Home » Babble » rabble community » rabble news features
babble-intro-img
babble is rabble.ca's discussion board but it's much more than that: it's an online community for folks who just won't shut up. It's a place to tell each other — and the world — what's up with our work and campaigns.

CBC Bashing

102 replies [Last post]

Comments

Gaian
Offline
Joined: Aug 5 2011
November 17, 2011 - 8:33am
#91
Yes, ain't the new Commish a beaut, military background and all? And obviously the CBC should not have consented to carry the complainants' views to the public. Clearly, Turmel should have expressed outrage at the commissioner's reassurances.

Slumberjack
Offline
Joined: Aug 8 2005
November 17, 2011 - 9:24am
#92

Why indeed would they pass on an opportunity to scrub something down in such a competitive, cutthroat atmosphere as the laundry business? The best people are now ironing things out as we speak, with the quality control folks of the NDP on standby to inspect the tidy bundle for wrinkles. Everything is as it should be Truman Burbank.


6079_Smith_W
Offline
Joined: Jun 10 2010
November 17, 2011 - 10:40am
#93

@ SJ #90

The CBC National News led that story this morning with the point that the commission is flawed, because it cuts off incidents before 2005, including the case of the officer who complained in the first place. 

Too limited, is one of the terms used in the piece.

The officer was told (CBC reported) that the the commission may accomplish good things, but that it was "probably too late for her".

Sorry to disappoint, but some people are doing their jobs.

 


Kanada2America
Offline
Joined: Sep 2 2009
November 18, 2011 - 2:06am
#94

Yes Gaian I too watched them break the latest RCMP scandal and that's because the people who came forward had more confidence in the CBC than the other networks. I think that is absolutely the correct thing for these women to do and the CBC can certainly take a bow for breaking an important issue that was always there.

Has the CBC being doing some great work recently? Very much so! Some great stories and ideas and interesting angles with unique formats. But why did it take this long for them to do it?

They were really a moribund bureaucracy with declining ratings and I don't know if they'll be able to get out of the ratings hole they're in now. But what motivated CBC brass to suddenly get all this massive firepower off its collective backside and do more interesting and engaging stories and get more production out of their producers and reporters? For a billion plus dollars annually I expect great journalism and excellent technical quality. They sure weren't doing that in the recent past and there are times they are no better than anybody else.


Gaian
Offline
Joined: Aug 5 2011
November 18, 2011 - 3:05am
#95
The explanation for changes: February 4, 2011 Perhaps this belongs in a living thread. Hubert Lacroix has announced a five-year plan for the CBC that will be more Canadian, and as the Globe's John Doyle notes, "the CBC is identified as a public broadcaster in the opening sentence of the corporation's news release...(which) hasn't been a CBC thing for anumber of years." A lot of American programming will be exchanged for Canadian. And for the first time in 20 years there's talk of expansion, regionally, "giving some CBC regional offices new equipment to deliver radio, TV and digital programming. The CBC will also create 'micro' news websites for large communities, the example the large Montreal suburb of Longueuil. Hamilton is another city under consideration for local coverage on the Internet." As Doyle writes: "Under Richard Stursberg's leadership, CBC TV walked away from culture..." "The precariousness of the CBC's value as a public broadcaster and cultural institution has been clear for some time. It has divided, not united, Canadians. And nothing in the new plan is going to stop those droning voices calling for the CBC to be shut down because it costs money, it is left-wing and David Suzuki is an environmentalist. To those people, it doesn't matter that the CBC gets a pittance compared with the support other countries offer to their public broadcasters. But the CBC has given those voices too much ammunition in recent years. Now, it plans to do something that can be defended. To save its own life."

Kanada2America
Offline
Joined: Sep 2 2009
November 19, 2011 - 12:52am
#96

I agree that they're getting it from the top now. But for years and years front line staff, and middle managers have been just as guilty of being unproductive. And they have continuously invoked the canard of being a national broadcaster that looks out for Jane and Jean Marie Canadien. Hiding behind the sacred cow metaphor only gets you so far in my opinion.

If you're not doing what regular Canadians want you can't very well dictate to those same people that you know what's good for the great unwashed, and they should pay no matter what. If the CBC had been doing what people wanted to watch, they would not be dealing with these relentless and rapacious attacks from the right wing.

The CBC morphed into something other than what its original purpose was. When that happens, people vote by changing the channel and take their eyeballs somewhere else.


Gaian
Offline
Joined: Aug 5 2011
November 19, 2011 - 7:39am
#97
Yes, clearly we should let the entertainment tastes of the "regular Canadian" determine content quality, and the profit motive set the TV and radio stage. Chase after that emporium of taste, America. And let people with a chip on their shoulder be the final arbiter. As the man said: "To those people, it doesn't matter that the CBC gets a pittance compared with the support other countries offer to their public broadcasters." As me old mom used to say, "it takes all kinds."

