NEVER!

The government never lies. Do they? Priorities must change and the CBC has been most pesky in their pursuit of honesty in government. Their wagon has been fixed.

CBC was also cut 30% in the 90's

It's healthy and important to review so-called endless funding increases to the CBC. Last year they received an off budget $60 Million extra to balance their books, over and above the $1.3 Billion they receive annually. When it is never repaid, call it is size and money creep or their new normal.

PM Chretien chopped off 30% from CBC's budget but management and reporting side never complained too vocally back then maybe because they re-joined the government payroll in a varied capacity?

Why is the gov't in the broadcast business

Sell the CBC, if we can get anything for it. If they cost us 1.3 billion that is $40 per person. That works out to about $40 an hour for the amount we listen, watch or surf CBC each year. What purpose does the CBC serve.

CBC has been reduced to taxpayer subsidized corproate shills

I used to be a strong supporter of the CBC but that was a decade ago. Because the federal government has direct control of our "public broadcaster" through appointment of their top executives coupled with constant budget cuts, CBC has been reduced to another corporate media shill just like all the rest of them. The only significant difference is this one is taxpayer funded. I have written to the CBC for years warning them of the consequences of their relentless degeneration but never received the courtesy of a reply. Their total lack of journalistic integrity at this point makes it impossible for me to continue supporting them.

The only way I would consider future support is if the organization was set up at arms length from all government influence and the entire CBC management was replaced with people who understand journalistic integrity and that will certainly never happen under the present government.

Well maybe its time to start reporting issues...

Such as keeping the subject of potential voter fraud in the limelight... I mean that story now applies to the CBC since its Harpers majority government that has given you this cut. How many seats did they win their majority government by? Does anyone remember?

The high value, low cost of the CBC

Thanks woodworker for your math expertise. At $40/year per Canadian we are definitely getting a good deal. I do not personally watch CBC or any TV but I enjoy CBC radio very much. I know that CBC radio is heard in every part of our country in many different languagues. What a great tool for both newly arrived immigrants and for those of us who have been in this great land for generations. The CBC serves many useful and important purposes. Without the CBC to keep me thinking "Canadian" I would vote for BC separating from the rest of Canada.

Bravo Herb Spor!

I agree whole heartedly! Bad month for news organizations in general though. With 50% viewership down from CNN and 17% down on Fox News on the American side and Canadians being the most internet savvy, I imagine the CBC is having a terrible time with ratings as well. The fact is the media in North America in GENERAL is incredibly out of touch with their viewers. Coverage from events in the last 6-10 months have turned me off of Sun Media and CBC entirely.

This government has no interest in keeping CBC afloat and that should have been apparent from the beginning, though I think alot of us are in shock and awe from the sheer amount of garbage our government is advocating on a almost daily basis!

CBC?

The CBC has failed as a public news service. At one time they offered insightful programs and critical news, but now it is entertainment and more status quo. The pundits like Murphy, Mansbridge and Soloman are supporters of the Conservatives; you can tell from the interviews they do. I remember seeing an interview with Chris Hedges and he was attacked Fox news style by Kevin Oleary. It is a shame, but CBC is committing suicide by normalizing the right-wing.

Free advice CBC... set priorities

Set priorities in your spending.

"Rural and remote regions will feel the heaviest blows because they often rely on the CBC as their primary media presence".

Why?

Why not protect that spending versus spending on programs like "Hard" porn which really doesn't need a public subsidy and CBC Newsworld - the latter of which is a subsidized competitor w/ CTV, CNN, Fox, SUN News, MSNBC, etc?

At least then you'd have a core mission and SUN News would have to "grow up" once CBC Newsworld 24 hour news was not competing w/ them!!

Anybody should be proud of

Anybody should be proud of being attacked by Kevin O'Leary.

The only things we ever watch are some news now and then, and sometimes I put the TV on for a few minutes at around 4 pm, waiting for my tea.

I think, O'Leary is permitted to spew forth his ridiculous parasite campaign on CBCTV, while calling himself an "investor", as a kind of a comedy relief and also to butter up the "conservatives", hoping for mercy.

The biggest mystery is how and why should anybody watch, or buy anything from TV or radio ads ? Haven't had a radio on for over 20 years.

Ed Deak.

