I have to admit that when I heard that the Con Heritage Minister Shelly Glover was warning the CBC to boost its ratings, or ELSE, I thought of her former profession.
And of what some bloated foreign fascist, who may or may not have been Hermann Goring once said:
"When I hear the word culture I feel like reaching for my revolver."
“CBC/Radio-Canada is attracting fewer viewers than before, despite the fact that it is receiving more than $1-billion in direct subsidies from taxpayers each year,” Ms. Glover said. “The changes [at the CBC] are a result of that decrease. It’s up to CBC/Radio-Canada to deal with it.”
Because let nobody who loves the CBC and this country misunderstand what Glover means.
“Changes” in this case is a euphemism for cuts, including the 400-plus pink slips the bleeding public broadcaster issued to employees just last week. Ms. Glover’s not-so-subtle message to the CBC’s executives is simple: Boost your ratings or suffer the consequences.
She is threatening to cut the CBC budget even further. Even though those brutish Cons have already done it so much damage.
And even though contrary to what Glover claims, those "changes" or savage cuts have NOTHING to do with the CBC's ratings, and everything to do with the Harperite cult's foul ideology.
And the depraved desire of its monstrous leader to destroy everything good and Canadian...
And the only reason his Cons want the CBC to spend more time entertaining us, rather than informing us, is also only too obvious.
One senses that the Conservatives would be perfectly happy to see the CBC gut its news operations and spend what’s left of its scarce cash feeding opium to the masses in the form of inoffensive and (especially) apolitical entertainment. The Tories are fine with a broadcaster that dishes up wholesome servings of Murdoch Mysteries. Smart reporting on politics and policy, not so much.
They want to muzzle, cripple, or kill the only independent news source in this country that is not beholden to the Con corporate agenda.
Have us watch more trashy TV, or episodes of Murdoch Mysteries, Stephen Harper's favourite show...
The sinister twisted leader who after crippling the CBC is now demanding that it should run faster on its one remaining leg, or he'll amputate the other one. As only he could.
When in fact the CBC shouldn't be focused on ratings, it should be focused on QUALITY. On challenging us and raising us up, rather than dumbing us down further.
And in a country as rich as this one, it should receive enough money to do that, rather than having to lower its standards, and go grubbing for advertising dollars. While dying the death of a thousand cuts.
Because while it is flawed...
How could it not be when it makes "stars" out of teabaggers and bullies?
And it does have useless managers.
A senior CBC manager who sought to punish Linden MacIntyre for indelicate comments he made comparing Peter Mansbridge to disgraced radio host Jian Ghomeshi was forced to back down Thursday after her bosses reversed an unusual directive she had issued barring the fifth estate journalist from appearing on the network’s cable news channel.
Who would rather fight themselves, or tarnish the reputation of a GREAT Canadian journalist like Linden MacIntyre...
For the "crime" of telling the TRUTH.
Instead of standing up to the Cons, and defending the higher principles of public broadcasting.
But despite those flaws, the CBC is still a precious national institution. It does still help hold this big country together. Its news and documentary service is still second to none. It is still worth saving.
And what the Cons are doing to it is a crime against Canada. For let there be no doubt, any more cuts will KILL IT.
It is high time for all Canadians to realize that this precious resource, this essential national institution, their voice and their eyes and ears on the world, is truly in danger of disappearing forever.
And all I can say is how low have we fallen?
And you better believe that we shall also use this against them in the next election. When we ask Canadians to decide what country they want to live in: Canada or Teabagistan.
And in the meantime would Shelly Glover, the police officer masquerading as a Heritage Minister, please stop talking about culture. Because it hurts my ears eh?
And because I know what the Cons mean by culture, or NOOZ...
I can't help feel like she's waving a revolver in my face, so much does it offend me.
Could she also please stop calling savage cuts "changes." When thousands of mostly young CBC employees have been thrown into the street.
Because that's practically OBSCENE.
And while we're at it, would she also please refrain from taking her foul Con talking points from the alien place we know they come from...
You know, Stephen Harper and his Con teabaggers think that by destroying the CBC they can help destroy OUR Canada, or change it beyond recognition.
But I believe exactly the opposite eh?
I believe that if we defeat the Cons, and save OUR CBC.
We can still save this country, and still demand better...
Please click here to recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers.
The Cons will never destroy or completely dismantle the CBC because it's become an extremely valuable propaganda mouthpiece for the government in charge. 'News' stories are simply narrated quips from the PMO or redirects and paid product placement from the Canadian Press. It's the only way they can access and manipulate the millions of Canadians who still fool themselves into thinking the CBC is a useful institution.
ReplyDeleteThe CBC outgrew their use decades ago, once corporate controllers started to influence media, research and reporting. The only thing that we get today from this network is narrators.
The solution? We need a TRULY public news service and resource that no government, corporation or individual can control, because eventually control = agenda. The tools and technology exist to create a news feed or service that's created by and serviced by people.
So why doesn't it happen? Because collectively, we're still trying to save something that shouldn't be saved. Let's move on from the CBC and build something by ourselves and for ourselves.
hi anon....I agree with you when you say that we need to create our own media. But as I said in my post I still believe the CBC is a precious national institution, that helps hold this big country together. It's being bloodied and bullied by the Con cult, and it seems to be run by an incompetent clique more interested in celebrity than culture. But it's the Cons and the bosses who are small and bad, not the broadcasting machine itself, or many of the people who work there. So if we can evict the Cons, fire a few bosses, support the decent people who work there, and encourage it to lift its sights not lower them, it can still be a force for good AND great again...
DeleteHey now, don't go attacking Murdoch Mysteries just because Stephen Harper likes it or he made an appearence, its a good show that often swings to the left. They had to act friendly to Stephen to survive, CTV was getting rid of them.
