CBC president compares Netflix to colonial imperialism

There are parallels to be drawn between the growing influence and availability of Netflix programming around the world and the colonialism of the British and French empires, CBC president Catherine Tait said Thursday.

Tait compared Netflix’s rise across the globe to the “beginning of a new empire” during her appearance on a panel organized by the Canadian Media Producers Association in Ottawa, alongside Stephane Cardin, Netflix’s director of public policy for Canada.

She admitted that Netflix’s rise has contributed to today being “probably the most exciting time for screened entertainment … so for this, we are very grateful to Netflix.” But, she warned, a foreign company taking up an increasingly larger role in a country’s cultural industry comes with a price.

“Fast forward to what happens after imperialism and the damage that can do to local communities,” Tait said. “So all I would say is, let us be mindful of how it is we as Canadians respond to global companies coming into our country.”

Read the full story here.

Is the CBC giving us $1Billion dollars worth?

There has been much written about the declining media presence in this country, paper-thin newspapers, all struggling for survival. Video supplanting the written word, the truism of a picture being worth a thousand words is now being fully tested.

Monies that used to be spent in covering detailed stories, are now being spent on staged newsrooms, filled with massive monitors, all to give an impression of being technically advanced, cutting edge, trying to appear more like NASA’s control room.

Which leads into the role in Canada of the CBC in all this, the government funded Liberal backed and supported Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

This tax payer funded agency in 2016/2017 had a budget of $1.09 billion.

66% of that funding comes from government, which of course means the taxpayers. Only 8% comes from subscribers and a paltry 18% from advertising. They do not need to play by the same rules of fiscal responsibility when it comes to reporting of the news. The government-supported CBC does not have to compete on a level playing field with the privately held television networks, or the newspapers. They have the advantage.

The CBC survives only because they are funded. And generously funded. They have lost their way, they have lost sight of the rules of honest journalism. What is covered in terms of news is often just the regurgitated stories of other news agencies.

Read the full story here.

CBC Corrects False Neil Macdonald Claim

Once again, Neil Macdonald has spread mistruths about Israel, abetted by the CBC News website. Once again, HRC has caught him in the act prompting the CBC to issue a “clarification” for his falsely claiming that Israel restricts food aid to Gaza.

On March 10, Macdonald penned a column on CBC Opinion entitled: “Anti-BDS laws are more than words. They are a legal attempt to punish a passive act” where Macdonald erroneously wrote the following:

Washington, for example, was furious when Venezuelan troops blocked foreign food shipments and shot protesters, but regards Israel’s blockade of foreign food aid to Gaza and its troops shooting Gazan protesters — which Israel defends on security grounds — as completely justified.”

Contrary to Macdonald’s claims, Israel doesn’t block foreign food aid to Gaza. It enforces a UN-approved legal maritime blockade of Gaza as Hamas transfers weaponry to Palestinian terrorists. Israel regularly transfers thousands of tonnes of food aid on a weekly basis to Gazans. The aid just has to be screened for security reasons by Israel.

Read the full report here.

CBC News recognized the errors its journalists made

On January 21, HonestReporting Canada contacted senior CBC News executives to inform the CBC that on January 19, CBC TV and Online both erroneously reported that Conservative leader Andrew Scheer had pledged to move Canada’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

Instead, Scheer repeated his pledge of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. With regards to moving the Canadian embassy to Jerusalem, the Conservative Party of Canada says that matter will be considered should the party form government.

CBC Online erroneously reported the following: “He (Scheer) reiterated his pledge to move Canada’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and said the Conservatives could appeal to young people by fighting for “free speech” on university campuses and changing mortgage rules to make it easier to buy a home.”

In light of this information, we asked CBC News to broadcast an on-air and print correction to remedy these important errors.

We are pleased to note that CBC News has been cooperative and has recognized the errors its journalists made.

Read the full story here.

CBC Radio Airs One-Sided Report

On the morning of February 28, CBC Radio aired a grossly one-sided anti-Israel report about UN investigations of riots at the Gaza-Israel border.

