A Commentary by Doug Draper
In its latest budget, Canada’s Harper government is once again slashing the budget for CBC.
It is awful that this once proud public Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is seeing its funding slashed again, but there is nothing most of us can do about it. And why? Because most of us who bothered to vote in the 2011 federal election in Canada helped elect a majority Stephen Harper Conservative government that never liked the CBC and is now having its way with it.
So since our federal government is in the spirit of cutting and gutting the CBC, why not at least do it with some sense of what should be left as a national broadcaster? And that should mean cancelling CBC on television, including Peter Mansbridge and The National, which have become a pale image of what The National and accompanying Journal once were when the late, great Barbara Frum had something to do with them. That show, and all of the dumb hockey violence that CBC seems to like to broadcasts, along with programs like the ’The Lang & O’Leary Exchange, featuring that male pig who cares only about money and that idiotic female co-host who thinks he’s cute or something, can disappear overnight. Who gives a frig about that?
If there is only so much federal government money left that we, the Canadian people, are willing to spend on CBC, let’s pool it all together and get the best bang for our bucks. Let’s spend it on CBC Radio, which was always there from the start.
Let’s save Dispatches, a great foreign affairs program which is on the chopping block and shouldn’t be, and let’s keep The Current and Q and Readers and Company, and the Sunday morning program hosted by Michael Enright, and take anything else well worth saving, including the Nature of Things with David Suzuki, Market Place and a few others from the television side, and move them over to radio.
As much as it would be great to have CBC back the way it was some three decades ago on both radio and the tube, the people of Canada have decided they don’t want to pay for that anymore. So if that is the way it is going to be, forget about the violent hockey fests (they can be broadcast on commercial channels that feature bloody wrestling fights, and so on) and whatever else is left of CBC on TV, and let’s broadcast the best of what is left on CBC radio.
I am just willing to bet that it will make CBC radio even more engaging as a vital information source for listeners than it is now.
(Niagara At Large invites our readers to share their views below. Remember that we only post views by individuals who are also willing to share their real first and last names.)
Niagara At Large 
Please add George Strombolopolous to that list, Doug!
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Well said, Doug. It is hard to say such things, without sounding elitist, but over my several older years than you, I long ago gave up on TV of every kind, and CBC radio is my lifeline, other than the online newspapers and, yes, [apologies again, Doug] print newspapers, I did give Republic of Doyle a try, as St. John’s is so lovely, but, it is formuliac. There is damn little of interest in any TV for those of us over 60. Before I retired a year ago, I would hear at every lunch hour about the Reality Shows all the young’uns loved, and could barely contain my distain. But I did. Put a cork in it. Not perfect, me, certainly, nor you, I suspect. But why engage with Parson Mansbridge or any of the shows apparently [not knowing, to be honest] on CBC TV? It can all be found elsewhere, in print, in magazines, online.
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I’ve never listened to CBC Radio once in my life–just not a radio listener–but I watch The National each night and The Lang & Leary Exchange most nights along with Marketplace and The Fifth Estate weekly. And like many other Canadians I’ve enjoyed the original programming the CBC has had–shows like Little Mosque in the Prairie, Kids in the Hall, Road to Avonlea, Made in Canada and Wind at my Back. (Sorry if my list of shows isn’t current but I’m sure there are some current running original shows that are good.)
Its all well and good to suggest moving the best shows over to radio but some shows are meant for TV–such as The Nature of Things (which would never translate well to radio) and even Marketplace. Interview/news shows would translate, but for many other CBC TV programming, moving them to radio would essentially kill them. Can you imagine somebody trying to figure out what David Suzuki is talking about without accompanying visuals? Good luck.
But we can’t blame the Harper government solely for chopping the CBC’s funding. The Liberal government of Jean Chretien were the ones who really started decimating the CBC. What the Harper government has cut thus far pales in comparison to what Chretien and Martin cut.
