Archive for the ‘CBC’ Category
MUST READ BOOK: Stursberg’s tell all from the CBC
I’m really enjoying Richard Stursberg’s book on the state broadcaster. Stursberg is the former head of CBC’s English servies – both TV and radio – from 2004 to 2010.
His new book is called Tower of Babble: Sins, Secrets and Successes Inside the CBC.
I received my copy late Thursday and spent a good part of the weekend flipping through various parts. You can pre-order on Amazon.ca right now, although the official release date is April 21st.
While Stursberg and I differ on what role CBC should play in the Canadian media landscape and what level of funding it should receive from the government, he and I do see eye to eye on somethings – like CBC’s left-wing bias.
“The CBC’s legendary inability to meet the most elementary tests of good management, and its soft left, anti-business, Toronto-centric, politically correct cultural assumptions created significant problems for the Corporation”
That’s Stursberg on page 14 of his book. You should see what he says about the CBC Board of Directors and all the important people that make the decision about what happens at the state broadcaster. Whether you love the CBC or hate it, I think you’ll like this book.
I’ll be talking more about this book and what it has to say over the next two weeks.
COLUMN: Lilley – CBC keeps an enemies list and I’m on it.
Enemies of the state: Sun News hosts figure prominently on CBC’s list of antagonists
by Brian Lilley
What do CBC president Hubert Lacroix and former U.S. president Richard Nixon have in common? They both kept lists of their enemies.
The fact Richard Nixon kept a list of his enemies was revealed during the Watergate hearings. CBC’s enemies list has been revealed through a series of access-to-information requests. Read more…
What on earth do Rihanna and Elton John have to do with CBC’s mandate?
CBC is facing budget cuts and was off bitching about it to The Mop and Pail which dutifully printed their worries while simultaneously promoting CBC’s new music service.
Well with great fanfare CBC launched a 40 channel online radio service. Intially we thought they might be trying to compete with iTunes, which would have been foolish, but instead they are simply competing with private broadcasters using your tax dollars which is wrong.
Can anyone tell me what Kelly Clarkson, Aerosmith or Meatloaf have to do with CBC mandate?
This is not a Canadian music service, as you might think from reading the Canadian Press story on the service.
No, CBC is using tax dollars to build a service which competes with private radio stations as well as online services such as Iceberg Radio or Rdio.
Take a look at the screen capture below, this was taken just after 7pm Monday. The artists include Spice Girls, Rhianna and Elton John, who has pretty much shown up every time I’ve checked out the site today.
When the 10% cut comes to CBC’s budget and they start complaining about having to cut vital services, remember that they chose to put their money into this rather than a bureau in Beruit or an increased presence in an underserved part of Canada.
Hubert Lacroix wants to build a media empire that goes far beyond what Parliament asks of him. If he wants to run that kind of empire he should ask the government to sell CBC so that he can take it private.
Why you can’t trust consensus media
I want to apologize to my viewers for bringing you what must be a false story about CBC posting pornography on the Internet.
You see, I’ve been looking at other media outlets and I just can’t find this story. Not anywhere.
I picked up the Globe and Mail this morning, a paper likes to think of itself as the New York Times of Canada. Surely if the state broadcaster was using tax dollars to buy porn then there would be a story in the Globe and Mail.
Nope.
What about the National Post?
I looked in this allegedly conservative paper and not a word.
Now if this was a real story then surely the Toronto Star, Canada’s highest circulation paper would alert the public about this flagrant misuse of tax dollars right? Read more…
Hardcore funding for ‘softcore’ porn
What can I say about the standards at CBC?
I am rarely at a loss for words, I’m paid to speak but as I sat down to write out my opening statements here tonight, I honestly couldn’t think of how to convey this – CBC’s French division, known as Radio Canada, is using tax dollars to pay for pornography to be broadcast.
When first tipped off that there was pornography on a CBC-Radio Canada website, I immediately thought this must be a mistake. It must be a someone attacking the state broadcaster.
But it’s not.
In fact, this is a show that they bought and paid for using your tax money and broadcast freely on the website known as Tou.tv.
The show is called “Hard.” Nice pun.
CBC says that they “bring diverse regional and cultural perspectives into the daily lives of Canadians.”
Since we discovered this and I began talking to people I’ve heard plenty of justifications for why this is actually okay including claims that, “Well, it’s not hard core porn, it’s softcore.” I’ve been told, “Well, they are French so it’s okay.”
Heritage Minister James Moore even went so far as to dismiss this as Sun Media just looking for an excuse to attack his favourite broadcaster.
I guarantee that even if this had nothing to do with CBC but say we found out that Canadians were funding pornography in another way – well, we would cover it just the same.
The allegedly Conservative MP and heritage minister dismissed the fact that CBC is funding and airing pornography.
When did this become okay? Read more…
State Broadcaster’s secrets
The CBC is once again telling the people who pay for it and the people who vote for its annual subsidy to mind their own business.