This report was unfair, unbalanced and was certainly one-sided.

The CBC report did not acknowledge Israel’s perspective ...

Read the full report here.

CBC struggles to land its jokes

The CBC—once the home of world-class comedy—now struggles to land its jokes. And with more competition than ever before, it’s losing its place in the cultural firmament.

It wasn’t so long ago that the CBC was known as the Canadian home of strong satire and sketch.

But now, when Canada needs a compelling comedic voice more than ever, the CBC’s output has largely grown stale and irrelevant.

CBC Comedy’s Twitter account has around 5,300 followers, and many tweets linking to their written comedy, like “Big reveal at gender reveal party is that no one wants to be there whatsoever,” lack a single reply or like. It’s the Internet equivalent of a tumbleweed. There have even been campaigns to kill CBC Comedy, suggesting it’s a poor use of taxpayer money.

As it currently exists, the CBC gives talented creators little incentive to write anything better and smarter. It’s time to stop coasting off of legacy work, establish a clear direction, recognize comedians as artists, and properly promote those artists through social media and streaming services. Until they do, Canadians will rightfully continue to ignore CBC Comedy in favour of the many superior alternatives.

Read the full opinion piece here.

Should Taxpayers keep funding the CBC?

Join the discussion on Reddit  ...

Should Taxpayers keep funding the CBC ? I'd like your opinions on this:

level 1

Valiant_Hoser

24 points·7 months ago

Personally I think yes.

I worry more about our media completely controlled by corporatism than one funded by the public and accountable to the public.

I feel the CBC should be closer to the BBC than PBS in the US.

level 1

Biggreedybastard

1 point·7 months ago

I do agree with that, there was some pretty epic tv series and shows that were great entertainment. Id be ok with some funding going to help putting shows together. It is mostly the news part that bugs me.

level 2

Arch____Stanton

2 points·7 months ago

The utter vast majority of media is own by right wingers.
There is tons of anti-progressive crap everywhere. What are you missing?

level 1

Eleutherlothario

-2 points·7 months ago

Hell no. If Canadians want the kind of programming the CBC provides, the CBC can support itself through advertising. If the CBC can’t attract a big enough audience to support itself, then Canadians don’t really want the CBC. Either way, no public funding required.

Read even more comments on Reddit here.

Union membership at odds with CBC Management

This year has a lot in store for us as media workers at the public broadcaster, and as members of the Canadian Media Guild (CMG). Our union’s membership numbers were stable last year at CBC/Radio-Canada owing to additional government funding from the Liberal government after decades of cuts.

Our union told the Corporation at our last corporate steering committee (a joint union-management meeting) that, given the cuts of previous years and rising workloads, we want to see the new public funds invested to support our members and the work we do, through an increase in unionized jobs at the public broadcaster.

CBC management made a submission to the CRTC consultation last December repeating a desire to move to an ad-free model in return for additional dollars in government funding. The suggestion that this approach would be an economic benefit to other media companies is far from persuasive and appears, in any case, to be a misplaced focus given the numerous changes we are currently experiencing in the media landscape.

The fact is that such a shift would remove a valuable funding stream. CBC needs as many funding tools as possible until there is a major, well-thought-out adjustment in our funding model.

An advertising-free model would also affect hundreds of our members at CBC, not only in Revenue and Media Sales but also in many other departments that interact with them. The effect would be to shrink CBC even further.

Read the full report here.

CBC article was a purposeful and blatant attack on the Jewish state

At the end of my recent sabbatical in Israel, I was sent a CBC article that featured a beautiful photograph of my son, Yonah, in his IDF uniform. At the top of the piece were a number of meaningful quotes about why he chose to become a lone soldier. It seemed like a good story.

But as I read on, I became confused, chagrined, angry and sad. I found myself screaming within. Tears were falling down my face. Innuendos, partial truths, vicious lies, slander and propaganda were hitting me from all directions.

It is fair and understandable for one to honestly challenge a specific policy of Israel’s in the context of loving Israel. But, in my opinion, the CBC article was a purposeful and blatant attack on the Jewish state.