And we can’t entirely blame voters. The majority of those Canadians who did vote actually voted for the NDP and the Liberals and the Greens and Bloc to a lesser extent. And a couple of those opposition parties had planks in their platform calling for an increase in funding for CBC.
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Where do I begin to put my thoughts and comments on the CBC in some semblance of order?
I spent 23 years in the broadcast industry, all of it in the private sector. During that time, I saw waste and stupidity at the CBC that turned me off that organization forever! The CBC is a black hole that sucks taxpayers dollars down into an immense sewer! The waste, misuse and abuse of tax dollars is incredible!
As an example, when I worked in Vancouver, my radio station would send one reporter to cover a news conference by a politician such as the prime minister. The other private radio stations would also send one person. The newspapers would send one reporter and one photographer. The private television stations would send a reporter and a cameraman.
The CBC arrived by the busload! Here’s the breakdown:
CBC local English radio – 1 or 2
CBC local French radio – 1 or 2
CBC national English radio – 1 or 2
CBC national French radio – 1 or 2
CBC English radio “The World At Six” – 1 or 2
CBC English radio “As It Happens” – 1 or 2
CBC local English tv – 3 or 4
CBC local French tv – 3 or 4
CBC national English tv – 3 to 5
CBC national French tv – 3 to 5
CBC tv “The National” – 3 to 5
CBC tv “The Journal” – 3 to 5
I saw similar happening when I moved to Toronto.
Since then, I have come to know a few people who are still at the CBC – technical staff, not management, who tell me that things have not changed all that much. The big problem now is that too many of the managers (middle and upper management) don’t really understand the industry! They are either “artsy-fartsy” types or have risen through the ranks thanks to the Peter Principle. The other big problem is various governments over the years inserting their friends in the highest ranks of management when those friends do not have the first clue about broadcasting (see artsy-fartsy above).
There are many people (too many!) in positions of power who have absolutely no regard for staying within a budget!
Canada needs some sort of national broadcaster – at least as far as radio is concerned. I think CBC radio should be based on the NPR model in the United States, but with a focus on connecting the smaller, more remote areas not served by private broadcasters. CBC television should be scrapped completely – and then re-started, using people who actually know what they are doing, and built along the lines of PBS. There should be little or no taxpayer funding!
If the elitist, intellectual, artsy-fartsy types want the type of programming currently provided by CBC, let them put their money where their mouth is. Do NOT use my tax dollars that should be used to improve health, education and transportation systems.
Government, whether municipal, provincial or national, does NOT belong in the arts and entertainment business!
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Those constantly heard from who wish to eliminate the CBC are usually aligned with Quebecor or the other corporate owned medias, medias whose agenda is in lock step with Corporate Canada and to hell with the blue collared concerns.
Is the CBC a bastion of truth and efficiencies? by all means NO it is an Empire controlled by public appointees and mismanagement is embedded in its administration, thus it truly needs a shake up and evaluation of the personnel but to eliminate NO.
It is the only media in this country that is not corporate owned and much like the American PBS it needs restructuring.
To say that it is useless is far from the truth For I and many others admire and respect the people who work on the 5th Estate, Marketplace and a host of other shows including the National.
That the CBC hosts a show by Mansbridge that has only two or three right wing commentators seems political but all in all he does a pretty damn good Job
When we look at the Canadian Media, journalists in particular they are a sorry lot especially when fantastic journalists walk the streets out of work because they will not sacrifice their morals and write sludge.
This is the sorry thing about media in this country it is no longer the shining sword just a soap box for political patronage.
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As an American growing up through the sixties and seventies I was encouraged by my parents to watch CBC News in an effort to get a balanced perspective on world events. I raised my children to do the same. We are deeply saddened by the decline in TV news reporting in both our countries and now in fact turn to radio and on-line sources to bridge the gap. That said we have ALWAYS enjoyed and RESPECTED Peter Mansbridge even if he’s had his wings clipped.
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