@ Talon

Then make CBC a non-profit organization and the people that want to listen/watch to it can pay for it. That is where I get most of my radio- commercial free by the way - thought I do have to stream it from the US. Listerner/viewer supported programing works well and the users get what they want.

CBC AGAIN

OH NO NOT AGAIN PC PARTY

EVERY 5 OR SO YEARS YOU FEDS ATTEMPT TO DISMANTLE CBC RADIO.

LEAVE THE CBC RADIO ALONE.

WE HAVE TWO MANY FED PUBLIC SERVANTS.

PC'S HAVE HIRED 20% MORE STAFF AND LAYOFF 5%. SOMONE'S KEEPING COUNT EH.

CBC IT IS A GREAT STATION FROM CANADA AND HEARD BY ALL CANADIANS FROM COAST TO COAST..

MP'S CUT YOUR LUCRATIVE GOLD PLATED PENSION PLANS THAT YOU HAVE GIVEN YOURSELF NOW.

YOU WILL BE HEARING FROM SENIORS AND CARP MEMBERS I AM SURE AND

ALL WHO LOVE CBC RADIO AND TV.

@ netzerofair

With satelite communication CBC is no longer the listen to station in remote areas. I have worked in these areas and most people have satelite radio in their vehicles and many have it in their homes as well. Way cheaper than CBC would be if it were actually user supported.

Hoping to survive, they threw off excellence

Globe and Mail John Doyle says "in programming on English radio and TV, has been utterly feckless, constantly diminishing its own standards. It has leaned right and ostentatiously pro-businesslike, a nervous Nelly anticipating criticism before it arrives. It has abandoned excellence in countless areas...

"...Every week seems to bring some new, desperately conjured tweak of Dragons’ Den. The result is that the public broadcaster has been out of sympathy with its traditional supporters"

Offering star roles to a neanderthal from HNIC and a media whore from the business (or is that the self-promotion) world doesn't engender support from this viewer.

More importantly, the CBC's desperate effort to please the BC Government with a friendly reporter by suspending rules of good journalism shows they are unworthy.

By choosing to behave like the corporate media, they need to fund themselves in a similar way.

Canada's Communication backbone

There are many things I do not agree with, in this year's annual budget. Cuts are deep to several very important social & environmental programs, including vital youth non-profits such as Katimavik, but the cuts to the CBC is something people will feel everyday in their homes across this country.

I am a strong supporter of our National Broadcaster, CBC radio has followed me throughout the rural and urban communities I have lived in. The cuts will devastate CBC programs, cut deep into real journalism that we count on, and slash away our homegrown media.

I am so against this move that it has woke me up to the national conversation of the negative direction this country is taking.
I do not want my tax dollars redirected to building more jails against a decreasing crime rate and military equipment that is so massively expensive it is beyond comprehension.

I do want my tax dollars to build a socially progressive, safe, clean country. I am now willing to get out there and ensure next year, our National Budget, looks so completely different, that it looks Canadian—again, eh.

Compared to the body-blow to the Fisheries Act...

the budget cuts to the CBC are relatively painless.

I am getting to the point where I would rather pay an annual licence fee like they do in England, if it meant we could get an advertising-free and pledge-break free station.

The CBC is far to glitzy for me. The National news broadcast has far too many bong-bong themes and visual distractions on the screen to be able to follow the actual news.

I wish they wopuld drop the bloody orchestral music and little mobile thingies that flit across the screen when the news is on.

And if Peter Mansbridge has to eat a sardine sandwich out of a brown paper bag for lunch, so be it.

We are living in tough times and there is no room for luxuries. That includes politician's pensions. Suck it up everybody. Canada's productivity has dropped so our standard of living has to follow.

I don't think the CBC has been able to boast of excellence for quite a while. Just excess. They are not quite the same thing.

I agree Norman Farrell!

I listen almost exclusively to the CBC. It annoys me with all the latest attempts to make it more like all the other useless media organization like having a debate between Lang an O'leary as though we need to cater to morons for entertainment. I mean wasn't Don Cherry enough?

More an more it has resorted to the superficial. But for all that it is still miles ahead in honest reporting than any of the others. Their resources have been reduced substantially over the years and yes sometimes they handle politicians to gently it is sickening but they still are better than the others.