Read the full story here.

CBC is growing obsolete and people favour other sources

Already costing taxpayers $1.04 billion in 2015 and facing rising competition, the CBC's fiscal burden is set to jump by $75 million in 2016 and $150 million in 2017. Regarding the higher price tag of the state broadcaster, Finance Minister Bill Morneau has deflected by saying that “believing in innovation is also believing in the talent and in the creativity of Canadians.” Apologists further contend this is necessary to save the CBC from "extinction."

That begs the question: if the CBC is growing obsolete and people favour other sources, ones that do not cost the taxpayer, how is that a bad thing?

The truth is that the CBC has become a gravy train for elites, with the backing of government unions. These elites have managed to persuade people that they are desperate and hard done by, while the average salary at the broadcaster is $100,528 per year. That is well into the top 10 per cent of all Canadian earners and 23 per cent more than the average earnings of a private-sector TV employee, even before the CBC's luxurious benefits.

Not only are CBC employees overpaid, their performance has been questionable. Their advertising revenues have fallen 32 per cent in just the last year, and 12.2 per cent annually for the past five years. Those five years may have been difficult for the industry, but private broadcasters saw annual declines of just 1.7 per cent. On account of CBC's consistent decline, taxpayers provided 68.5 per cent of funding in 2015.

Read the full report here.

CBC Produced Appalling Coverage

Though Israel won widespread praise for its leading role and brave humanitarian efforts in the daring rescue of hundreds of individuals associated with Syria’s White Helmets, our public broadcaster, the CBC, produced truly appalling coverage that maligned Israel’s efforts.

Amazingly, though media outlets wide and far prominently acknowledged Israel’s integral role in the dangerous rescue mission, a CBCNews.ca report on July 22 failed to even mention Israel’s efforts at all.

Read the full story here.

The Rebel Bests CBC News

The Rebel now has 300,000 YouTube subscribers — more than CBC News.

CBC News — the folks who get $1.2 billion from Justin Trudeau each year — have just 221,000 YouTube subscribers. That’s a government subsidy of $5,400 per subscriber, per year.

Read the full story here.

CBC reinterprets its mandate every few years

When it was created 80 years ago, CBC/Radio-Canada was meant to give a voice to Canadians in the new world of radio broadcasting. It did the same later when television became a mass media.

At the time, there were only a few private channels. There was an obvious role for a public broadcaster trying to reach all Canadians in big cities or small and remote communities; to connect them to the rest of the country and the world; and to bring them together through a shared expression of ideas and culture. It worked very well for several decades and had a profound influence on how we see ourselves and the world.

Fast forward to 2016. The media landscape, with its hundreds of channels and its millions of sources of information and culture, is radically different. Yet, CBC/Radio-Canada seems frozen in time.

It tries to occupy every niche, even though it doesn’t have and will never have the means to do so, with the result being lower-quality programming. The viewership for its English service in particular has reached new lows. To stay relevant, it reinterprets its mandate every few years, going from crisis to crisis.

Read the full speech here.

CNN trumps CBC

The Atlanta-based U.S. cable news network has seen ratings soar in Canada in the run up to the presidential election, “Trumping” the competition.

For the final presidential debate on Oct. 19, CNN saw its share of Canadian viewers climb above the 1.5 million mark in overnight estimates. Broken down into half-hour periods, CNN pulled an estimated 1.2, 1.3, 1.5 and 1.1 million viewers between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. ET.

That dwarfs the overnight estimates registered by CBC News Network, which drew 428,000, 400,000, 300,000 and 194,000 on the same day and times.

Read the full story here.

Why The New CBC 'National' Flopped

10 Reasons Why The New CBC 'National' Flopped: It feels disjointed and disorganized. It feels chaotic.

#10 - It didn't blow me away. And, with their ratings plummeting ever-downward, it needed to. The new and improved "National" looked like the tall foreheads at CBC didn't want to make any actual decisions — about one anchor, about one format, about one feel to it all — so they just threw everything into the blender, and are expecting us all to consume the results.

