So who do you blame? Who do you blame for the evaporation of much of the CBC today? Do you blame me who stopped watching and listening years ago and regularly disses it? For that you can pretty much blame Brent Bambury leaving the local CBC Ottawa drive home show as that was the last thing I would tune in for. Do you blame Stephen Harper? You could I suppose - but when people are losing their jobs all over the place, when private news and entertainment sources in Canada are closing - is every job at the CBC sacred and worthy of tax dollars? Harper himself would blame consumers - you - ultimately but that is part of his whole passive / aggressive love / hate thing that has worked out so well.
You know who I blame? Paul Martin and Stephane Dion - Tweedle dumb and Tweedle dumber. "WHAT???" you say with a high screechy voice? Yes, Martin and Dion. They had the nation handed to them as only a Liberal party leader can, they had the ability to continue in the steady (if sometimes slightly sticky) hand of Jean Chretien. But no. Martin has to wrestle the leadership away from Jean only to find he has no skill at being leader. And Dion has to run against Iggy only to discover that, zoot!, he is actually a goofball egghead. Had these two men not botched the natural governing party, we would not have the social and economic experimentations of our rural overlords. We would not be driven into deficit by the single decision to reduce the GST from 7% to 5%. Remember that? Would it have made a tick of difference to anything other than the emptying of Federal bank accounts had the GST stayed at 7%.
This is what happens in a leadership void whether a void created intentionally by the CPC which wants to prove that the Federal level is irrelevant or by the Grits who, until recently, apparently wanted to prove that they were. Don't get me wrong. I think the CBC in large part created the wall that it is now slamming headlong into. It has a singular lack of vision and stilted stance on its own importance that stands out among public broadcasters and public institutions. I should be a fan of the mothership, a booster. But it failed me long ago. I feel very badly for those who will be out of work, perhaps including creative clever friends from that undergrad with the journalism school I attended all those years ago. Still, the CBC deserved and deserves better. Blame those who should have defended her and who should have been there in these dark days. Blame Martin and Dion and the Grits who supported them.
Comments
Ben (The Tiger) - March 26, 2009 9:21 AM
Too bad, so sad.
I'd keep the local stuff and gut the rest. But that's just me.
Whatever.
Ben (The Tiger) - March 26, 2009 10:10 AM
Proof positive that the CBC is dying a death of long-term neglect -- no-one is talking about it here.
Alan - March 26, 2009 10:11 AM
I suspect I have also set a tone. TONE BE GONE! There, now let's see what happens.
Una - March 26, 2009 11:05 AM
I blame the CBC itself. I still listen to CBC radio, and I like Matt Galloway on our drive home show, but most of the programing is boring, predictable, and full of itself. There are some other good shows, but the CBC defines itself by Michael Enright.
Temujin - March 26, 2009 12:06 PM
I blame Ayn Rand.
Seanie - March 26, 2009 12:08 PM
I blame Martin for everything, along with the wonks who took part in his coup that drove people like me and Warren away until Dion buggered off.
I blame the CPC because they refused a resonable request that was fiscally sound put forward by the CBC and would not cost any new money, just early money as a form of a loan.
I blame the CBC itself for reaching to be a bit of a non-public broadcaster yet still being funded as one (though who can blame a kid/corporation for trying to excel once in a while, even if they fail).
I blame Canadians in general who watch crap like House, ER, Gray's Anatomy etc. instead of quality Canadian programming, and for not taking the time to complain directly to the CBC when they don't like what they see.
I blame Sook Yin Lee for being in short bus (when CBC jumped the shark by allowing her to continue broadcasting afterwards).
Ben (The Tiger) - March 26, 2009 3:13 PM
House is not crap.
Re reaching out, though -- I blame the CBC itself for antagonizing half the political population by airing multiple haigiographies of Fidel.
But what the heck. It is what it is.
Hans - March 26, 2009 3:23 PM
You can blame Chretien and his supporters too. There were cuts to CBC due to lack of funding during the Chretien regime.
Seanie - March 26, 2009 3:45 PM
Ben. One episode of house is not crap. However umteen dozen near identical episodes tend to tip the scales in favour of doo doo.
Yes, yes, some cuts were seen during our golden years (The Cretien Years or as some choose to call then, the age of Neo-Trudeauism) which led the CBC to reach out to try to be more of a private-ish network, which did lead to the downfall.. true.
Alan - March 26, 2009 4:09 PM
I think I informed you my one piece of Hollywood inside information - that "House" is Sherlock Holmes. To hate house is to hate Victoriana.
seanie - March 26, 2009 4:55 PM
T'is true his character is based on Holmes, but that does not make him Holmes, merely, similar.
I don't hate the show, just find it mind-numbingly similar from one ep to another... I'd rather rent BBC dvds of REAL Holmes from Classic Video. or better yet, some good old CBC shows, like Forest Rangers!
Josh - March 26, 2009 9:06 PM
House was better when they didn't propose Cushing's as a diagnosis every other episode (and the only time it was Cushing's, they didn't figure it out until the last five minutes).
But I think we can blame cuts and general neglect over the past ten years for the current state of things.
Jay Currie - March 26, 2009 10:17 PM
I blame Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.
And Stursburg for driving away the clerisy in pursuit of d'youths...who, with the possible exception of Renee (who is exceptional in every way), don't listen to radio anymore and rarely watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.
And, come on, a billion a year?
Oh, and Heather Malick. I blame her for generally breathing but more than that, for being a print journalist on the Canadian <i>Broadcasting</i> Corporation.
And, of course, Bush. (Though I am beginning to suspect that St. O may be little better but way cooler.)