. As the world becomes more united, services that resist global integration, such as the national-identity fostering CBC, will go extinct. If you agree with a world without borders, one global culture of humanity, then the death of the CBC should bring a smile to your face as global integration becomes realized.

Thanks, Cyber, for that observation.

Though I agree, I also think CBC can still find some common points for all Canadians - both as an integrator of regional cultures and as a forum for the nation as a whole.

One thing they will have to do is start to get in touch, with all those they don't appeal to now - the conservatives, the youth, and so on.

[jdobbin]

One thing they will have to do is start to get in touch, with all those they don't appeal to now - the conservatives, the youth, and so on.

I think for many conservatives the best thing to happen would be for the CBC to be gone. It isn't a question of appeal.

Many simply have opted out of Canadian television or paying for television.

[fellowtraveller]

The show had less than 300,000 people watching it and sometimes went as low as 100,000 people.

Hmmm, I had read that Intelligence has very strong foreign sales.

CBC started out as an instrument of policy intended to inform and unite our country.

Now it is having the opposite effect, becoming a beacon of dissent and disharmony.

[jdobbin]

Hmmm, I had read that Intelligence has very strong foreign sales.

It also drew the attention of the FOX network but they later backed out.

I think the show just wasn't promoted properly and it seemed the show was about to a lot better when they pulled the plug.

CBC started out as an instrument of policy intended to inform and unite our country.

Now it is having the opposite effect, becoming a beacon of dissent and disharmony.

It is why I think Tories would kill it if they felt they wouldn't lose every seat in Quebec.

[cybercoma]

There's something else I wanted to bring up that I forget to mention in that original blurb. Although it was meant as a force to unite the nation, by creating a mutual focus, the CBC began as a divided service: CBC in anglophone Canada and Radio-Canada in francophone Canada. As a tool for national unity, the CBC has been completely ineffectual.

Instead, CBC/Radio-Canada created united regions, further increasing regional and anglophone-francophone tensions. Some people, however, may not see this as a problem. Those same people may welcome ethnic-regional divisions which lead to cultural autonomy or sovereignty.

The issue of CBC boils down to where you believe the ultimate authority should lie. Should the regions and cultures ultimate have authority over themselves? Should the state have the prime authority, even if it limits cultural autonomy? Or should the state and cultures have no authority over business within our borders; should global laissez-faire economics prevail, allowing trans-national media corporations to compete for our airwaves?

I don't believe there is a right or wrong answer here. It all depends on your perspective.

[fellowtraveller]

Let me add that Radio-Canada achieves very high ratings in Quebec both in TV and radio and so any talk of eliminating the CBC subsidy would likely involve transferring Radio-Canada to the Quebec government or to some entity subsidized by Quebec.

Not quite.

Any transfer of Radio Canada to an exclusively Quebec ownership would also inclusde the annual trabsfer of a few hundred million dollars every year too.

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