What the CBC has done for you lately...

[Higgly]

1) The Ontario lottery scandle in which it was discovered that an elderly man was being swindled by a store clerk and stonewalled by the Ontario Lottery Corporation (who has now apologised).

2) The slave trade.

[kimmy]

2) The slave trade.

The CBC is involved in the Slave Trade? For real?

-k

[Higgly]

2) The slave trade.

The CBC is involved in the Slave Trade? For real?

-k

[kimmy]

2) The slave trade.

The CBC is involved in the Slave Trade? For real?

-k

What do you mean? You said "What has the CBC done for me lately? The Slave Trade." I mean, surely after what you said in the other thread, you're not expecting me to go and do a bunch of reading to figure out if you're talking about some sort of documentary, or a new sit-com, or CBC's new collective labour agreement.

"Read your own bloody sources and then explain them to the rest of us. ...I am busy enough trying to keep up with my own sources thank you very much." ...as somebody famously put it.

-k

[Higgly]

O brother.

[jbg]

Well, I shut down the CBC Bulletin Board, with some help from the National Post and Roy Wilson. See below. I will e-mail anyone a copy of the article, in PDF format.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

CBC Web site bars use of word 'Jewish'

National Post

Wed 10 Mar 2004

Page: A1 / Front

Section: News

Byline: Brian Hutchinson

Source: National Post (Link to full article text)

Internet users who post messages on a CBC Web site have launched complaints that the Crown corporation routinely removes the words "Jew," "Jewish" and "Israel" from network chat rooms devoted to online discussion of news events.

Meanwhile, vulgar expletives frequently appear on the same CBC discussion Web site. So do the words "Nazi" and "rabid Zionist."

Even the incendiary phrase "red-neck greedy selfish Alberto-centric money grubbing pig" passes muster with CBC censors, who use special software to seek and destroy postings containing words they have deemed "inappropriate."

People wishing to discuss Israel and issues that relate to the Jewish culture must disguise their messages, complains Roy Wilson, a Peterborough -based realtor who regularly visits the CBC's message boards.

*snip*

A New York-based attorney who posts frequently said the CBC began filtering the words "Jew," "Jewish" and "Israel" last year, after one of its message boards, devoted to Middle East issues, was deluged with anti-Semitic and anti-Palestinian comments.

But such postings have not ceased entirely. "I've been called a 'rabid Zionist,'" said the attorney, who posts under the handle JBG. "But if I decide to respond, even in the nicest, most polite way, I can't use the word 'Jew.' And I am a Jew. I have to make up a word instead. It's absurd."

To prove his point, JBG attempted yesterday to post the following message on a CBC message board:

"As the Jewish festival of Purim closes, I believe it is essential for the world to understand what it means. It is a joyous holiday, celebrating the triumph of the Judeans over Haman, an evil dictator. Israel has on numerous occasions [sic] supplied the world with what should be occasions for rejoicing. It has triumphed over tyrants such as Hafez Assad of Syria and Idi Amin of Uganda. Those triumphs, rather than being celebrated, are roundly condemned."

The message did not make it past the CBC's auto-filtering system. JBG then substituted "Juwish" for "Jewish," and "Isr@el" for Israel. His post was accepted immediately.

According to the CBC's own guidelines, posters may not launch personal attacks against others; ethnic, and racial slurs are expressly forbidden. "Posts containing inappropriate words will be caught in an automatic word filter for screening," the guidelines note.

But even a cursory search of the CBC's message boards turns up dozens of violations. Some offending posts have sat on the CBC's Web site for months.

For example, the word "frog" is frequently used on CBC message boards to describe French-Canadians. In December, a poster using the handle QCLIBRE wrote that "Canadians will not paid [sic] for bilingualist and Quebec French frogs again."

*snip*

[Electric Monk]

Sounds like an automatic word filter does not a moderator make.

[Canuck E Stan]

Well, I shut down the CBC Bulletin Board,

Good Job JAY-BEE-GEE,

Your next assignment should you choice it.....is to shut down the mother corporation completely.

