The CBC continues to operate in a wasteful, bias manner serving the socialist left wing mandate only while continuing to lose viewers and advertising revenues. Scandals continue. An unsettling, ugly anti Semitic movement has grown in the CBC News operation, history experts will know that this troubling bias can have devastating results for our country. Act now- contact your MP, the PMO and the CBC to stop this frightening socialist anti Semitic driven bias now.

Disgruntled CBC workers continue to confidentially share their stories with us, reports of management snooping, waste, huge salaries for select senior management, content bias, low employee morale continue in 2021 and we will expose these activities in our blog while protecting our whistleblower contacts. We take joy in knowing that the CBC-HQ visits us daily to spy on us, read our stories and to find out who owns our for the Canadian people blog.

One of our most popular posts continues to be the epic Dr. Leenen case against the Fifth Estate (the largest libel legal case ever awarded against the media in Canadian history) yet where no one at CBC was fired and taxpayers paid the huge award and legal costs for this blatant CBC Libel action. Writers and filmmakers -this is a Perfect story for an award winning Documentary -ok - who would fund it and where would it air since the CBC owns the Documentary channel! Can you help? Please contact us.

cbcExposed continues to enjoy substantial visitors coming from Universities and Colleges across Canada who use us for research in debates, exams, etc.

We ask students to please join with us in this mission; you have the power to make a difference! And so can private broadcasters who we know are hurting from the dwindling Advertising revenue pool and the CBC taking money from that pool while also unfairly getting massive Tax subsidies money. It's time to stop being silent and start speaking up Bell-CTV, Shaw-Global, Rogers, etc.

Our cbcExposed Twitter followers and visitors to cbcExposed continue to motivate us to expose CBC’s abuse and waste of tax money as well as exposing their ongoing left wing bully-like anti-sematic news bias. Polls meanwhile show that Canadians favour selling the wasteful government owned media giant and to put our tax money to better use for all Canadians. The Liberals privatized Petro Canada and Air Canada; it’s time for the Trudeau Liberals to privatize the CBC- certainly not give them more of our tax money-enough is enough!

The CBC network’s ratings continue to plummet while their costs and our taxpayer bailout subsidies continue to go up! In 2021 what case can be made for the Government to be in the broadcasting business, competing unfairly with the private sector? The CBC receives advertising and cable/satellite fees-fees greater than CTV and Global but this is not enough for the greedy CBC who also receive more than a billion dollars of your tax money every year. That’s about $100,000,000 (yes, $100 MILLION) of our taxes taken from your pay cheques every 30 days and with no CBC accountability to taxpayers.

Wake up! What does it take for real change at the CBC? YOU! Our blog contains a link to the Politicians contact info for you to make your voice heard. Act now and contact your MP, the Cabinet and Prime Minister ... tell them to stop wasting your money on a biased, failing media service, and ... sell the CBC.

CBC's Peter Mansbridge has given up on doing any substantive journalism

The Star's Rick Salutin wrote a piece entitled CBC’s Peter Mansbridge coulda bin a contender. Somewhat dirgelike in tone, Salutin asserts that Mansbridge just seems to have given up on doing any substantive journalism, contrasting him with the redoubtable Walter Cronkite, who he describes as ... ready to stand up against the state and the flow and was solid as the bronze statue of the American revolutionary minuteman who stood “by the rude bridge that spanned the flood/ His flag to April’s breeze unfurled.”

Mansbridge, on the other hand, has happily gone with the flow — and the pressure. CBC has become numero uno for crime stories, weather coverage (today’s snow), product launches, celebrities and awards gossip. None of this is new, or news, and CBC itself doesn’t contest the point.

Read the full story.

CBC workers lose jobs, top execs get big bonuses

As CBC continues to cut jobs and cancel programs in the wake of budget cuts announced in March, the head honcho of the organization is defending big bonuses to senior ranks.

CBC president Hubert Lacroix was questioned recently about bonuses for top executives, which in recent years have totalled between $775,000 and just under $1 million for the 10 to 12 most senior people.

Read the full story.

CBC practising chequebook journalism

A senior government MP denounced the CBC in Parliament on Friday for paying for access to secret documents leaked earlier this year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Paul Calandra, parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, called out the state broadcaster in the House of Commons for practising chequebook journalism.

"When CBC's The National aired a report about U.S. activities during the G8 and G20, neither Peter Mansbridge nor Greg Weston disclosed that they had paid their source, Glenn Greenwald," Calandra said.

"Greenwald is a Brazilian-based former porn industry executive, now assisting Edward Snowden leak national security information."

Read the full story.

Why the CBC should stop the hissy fit

Monday afternoon, just after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) made public its intriguing but slippery plan to solve the infamous fee-for-carriage dispute, the nabobs of the TV and cable rackets unleashed their responses.

