Selected portions of the Globe and Mail article on CBC Chairperson-designate Timothy Casgrain:
Heritage Minister Bev Oda seems to have been looking for corporate-board experience, rather than a background in media or the arts, with the appointment of the new chairman of the CBC.
Montreal-born Timothy Casgrain, 58, who is currently chairman of the aviation company Skyservice Investment, was named the CBC’s new chairman Friday.
…
When asked about an affiliation with the Conservative government, he said that he supports the Conservatives in his local Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence.
…
“My role as chairman is working with the board, working with Mr. Rabinovitch and his team, and helping move the whole CBC mandate forward,” Mr. Casgrain said Friday. “I’ve always had a great love of the CBC…It’s there. It’s part of our fabric.”
As whether he foresees any major changes at CBC, he said, “I’m not in a position to answer that question just yet. Ask me in six months’ time, when I hope I’ll be well versed and able to give a good response.”
However, he added that he sees the position as a challenge, particularly given the highly varied way in which media is now distributed and the difference between how the young and old access media.
Mr. Casgrain still needs to be sworn into the new job and expects to begin some time in May.
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How many more changes can CBC make in their radio programming, since there’s already been major changes, some of them “not so great”.
This past 2 years I listen less and less to CBC radio, some days hardly listening to it at all- a big disappointment for what CBC used to be. I feel Canada has lost some of its identity, as the nations greatest radio station.
Let’s hope Mr. Casgrain will use good judgement in any changes he feels he has to make for all Canadians.
It says something awfully disappointing about our country if Canada can lose some of its identity because of a radio station. But maybe Gaia is right - Canada doesn’t have that much going for it elsewise.
God only knows how we ever had an identity before the CBC defined it for us.
Whether you get your information from the Wall Street Journal, CNN, The American Networks, Fox News, Entertainment Tonight, or the CBC doesn’t matter. What you are able to think after getting your information matters. CBC Radio runs two commercial-free networks stretching to all corners of this country… all the while trying to mirror our culture and diversity in its programming. If all you want is twelve-in-a-row pop songs computer delivered to your radio then the CBC is totally wasted on you. Mike and Gaia probably have spots that they like on CBC… and maybe credit Hockey Nite In Canada as their downtime television saviour. They should give some thought to the way politicians have dicked around with the CBC… some with the knowledge that CBC is indeed the last vestige of being Canadian. Let them read “Why Mexicans Don’t Drink Molson’s” for some sorely needed national allegiance to our flagging Country.
Big Bird and Grover sing - “one of these things is not like the other, one of these thins just doesn’t belong” when John states: “Whether you get your information from the Wall Street Journal, CNN, The American Networks, Fox News, Entertainment Tonight, or the CBC doesn’t matter.”
One of these things is paid through the tax payer whether they watch/listen or not. Can you guess which one - before they finish their song?
And John is incorrect when he speaks of the CBC’s diversity. It doesn’t display a diversity of ideas. The vast majority of the ideas expressed on the CBC are very much the same.
Advertising revenue pays for the editorial driven content of all the Media I mentioned… except CBC Radio. I am glad he can quote Sesame Street in illustrating his economic concerns… he would happily sink the CBC. Perhaps he is afraid that the challenging points of view- constantly coming across on the CBC- that outstrip his Muppet level idealogy. The taxpayer also pays for the leased Lexus’s and Humvees through deduction grants available to business men and women. Start up Grants, Matching Grants, and Training Programmes come from the forgiving taxpayer. A Parliamentary Levee partly pays for CBC Televison AND all of CBC Radio. CBC sets the standards bar for private broadcasters in a hypercompetitive production marketplace. It’s an expensive business. The CBC answers directly to Parliament, the CRTC, and the Public.
John says that - the taxpayer pays for the leased Lexuses and Humvees of business people through tax deductions. Of course this betrays his socialist idea that all money belongs to the state - and the state, over the individual, is best to determine how and where that money is spent.
John, when I get a tax deduction - I’m getting my own money back from the government because I paid too much. It’s MY money. I earned it! I pay my fair share and would prefer that it doesn’t go to an institution like the CBC that is diametrically opposed to these basic principles.
John can look down on muppets, but I like them. They state simple facts simply. No need to gussy it up.
John betrays his socialist leanings when he states that the taxpayer pays for the SUVs (evil vehicles) of business people through tax deductions. Of course socialists believe that all the money belongs to the state - and the state knows much better than the individual how and where it should be spent.
Well John, I’ve got news for you. A tax deduction is when I get to keep some of MY OWN money. Money that I earned. I pay my share of taxes and would prefer it not go to an organization that shares John’s views against individual ownership, initiative, and responsibility.
John looks down on the muppets, but I like them. They call it like it is.
I have no socialist leanings to betray Mike. I hate all politicians equally. I am greatly offended that I have to vote for people who have soft-focus minds and hidden agendas. You pick, you choose… you win, you loose. All money is stored labour. I don’t look down on your Ameri-muppets either… but your mom should have put you in front of Mr. Dressup once in awhile- to have your Cheerios in peace and eat them too. What we give to the tax man is supposed to serve our needs… not our desires. You truly hate the CBC… but thanks for your piddling contribution anyways… you have in your subminiature way added to our Nations identity and helped us learn and experience incredible things no other media could ever hope to. Thats the way taxation is supposed to work. By the way, you are unloading your bile on the webpages CBC has alloted to show how fair and unbiased they are. For free. I’m regret I have disturbed you so predictably by offering a different opinion. I have no Berlin Wall to hide behind.
There may be another word for it - but there definitely is a word for people who believe that individuals’ earned money belongs to the state - who above all decides how to spend it. That word is socialist. Most socialists aren’t embarrassed to admit it, except the CBC itself.
The fact that you refer to opinions and ideas that differ from your own as bile speaks volumes.
You’re correct on one thing - Tod’s web pages are filled with different views and free speech. It’s only too sad that the CBC doesn’t promote a variety of ideas on their own airwaves.
I forgot. It was good to see that John got some America bashing in on his last post. Otherwise, it would have left out one of the key ingredients of the CBC koolaid.
Here’s the checklist:
* hostility towards taxpayers
* love of taxpayers’ money
* attempts to limit viewpoints to the CBC approved politically correct
* denial of the obvious
* anti-American (or Western, or conservative, …)
You nailed them all.
I wonder how you feel about Preston Manning’s new relationship with the Mothercorp…
Regarding Manning on the CBC. I’m not aware of his new gig, but I would rather not (unwillingly) pay for political propaganda from either end of the spectrum. My taxes could find a much better use.
I imagine Preston has quite an uphill battle if he’s to be the token right winger for the CBC to pretend that they’re balanced. Oh well, it’s only taxpayers’ money after all.