so true G West

There are two public affairs gems still available on CBC Radio One, "The Current" and "Dispatches"...oops "Dispatches" has been cancelled thanks to Flaherty's cuts.

There are very few venues for freelance radio journalists these days and Dispatches provided one of those rare venues.

the last bastion of Canada.

Growing up on a farm in central Manitoba, the choices for radio were, local am( good if you want to hear the farm report, or wanted to buy a used toaster on the " trading post"), or the CBC. The CBC kept you informed of everything in the "outside world". Without it i would have never heard classical music, or the air farce.
It sadens me to think that Harper is going to strip down the CBC and sell it off to some multi-national, leaving Canada with some kind of " fox news north", " all the news we want you to hear programming.

The problem is that those in

The problem is that those in charge don't seem to have a clue that public broadcasting has an incredible power to educate a populace (or perhaps they do, and are deliberately working against it). Everything for these Philistine number crunchers seems to be distilled to the bottom-line of popularity and/or profit.

When execs such as Stursberg pour funds into amusing-ourselves-to-death crapola in order to "gain a popular audience," they contribute to a dumbing down of the public -- a self-fulfilling, Catch-22 situation whereby Canadians will no longer even know what quality programming is when they see it, nor have the patience for it. Furthermore, as junk content mimics what is already offered on private networks, how simple it is for the govt. to say (and rightly so and without much public complaint) why do we even need the CBC? It's suicide from within.

Public broadcasting should serve to enlighten and uplift the knowledge of its citizens - in the same way that fine education, and, yes, museums, theatre, and the higher arts do. If CBC TV were to take that mandate on, even with POOR DEMOGRAPHICS, it could be revered as a valuable public institution offering historical dramas, in-depth interviews and panel discussions, arts, cultural and educational programming. (That's not to say the occasional sports, popular music, or comedy programs couldn't be included, within reason.)

With time and an increasingly educated populace, audience numbers would slowly rise, as in Germany and France, etc. not diminish. But for many years now, poorly educated CBC honchos have had it totally ass-backwards, worrying about the top ten hit parade audience numbers instead of what they should be concerned with: educating and entertaining a populace that doesn't currently seem to have a sniff about anything other than Hockey Night in Canada, Canadian Idol, and Dragon's Den. What a waste of a marvelous opportunity, and one future Canadian generations will live to regret.

Stursberg's book

So this is the guy responsible for cbc radio 2 format change and CBC TV's Dragon's Den?

Too bad they didn't fire him before the changes.

We need to rebuild the CBC as a truly public broadcaster.

My husband and I watch PBS and Knowledge Network in B.C. and I listen to NPR radio out of Seattle as well as the CBC. The programming on these media outlets are superior to current CBC offerings because they are PUBLIC and not commercial. Canadians deserve much better than,"Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy"!!

Right on Carol!

I would add that the tendency to want to make news entertainment is also offensive. After the what, when, why, where and who questions are answered I don't need to hear/see victims emotional accounts. I think I can imagine them. Keep away from the entertainment part of tragic stories. Just because CTV deals with fluff pieces and the latest celebrity brain lapse does not mean the CBC has to follow.

Interesting

This article brings back to me some long-ago chats I had with my dad, who was Chairman of the CBC in the late 80s, early 90s.

At that time, his biggest challenge was determining how to deal with Mulroney's massive budget cuts to the corporation, while still trying to maintain some creative juice and journalistic quality and integrity.

Nonetheless, and inevitably, he made a lot of enemies on the creative side.

But nowhere near so many as on the beaurocratic sludgepit side. That was where he tried (ultimately in vain, as later chairman rescinded his changes) to make the most effective cuts: get rid of the beaurocratic nest-stuffers sitting around in Ottawa doing quite literally nothing but earning money and tenure, and maintain the creative side.

But, it didn't work.