This assignment may be Mission Impossible, but no one in Canada has the gonads to do it.

[B. Max]

Well, I shut down the CBC Bulletin Board, with some help from the National Post and Roy Wilson. See below. I will e-mail anyone a copy of the article, in PDF format.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Good for you jbg. The CBC costs us a billion a year and I have long wanted to see it sold off to private interests.

[jdobbin]

Good for you jbg. The CBC costs us a billion a year and I have long wanted to see it sold off to private interests.

Why stop there? End Canadian content and ownership restrictions and bring in straight U.S. programming.

[Argus]

Good for you jbg. The CBC costs us a billion a year and I have long wanted to see it sold off to private interests.

Why stop there? End Canadian content and ownership restrictions and bring in straight U.S. programming.

For the most part, that's all we watch anyway. The only exceptions are sports, a few news shows like the 5th Estate, and a very occasional breakthrough show like Corner Gas.

The CBC has lots of money, but it wastes it. They're snobs, too. They couldn't be bothered trying to put out a popular show. They want to out a show that "enlightens and informs" which translates into political activism on my tax dollars.

There's an old story of how the different TV groups cover a news story in Ottawa.

The A-Channel sends one guy with a handicam.

Global sends a reporter with cameraman.

CTV sends a reporter with cameraman and sound man.

CBC sends two trucks with satellite gear, dressing rooms, a reporter, sound man, camera man, writer, electrical man, makeup man, three producers, an assistant producer, two editors, a gopher, and of course, the truck drivers.

[B. Max]

Why stop there? End Canadian content and ownership restrictions and bring in straight U.S. programming.

Canadian shows that were worth watching would not end. As the CBC stands now it is nothing but a left wing propaganda machine paid for with dollars extorted from the taxpayer. The Canadian content business is similar to the iron curtain across Europe, but in this case it is an electronic curtain. When satellite came along in shot a few holes in that curtain. Which caused the CRTC to scramble to patch up the holes as best they could.

[jdobbin]

Canadian shows that were worth watching would not end. As the CBC stands now it is nothing but a left wing propaganda machine paid for with dollars extorted from the taxpayer. The Canadian content business is similar to the iron curtain across Europe, but in this case it is an electronic curtain. When satellite came along in shot a few holes in that curtain. Which caused the CRTC to scramble to patch up the holes as best they could.

There are no Canadian shows worth watching according to ratings, no economic reason for any Canadian content national news, drama or variety. Perhaps there might be for some sports.

The Conservatives could end Canadian content and ownership and CTV could become a U.S. affiliate along with Global and CBC could be sold to a U.S. network. Ditto all the cable channels. And might as well throw radio into the mix too.

[Ricki Bobbi]

The CBC has lots of money, but it wastes it. They're snobs, too. They couldn't be bothered trying to put out a popular show. They want to out a show that "enlightens and informs" which translates into political activism on my tax dollars.

That is the problem. Why should taxpayers be forced to subsidize *any* agenda???

[geoffrey]

Canadian shows that were worth watching would not end. As the CBC stands now it is nothing but a left wing propaganda machine paid for with dollars extorted from the taxpayer. The Canadian content business is similar to the iron curtain across Europe, but in this case it is an electronic curtain. When satellite came along in shot a few holes in that curtain. Which caused the CRTC to scramble to patch up the holes as best they could.

There are no Canadian shows worth watching according to ratings, no economic reason for any Canadian content national news, drama or variety. Perhaps there might be for some sports.

The Conservatives could end Canadian content and ownership and CTV could become a U.S. affiliate along with Global and CBC could be sold to a U.S. network. Ditto all the cable channels. And might as well throw radio into the mix too.

Why must you be like that? With current content regulations, your bombarded daily with Canadian content anyways. Have you ever listened to radio?

Why do we need taxpayer funded operations on top of that?

