Continued from here.
Issues Pages:
Conservatives move to end all CBC funding II
Sat, 2010-12-18 18:46
#1
Catchfire
Conservatives move to end all CBC funding II
Sat, 2010-12-18 19:15
#2
John Trudell? You don't get much more boot-licking conservative lackey than that. Sorry I missed it.
(half of that was serious. Guess which half)
Just wondered if 6079 is aware of Trudell's beginnings, where Trudell is at politically, and what he means by this bit of drivel.
Sat, 2010-12-18 19:30
#3
John Trudell? You don't get much more boot-licking conservative lackey than that. Sorry I missed it.
(half of that was serious. Guess which half)
Just wondered if 6079 is aware of Trudell's beginnings, where Trudell is at politically, and what he means by this bit of drivel.
Hmmm.. and I'm just wondering if I have to paint "joke" all over it in big red letters.
Yes George, I have known who John Trudell is for quite a few years. I was just trying to use something called irony to illustrate the contrast between some of the criticism of the CBC in this thread and what they actually broadcast on occasion.
Sat, 2010-12-18 19:31
#4
Don't sweat it, Winston. Your meaning was pretty clear.
Sat, 2010-12-18 23:15
#5
laine lowe
To quote you from the last thread, al-Qa'bong:
Nicely put, Sean. We have to think beyond the short-term damage that the Harperites are inflicting on our public broadcaster, support the CBC, and push to improve it once this temporary political climate is over.I fully agree. The CBC definitely needs a make-over to achieve what it once was in its pinnacle. Destroying it because they are currently kowtowing to the Conservative or were previously, but less so, kowtowing to the Liberals is like Unionist pointed out, axing universal health care because they are failing in wait times or hip replacement surgeries. Public services are beholden to the government of the day for their funding. The last two decades have been harsh in delivering financial support to both our public broadcaster and our public health care. But unlike health care, which is a provincial responsibility, the Broadcasting Act sets out the CBC as a national institution and one that should operate at ARMS LENGTH from the government. It seems to me that the Harper Conservatives have been bolder than their Liberal predecessors in ignoring that arms length relationship.
Sun, 2010-12-19 11:10
#6
Lard Tunderin Jeezus
A 'make-over' is a drastic over-simplification of what the CBC needs at this point.
It needs a violent purging, to clear the Quisling Conservatives and entitled Liberals from positions of influence and power within. You ask me to fight to fund them, without any plan to deal with the fact that the institution is toxic to the body politic of our nation at this point.
I'm no more likely to waste my efforts on the funding of the CBC than I am to promote readership of the National Post. Indeed, you can find most of the NP pundits on panels at the CBC, so supporting one is supporting the other.
Talk to me about taking back the CBC before asking me to fight for its funding.
Sun, 2010-12-19 13:21
#7
laine lowe
Does anyone follow Radio-Canada? It certainly used to be far more cutting edge and progressive than their English counter-part. Not sure if that reputation has also been tarnished.
Sun, 2010-12-19 13:25
#8
Exactly LTJ. It's like being already doubled over with nausea after consuming fast food, and along comes someone who won't take no for an answer selling Double Downs.
Sun, 2010-12-19 14:09
#9
Does anyone follow Radio-Canada? It certainly used to be far more cutting edge and progressive than their English counter-part. Not sure if that reputation has also been tarnished.
Generally speaking, I'd say that's still true for RDI (which is Radio-Canada's equivalent of CBC News Network, which used to be Newsworld). Radio-Canada's international news tends to be better, just because it's a little less linked at the hip to the usual U.S. newswire suspects. And there seems to be less "corporate" political control when it comes to regional reporting than what I recall out west. But on the whole, the MSM is the MSM, même en français...
Sun, 2010-12-19 15:08
#10
And then there's CBC radio northern programming, in several dialects.
And CBC Radio 1 is not CBC television commentary, LTJ. You have to be more concerned with the network as a whole. Really. And consider what would replace it. "Cutting off your nose to spite your face" never had more meaningful usage, in your case.
