New Heritage Minister Says CBC Funding
is Safe
Despite rumours to the contrary, Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore said yesterday that the CBC’s budget is safe.
Since December rumours have circulated that the Conservatives were considering axing $200 million from the budget. Ian Morrison, spokesperson for FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting released a video message on December 26th saying “FRIENDS has learned from a reliable confidential source of Conservative plans to slash a devastating $200 million from the CBC’s Parliamentary grant.”
Yesterday the heritage minister quashed those rumours. “That’s laughable. There’s no truth to that,” he said to the Globe, adding the CBC should not expect any big changes in the near future.
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No one saw Dec 1990 coming and boy did we get nailed.
This is great news! Keep up the good work, CBC. Hopefully we can look forward to many more years of terrible reality tv shows to replace iconic theme songs and syndicated American game shows.
And we should believe this government?
My Dear Pumpkins,
If the CBC is unscathed by the January 27th budget, it will be the only the place in the entire world that has not been affected by the global economic crisis. Canwest’s share price on the TSX is .60 cents, the Seattle Intelligencer just packed up and the New York Times is mortgaging its building to keep going. There is very little doubt, in this observer’s view, that the CBC in its current form can continue to exact $1 billion a year from much fatigued Canadian Taxpayer.
The haven for mediocre programming survives intact – thanks to the cultural elite lobby. We will continue to see shows that are “Canadian” instead of good. Thank Heavens for the private broadcasters who strive for quality and Canadian.
B is so right. The CBCers don’t even realize how insulated they are from the real world. That is why they can’t produce compelling content. It is a big public service union thumbing its nose at the Canadian public. All to the tune of $1Billion a year in tax payers’ hard earned dollars.
My Dear Pumpkins,
Would rather edit your own copy, or have a grumpy desk editor do it for you? Exactly. So lets talk about what keep the best stuff in and get rid of the stuff that is just taking up air time. I suggest selling off some real estate. Have you seen the building in Regina. Love to know what the heat bill is there. The building is huge and under used. Lets hack through management like a union rep on crystal meth. And lets get rid of the main channel (yes …) and focus on Newsworld. And lets get some juice back in our journalism.
My Dear Pumpkins,
This right here s a prime example of why they make journalists write to a style guide.
I worked for CBC for thirty odd years. When I first got there 90%of our shows were Canadain, that’s what our mandate told us. We turned out some terrific shows, music, variety and news. Then the suits took over and it became “never mind the talent or the enjoyment factor, we have to make money.” So we started using commercials, which immediately cut out money from the independent producers and TV companies. Then we began to get rid of all the good Canadian shows and bought the crap from across the border which any viewer could get anyway by tuning in to any US station. Gradually we went down the tubes unril we are now just an American show station and a news station. If we had stayed doing what we were mandated to do, we could have been the PBS of the North instead of a dying service that nobody cares a damn about. I remember when we couldn’t wait to get to work to do another good show, now, as Shakespeare says, with a slight rewriting” The CBC crews crawl to work unwilling like a snail! God bless the stupid, non-artisric, idiotic, know-it-all suits!
part of the reason I follow what is going on in the world and am educationg myself is because of the forums on line.
now I am wondering if the moderators are planted by the conservative govt. or are just not being supervised.
this outlet for the tax payer ( forums on line) has become a very necessary place for me to escape, so I am wondering….when my posts are posted two hours after I submitted it, if that is really going to hurt The CBC in the end. I write comments, in response to others that have posted, not to be manipulatede at will by moderators…
I think you could lose credibility because so many have been treated similarlyu and are tired of being frustrated. The CBC will lose it’s funding if fair practises are not implimented.
lSTxct
So many CBC haters here. Why do so many just love to hate the CBC? I can’t figure it out. I love the CBC and what they do. I love watching both local news and newsworld. The journalism is far beyond that of other stations. Keep up the good work gang!
Anonymous – people don’t like their hard earned taxes (over $1 Billion a year) going to such a biased left wing organization. The CBC tries to *define* Canadian culture rather than reflect it to us. We don’t need to spend so much tax payer money on mediocre “entertainment” just to push some politically correct ideology from a bunch of T.O. elites. Maybe Anonymous is rich and doesn’t care about where taxes o, but many people do.
Mike – how many years has it been since you actually watched CBC TV? In my opinion, this current year is the best I’ve ever seen on CBC. The production quality is up – and equal to the US programming that you must love, as you must be watching other channels. The CBC’s ratings right now have gone way up – proving that the Canadian taxpayers you keep bringing up, must like to watch it, too! So, perhaps it’s just *your* biased opinions you’re stating, and you don’t actually reflect all those taxpayers…
I watch the CBC (local news and Coronation Street) every day. So, I get to see the exact same little Mosque on the Prarie and The Hour commercial about 20 times a day. Assuming that these show highlight their best on these commercials, the qwuality just isn’t there. Unless you find the “joke” “it’s a fixer upper” “no it’s a faller downer” hilarious. Maybe you really enjoyed the incredible laugh track while the Air Farce guy poured too much sugar into his coffe in the oft repeated coffee shop skit, but the fact is that it simply is NOT funny. It was very poorly written and executed. I would say that the commercials for that new show about the girl going back in time do seem to have higher production value than anything else I’ve seen on CBC.
Also – Anon – I don’t watch much TV at all; Canadian or US. I’m a satellite radio fan. So, before you go down your “the US is bad and so are Canadians who don’t hate them” routine, you’re barking up the wrong gross generalization tree. Just wanted to nip your pending “Harper=Bush=Hitler post” in the bud – just because I disagree with how my tax money is wasted.