For $40 a year it is a bargain. I never watch Dragon's Den or Lang and Oleary as I find them too much like those other shows from the U.S. that make obnoxious people into celebrities.

The CBC should stick to its guns and go down swinging. By trying to appease the right- wingers who like propaganda that favours them more than honest news, they are dying a slow death.

Private Reception James M. Flaherty MP Hys Encore 637 Hornby St

I don't know about any of you - but I'll be there with a sign...

https://www.jamesmoore.org/secure/bcrsvp.php
Date: Wednesday, April 4, 2012; 5:00-7:00 pm
Address: Hys Encore Restaurant, 637 Hornby Street, Vancouver, BC [map]

@netzerofair

That is unfortunately not that true... In Yukon, there are a great many people who do not subscribe to any paid television services. CBC is our basic news.
But CBC has been doing too much entertainment and not enough investigative journalism. If CBC keeps going down the road of its present Harper style of Canadiana, it is doomed. Then Canadians will need INDEPENDENT public broadcasting, like in the USA, with PBS and LINK.TV. Both of these services are eons better than CBC, which is stuck in "sell Canadiana" mode.

Harper's hidden agenda

Harper wants to guy CBC, Telefilm, The National Film Board and other Canadian institutions that offer critical thinking and artistic expression from a left of centre perspective. All Canadians should demand an inquiry into the illegal and unethical robocalls made by the Conservatives that resulted in Harper stealing the election by illegal and unethical means. The Conservatives would not hold a majority government otherwise. There should be re-elections in all the swing ridings that were sabbotaged by the Conservative Party paid for and executed robo calls. THis Saturday, there are protests all across the country. Concerned Canadian citizens should show up and demand a just democracy.

CBC be gone

The CBC news is no longer objective. The current events programming is propaganda for the LPC. "Regional programming" like BC Almanac has been cut back to almost nothing. The CBC News Victoria Bureau Chief is in bed with Christy Clark's media queen and refuses to do his job, EVEN when called out by the CBC Ombudsman.
Third and long, time to punt.

ignored by the CBC

Herb Spor said: "I have written to the CBC for years warning them of the consequences of their relentless degeneration but never received the courtesy of a reply."

I'm curious who you wrote to at CBC? Last week I sent a letter by regular mail to the president of CBC, after my online complaints of anti-Aboriginal racism in the comment sections of CBC.ca were ignored by the CBC Ombudsman and Moderator Manager. I wonder if I too will be ignored.

CBC is still the best and only

CBC is still the best and only source of public broadcasting in this country; it is in a holy mess because of successive attempts by this (and other) governments to starve it through interference and underfunding.

The comparative cost for the CBC the BBC and ABC (Australia) is the only metric necessary to demonstrate to Canadians what is going on:
CBC:
Revenue from taxpayers: $1.02-billion operating grant plus $125-million capital from Parliament in 2009-2010.

Revenue self-generated: $567-million from advertising, as well as commercial revenues and subscriptions for specialty channels.

Cost per citizen: $34

BBC:

The BBC is the largest and most successful public broadcaster in the world, funded by a licence fee on every TV set in the land. The BBC does not run ads on either radio or television, raises billions in international program sales and is about to launch its iPlayer internationally.

Revenue from taxpayers: $5.6-billion from the TV licence in 2010-2011.

Revenue self-generated: $2.4-billion, mainly from its commercial arm, especially BBC Worldwide.

Cost per citizen: $91

ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

With a population about the size of English Canada, Australia maintains an ad-free public broadcaster with multiple television and radio services. Its television networks specialize in news, documentaries, children’s programming and the occasional high-end drama, operating alongside commercial television

Revenue from taxpayers: $937-million from Parliament in 2009-2010.

Revenue self-generated: $189-million, mainly from its commercial arm.

Cost per citizen: $42

James Moore

is consistent with 99% of politicians at all levels in my experience:
they are smooth, vindictive patholigical liars.
Did anyone expect this latest budget to reflect a different mindset?
The old adage - "Politicians are like diapers in that they need to be changed frequently and for the same reasons" is still a propos.

CBC a bloated fart of a

CBC a bloated fart of a taxpayer reliant broadcaster.

Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, dear old old Don Cherry, big-ratings-Mosque? ever-Coronation St., InSecurity!!, Ghost WispDunked, Neil Flotilla4Hire MacDonald....

Over a Billion dollars given every single year and no Beachcombers!

Does CBC suck?

I'd agree that CBC sucks if I saw the private sector doing better. But they don't.

CTV, Global and the others aren't doing great news and magazine shows or creating new Cdn content. Except for the commercials you just assume you're watching US tv.

CBC Cuts

The conservatives lied ... no way!!! And again your surprised!!! This time, shame on you for believing them in the first place. Make sure you see what side of their face is talking first.

An excellent article

Quote:

"Perhaps folks in the glass offices of the CBC all along should have been listening more closely to the prime minister than to his minister. That is the view of Globe and Mail television critic John Doyle, who concluded the CBC "has failed to defend itself adequately. It has been naive. For CBC, and all its radio, TV and online platforms, this Prime Minister is an implacable foe, as imperious in his dismissal of Canadian TV news as he is in dismissing anything that smacks of that European welfare state. For the government, the CBC is a symbol that must be diminished and denigrated."

The above quote nails it.

And from a great post by G West:

"CBC is still the best and only source of public broadcasting in this country; it is in a holy mess because of successive attempts by this (and other) governments to starve it through interference and underfunding."

Much agree. CBC has been intentionally underfunded and dismantled, in order to cripple it and to ultimately engender the kind of negative criticism we see in a number of the comments here. These intentional debilitating actions follow the very same lethal process that has been applied to so much of our public system, weakening our public system, (this time our public broadcaster) to the point where it can be easily pushed off the cliff or 'heroically' saved through privatization.

It's important to remember that this pale version of the once vibrant CBC has been intentionally created, in order to dismiss it, and to steal it away from public control.

It's one more covert attack on our sovereignty as citizens of this country - slyly accomplished through the underfunding and debilitating manipulation of the social infrastructure that defends that sovereignty.

CBC?

I actually found it surprising that Flaherty said he was not going to build any new prisons and that the Public Safety Department, which includes the RCMP, is being cut as much as the CBC. Not very Conservative of him considering the new crime bill. But all we hear about from print media is the CBC.

CBC TV?

I an an avid supporter of CBC Radio (commercial free) but I find it difficult to find support for CBC TV. The TV division is commercial, they compete for audience share to sell their advertising and yet are subsidized by the people of Canada. This would not be so bad if they offered something other than the same, same, drivel that the other stations put out.

A real news story should be more than a 30 second byte as is on the commercial stations. That news story should also have some meat in it unlike the pablum deivered by the litigation fearing private broadcasters.

Lets dump the TV and spend more on radio and investigative reporting. That is where our money could do the most good and the government be dammed if they are caught being sleazy.

If I were a betting man, I

If I were a betting man, I would unfortunately have to say the CBC will be gone or privatized by the time Harper is done his first full term with a faux majority. he does not care what people in this country may or may not want. Just his own wicked petty personnel agenda.

Not long ago I heard a U.S. journalist...

...make the claim that the U.S.A. does not have a single national broadcaster. What you have is media that is active in one part of the country only. There is no unifying voice that everyone can listen to to get the same news. If that is such a good think then why is Canada so much a better place to live?

I'm with Lynn above 100% and if the CBC goes, it will always be an election cry, "Remember the CBC!"

Granville

You have to remember that the audience CBC TV is trying to cater to, has only a few milliseconds of attention span. Try listening to the (commercial free) CBC radio. It's much more incisive.

Conservative liars.

Never fails. Never trust Liberal - socreds, Conservatives or Republicans. They'll lie and lie because they know people will believe them! Never believe them.

G West

CBC is still the best and only source of public broadcasting in this country;

No less true, the CBC is still the worst and only source ... :)

I agree it is sad to watch the dismantling of our northern European welfare state, and not because it was ever an ideal political model. But it was far more compassionate of the Canadian people on the whole. What we now have, in comparison, is perhaps analogous to the difference between an ankle monitor and maximum security (which is where we are headed).

The thing about media, though, is the viewer always has the option of turning it off. In today's world, we should all be trying to capture as much alternative information as possible from the internet. We know the state noose is attempting to close off its availability. Whether it will be successful is well beyond my technical understanding, but I do know the encroaching political efforts will be persistent.

