LILLEY: CBC loses lawsuit against Tories while wasting your money

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
26,003
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Regina, Saskatchewan
The Liberal government annnounced members of a new adivisory panel Monday to “provide policy advice on how to strengthen and renew the public broadcaster so it can continue to fulfill its important social, cultural and democratic functions.” It includes two professors (one from California, one from Quebec), the chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, the head of a B.C. video-game industry group, a Quebec TV executive, and two independent media executives — one from a business publication, the other publishing LGBT content.

But CBC veterans and media observers predict the CBC will inevitably remain tethered to the status quo as it slides toward irrelevancy. And, in any event, it maybe too late now to make substantive changes as it runs head-long into a potential Conservative government that wants to pull the funding plug on the public broadcaster (or at least its English television programming).
“This is a great idea, but I think it’s too late. The timing, as usual with the Liberal government, is always out of sync with what the country needs,” said Jeffrey Dvorkin, whose long career at the CBC included a stint as managing editor and chief journalist.

The panel has been tasked with providing advice to the public broadcaster on its governance and funding, reporting to Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge, who has said she wants to modernize the CBC/Radio-Canada and adapt to a “rapidly changing broadcast and digital landscape.”

The review may have more basic goals in mind, such as securing multi-year funding that could make it trickier for Poilievre to slash the broadcaster’s funding if he becomes prime minister. In between verbal jousts with Poilievre, CBC president Catherine Tait has been arguing for long-term funding through a charter, like the BBC has in the U.K.
The mandate is doomed to fail if the panel — and the leadership at the CBC — can’t reckon with the current high stakes facing the public broadcaster, said Peter Menzies, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and former vice-chair of the CRTC.

“There’s nobody there who I think is going to challenge the status quo, in any great sense. I think the panel is largely (about) how do we make the status quo better? What new ideas do we have for the status quo, as opposed to, ‘hey, we’re in a revolutionary time’,” said Menzies.
Menzies said the fundamental problem with the CBC is that it’s not so much a public broadcaster as it is a publicly funded commercial broadcaster that is competing with private news organizations for eyeballs and advertising dollars.

The CBC’s gigantic footprint in Canadian journalism means most of the industry will be watching the mandate review and the political discussion around defunding the CBC with keen interest.

Dvorkin said the government doesn’t seem willing to grapple with the true scale of the decisions that need to be made about CBC/Radio-Canada. He expects a “retrenchment” at the public broadcaster that will mean a complete rethink of its priorities. That doesn’t seem likely in the year-and-a-half before the next election has to be called, he said.

“I think the Liberals are kind of kicking this ball down the field hoping that someone else will pick it up,” said Dvorkin.
 

Dixie Cup

Senate Member
Sep 16, 2006
6,001
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Edmonton
The Liberal government annnounced members of a new adivisory panel Monday to “provide policy advice on how to strengthen and renew the public broadcaster so it can continue to fulfill its important social, cultural and democratic functions.” It includes two professors (one from California, one from Quebec), the chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, the head of a B.C. video-game industry group, a Quebec TV executive, and two independent media executives — one from a business publication, the other publishing LGBT content.

But CBC veterans and media observers predict the CBC will inevitably remain tethered to the status quo as it slides toward irrelevancy. And, in any event, it maybe too late now to make substantive changes as it runs head-long into a potential Conservative government that wants to pull the funding plug on the public broadcaster (or at least its English television programming).
“This is a great idea, but I think it’s too late. The timing, as usual with the Liberal government, is always out of sync with what the country needs,” said Jeffrey Dvorkin, whose long career at the CBC included a stint as managing editor and chief journalist.

The panel has been tasked with providing advice to the public broadcaster on its governance and funding, reporting to Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge, who has said she wants to modernize the CBC/Radio-Canada and adapt to a “rapidly changing broadcast and digital landscape.”

The review may have more basic goals in mind, such as securing multi-year funding that could make it trickier for Poilievre to slash the broadcaster’s funding if he becomes prime minister. In between verbal jousts with Poilievre, CBC president Catherine Tait has been arguing for long-term funding through a charter, like the BBC has in the U.K.
The mandate is doomed to fail if the panel — and the leadership at the CBC — can’t reckon with the current high stakes facing the public broadcaster, said Peter Menzies, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and former vice-chair of the CRTC.