Northern Shoveler
Offline
Joined: Feb 17 2011
November 19, 2011 - 7:41pm
#98

How can you have a breaking news story that is at least 5 years old.  The CBC has not pursued this issue but they will take ripe fruit handed to them. As a society we wrongly give sexual harassment of women a very low priority. The years of silence on this ongoing problem in between BREAKING NEWS stories is hardly ground brealking jounalism. 

Leader Post in May of 2006 wrote:

In an affidavit filed by Const. Victoria Cliffe, a decorated officer, she reveals that not only had she been enlisted by a superior for unauthorized undercover work, but that, in the end, it was really all about him getting her into bed.

The superior officer requested she send him photographs of her dressed in biker gear to see if she was suitable for the undercover role.

Then, while on the road, she soon realized the assignment was more about drinking beer than watching targets.

At the end of the night, they went back to their hotel, where her superior informed her he had not booked a room for her, but said she could sleep on the couch in his room.

Only there was no couch, and after falling asleep on opposite sides of the bed, the constable awoke to find her sergeant sexually assaulting her.

"I was deeply traumatized by the assault, but I believed that if I complained of it my career with the RCMP would be over."

In fact, she never gave a statement until she was ordered to give one in relation to another female colleague who had also accused the superior of sexual assault.

"Nothing prepared me for how devastating the impact of coming forward has been on my career," she wrote.

The decorated constable says the RCMP operates as an "old boys' club and does not protect or support individuals who break rank or complain about mistreatment within the force."

In that case, the superior officer lost a day's pay, and her career has never been the same.

"I was ostracized by other members of the RCMP, was subjected to unwanted sexual comments and touching by other members of the RCMP, and I became the subject of completely groundless allegations of professional misconduct ... I have also been forced to transfer several times since providing my statement because of workplace harassment and intimidation."

Cliffe, like other Mounties who felt the internal complaints system failed them, launched civil action. She was one of four women who filed a civil suit.

The suit was settled in 2004.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=0d04add3-3ebf-4763-a5ee-9ca62309dabd&k=7083

 


Kanada2America
Offline
Joined: Sep 2 2009
November 19, 2011 - 10:33pm
#99

Gaian wrote:
Yes, clearly we should let the entertainment tastes of the "regular Canadian" determine content quality, and the profit motive set the TV and radio stage. Chase after that emporium of taste, America. And let people with a chip on their shoulder be the final arbiter. As the man said: "To those people, it doesn't matter that the CBC gets a pittance compared with the support other countries offer to their public broadcasters." As me old mom used to say, "it takes all kinds."

You are mistaking low brow entertainment that other private broadcasters put on with solid reporting. You can certainly have an opinion about the quality of what the other networks are putting on, but by the same token, that is what I am criticizing about the CBC. I don't care what the CBC puts on as entertainment. I am more interested in its news side which soaks up a lot of dollars.

And since when did the common person have a chip on their shoulder for criticizing the CBC. Sounds like an elitist almost Communist perspective. We know what's good for you because you clearly don't. Pravda also kniew what was good for the citizen too.


Gaian
Offline
Joined: Aug 5 2011
November 20, 2011 - 6:59am
#100
quote: "And since when did the common person have a chip on their shoulder for criticizing the CBC.Sounds like an elitist almost Communist perspective. We know what's good for you because you clearly don't. Pravda also kniew what was good for the citizen too." And here you know you are free(thinking) because you are free to shop till you drop, vote the "lower taxes" ticket forever, and know that no journal/broadcaster is going to do a Suzuki while selling your favourite vehicle/vacation etc. Madison Ave. has no control over your mind or Mainstreet's or your favourite Conservative politician's. And your progeny can sink or swim. As to the chip on the shoulder, that's your bailiwick,and NS's,who still avoids the fact that more than three dozen female RCMP officers chose in the past month to take their stories to the CBC, rather than his favourite right-wing broadcaster. Those wishing to be informed beyond newscasts can watch Fifth Estate, or listen to White Coat Black Art, or the Age of Persuasion, or Quirks and Quarks, or those connecting english and french-speaking Canada...the endless variety of thought-provoking programs. For thoughtful people not on a personal, whining, alienated crusade.

Northern Shoveler
Offline
Joined: Feb 17 2011
November 20, 2011 - 1:48pm
#101

Gaian wrote:
  As to the chip on the shoulder, that's your bailiwick,and NS's,who still avoids the fact that more than three dozen female RCMP officers chose in the past month to take their stories to the CBC, rather than his favourite right-wing broadcaster.

Well do tell who is my favourite right wing broadcaster?  PLEASE STOP TRYING TO READ MY MIND. You seem to always get it wrong.  I don't know why your insults get a free pass on this board but c'est la vie. 

If you would start reading for the actual content of other posts you would know I am not a right winger and very seldom read right wing media like the Globe and Mail or the NY Times. Unlike others on this board who often bring that kind of MSM drivel from right wing pundits to the discussion. 

Tongue out  Tongue out Tongue out


Rebecca West
Offline
Joined: Nov 28 2001
November 20, 2011 - 2:13pm
#102

Closing for length.


Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Login or register to post comments