So with that in mind, it is a shame anyone watches or reads or listens to anything from the traditional disseminaters of propaganda, imo.

(I know the Tyee is as right-wing as I lean.)

Substantial but incremental destruction

Yeah, CBC ain't what it used to be, much due to long time cuts and government appointments, but as a news and analysis source, there ain't no Canadian media outlet that can compare.

Sun media TV is absolute shlock beside the CBC, but that's where Harpo and his cronies get there news. Remember, he only gave 2 TV interviews in the US, and they were both to Fox TV.

CBC still sends its reporters out of country to report on international stories, not just Reuters reports. Any others still do that?

CBC TV has deteriorated, but I Still watch Suzuki's Nature of Things, Marketplace, The 5th. Estate, Little Mosque was good in its first couple of seasons, a few specials and the odd hockey game on Saturdays.

Have to say that Kevin O'Leary is just another Don Cherry of the "greed is good" investment world. Really sad sack.

But anyone who says Evan Soloman is right wing, they never saw his interview with that shill from "Ethical Oil".

I still like the BC news and the National, compared to CTV and moreso, Global TV.

I could get by without CBC TV and all its commercials, but they obviously need a revenue stream beyond diminishing federal funding.

But CBC Radio 1 is another story. Funding cuts forced them to do some repeats, but...

The Current, The House, Ideas, Quirks and Quarks, Enwrite Files, Dispatches, The Link, Debaters, Canadian concerts, international radio and so much more, all without annoying commercials for products that I would never buy, what a gem.

Without this service, many of us would become very isolated as we refuse to listen to commercial stations, much preferring to listen to talking books with some CD and downloaded music, while getting our news from on-line sources like the Tyee, until the neoCons try to shut these down. Think China.

$40 a year, I would gladly give CBC $100, just for CBC Radio 1.

This is about James Moore's bald faced lie. Several months ago I contacted my Con. MP, after hearing other Conservative MPs' calls to defund the CBC. He also assured me that CBC funding would be maintained. Another liar and con man. Lies from the same talking points sheet, put out by the PMO.

Cut those useless F35s. That money would keep CBC funding going for decades.

Of course the Fisheries and fast-tracked environment Acts, Old Age Security, misnamed science geared toward business purposes (as such, it's technology development, not science) and much more, none of these serve the best interests of most Canadians.

Will people remember in 3 years? we'll see.

CBC Funding

The CBC, like the BBC, has, long ago moved right (just as the NDP is now doing) to try to placate corporate-controlled right wing governments. Sucking-up to bullies only elicits distain. The only way to fight them is to stand up to them without fear. Get rid of Mansbridge's 3 conservative puppets and replace them with some real thinkers like Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein, and send all of the news people on a course to learn to put some background in their stories. Lose people like Evan Solomon and replace him with an interviewer that doesn't just bring on government hacks to spew out their propaganda and give us Canadian news instead of U.S trivia, then perhaps we will start watching CBC again.

Harper's Man....

http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/newsreleases/pdf/Ian_Morrison_letter.pdf

woodworker

The CBC is a "public" broadcaster. That means, the "public" pays for it. The advantage of that? It provides a media source different from the boring commercial, corporate, annoying shit that no minds like you want us to suffer thru!

Drop Grapes!

CBC could save a penny or two by dropping Don Cherry from the line-up.
He is not comedy relief, and certainly not doing anything to promote hockey to anyone except the blood-thirsty.

Re: Substantial but incremental destruction

OwlRol, you read my mind. And your post's subject line said all that really needs to be said -- I was going to post a long screed, but you and some others have already summed up nearly everything I had to say.

Except one thing: for an example let me compare CBC TV news and CTV news; I've noticed that CTV news is generally more attractive, more dramatic and "grab-ier" than CBC news -- but that the CBC news is, in the end, actually more informative. In a world where some alleged purveyors of news have successfully argued in court that they have the right to deliberately deceive and consciously lie to the public,

As for a "publicly supported" CBC similar to PBS, and the like, I strongly suspect that the economics and/or demographics just won't won't work out that well; Even in the US, the PBS network receives a large government subsidy, plus various grants and ongoing support from big US charitable foundations -- pledge drives raise about half of what they need (and the stations near the Canadian border rely enough on Canadian viewers that they make specific acknowledgement of the fact during each pledge drive, and special arrangements to encourage Canadian participation).