Sun, 2010-12-19 16:07
#11
Lard Tunderin Jeezus
For the occasional interesting 'Ideas' program in the dead-of-night, I am grateful to Radio 1. And I think they still serve some small purpose culturally.
But I am virtually never reflected in the politics on the CBC (including Radio 1); from what I can tell, views such as mine are strictly forbidden from being exposed on air these days.
I can agree that it was not always thus, but it is now, and how do you intend to fix it?
Sun, 2010-12-19 17:43
#12
LTJ you fix it only by allowing the structure to survive and replacing the government that directs it.
Institutions of government will always be badly managed by a bad government -- but that does not mean hacking and eliminating them.
The plan for the Census is the same-- not to eliminate census Canada but to fix it once there is a government that is willing.
If the next government is a minority not headed by the Cons there will be many opportunities to fix the CBC which is why the Cons likely would like to get rid of it now.
Sun, 2010-12-19 18:57
#13
That is the only hope. And not only the fate of the CBC rests on the outcome. In the meantime, write letters, foment, climb on snow-covered soapboxes. Raise shit, generally.
And don't, for chrissake, give up.
Sun, 2010-12-19 20:55
#14
Lard Tunderin Jeezus
If the next government is a minority not headed by the Cons there will be many opportunities to fix the CBC which is why the Cons likely would like to get rid of it now.
If the next government is a minority headed by the Liberals, I have no doubt the rot will continue unchecked.
Mon, 2010-12-20 08:31
#15
remind
Ummmmmmmmmm, seeing as how we are not going to get a government that is going to "fix it" anytime soon, if ever, it will stay the same, or worsen. Thus comments stating a better government would fix it hold no water.
Mon, 2010-12-20 10:08
#16
Well those of you who think that way are free to do so.
Some of us have work to do.
Mon, 2010-12-20 11:40
#17
I don't think it's a question of government "fixing" the CBC, but of government not interfering with the Mother Corporation's programming, yet enabling it to do its job.
Mon, 2010-12-20 15:02
#18
Lard Tunderin Jeezus
I agree that's the goal in the long run, but in the short term, the CBC is far beyond repairing itself. It is broken, mouldering and toxic. The organs of the CBC are either moribund or metastasizing.
Mon, 2010-12-20 15:13
#19
You have been listening to Radio One's "White Coat, Black Art" again. 
Mon, 2010-12-20 15:40
#20
laine lowe
You have been listening to Radio One's "White Coat, Black Art" again.
LOLOLOL George!
Mon, 2010-12-20 23:10
#21
Gee.... Christian patriarchy, women fulfilling their traditional role in "protecting the family" and threats to the survival of white Europeans on The Current today.
Yup, I bet the reformist wing of the Tories love hearing this kind of propaganda. I can just imagine a little door in the back of their studio where they hand in the scripts from the PMO's office.
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/current_20101220_42905.mp3
Seriously, it is a good piece... especially the little ambush.
(edit)
in fact, in all seriousness, I think an ongoing reminder of some of the good pieces on CBC might be in order, especially for those who can't be bothered listening in because they turn their noses up at it.
Tue, 2010-12-21 01:08
#22
No kidding; a quick flick of the dial from CBC to "All Hits C95" is like a long journey from relative intelligence to slobbering idiocy.
Tue, 2010-12-21 03:43
#23
remind
pot meet kettle
Tue, 2010-12-21 10:58
#24
No kidding; a quick flick of the dial from CBC to "All Hits C95" is like a long journey from relative intelligence to slobbering idiocy.
Especially if that hit is on a pipe - speaking of recent hard-hitting exposes.
I was going to say above, that I think ANY cuts to journalism is a bad thing. I think people are making a mistake if they don''t read the National Post on occasion because you often learn more about how others are thinking from reading their perspective, rather than just our spin on it.