The cable guys were a tad miffed – dismissive even, in the usual manner of cable execs who believe they control the universe. The TV types were pleased, but in a hesitant manner.

Then it came – the sound of rattling cufflinks. Umbrage. Outrage. Steven Guiton, the CBC’s regulatory officer, stepped up to the microphones, looking furious. He proceeded to announce the imminent end of public broadcasting in Canada. “There does not appear to be a future for public broadcasting further to this decision” he said.

Horror! Murder in Gatineau, Quebec. The CRTC has killed the CBC. Driven a stake through its heart.

Watching this unfold on CBC was an interesting experience. The CBC reporter, Rosemary Barton, admitted to not understanding the CBC’s problem. Nobody did, actually. Not long after, Hubert Lacroix, the CBC’s president, turned up on CBCNN’s Power & Politics. More umbrage and dismay. Cufflinks rattling like castanets, all finger-wagging fury. Host Evan Solomon was as mystified as the rest of Canada – exactly what was the CBC’s big problemo?

Read the full story and discussions here.

Blindsided - death knell for CBC?

The world of televised sports was hit by an earthquake last week, and almost no one saw it coming, especially Canada’s public broadcaster.

Rogers Communications rose to the top of the heap, concluding a blockbuster deal which gives them total control of NHL hockey in Canada. It’s a 12 year agreement worth $5.2 billion. Up in the great hot stove league in the sky, Foster Hewitt and Danny Gallivan must be shaking their heads in wonder.

The folks at Rogers will get to call all the shots, including the wardrobe Don Cherry will wear, if Coaches Corner is still part of the package. The CBC was blindsided, but there was almost nothing they could do once Gary Bettman and the boys got to licking their lips over the mega-bucks that Rogers put on the table.

Some are predicting it will be the death knell for public broadcasting in Canada since hockey represents half of their commercial revenue.

Read the full story.

$200-million hole in the CBC's budget

Heritage Minister Shelly Glover has shut down any expectation that the CBC will get a taxpayer-funded top-up after the Crown corporation lost out on a lucrative NHL broadcasting deal.

A 2012 analysis by advocacy group The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting concluded that losing NHL hockey — and coming up with new programming to fill the airtime — would put a $200-million hole in the CBC's budget. 

"CBC already receives significant taxpayer funds. We believe they can operate within their existing budget," said PMO spokesman Stephen Lecce.

Read the full story.

NHL deal huge blow to CBC

As part of Rogers’ new $5.2 billion, 12-year deal with the NHL, CBC’s hockey department exists in little more than name only. While the CBC retains Saturday night hockey for the next four years, all editorial and personnel decisions are now the domain of Rogers, as well as responsibility for production. Rogers will even get the money from the ads that run during HNIC on CBC.

For years, HNIC has been a cash cow that helped float many of CBC’s other news and original programming endeavours, with some estimating it was worth $200 million, and up to half of the TV network’s advertising revenue.

CBC has already said that job losses from its hockey department will be part of the fallout of the deal. The bigger question is the effect it will have on the rest of the network. Hockey revenue clearly underwrote much of CBC’s other programming, and considering that the federal government already cut $110 million out of the network’s budget last year, it literally is death by hundreds of million (dollar) cuts.

Read the full story.

CBC doesn’t plan to ask for new federal funding

Senior management at the CBC doesn’t plan to ask for new federal funding and anticipates “minimal” impact on programming following a deal announced this week that leaves the public broadcaster without advertising revenue from professional hockey broadcasts.

The CBC said in its annual 2012-13 report that its revenues dropped by about $43 million and its expenses dropped by about $62 million in the previous fiscal year. It said the drop in revenues was mainly due to the absence of hockey broadcasts as a result of an NHL lockout, while the drop in spending, was partly due to the lockout as well as $115 million in cuts brought on by the Harper government’s 2012 budget.

The Crown corporation, which produces content for radio, television and the web, operating at arms length from government, received about $1.1 billion in federal funding for that year.

“The CBC already receives significant taxpayer funds, and we believe they can operate within their existing budget,” said Mike Storeshaw, director of communications for Canadian Heritage Minister Shelly Glover.

Read the full story.

CBC-TV will disappear

The NHL-Rogers 12-year hockey rights deal threw a hand-grenade at CBC-TV, with a time-delay fuse.

CBC-TV’s sports property and crown jewel, is gone.

In Oct. 2014, HNIC will be editorially-controlled by the folks at Rogers. Rogers will decide what games will be carried on the CBC-TV network, under their control. All related revenue (a very large chunk of CBC-TV’s annual revenue) is retained by Rogers.

