« One of the four things you can't blame Bettman for | Main | Stark, raving madd »
August 29, 2005
Stiff upper lip
Peter Worthington, shooting from the hip:
The CBC cannot sustain itself without public financing. Its appeal is to a narrow and noisy group of elitists who squawk whenever CBC funding is cut.
Its budget tops $1 billion a year, plus Telefilm money it corrals.
Many of us would support the CBC if it truly lived up to its mandate to provide Canadians with quality programming that commercial channels ignore.
And not just Canadian-made stuff (which most Canadians shun), but Masterpiece Theatre, foreign programs, opera, symphonies, talk programs.
I'm no fan of the CBC in its current (i.e., pre-lockout) incarnation, but Masterpiece Theatre isn't going to solve anyone's problems. And opera — opera! — isn't going to draw the non-elites away from whatever they're currently listening to on the wireless.
Posted by Chris Selley at August 29, 2005 08:53 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.tartcider.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/55
Comments
The CBC gives us the best news coverage in Canada. That alone is worth the billion.
Posted by: Robert McClelland at August 29, 2005 11:35 PM
I won't watch or listen to Canadian news anywhere else, period.
The children's programming raised me, and outshines most of its peers.
CBC Radio 3, Just Concerts, and NewMusicCanada are showcases for emerging musicians and shows like Go, Definitely Not the Opera, WireTap, and Brave New Waves pump through my car and home stereo weekly and are, in my opinion, the very definition of the CBC's mandate. They expose Canadians to outstanding Canadian music that doesn't get played on commercial stations.
What continues to impress me is how much these programs are able to do with the money they have.
Posted by: Mr. X at August 30, 2005 03:36 PM
"The CBC gives us the best news coverage in Canada."
That is, the news coverage that most closely conforms to your opinion.
"That alone is worth the billion."
If you really think so, then you are welcome to lobby the CRTC to move it to 'pay per view' or onto the subscription satellite radio services. Surely "telling our stories to ourselves" will be such an overwhelming draw that this station alone will make the carrier(s) rich.
Or maybe not.
Dean
Posted by: DCardno at August 30, 2005 06:11 PM
No matter what they try to do, the CBC is a flop, the listenership is miniscule, and the news division just undermines commercial media by stealing stories dug up by underpaid journalists from the private sector. The CBC should be closed down.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 30, 2005 06:41 PM
Oh, C-B-C! I thought you were talking about the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. If you ever want to meet a bunch of raving socialist separatist homosexuals, check out Hotlanta, honey. Snap-sna-ap!
I'm sure if we all sit back, breathe, hold hands, and sing the themesong to 'The Logrider,' we'll make it out okay. Remember 'The Logrider?' It's rad. "And we'll go turning, turning down whitewater/that's where the logrider somethingsomethingelse..."
They still play that one, and THAT is worth $1 billion, my friends.
Posted by: deepfriedgold at August 30, 2005 07:53 PM