At least the American audience was savvy enough to resist Republican efforts to co-opt PBS from above. It's an interesting question whether the Canadian audience is equally savvy (recent history leaves room for doubt, and I'm not sure I'd want to put it to the test, and I'm yet more doubtful that any such test would be a fair one).

What Cuts?

Are you people aware that the budget "proposes" reducing the contribution to the CBC by $28 million in the next year with a further reduction of $7 million a year for the following twelve years. I hope you all appreciate that this is not really a "Cut".
It's a token appeasement to those Conservative supporters who's blood boils at the thought of more Marxist junk from Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein for which they have to pay.

John Corman

This - coming from someone who doesn't even know what "marxist junk" is!

If anything, what Harper has done in his 6 "glorious" years at the helm is Marxist Junk, what with his increasing government spending and size, increased the deficit, contrary to his lies about reductions.

Does Anyone Even Watch the CBC?

Hell, I have't watched the CBC in an eternity. And that's Saturday night 6 pm Hockey Night in Canada. It's also apparent that others who I joke with about the CBC don't either.

After reading the responses herein, people actually do watch the CBC? Amazing.

What the hell for?! I'm all ears. :P

Rick W

Hell, that's the best commercial that I've ever read for NOT voting NDP. For that matter, the BC NDP wants to spend additional $billions$ every year on programs with our current $1.5 billion annual deficit.

Now all that we've got federally is Lib or Con. Which one do you support?!

The Libs slashed the deficit during the 1990's obviously to your liking. The Libs then?!

Coolie

I'm not the least surprised you and your peeps don't watch the CBC

Well Cool Hand...

... to be perfectly honest, I listen and watch CBC almost exclusively for political news to avoid commentary like yours being expressed by talking heads that want you to think they are "telling it like it is". In fact, if the truth be known, your criticism of the CBC is probably the best reason to continue to tune in.

Appearance, misinformation, thick headedness

The roughly 40% of the active electorate who voted Conservative, are not all anti CBC, far from it, many like to listen to CBC Radio. or sometimes watch CBC TV.

Yeah, there are some ideologists, supported by Sun Media (much the same way as the Tea Party is backed by the Koch brothers) who want to get rid of the National broadcaster, much to their own advantage, but it is not such a common sentiment, even among many Christian conservatives.

Although Naomi and Avi are interesting journalist producers and have a role in broadcasting, so do right wingers like David Frumm.

A public national broadcaster must reflect the mood of the nation, even as a significant portion of the electorate sadly shifts to the right. It is not their job to move voters to the left, rather to report on issues and provide a degree of analysis not found on commercial networks, beyond the Fraser Institute viewpoints, often presented in a Rush Limbaugh style.

One need not agree with some well articulated viewpoints, such as that of Rex Murphy (perhaps over-articulated), the reporting of people like Terry Milewski and so many others make the news worthy. This is not a forum for CNBC and Fox news type settings and argument, and hopefully never will be.

CTV news is "more attractive" and "dramatic", but not as "informative" than CBC.

Unfortunately, appearance plays too large a role in leadership (eg. Stephen Harper's baby blue sweater, now publicly discarded, or should Thomas Mulcair shave his beard?", nice tie, etc.)

I recently spoke to a 30 something woman who said she voted for whoever looked like the best leader, and she was shocked when I said that she should primarily base her voting decision on issues rather than leadership or party appearance.

Nothing new. My mom liked Trudeau for his charismatic appearance and tone, compared to Clark and Stanfield.

But some form of renewal for his National Energy Policy (NEP) is essential for Canadian well being.

Value added refining on site, pipelines to central and eastern Canada first, leading to national self sufficiency, not Asia first for higher corporate profits, using fossil fuel energy to rapidly develop alternative energies with appropriate subsidies given there, rather than to rich fossil fuel outfits, that's the appropriate energy, long term vision, so opposed by this government's blind regime and its big backers.

Too bad the top Conservative appointees won't allow CBC reporter journalists a freer reign on this and other issues Theirin lies the problem.

But lets not throw out the inteligent baby with the bathwater, only to be replaced by a cuter but dumber one.