“There’s nobody there who I think is going to challenge the status quo, in any great sense. I think the panel is largely (about) how do we make the status quo better? What new ideas do we have for the status quo, as opposed to, ‘hey, we’re in a revolutionary time’,” said Menzies.
Menzies said the fundamental problem with the CBC is that it’s not so much a public broadcaster as it is a publicly funded commercial broadcaster that is competing with private news organizations for eyeballs and advertising dollars.

The CBC’s gigantic footprint in Canadian journalism means most of the industry will be watching the mandate review and the political discussion around defunding the CBC with keen interest.

Dvorkin said the government doesn’t seem willing to grapple with the true scale of the decisions that need to be made about CBC/Radio-Canada. He expects a “retrenchment” at the public broadcaster that will mean a complete rethink of its priorities. That doesn’t seem likely in the year-and-a-half before the next election has to be called, he said.

“I think the Liberals are kind of kicking this ball down the field hoping that someone else will pick it up,” said Dvorkin.
Get rid of the CBC period! We'll all be better off!
 
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Tecumsehsbones

Hall of Fame Member
Mar 18, 2013
57,947
8,266
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Washington DC
I’ve heard both instrumental versions of Ozzy Osbourne and Guns N’ Roses in elevators….but if you classical music, Warner Brothers cartoons is the go to.
I heard a very amusing story on the radio of one of those clowns who likes to shout "Free Bird!" at concerts. He did so at a string quartet recital.

They retaliated by playing "Free Bird."
 
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Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
26,003
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Regina, Saskatchewan
Just something about Bagpipes is so awesome…gives me goosebumps!!

I worked security at a pavilion several years back now & the band was called “Mudmen.” They’re worth a google & YouTube. If you don’t wanna click on a link, hunt down “Drink & Fight” by the Mudmen yourself for a sample. That one made the crowd go nuts!

About a decade or more back, my Son & his Best Friend travelled up to Saskatoon (2&1/2hrs of highway each way) to go see these guys who’re pretty interesting too:
 

bob the dog

Council Member
Aug 14, 2020
1,448
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Losing one law suit is nothing to worry about. Plenty more coming their way to make everyone forget about the previous blunder.

They destroyed his career in HR

 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
26,003
9,469
113
Regina, Saskatchewan
Well, at the very most, we’re 13 months away from the next federal election, and hopefully sooner. Justin Trudeau’s Heritage Minister, Pascale St-Onge says Canadians love CBC and it’s only Pierre Poilievre who doesn’t like it.
But CBC’s ratings, which have been falling for years, tell a very different story.
St-Onge posted a video to social media defending CBC, which won’t help the perception that when it comes to politics, CBC is the network of the Liberal Party.

“CBC, let’s talk about it,” St-Onge says in the video. “Canadians grew up with it. One politician clearly missed out.”

The video then cuts to a clip of a rally of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre where he talks about saving $1 billion by defunding CBC.

Poilievre’s promise to defund CBC is incredibly popular with his voters and always draws one of the loudest applause lines at his packed rallies.

St-Onge claims that this is just loud talk about “destroying” CBC and points to a poll from Spark Advocacy – owned by Bruce Anderson, a man with close ties to the Trudeau government – to back up the claim.

The poll she points to was conducted at the end of last year and asked people which of the following statements about CBC was closest to their viewpoint – 41% said CBC is important and should continue, 35% said they want CBC but with plenty of change while 24% said CBC is no longer needed. It’s an interesting poll and shows that a majority either don’t want CBC or if they want it, the believe it needs to change.

What the poll didn’t ask was whether CBC should be defunded.

Poilievre’s actual plan is to defund CBC in English – he has no plans to touch Radio-Canada, which is still highly popular in Quebec.

Defunding CBC doesn’t mean it would necessarily go away, but it wouldn’t get the massive government subsidies it does now.

A poll released in July 2023 by the Angus Reid Institute showed 36% of Canadians agreed with the statement that the government “should completely defund the CBC” compared to 47% who disagreed and 17% who said they did not know.

That’s a significant portion of Canadians agreeing CBC should lose its funding. The poll was also taken before CBC started announcing job cuts while also handing out bonuses, a move the vast majority of Canadians disagreed with.