In the end, if you look clearly at history, there is no way to avoid the simple fact that the Conservative party, and its corporate backers, have been waging an all-out war on the CBC since the 80s.

The results of that war are so painfully clear today. The CBC used to be a critically important and vibrant participant in what made Canada, Canada.

Now? Sorry, but it's shit.

All the people

Since all Canadian taxpayers pay for the CBC, plus advertisers, shouldn't the CBC serve all Canadians rather than a small group. I only listen to the CBC radio first thing in the morning for a half hour (national then regional news) and sometimes in the car. I usually watch hockey (or at least Coach`s Corner)and The National but have started to watch Land & O`Leary during supper. CBC carries few non-news shows that I would bother watching. The CBC has to become more relevant to a majority to Canadians. They use to have news and news magazine shows but they became advocacy shows for the big egos on them (such as the Nature of Things). Very little international news reporting now on CBC, especially for places outside of Europe. Funny that the CBC reports more about Greece than the US states that border Canada or countries like Australia, Japan or Russia.

Very Good Writing

Kai Nagata's raw talent shines through! Like his other work, this article draws the reader in. After the first sentence, I couldn't stop reading until the final paragraph.

As to Mr. Stursberg's reign, it is obvious that the CBC has been deeply undermined by Harper and his right wing cronies. If Stursberg couldn't meet their 'standards', then no-one can.

If elite executives like Stursberg ever decide to truly speak out against the Harper regime, Canada might have a chance. But if they remain muted (one's career is always at stake), then the rise of fascism will continue.

Great coverage as always.

Stursberg

While he would never admit it, Stursberg was responsible for the loss of CFL on the CBC. During the lockout in 2005, whichwas totally orchestrated by Stursberg, the CBC "broadcast" CFL games without a play by play announcer or a colour commentator. All you watched was the video with crowd noise in the background. It was a disaster and the owner of the Lions, a rather influential person in the CFL that he would never agree to a contract with the CBC again. Stursberg's line that CTV outbid them is rather self serving.
The man also didn't have a clue about the network's biggest property - hockey. If you want audiences in each of the NHL's cities, you should be showing the home team in each of those cIties on a Saturday night. He did not understand that ratings in Edmonton would be higher for an Oilers game than a Canucks or Flames game. Mr. Stursberg seem to be on an adventure to save his shattered reputation and the fact that his vision and management were massive failures.

I spend about 6 hours a day at my computer.

Next to my computer is a small TV, set mostly to CBC NEWS. In easy reach is my remote with the MUTE button colored in bright red. While reading the TYEE, and other on-line articles, I glance at the TV and stop what I'm doing on my computer if I see something of interest on the News. I would estimate that my TV is muted more than 75% of the time. I enjoy Manbridge's interviews and his one-on-one show as well as the Lang and O'Leary commentary. But the news items and the same ads are reapeated dozens of times throughout the day, so you don't miss anything by not watching it all the time. Good thing I'm retired.

Sadly...

...to a degree, I find myself unable to get too worked up about the current cuts because thanks to people like Stursberg, CBC (especially the television portion) is already so little different from the commercial stations, so I never watch it. I have no need for thirty second "it bleeds it leads" "stories." There are few things to recommend the US over Canada, but the acceptance in the States that Public Broadcasting needn't be, shouldn't be, and ain't never gonna be the ratings topper allows it to have at least some shows that actually look at issues meaningfully and in depth instead of just pushing jingles.

Relevant

The CBC needs more money. Its dramatic series aren't watched because they get made in tiny runs and before people can get hooked, they end. We need more public broadcasting, not less. Of course, when Jack Layton suggested that a few elections ago, he didn't win.

The Harper "Government"......

.....is committed to it's libertarian ideal of complete privatization, and because the changes it is implementing may cause it to lose the next election, it must hurry. So one of the tenets of libertarianism it will ignore is size of government - which will continue to grow over the next three years. It will use this as a battering ram to overrun any and all objections to what it is doing.