[jdobbin]

For the most part, that's all we watch anyway. The only exceptions are sports, a few news shows like the 5th Estate, and a very occasional breakthrough show like Corner Gas.

The CBC has lots of money, but it wastes it. They're snobs, too. They couldn't be bothered trying to put out a popular show. They want to out a show that "enlightens and informs" which translates into political activism on my tax dollars.

There's an old story of how the different TV groups cover a news story in Ottawa.

The A-Channel sends one guy with a handicam.

Global sends a reporter with cameraman.

CTV sends a reporter with cameraman and sound man.

CBC sends two trucks with satellite gear, dressing rooms, a reporter, sound man, camera man, writer, electrical man, makeup man, three producers, an assistant producer, two editors, a gopher, and of course, the truck drivers.

Even Corner Gas doesn't get enough viewers to pay the freight. No Canadian program does except for sports. The Conservatives could end all of that and simply allow CTV, Global and CBC to be U.S. affiliates.

[B. Max]

There are no Canadian shows worth watching according to ratings, no economic reason for any Canadian content national news, drama or variety. Perhaps there might be for some sports.

The reason for that is because they don't have to be. They are guaranteed spots so it doesn't matter what they put out.

Not every America show is an automatic hit, there are lots of them that go down the tubes as well.

Who would have thought trailer park boys would have made it past square one and that's canadian, and there was talk that it was going to start running in the states. I don't know if it ever did.

[jdobbin]

The reason for that is because they don't have to be. They are guaranteed spots so it doesn't matter what they put out.

Not every America show is an automatic hit, there are lots of them that go down the tubes as well.

Who would have thought trailer park boys would have made it past square one and that's canadian, and there was talk that it was going to start running in the states. I don't know if it ever did.

Trailer Park Boys receives Federal funding. It isn't economically viable either. No Canadian TV series is.

[Ricki Bobbi]

Even Corner Gas doesn't get enough viewers to pay the freight. No Canadian program does except for sports. The Conservatives could end all of that and simply allow CTV, Global and CBC to be U.S. affiliates.

How about cutting the vast sums the CBC gets from the Feds to the same level per viewer that CTV gets. That would save us about a billion I figure...

[jdobbin]

Even if CBC was cut altogether, CTV and Global cannot produce economically viable programming. It costs a minimum of $500,000 to $1,000,000 for one hour of original programming. It costs less than $50,000 to buy most U.S. programs.

Canadian TV and radio is not economically viable. It is subsidized. The question is whether Canadians wish to have Canadian TV and radio or not.

[B. Max]

Trailer Park Boys receives Federal funding. It isn't economically viable either. No Canadian TV series is.

I don't know where you would find all that out. Alliance Atlanta is huge publicly traded multi national company that must turn a profit for the share holders. The CBC is not but should be.

[jdobbin]

I don't know where you would find all that out. Alliance Atlanta is huge publicly traded multi national company that must turn a profit for the share holders. The CBC is not but should be.

Alliance Atlantis got out of production except for CSI because they were losing money at it. They only make money on broadcasting in Canada. Generally, their profit comes from distributing cheap American programs in Canada on their cable networks.

[B. Max]

Alliance Atlantis got out of production except for CSI because they were losing money at it. They only make money on broadcasting in Canada. Generally, their profit comes from distributing cheap American programs in Canada on their cable networks.

Alliance Atlanta owns show case.

[jdobbin]

Alliance Atlanta owns show case.

Correct. And they make money by distributing HBO programming such as Six Feet Under which costs $50,000 for each episode shown versus the $2,000,000 U.S. it costs to produce. Even Trailer Park Boys costs more than it takes to buy U.S. programming.

Canadian programming is not economically viable. If there were no Canadian content guidelines, there would be no Trailer Park Boys or any Canadian programming.

[Ricki Bobbi]

Canadian programming is not economically viable. If there were no Canadian content guidelines, there would be no Trailer Park Boys or any Canadian programming.

Should television programming exist if it isn't economically viable?