To put this another way, CBC is telling you and I, the taxpayers of Canada and Members of Parliament that while we may pay to keep their tooshies cushy, we can get stuffed if we want to know more about how our money is spent.
They are thumbing their noses at us, poking us in the eye, flipping us the bird, describe it however you like.
A Conservative MP named Brent Rathgeber tabled a question in the House of Commons. This is different that the oral questions in Question Period that you see on TV. These are questions the government of the day is required to answer.
Rathgeber asked the following:
“With respect to salaries at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), how many employees at the CBC earn more than $100,000.00, and what are their names and salaries?” Read more…
Paying for the party – Strombo’s Party, your tab
We’ve got the details on what the state broadcaster wants to spend your money on and I have to tell you – you might be underwhelmed – really underwhelmed. And maybe annoyed.
Not only did this party cost more than CBC claims, it appears that, one of the main goals was to generate Twitter traffic about George Stroumboulopolous.
You remember this party, the one where the real people were kept behind metal baricades on a public street. Oh, the little people! Can’t be seen with them.
Meanwhile, inside, Strombo was partying it up with top celebrities from foreign countries – you know people that don’t live here and won’t boost his ratings. But hey, he’s got to hang with cool people.
I mean after all, Hubie Lacroix, the CBC Prez, had told us this was a launch party to create a buzz about George.
Turns out it was a Twitter-obsessed party. More on that later.
Now, when we first told you about this party, we asked how much it cost. CBC wasn’t willing to say.
Ezra Levant called them up directly to find out if it was more or less than a million dollars.
They didn’t want to say.
Then Lacroix went before a committee to claim the party cost just $64,000.
Well, not quite.
Here is the invoice from just one group – Veritas Communications. They charged $72,372.
Other invoices, including one for the hall and one to give Strombo four body guards for the night have had all the numbers removed.
You don’t get to know. CBC claims some information has to be kept secret because it relates to their creative, programming or journalistic endeavours.
They claim other details must be kept secret because to release them would be detrimental to the economic interests of Canada. But no, they aren’t they state broadcaster.
We do know that they paid more than $60,000 for the food, drink and hall rental.
Well, not really a hall – it’s not like he rented the local Knights of Columbus Hall or got a deal from the Lion’s Club – nope – Strombo parties in style at the Hazelton Hotel which describes itself as – “Canada’s first 5 star hotel located in Yorkville, the city’s finest and most fashionable downtown district surrounded by high-end retail stores.”
Ah, he does look out for the little people doesn’t he.
Now while the plebes, the peons, the great unwashed were kept outside behind the barricades they were allowed to watch what was happening on the giant Twitter wall.
You know, when pages aren’t redacted, this is mostly a discussion about twitter.
“The publicitiy strategy was subtle – to invite key media to join in the celebration with George and to witness his strong network of influencers and talent. Media were encouraged to tweet and talk about the party, but photography was controlled by CBC inside the event (and released strategically through Wireimage at the end of the evening.)”
Did you get that – media were allowed to “tweet” about this and CBC controlled and released the photography. I mean that sounds just crazy – it sounds controlling – it sounds like all the things CBC and the consensus media never shut up about when it comes to the Harper government.
Of course when media outlets go to a Harper government event they are allowed to use their own cameras and take their own pictures. Not at George’s party.
Remember this next time you hear someone over at the state broadcaster talking about how controlling the Harper government is – the CBC is worse. No pictures for you – just Twitter!
And given all the tweets, the CBC delared this party a success.
“The online/Twitter engagement in and around the party indicated that both George and CBC Live saw a significant spike in activity as a result.”
See that chart – look at that – Strombo had no Twitter popularity ahead of the party and then wow! Look at that spike at least three days of being popular on the twitter machine before dropping back down to zero. This is a chart from the CBC to justify the spending of more than $72,000.
We still don’t know what this thing cost but it is obviously more than $72,000 which is already more than CBC will admit to.
Consider this, the average Canadian income right now for someone who is employed and working – according to Stats Canada’s Labour Force Survey – is $44,000. CBC just spent more than one and a half times more than that to boost Strombo’s Twitter traffic for three days.
This was a party about praising the glory of CBC. You can see it in the guest list.
While they claim it is about getting a media buzz for George’s show there were most personal friends and CBC staffers invited than media. More personal friends and CBC staffers than the celebrities they played up.
Nearly 700 people were invited with a target of having 400 people show up.
The hope was for 15 A-list celebrities, 65 B-list and 45 C-list.
Meanwhile they were expecting 50 CBC talent folks, 20 CBC VIPs, 10 people from Strombo’s show, 30 personal friends of Strombo and 20 personal friends of CBC vice-president Kirstine Stewart.
A party for the glory of Strombo, the CBC and his Twitter feed. You paid for. Most Canadians will not earn in a year what this party cost for one night of getting celebrities boozed up at the fanciest hotel in Canada.
Was it worth it for you?
We should know the full amount that this party cost but despite spending much of 2011 under pressure for secrecy, CBC still hasn’t gotten the message.
It’s time to open up.
And that’s the Byline.