After all, it's not like some virus that is going to infect your brain. It's all information and it's all good to know, even when it's bad and even when it is lies.
And I would have a hard time approving of cuts to any news source, because places where journalists can work are rare enough, and regardless of the paper or station, journalists still have the opportunity to think with their own minds, develop their own skills and eventually do their own work. Of course my feeling about that is tempered considerably when thinking about overt propaganda mills like FOX, or the proposed FOXnorth, but generally speaking, I don't think draining the pool of information is a good thing.
Tue, 2010-12-21 11:43
#25
It's called "know the enemy," 6079, a strategy with a very long history. But, of course, the "ordinary massses" aren't up to the sorting process, and come away proselytized, eh? (Oh, I know, there's that elitist pov again. True though.)
Tue, 2010-12-21 11:48
#26
Maysie
remind post 22 is a personal attack. Cut it out.
Tue, 2010-12-21 11:54
#27
Tue, 2010-12-21 11:56
#28
It's called "know the enemy," 6079, a strategy with a very long history. But, of course, the "ordinary massses" aren't up to the sorting process, and come away proselytized, eh? (Oh, I know, there's that elitist pov again. True though.)
I understand and agree, which is why I say that the principle gets considerably more watered-down when we are talking about outlets like FOX or Western Report. So no, I don't consider it elitist, but I think it important to remember that silencing voices is a two-edged sword.
Good journalists existed even when there was no game in town other than the corporate media. Getting the information out through a screwed up and controlled system may seem counter-productive, but it is better than no system at all.
Tue, 2010-12-21 12:19
#29
Doug Saunders had an amazing piece in the Gobe the other day on "the end of privacy," in which he noted the parallel of London's lord mayor, Brass Crosby, "the Assange of 1771," (from which came the saying "bold as brass" ,it's said) asked to have himself imprisoned in the Tower of London when he " refused to pass sentence on John Miller,the printer of the London Evening Post, who had enraed Parliament by publishing leaked reports of its debates, which were considered privileged and not for public consumption... Crosby not only set Miller free, but charged the messenger Parliament sent to arrest Miller with assault."
He was feted on release six weeks later, the last one prosecuted for printing parliamentary debates...a job dominated, by the 1830s, by the printer Thomas Curson Hansard.
If only the MSM had not immediately become simply house organs for their political parties. Stuck with that ever since...except in the case of media declated "public" ...which we must have, free of government control. It would seem that some "freedom of the purse" is needed in this new age of conservative austerity...and a citizenry that has been shaped into self-defined "taxpayers and consumers" by three decades of conservative propaganda effort.
Tue, 2010-12-21 16:36
#30
Lard Tunderin Jeezus
It's called "know the enemy," 6079, a strategy with a very long history. But, of course, the "ordinary massses" aren't up to the sorting process, and come away proselytized, eh? (Oh, I know, there's that elitist pov again. True though.)
World Public Opinion, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, conducted a survey of American voters that shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources. What's more, the study shows that greater exposure to Fox News increases misinformation.
Wed, 2010-12-22 01:21
#31
RevolutionPlease
Weaksauce and the mod's defending them... weak...
Wed, 2010-12-22 09:45
#32
Just finished listening to Tremonti on CBC Radio 1 interviewing Peter PHillips, sociology prof and head of the Media Freedom Association listing the 20 most " unreported" stories of 2010.
He explains why journalists are kept from reporting facts and figures and how America winds up simply being subjected to propapanda. It's not just the misinformation they are given, its the omissions.
Inside the Military Media Industrial Complex: Impacts on Movements
Thu, 2010-12-23 02:51
#33
That was a good interview. They pointed out how cuba didn't get any credit despite doing the most for haitians right from the get go and not waiting till the public up north had decided a third world country finally deserved our help.(It was finallly bad enough, bunch of assholes running both Can and the US)
Thu, 2010-12-23 08:35
#34
Lard Tunderin Jeezus
Weaksauce, indeed. The CBC runs such interviews, indicting the media as a whole, as if they themselves are somewhat more arms-length.