My hunch? We won't.

Read all 10 reasons here.

Justin Trudeau's CBC and State Funded Propaganda

Trudeau's government is increasing the already heavily bloated funding to levels that are completely obscene. Hundreds of millions in tax dollars are being funnelled to an organization that refuses to provide quality fact-based journalism. 

The CBC has become nothing more than a tool for the Trudeau Liberals to pump dangerous and divisive identity politics into our culture. We are being forced to fund the destruction of our own society.

Read the full story here.

CBC's idea of a level playing field

CBC's idea of a ‘level playing field’ — subsidies for us, taxes for others.

Good news! The CBC has discovered the internet. With an eye to the tens of thousands of “cord-cutters” who have been abandoning cable and satellite providers for online video, the corporation has begun streaming all of its live television services via an upgraded mobile and Apple TV app. More remarkably, it will offer a paid “premium” version: for $4.99 a month, subscribers will receive all of the regular app’s content ad-free, plus the CBC News Network feed in the bargain.

Bad news! While its online boffins may have embraced the open, unregulated, consumer-driven world of the internet, the CBC’s management is still wedded to the same old closed, regulatory, subsidy-driven model as before.

Read the full story here.

CBC looking to hire someone to tell them how to be less biased

I have bad news and good news. The bad news is, CBC is wasting more of your money on brainwashing.

The good news is, they’re brainwashing themselves rather than everybody else for once.

According to the government’s open tenders website, CBC is looking for someone to tell them that “The Corporation”, as the CBC likes to call itself, is racist and biased.

They’re half right, but not the way they think.

Read the full story here.

CBC Implicitly Smears Israeli Lone Soldiers From Canada

CBC Implicitly Smears Israeli Lone Soldiers From Canada As Akin to Canadian ISIS Recruits & with Dual Loyalties.

It’s perfectly legitimate for the CBC to produce a news report on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and more specifically, about Canadians who enlist in the Israeli military, also known as “lone soldiers”.

It’s quite another thing for the CBC to implicitly analogize between Canadians who join the IDF (a recognized army, from a democratic country and regarded as the most moral military in the world) and those who join ISIS (an outlawed terror group, known for its many massacres and its pursuit of a worldwide Islamic caliphate).

Read the full story here.

CBC lies about threat of Twitter trolls

CBC lies about threat of Twitter trolls to justify censoring social media.

"A CBC/Radio-Canada analysis of 9.6 million tweets from accounts since deleted shows that pipeline and immigration debates in Canada were inflamed by trolls thought to be based in Russia, Iran and Venezuela."

Nine million troll tweets released by Twitter? That sounds like a lot.

But immediately, the story is less than it appears:

"Twitter trolls linked to suspected foreign influence campaigns stoked controversy over pipelines and immigration in Canada, according to a CBC/Radio-Canada analysis of 9.6 million tweets from accounts since deleted. Roughly 21,600 tweets from those troll accounts directly targeted Canadians — many of them with messages critical of Canadian pipeline projects and tweets that highlighted divisions over Canada's policies on immigration and refugees."

OK, so it’s not 9.6 million tweets. It’s 21,600 tweets.

There are more than 500,000,000 tweets published every single day. And according to this CBC report, over the course of five years, 21,600 tweets, written by foreign trolls, mentioned Canada.

So about ten tweets a day.

This CBC story itself is fake news.

But it is fake news with a purpose — to justify the massive government intervention in social media.

See the original story here.

CBC’s TV ratings down 40%

With the CBC’s TV ratings down 40% to a specialty channel-like 5% share of viewers even before it lost its NHL contract, according to Canadian Media Research, it’s worth asking again what has gone wrong with the Mother Corp and what should be done about it? 

The answer to the first question is that it no longer represents ordinary Canadians to themselves in a way they like or even recognize. 

So when its funding comes under scrutiny, it is not surprising that most Canadians collectively yawn while watching any of the myriad other channels available to them on various media platforms.

Read the full story here.

Many Canadians see CBC as “a blinding sheen of lightweight nonsense.”

