Former CBC-TV personality Avi Lewis has begun hosting a program on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network focusing on U.S. politics and the upcoming American election.
Lewis will host Frontline U.S.A. from the U.S. Previously, he hosted several current affairs programs on CBC Television programs such as the debate show counterSpin.
In the autumn of 2006, Lewis began hosting CBC Newsworld’s The Big Picture with Avi Lewis. In June 2007, CBC Newsworld debuted On the Map with Avi Lewis, a daily (Mon-Thurs) half hour of international news spin. Both shows were cancelled before they reached their second season.
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I must say Al Jazeera has really impressed me so far and they appear to run some top notch news programming and they seem to "get it" by making available full episodes on the web in great quality encoding (for youtube…).
now in the particular episode linked above I could have complained about a few editing mistakes in the audio but really, I was too busy listening to what was being said.
On the map was not canceled shortly after airing. It had a full first season. It was canceled after the show had already started pre-production for the second season. Is there no fact-checking for this CBC blog?
At least he’s leaving for a similar organization.
Way to go Avi. This man is a shining light in the media world. Best of luck!
c
I miss Avi`s show called CounterSpin.. he was terrific in that role and let a variety of opinions have a fair hearing. It quickly degenerated into a leftie shout fest (yes, and I am left of center as well) after he went to make his film with his wife Naomi Klein.
I watched his other 2 shows but wasn’t pulled in by either of them. Nice concepts but when you have to watch a documentary first and then the show begins? LOL. A bit of a stretch and I wish I had the time most days to do that.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention his parting shots at the CBC in all his interviews. He talked about the Ceeb not giving him enough resources. Three successive Avi Lewis-centered shows, but no resources. No wonder he left. (?)
We may need to invent new words for the level of appropriateness involved when a famous and well-connected CBC personality with a proud NDP family legacy now working for — and I’m smiling wryly as I write this — Al Jazeera.
"Sublime perfection" is the best I’ve been able to do so far.
How about "Sublime Defection"
The CBC has lost a top journalist because it does not have the courage to provide incisive journalism. Avi Lewis is intelligent and informed; he gave us excellent work on On the Map, but the CBC cancelled the program. CBC News is filled with repetition and blandness. It is very sad.
When looking for information about urban agriculture in Cuba, I came across some great Aljazeerah programming–48 hours with Amanda Plummer in Havana. Certainly nothing very fundamentalist or islamic about her or the show. For Aljazeerah to pick up Avi Lewis is a coup–or rather an evidence of extremely intelligent programming. Too bad the CBC seems to have forgotten that it is supposed to be interesting also. The most recent terrible decision is the Radio Two changes which will practically eliminate serious music from its programming.
BTW, came across this thread when googling Russell Smith: I wanted to link my own blog to his excellent column this week in The Globe decrying the Radio Two change.
Mary