But they bookend such interviews with stories of glorious sacrifice in Afghanistan, and the latest Harper propaganda about making the tarry "oil-sands" environmentally sustainable.
Thu, 2010-12-23 11:41
#35
Surely we can say they are "relatively" better than the others, LTJ ? And you do have to listen to Radio One to begin to appreciate the differences.
Thu, 2010-12-23 11:48
#36
This should give plenty of creative fodder to both sides of this discussion:
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/12/23/cbc-exploding-pizza.html
Though I am sorry to say that is clearly back bacon, so those of you who might want to cry "baloney" are out of luck.
THough I suppose comparisons between Stuart McLean (sp?) and ham are allowed.
Thu, 2010-12-23 12:37
#37
Lard Tunderin Jeezus
Surely we can say they are "relatively" better than the others, LTJ ? And you do have to listen to Radio One to begin to appreciate the differences.
"relatively" is such a weasel word. Radio One is "relatively" a putrescent pile of shit compared to itself a mere decade ago.
And is it not clear from my comments that I do listen, and that I have for decades?
Thu, 2010-12-23 22:28
#38
This should give plenty of creative fodder to both sides of this discussion:
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/12/23/cbc-exploding-pizza.html
Though I am sorry to say that is clearly back bacon, so those of you who might want to cry "baloney" are out of luck.
THough I suppose comparisons between Stuart McLean (sp?) and ham are allowed.
Not by people without any apparent talent themselves.
Thu, 2010-12-23 22:58
#39
This should give plenty of creative fodder to both sides of this discussion:
Nice photo, Winston, although the raging controversy in the discussion section is about as edifying as so much spam...spam spam spam spam...
(Sorry, one ought to save such silliness for the BBC threads. Carry on).
Thu, 2010-12-23 23:21
#40
I always have time for a bit of silliness if the alternative is the endless humbug we seem to be getting served in this thread.
Speaking of which, damn.... the clip of stuart mclean confronting gavin crawford doing stuart mclean has been yanked from youtube.
Fri, 2010-12-24 20:25
#41
"endless humbug" is vastly superior to vacuous, banal, middle-of-the-road, value-free horseshit.
Fri, 2010-12-24 22:34
#42
"endless humbug" is vastly superior to vacuous, banal, middle-of-the-road, value-free horseshit.
George, you DO realize that the humbug I am talking about is the opinions coming from those who think the CBC is useless, no?
From reading your comments I assume you think the CBC s something worth preserving, as I do.
Now I am late for making a midnight snack for a late visitor we are expecting to drop in. Merry Christmas.
Mon, 2010-12-27 19:02
#43
Gavin does good impressions. Two I enjoyed were females that he mimics very well. Good old Chantal Hebert(who was on that program to "agree with herself") and natasha something the tall aussie or maybe kiwi(could even be south african) who worked on discovery daily planet.
Tue, 2010-12-28 13:15
#44
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting today:
"I am pleased to report that since its launch on December 13, more than 57,000 proud Canadians have stood together and signed their names to the "I Love CBC" petition.
But recent developments demonstrate that the fight for the future of our public broadcaster is just beginning.
After going on the record on November 23rd in the Commons Heritage Committee and musing that the federal government "should get out of the broadcasting business...", Dean Del Mastro has attacked our joint efforts on a Peterborough news report, calling our campaign "a fabrication" and "a lie."
Del Mastro is not just any MP. He is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the department which provides CBC with 100% of its parliamentary grant. And as you probably know, he and all Conservative MPs are tightly scripted by the Prime Minister's Office, so they do not usually speak off the cuff in public."
The slimebag holds forth in my old stomping ground, and I would dearly love to see the lying bastard bested.
Thu, 2012-02-09 09:42
#45
Given Minister James Moore reaching for his revolver when he hears the word "CBC", it may be appropriate to *bump* this thread.