Richard Stursberg, who engineered a cultural coup within CBC TV during his tumultuous 2004-2010 tenure as Executive VP English services, has been doing the publicity rounds touting his new memoir Tower of Babble: Sins Secrets and Successes Inside the CBC, claiming that, thanks to his visionary strategy “it is possible to say with certainty that the CBC has never been stronger.”

Writing in the Globe and Mail in response to the Federal budget, Stursberg claimed that, “For the first time in history, the CBC has proven that Canadians can make entertainment shows that can compete with the programs made in the United States,” thanks to his leadership. “If there ever was a Golden Age for the CBC, it is now,” he stated.

On the other hand there are many Canadians, including legions of loyal CBC radio addicts, who see in the television service what Globe television critic John Doyle sees: “a blinding sheen of lightweight nonsense.” A schedule, punctuated by ratings-grabbing gimmicks like Battle of the Blades, in which “there isn’t a single serious-minded cable-quality drama…a single searing comedy…nothing to compel anyone to note that no other broadcaster would air such a program.”

Read the full story here.

The CBC is just a tool for left-wing social activists

The tax supported CBC is a tool for left wing social activists to indoctrinate the Canadian public.

It collects $1.7 billion each year from the federal government to promote its left wing ideological objective which most definitely does not reflect the views of most Canadians. 

It does so, even though the Broadcasting Act, which was updated in September, 2018, specifically states in Section 3(l)(i) that broadcasters are required to provide a balance of information and in Section 3(l)(iv) that the CBC must provide a reasonable opportunity for the Canadian public to be exposed to differing views on matters of public concern. 

The CBC is operating outside its mandate.

Read the full story in Life Site News here.

Why Should We Save the CBC?

The CBC brass need to pay attention to the general public's growing apathy towards an institution too often in the news for the wrong reasons. 

Uncomfortable corporate silences. Lingering questions. Unanswered inquiries. 

CBC fans can't explain this riddle to themselves, much less to lukewarm listeners. 

As the embattled broadcaster lobbies for increased government dollars to "Save the CBC" underneath a cloud of checkered transparency and puzzling rationales, taxpayers' appetite for increased spending dries up.

Read the full story here.

CBC to get a free pass

Canadian Taxpayers Shouldn’t Be Forced To Fund State-Run CBC.

CBC has run an article that can only be described as garbage. Its headline says that, Doug Ford only won the Ontario election’ because he’s a quote “white heterosexual male”.

The headline completely dismisses the fact that people from all backgrounds supported Ford-Nation because they want lower taxes and fiscal responsibility.

Instead it’s more of the same insane identity politics that devalues individuality and seeks to divide people.

Of course if an article is written about another candidate from a group the Left saw as victimized – the left would go crazy at the mere mention of race, gender, and sexual orientation – when it’s the CBC they seem to get a free pass.

Not only is the article garbage but it’s garbage that we’re paying for with our tax dollars and we aren’t even given a choice.

Read the full story here.

Will more tax money save the CBC?

CBC’s flagship news segment needs more than a cosmetic change—it needs an overhaul.

Change doesn’t seem to come naturally to the cbc, whose strategies remain stuck in the twentieth century.

The time has come for the public broadcaster to make the fundamental changes necessary to regain its viewers’ trust and to prove its worth—before its audience signs off for good.

Read the full story here.

Public subsidy to the CBC is a forced transfer of wealth

The CBC, like many creatures of government, has now lived long enough to outrun several generations of justifications for its existence.

The CBC was created, as both monopolistic broadcaster and regulator, because what preceded it was all so untidy, unhealthy, unpredictable . . . unpalatable.

The Broadcasting Act says the Corporation shall operate “radio and television” services; it doesn’t say anything about a website, much less a website that functions as a telegraphic gazette.

Polls always demonstrate high levels of purported political support for the CBC. The public subsidy to the CBC is a forced transfer of wealth from people who don’t like it to people who do, and the “dos,” unsurprisingly, like the set-up just fine. No social or economic arguments against privatization of the CBC are possible. It’s nothing but a zombie, slowly sucking up a dwindling fund of goodwill and nostalgia.