This bombshell is a wake-up call, a golden opportunity for the CBC to use the four years to change the direction CBC-TV has been going for the past decade or more.

The time for redemption is at hand, providing those in power (politicians and CBC board members) have the courage, tenacity and leadership to slowly turn the direction of the aircraft carrier into a non-commercial, content relevant, public broadcaster.

If the next four years are not dedicated to this challenge, CBC-TV will disappear.

Read the full story.

Conservative MPs - end CBC funding or sell

Go big or go home. That's the theory behind petitions presented by Conservative MPs calling for either the end of government funding for the CBC or the sale of the broadcaster.

Conservative MPs Colin Carrie and Brian Jean have called for the government to stop giving public funding to the CBC, while Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant has asked for its sale, according to to iPolitics.

Read the full story.

CBC has 730 employees who earn more than $100,000 per year

Hundreds of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation employees are paid more than $100,000 a year but the Crown corporation won’t tell Parliament who they are and exactly how much they earn. 

“CBC/Radio-Canada currently has approximately 730 employees who earn more than $100,000 per year,” according to documents tabled in Parliament by Heritage Minister James Moore Monday. “Their names and precise salaries are protected as per the Federal Privacy Act and Access to Information Act.

It particularly refused to disclose how much CBC Chief Correspondent Peter Mansbridge or popular host George Stroumboulopoulos take home each year.

Read the full story.

CBC’s Milewski says his job as reporter is to “sell ads”

First, it is bizarre that CBC’s Terry Milewski is doing an interview for a Globe and Mail piece but what’s even more astounding is his admissions of playing it up for the camera:

“People imagine that the CBC is this grand public service funded entirely by taxpayer dollars, but my job is to sell ads. You won’t catch me saying, certainly not on tape, that we at CBC have some grand mission to speak truth to power.” 

“Our job as reporters is not to meekly accept whatever answer we’re given, but to challenge and provoke and press.”

Read the full story.

CBC should stop pretending

It's looking dire: the CBC hitched its financial wagon to the star of professional sports (in this case the NHL). But when deeper pockets looked for a richer source of funding, the ever-beleaguered CBC was tossed aside like a cheap towel and put out of the game.

CBC was simply out-hustled in a marketplace where sentiment and sympathy have their uses as public relations gestures. But business is business and the CBC showed that it hasn't got what it takes.

The implications are serious. The CBC has already had its annual parliamentary appropriation cut with no indication that the federal government will make up the difference.

Without hockey revenues, the programming schedule will be seriously weakened and the cuts to budgets will be harsh and deep.

There is a solution to this and it is for the CBC to stop pretending it's a commercial broadcaster with some government funding.

Read the full story.

CBC isn’t the best bang for the broadcasting buck

The federal government spends a lot of money on Canadian culture. It subsidizes Canadian books, Canadian movies, Canadian theatre, Canadian music and Canadian television.

But it doesn’t own any bookstores, movie theatres, concert halls or record stores. It leaves the production and distribution of all those other artistic endeavours to the private and not-for-profit sectors. So why does it own a television network?

The loss of NHL hockey has thrown the CBC’s business model up in the air. Everyone seems to have lots of advice for the network about what it should do next. But the real question is: Why is the CBC in business at all? More importantly, why is competing with private companies that do the same thing it does?

Read the full story.

CBC Fifth Estate film found at fault for unfounded facts and false impressions ...

If you thought that headline was a mouthful, try swallowing a damages award of $950,000 and a costs award over $800,000 as the CBC had to in the libel lawsuit brought by Dr. Frans Leenan.

After winning his case in Ontario’s Superior Court, Dr. Leenen said, ‘Four years ago we proposed to settle this law suit for $10,000 and an on-air apology. It was refused…The Fifth Estate persisted and took me through 10 weeks of trial.’

The trial judge awarded very high damages for libel against The Fifth Estate and the CBC as well as individual reporters and producers. The CBC appealed. Ontario’s Court of Appeal disagreed with the CBC, and ruled that Dr. Leenen had been libelled. Finally, the CBC tried to take the case to Canada’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Canada.

Read the full story.

The end of CBC as we know it

The hole that the loss of hockey broadcast rights blows out of the CBC’s budget is not easy to quantify, because the public broadcaster has always been cagey about what it spends on hockey and how much revenue is derived from it. But, in a word, it is massive. As a ballpark estimate, industry insiders suggest that half of the CBC’s advertising revenue — which would work out to about $200-million annually — was pulled in by its exclusive arrangements for Hockey Night in Canada, as well as Stanley Cup playoff coverage.

