I Don't Give A Damn About The Issues ... Get The CBC Workers Happy And Back To W
Posted on Saturday, October 01 at 12:34 by BC Mary
Today's CBC is like a once-great army which finds itself depleted, starved, run-down, dispirited, badly led, pushed into too many stupid battles, but still gallantly trying to carry on. And now CBC "management" dares to lock them out. Worse: government treats the public broadcaster like a Widget Factory having a bit of a "labour unrest".
Well ... Canada's heart and soul are not widgets.
And here's another tiny clue: this is not a strike. It's a lock-out. An arbitrary, arrogant, assinine lock-out ordered by CBC Management. I say: make them stop!
CBC is our essential national lifeline. Imagine how we'd feel, right now, if a coast-to-coast emergency erupted and our CBC on-air reporters couldn't give us the facts! CBC is essential to Canada's identity and wellbeing.
The CBC's management replacements on Radio One are semi-hopeless, saying things like "hunnert" instead of "hundred" ... and "pitcher" instead of "picture". I nearly blew a head-gasket when they reported the death of Smokey Smith of Vancouver as "the last Canadian soldier to have won a Purple Heart." As any Canadian knows, the P.H. is a U.S. trophy given in wheelbarrow-loads to U.S. soldiers who are wounded. Smokey Smith won the rare Victoria Cross for an action of unparalleled bravery in the Italian Campaign. These are worrying examples of "management's" expertise and comprehension ...
It's true that the starved, exhausted CBC needs some repairs. Those huge cut-backs of recent years took their toll. So the Prime Minister should listen to the CBC workers! The Corporation needs support and encouragement. It needs long overdue help -- not more brutal chops and kicks.
I don't give a damn what the "issues" are ... they are trivial in comparison to the national need for the public broadcaster to continue its work.
I want those CBC doors unlocked.
I want smiles on CBC's 5,500 well-trained workers' faces as they go back on the job.
And I want CBC's current blockheaded management fired one and all, for sending the unmistakable message that Canadians don't matter a damn to them, either.
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options (and I certainly don't miss Andy Barry, the morning man in Toronto).
As far as I'm concerned, the CBC could dissapear and I would draw my news
from other sources. The lockout/strike has only solidified in my mind the fact
that the CBC can be quite easily replaced.
Please explain "what it is" that you appreciate about CBC. And I'll
do that, too.
For me, CBC is intelligent discussion, good music, and Canadian
news written from a Canadian viewpoint. I especially like the fact
that what I'm hearing is also being heard by my countrymen from
coast-to-coast-to-coast. It unites us in the gentlest way. I like that.
BC Mary
You're probably correct. Today I noticed that the Vancouver Sun
had printed a Letter to the Editor heaping abuse upon CBC. I
wondered why.
Then I remembered that CanWest Global doesn't just own
Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, Victoria Times Communist
etc etc., but it also owns competing broadcast networks such as
BCTV and Global TV. This is brass-knuckle competition.
Wouldn't you say that's an outrageous conflict of interest?
I finally became aware of the concentrated effort to destroy the CBC a few years ago, when the Senate released a report on media concentration and convergence in Canada. The report was quite large and showed very clearly the monopolization of Canada's information vehicles. Canwest's only comment about the entire report was to say that despite increased funding, the CBC continues to lose viewers.
Here we have a report on the demise of the MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF DEMOCRACY, A FREE PRESS, BEING DESTROYED, and Canwest pulls out one little factoid that pushes its agenda, not even mentioning what the report was about!
No conflict there.
It seems as if we all know, in a general awareness, what you've
just said. Sometimes even CanWest seems to be trying to declare
itself beyond redemption. And provides the ammunition for
concerned citizens to attack. My question to you is: how do we
attack something as big, moneyed, and powerful as CanWest?
Last summer, for example, Vancouver Sun (July 16) ran an article
by Harvey Enchin headlined "A failure to communicate." This
almost full-page article with a highly flattering photo of Premier
Gordon Campbell said that the B.C. Liberal government wasn't
responsible for their bad reputation. No kidding.
"...B.C. Liberals allowed their opponents to falsely define them as
right-wing monsters," ran the sub-headline. Yeah, no kidding.
But who, I ask you, would have published such "falsehoods"? Oh:
"bloggers' bombast and union rhetoric" it says. Ooo, are we
shaking in our boots yet? It was an outrageous distortion of fact.
Then came an offensive little item about Joy MacPhail's wedding.
Joy is the great great granddaughter of Agnes MacPhail, one of
the Famous Five women commemorated in bronze statues on
Parliament Hill. Joy gave exemplary service to the province not
only in government, but most particularly when the NDP was
reduced to 2 Opposition members: herself and Jenny Kwan. Joy
never gave up and never let up, despite a lot of ugly bullying from
the 77 reigning Campbells.
Joy retired at the time of the last provincial election to get married
in Los Angeles to James Shavick, a film producer. And you'd think
the province as a whole, could have wished her well. But what did
the Vancouver Sun print for the occasion (13 July)? ...
"Socialists cavort in L.A., the land of cheap drink" ran the heading.
They referred to her as "Comrade MacPhail" and suggested that
"even progressive socialists can be forgiven for trying to save a
buck for themselves wherever possible ..." Dignified, eh?
I'd commit time, effort, and a bit of money to any campaign which
took on CanWest with the aim of making it fulfill its duty toward the
public interest. What's your opinion?
Thanks very much for URL to that Senate Report ... very
informative.