Read the full story here.

CBC named in major defamation lawsuit

A follower has asked us to post this Press Release on cbcExposed:

________________________

  

Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) Launches a Major Defamation Lawsuit Against CBC’s TV program, The Fifth Estate

Winnipeg, Manitoba (February 11, 2019) – The Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) or Church of Christ, an international religious organization, launched a major defamation lawsuit against Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)- The Fifth Estate’s TV program “Church of Secrets”—that they aired in November 2018.

The Notice of Action against CBC and those involved in the Fifth Estate program had been served on the people being sued. The actual lawsuit was filed in the Court of Queen’s Bench in Winnipeg, in a historic city where the first congregation of Iglesia Ni Cristo was registered in Canada.

A news conference organized on behalf of the INC held in Winnipeg on Friday announced that the charges were based on the scandalous, outrageous and false accusations against the Church in that program.

At the news conference, which was attended by several Ministers of the Church, members of the Church, and the Church’s lawyers, the following points were made by Minister Rod Bruno and Minister Sidney Santos:

1.    The Church is seeking, above all, vindication for the false allegations made against it by CBC’s Fifth Estate program and, Timothy Sawa and Bob McKeown. There was and is no evidence to support these false allegations;

2.    The Church is seeking an apology and retraction for the misrepresentations and falsehoods asserted by the Fifth Estate program. CBC is not prepared to offer an apology and retraction and have therefore left the Church with no alternative but to pursue this lawsuit to hold them accountable for these grossly unjust accusations which were based on nothing more than innuendo and speculation;

3.    The program included an allegation by an individual which turned out to be false.  Well before the program aired, the individual disavowed the information she had provided to CBC.  CBC should have known full well that what the individual said was false and had been disavowed, yet they proceeded to include it as part of the program.

4.    The program referred to Iglesia Ni Cristo as the “Church of Secrets.” The point highlighted at the news conference that the Church had nothing to hide. The Church has been very involved in outreach programs, humanitarian programs of all sorts and has participated in assisting victims of hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and tornados;

5.    The Ministers made clear at the news conference that the members of the Church are law-abiding, God-fearing and peaceful citizens of Canada and the rest of the world.

The Church could not remain silent and do nothing about these spurious allegations against it that have stained and damaged the Church’s reputation. The Church is determined to hold CBC accountable for the gross misrepresentations that tainted its reputation worldwide.

###

For further information on the lawsuit, please contact Jay Prober, (204)957-1205, one of the lawyers for the Church.

CBC supporting blocking is counter-intuitive position for public broadcaster

Documents unearthed by uOttawa internet law professor Michael Geist detail the Bell Fair Play Coalition’s dealings with the CBC and lobbying activity with post secondary institutions, including Ryerson University.

The coalition is pushing the government to establish an Internet Piracy Review Agency under the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. The agency would have the power to block and take down websites if they were determined to be illegally making available copyright infringing content.

The CBC’s involvement was questioned by Michael Geist. “the CBC might prefer that viewers use authorized services, but supporting blocking is a counter-intuitive position for a public broadcaster as it tries to stop Canadians from viewing the content they paid for through their tax dollars. Internal documents now suggest that executives at the highest level were involved in the process from the very beginning and well aware of the concerns.”

Read more here.

How the CBC lost Hockey Night in Canada

CBC didn't consider Rogers a threat, according to author David Shoalts.

It was a marriage that many thought would last forever.

From the initial radio broadcast with play-by-play by Foster Hewitt in 1926 to the move to television in the early 1950s, Hockey Night in Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation were inseparable — until 2013, when Rogers Communications won the exclusive rights to broadcast NHL games in Canada in a 12-year, $5.2-billion deal.

How the CBC lost Hockey Night in Canada — and all the ways Rogers's big win went wrong — are detailed in Globe & Mail reporter David Shoalts's book, Hockey Fight in Canada: The Big Media Face Off Over the NHL.

Read the full story here.