Cool Hand

Why is it that rightista governments ALWAYS increase debt and deficit?

Moore's revenge?

Listen to how Minister Moore spoke to Anna Maria Tremonti in this episode of CBC Radio's The Current and ask yrself if he wasn't already out for blood:
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2012/02/07/theatre-chill-over-staging-controversial-productions/#

If a tree falls in forest ...

Is anyone watching? They are listening. The audience numbers for CBC radio are excellent. The audience numbers for CBC TV are not. If CBC can attract such a large share of the audience for radio, then why not TV?

CBC TV has four programmes in the top 30 watched list. Two of them are Hockey at No. 6 & 29. The others are Dragons' Den at 13 and Republic of Doyle at No. 30. Without Hockey they only have two shows in the top 30. Why? Why is CBC continually unable to do on tv what it is able to do on radio? Not even the CBC National News makes the top 30 list!

http://www.bbm.ca/_documents/top_30_tv_programs_english/2012/nat03192012.pdf

Easy Peasey

Because they're forced to be, by skinflint government funding (less than half of what the BBC gets), dependent upon the fickle taste of commercial sponsors.

Fund CBCTV and radio to the appropriate levels (as attainable in a hopelessly broke and class ridden society like Jolly Old) and the viewers and quality will follow.

Great Britain can't teach the colonists much - we should take the few good lessons they do know something about ant learn from them.

Not Really

Speak to anyone that has worked at CBC TV and you will soon find out that the programming is the result of politically-correct, committee-based, watered-down mediocrity. In attempting to satisfy perceptions that all regions and all demographics are catered to, the result becomes tepid and tasteless. Much like a Salisbury steak.

Speak to any media placing agency, or ad-agency people and learn that it is certainly not they that decide on the programming.

Why can the local BC Knowledge Network schedule a wide range of excellent drama, arts and informative programmes yet CBC TV seems to have abandoned so much?

Why has CBC Radio Two lost so much of their audience? One used to hear Radio Two wherever one went. One could weave through shops and offices and Radio would follow you. No more now. Money certainly had nothing to do with that. Is pap and swill cheaper? No.

BBC CBC

The BBC has 23,000 employees. The CBC around 6,000.

So where does all the money go? Name one, just one CBC TV production that plays successfully world wide.

CBC

Why do we need the CBC in the Internet age? We have more sources of great information at our fingertips, than we can use.

At around $1 billion er year, this taxpayers' Black Hole is unnecessary, this is NOT 1922...

Oh Really?

Kevin O'Leary and Whassername Lang are the product of committee-think? Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune are the products of political correctness?

Like Hell. O'Leary brought his little gong show to CBC from the private sector - along with his architecture graduate sidekick.

Did you actually READ the post? It would seem you didn't, or you wouldn't have posted this nonsense: "So where does all the money go? Name one, just one CBC TV production that plays successfully world wide."

The CBC gets by, running networks all across this continent, on less than a third of what the BBC gets to broadcast to an island nation not a hell of a lot bigger than Vancouver Island...Papa and Swill IS cheaper - which is why you hear MORE of it on private radio and TV..GET IT?

R/M old man....

All Salisbury steak needs is a generous helping of gravy to taste good - same as CBC.

R/M old man....

http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/Farewell+Little+Mosque+Prairie/6394640/story.html

RickW

I didn't know that. Thank you. I wish there were more. Maybe I'll try and catch an episode in re-run.

CBC is a gem (still)!

I listen to CBC Radio 1 and I watch CBC TV, especially the National and its updates. Many people in Canada, especially in the more remote areas, love the CBC as it keeps them in touch. The CBC does have a unique mandate compared to the privately run media, and this is both good and bad. But ... the CBC is now "running scared"! It is now basically owned by the Tories despite what public perception may be. As I listen and watch I am very saddened that the CBC has gone so mainstream, so willing to kowtow to the political party in charge. I can't believe that Barbara Frum would ever have allowed the CBC to be browbeaten into submission. Certainly Jack Webster in BC wouldn't have! And there must be a lot of friends and relatives of Rex Murphy living in Fort McMurray to explain his "white washing" of the "black tar" which they seek to foist on the world (i.e. in a recent cross-Canada check-up).