ReplyDeletehi Gyor...I'm not putting down Murdoch Mysteries. I confess I've only watched it for a few minutes just so I could try to figure why Harper likes it so much. But it seemed well made, and I support all Canadian drama.
DeleteI only wish there were more gritty original shows that take place in the present, and reflect the country as it really is in all its hope and horror. As for why Harper likes that show, apart from his fatal attraction for the past, criminality and shady characters, I'm going to have to do more research and consult his psychiatrist...;)
I so love the CBC and always have relied on it to entertain and inform me . I have lived in isolated places all my life and from the war news when my brothers were serving in WW11 to the grain prices when my father farmed to Max Ferguson and Gzowski there has been nothing finer. I am a sort of insomniac helped through the night by CBC programming, but it no longer features some of the best as it did. Cons are afraid of truth, that's what is going on.
ReplyDeletehi Anne...yes, I also have special feelings for the CBC, I do feel it is one of the things we created together, and if it's flawed it's because we are too.
DeleteAnd I can never forget the time the Great Ice Storm hit Montreal, and the city was plunged into darkness.
And how I sat there in the light of a candle fiddling with a tiny transistor radio trying to find out what was happening. But all the stations were off the air, so all you could hear were American ones. And then out of the darkness, loud and clear, came the calm, reasoned, and oh so Canadian sound of CBC radio. Informing, reassuring, and throwing open its phone lines so Montrealers could speak to each.
In that frigid darkness, with only my almost invisible black lab for company, it was a magnificent moment...
I almost never watch the CBC any more.. even the news shows I used to watch daily are a pathetic joke..can't stand it anymore..and the shows they pick are from hunger, as the old vaudevillians used to say..Murdoch
ReplyDeletes right up there with Heartland for adult viewing purposes...no thanks...although I can see why it's popular with emperor Steve..simplistic and old fashioned, when men were men and women were...well, whatever they were in ignorant male fantasies then, helpless and frail and prone to wearing lots of makeup at a time when no one did..just one of those authentic touches left over from the fifties, Harper's favourite epoch...
'
We all know what happened, and why, and this 'heritage' minister, Glover, is really (has to be) Fantino in drag...same attitude.
I agree that they cannot dismantle it completely but it won't be long before it is a mere shell of itself and only watched in areas that receive nothing else, which was, of course, part of its original mandate..
For this and so many other reasons, the next election can't happen fast enough...
hi mizdarlin...I don't watch the CBC much either, but then I don't watch much television. And even though it's news network is horribly trashy and lighter than air, it does have some very good journalists on TV, radio, and the internet. Maybe I'm over influenced by the view many in Quebec view Radio Canada, which occupies a special place in their hearts because it is so intertwined with their struggle to be recognized as a nation. But I still think the CBC can play a big role in the rest of the country. And yeah the Cons are up to the tricks all Cons play here, or in Britain, or anywhere else. First they slash an institution's budget, then they claim it can't do a good enough job, and then they kill it or privatize it. Like you, I can hardly wait for the next election...
Delete... and the argument for the CBC grows from the flawed statistic that the CBC only cost some $28 per Canadian capita... that's for every man, woman and child.... and children don't even watch or listen to the CBC!
ReplyDeleteThe killer statistic is that the CBC Billion$$$ subsidy averaged out, per capita, over the ~7000 employees amounts to ~$143,000 subsidy per job... each and every year!!!!
If you average out the CBC Billion$$$ subsidy over it's user base it amounts to ~$1,500 subsidy per CBC user!!! Maybe the solution is to have a CBC contribution line in our federal income tax form so that all the faithful CBC supporters could kick in their $1,500 contribution to keeping the CBC alive for another year... ya think???!!!!
hi anon...I don't know what you do in life, but let's hope you don't teach mathematics. Because I'm no mathematical genius, but you really must use your fingers when you count, because your numbers are absurd. The cost of running a radio and TV network in two official languages, in a country as massive as this one is not merely the cost of salaries. It involves other things, like buildings, transmission lines, travel, satellite time etc. So it does come out to $28 per Canadian, and it IS a bargain. On the other hand, Sun Nooz also gobbles up government subsidies, and it's just trash...
DeleteOkay, Simon.... but to keep the CBC ship afloat with it's 7000 workers costs the beleaguered Canadian taxpayers ~$1 Billion annually and perpetually .... so, $1 Billion divided by 7000 employees comes out to ~$143,000 subsidy per job to keep the CBC ship afloat for whatever the costs. I didn't say the money went to the employees, but it might as well have...!!!
DeleteAs for the $28 per capita subsidy, I gather you want innocent children to be taxed to keep the CBC afloat...??!!!
I for one listen and watch CBC every day. Other news channels are so full of commercials that they are not worth tuning into. I also love their coverage of Olympics and other sporting events. If CBC is as bad as you all tend to say, it's because of the Harper government bad mouthing them because CBC doesn't follow Harpers party lines.
ReplyDeletehi anon...I'm not saying that CBC is bad, just that it could be better. And I too consider it a national treasure that should be preserved at all cost...
Deletethe CBC MUST GO, just ask the cons although many may argue it works for the cons and whomever, they stll provide some of the best news in the country. its way better than the american news. The CBC certainly isn't as good as it once was but their documentaries about what goes on in this country are some of the best out there. if it were not for these types of documentaries and investigative reporting it would not be done.
ReplyDeleteIf the cons are win the next election, the CBC will be toast, but it won't really matter because the country won't be a democracy anymore either. It will sort of look like one, but it will never be what it once was. if you don't like the idea, find an exit strategy.