A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
One can certainly understand why the federal Conservative government of Stephen Harper would want to yoke the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – better known as the CBC – through more funding cuts and whatever other means.
After all, the CBC has continued to produce stories as recently as this past April, focused on the large numbers of super wealthy in this country evading taxes through offshore accounts and the Harper government’s foreign employment program and how it is running Canadians out of jobs.
You can only image how a control freak like Harper, who reportedly takes every step possible to control the words coming out of the mouths of his Conservative MPs, would respond to a publicly funded broadcasting organization generating this kind of information.
I know. Some of you out there abhor the idea of publicly funded broadcasting too. Let the free market rain with cheap, morally depraved reality TV programs and news that is tailored to kiss the stock interests of the network’s advertisers. I know that is where some of you want us to be because I have received the email before. I can only say to these people – ‘Fine then. Enjoy Metroland and Sun Media.’
For the rest of you, who may appreciate the special role public broadcasters play in the intellectual and cultural common wheel and who care to fight for public broadcasters like TVO and CBC and PBS in the United States, please click on the following from the independent watchdog group, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, and consider signing the petition at http://bit.ly/10YEGi9
(Niagara At Large invites you to join in the conversation by sharing your views on the content of this post below. For reasons of transparency and promoting civil dialogue, NAL only posts comments from individuals who share their first and last name with their views.)
Niagara At Large 
CBC, with this government interference, will now lose its arms-length distance from the government, and it will be akin to State TV, i.e Harper messaging.
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Sorry Doug, the CBC is a gigantic sucking hole that devours millions of our tax dollars that would be better spent on improving health care, education etc.
I spent 23 years in private broadcasting and saw, first-hand, some of the waste that goes on at CBC. And through a close friend who is still at the “mother corp,” I know the situation is not getting better, it is getting worse.
You refer to “the independent watchdog group, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.” They are just another shill group supported by the CBC!
Back in April, 2012, I put together a bit of a commentary on the CBC for NAL. Here it is … and my beliefs have not changed one iota!
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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then we have Pierre Karl Peladeau of QMI (Sun Media, or is that FOX news North?) taking a wee step back from top dog, but stayin’ on, as well as coming on Board now of Hydro Quebec, plus thinking about running the PQ’s. His sidekick Kory Reneycke is still trying to strong-arm the CRTC to make Sun Media TV available on cable packages, like em or not…. it is a complex media world, I think we can all admit.
In two years, Putin, oh sorry, Harper, has managed to muzzle scientists, stop the mandatory long form census that actually informs Canadians, tell
librarians and archivists they do not have freedom of speech, create a huge Religious Freedom right-wing unit worth thousands more than any scientist or poorly paid archivist has ever dreamed of, closed down the experimental lakes, cancelled the Kyoto accord, used our taxpayers money to have a hugemobile drive him and Laureen around Asia for the photo-ops, and this is a good way to spend our taxpayers money? I’ll take CBC radio and its straight-shooting interviews anyday against these idealogues.
just sayin’
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I WOULD LIKE TO LET YOU KNOW WHEN I RECEIVE MY C.B.C. SPORTS A PORTION IS MISSING AND HAS BEEN FOR ABOUT 3 DAYS I WANTED YOU TO KNOW.
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I find it almost impossible to get reao time on line radio from cbc.
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