Apolitical Staples

Damn Right!

Until HNIC shows a minimum of 41 Sens games per year in the Ottawa area, I’ve got a good reason not to support funding for the CBC!

Whoa boy.

I can’t wait to hear the Bloggers Hotstove on this one. :-)

The NDP wants to save the CBC for ideological reasons. Therefore the CBC is ideological. Conservatives should not be paying to support leftist ideology.

The CBC news is slanted left. We don’t need news. We might need drama, the one good NDP point out of 4. Hockey can be shown profitable on a private station and the profits taxed. Therefore if we add back all the lost taxes on profitable programming, the CBC probably costs us $2 billion, maybe more?

The NDP says we must not lose control of our airwaves. We lost that with the cod, a long time ago.

The arguments around the CBC and ideology are valid but I would argue that value for money is the greatest argument against the Mother Corp’s continued existence. For being the voice of the nation they do a lousy job. I complained about their lack of olympic web presence a while back. The problem essentially is that they don’t do anything that someone else doesn’t do just as well. When was the last time CBC produced a Canadian Sitcom? When was the last time they made anything as successful as even Corner Gas? Trailer Park Boys?

Think about this too, if the CBC didn’t exist there would be more advertising dollars floating around that could be going to CTV/Global/specialty network x - and those companies could be using those dollars to fund CanCon people might actually watch…

The CBC is like a money pit (ie. most government projects) and should be disbanded - or atleast get rid of its TV arm.

I think we must save the CBC but it needs to be reformed in some ways. The NDP’s idea actually makes a lot of sense and is a good start.

However, CBC should not aspire just to be another TV station. They should have more Canadian content and Canadian drama but they should expand in other areas as well. CBC is a public broadcaster and it is time for them to do a better job of performining that mandate.

I believe the CBC should be broadcasting weekly townhalls in which academics, policy experts, members of NGOs, square off on an issue in a formal, civil debate style format and the audience asks questions of them. Each week it would be debate on a different but important policy issue.

Finally two small points. First, moving all the content to Newsworld is not a good idea. Newsworld needs major reform to become more professional in the way it shows news. There is no reason why we cannot be the BBC in terms of format and professionalism. I don’t want a friendly anchor, I want a serious one that just tells the news. It is not supposed to be interactive, happy, or fun. Second, not all people have cable whereas anyone with a TV can get the main CBC anywhere in Canada.

My last point is that CBC radio and radio 2 continue to do an exceptional job and do not require reform.

layton is turning into mr.dithers the second . he comes up with more ways to waste money every day. i go on cbc.ca looking for something to read that might be interesting . i find maybe 3 new headlines . the same crappy opinions by the same left wing hacks . they have one token supposedly right wing columnist. the same articles on the other files have been up there for months . the only thing that changes is the damned stock market file . their phony ground breaking broadcast from afghanistan is more crap. they show one or two good things the canadians are doing there for two minutes and then show five or more resons why we shouldn’t be there for half an hour .
i’m sick of paying for this crap. i don’t care if they show the nhl or not . i don’t watch it anyway but they do a good job on it , last time i looked anyway.

“I believe the CBC should be broadcasting weekly townhalls in which academics, policy experts, members of NGOs, square off on an issue in a formal, civil debate style format and the audience asks questions of them. Each week it would be debate on a different but important policy issue.”

That is on CPAC. A private channel. And a very good one at that.

CBC is known as Canada’s public broadcaster. As such it should not receive taxpayer funding but be required like in the States to seek out donations from its supporters. To see how CBC is cared for by Canadians think about the strike last summer. There was no hew and cry to settle. If we think funding should be continued we should look at the ratings relative to the private broadcasters. A formula should be developed so that only the shows that have respectable ratings are funded. No global funding for CBC. It is a waste of taxpayers money. However, they have no right to claim to be a public broadcaster with support from the state and be in direct competition with the private broadcasters.

The idea that either the NDP or the CBC have any relevence in this country is ludicrous.

The NDP might as well have a 4 point plan to save themselves.

Vain hopes of positioning themeselves as the saviours of Canadian Heritage is all this is about. No one else wants or needs a state sponsored propaganda network.

HNIC is really Hockey Night in Toronto. There has not been one night this year when Toronto was not the featured team. The Sens are a much better team and much more entertaining to watch that the perpetual losers in blue but get one tenth the exposure.

The hockey games are better on TSN anyway. Better analysis and more information is presented. The first intermission on HNIC is 6 minutes of Cherry and 9 minutes of commercials.

I don’t think many people really care if the CBC dies. I wish it would go sooner but no luck.

The NDP is trying to protect the CBC because it gives them a sense of relevance. What other broadcasters gives the NDP as many accolades as the CBC?

Let’s start to privatise it right now. Then we can hope that the NDP changes its name to the Relic Party (taken from the Beachcombers series) in memory of the CBC.