Rogers will collect all of the revenues from the advertisements and sponsorships that are sold on Hockey Night in Canada, even the versions of it that appear on CBC. Further, the Saturday broadcasts will also be split among Rogers properties such as the Sportsnet and City channels, which will also be able to use the Hockey Night in Canada brand. So as much as Mr. Lacroix offered bravely on Tuesday that he was “comforted” by the fact that the 61-year HNIC tradition would continue, it remains that the CBC has given up its hold on that brand in exchange for being a partial vessel for Rogers programming, and only for the next four years.

Whenever the subject of CBC’s place in a modern media world is raised, the question of why, exactly, it broadcasts hockey when there are private broadcasters who would happily do it, the answer tends to be: because the CBC would collapse without it. That might oversimplify things, but a CBC that only gets to use hockey as a promotional platform, and not as the lynchpin of its schedule, will almost certainly end up being a very different CBC.

Read the full story.

CBC omits facts about obtained documents from former porn promoter

CBC's bombshell claim that the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on Canadian soil with the support of the Harper government was blown to bits Monday after the state broadcaster released its source documents.

Last Wednesday, CBC's The National trumpeted a story of American spies targeting foreign leaders.

CBC obtained the documents
from Glenn Greenwald the journalist, lawyer and former porn promoter who has been working with NSA leaker Edward Snowden. CBC paid Greenwald for access to the documents, a fact omitted from the broadcast of their original story.

Read the full story.

CBC's bombshell claim blown to bits

CBC's bombshell claim that the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on Canadian soil with the support of the Harper government was blown to bits Monday after the state broadcaster released its source documents.

Last Wednesday, CBC's The National trumpeted a story of American spies targeting foreign leaders.

"Stephen Harper's government allowed the largest American spy agency to conduct widespread surveillance in Canada during the 2010 G8 and G20 summits," the headline on CBC's website read.

The documents, released online Monday, don't support that claim and read more like a standard security briefing ahead of an international summit.

Wesley Wark , a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa, said the claims made by the story and the words in the documents don't match.

Read the full story.

CBC paying for stolen NSA documents

Conservative MP’s statement made in House on the CBC paying for stolen NSA documents ...

Mr. Paul Calandra (Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, the CBC’s Journalistic Standards and Practices make clear that:

To ensure we maintain our independence, we do not pay for information from a source in a story.

When CBC’s The National aired a report about U.S. activities during the G8 and G20, neither Peter Mansbridge nor Greg Weston disclosed that they had paid their source, Glenn Greenwald.

Greenwald is a Brazilian based former porn industry executive, now assisting Edward Snowden leak national security information.

CBC only admitted to its cash for news scheme after The Wall Street Journal forced it out. CBC is trying to justify the violation of its own ethical standards by claiming that Greenwald is a freelancer.

Greenwald has strong and controversial opinions about national security. Of course, that is his right, but when CBC pays for news, we have to ask why furthering Glenn Greenwald’s agenda and lining his Brazilian bank account more important than maintaining the public broadcaster’s journalistic integrity?

Read the statement.

CBC pays former porn promoter ...

A senior government MP denounced the CBC in Parliament on Friday for paying for access to secret documents leaked earlier this year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Paul Calandra, parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, called out the state broadcaster in the House of Commons for practising chequebook journalism.

"When CBC's The National aired a report about U.S. activities during the G8 and G20, neither Peter Mansbridge nor Greg Weston disclosed that they had paid their source, Glenn Greenwald," Calandra said.

"Greenwald is a Brazilian-based former porn industry executive, now assisting Edward Snowden leak national security information."

Read the full story.

CBC TV's death knell

Rogers' announcement of its 12-year, $5.2 billion deal for NHL broadcasting rights has left the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's hockey coverage on thin ice.

Although the CBC will continue to have Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights for the next four years, but after that, it's lights out. The loss of the NHL's signature game could be one of the final nails in the coffin of the CBC, which only exists due to the generosity of the federal government.

If CBC TV had to actually meet its own operations budget by procuring advertising revenue to cover the cost of its various, dubious and marginal programs, it would have been out of business many years ago.

Read the full story.

CBC is losing all of it's hockey revenue

The CBC is in trouble. It is losing all of its hockey revenue – but keeping about 320 hours a year of hockey, including Hockey Night in Canada – under the NHL’s new Canadian broadcast rights deal.

Rogers is making big moves to control ever more Canadian media and the announcement on Tuesday that they’re essentially taking over hockey rights across Canada is an enormous move.

Losing hockey is a big deal for the CBC. They’ll keep Hockey Night in Canada for four years on a sub-contract from Rogers, but they don’t own the content anymore. They will not even get the advertising revenue from the broadcasts. They also will not pay for the rights to the games. All that falls to Rogers.

Back during the NHL lockout, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting spokesperson Ian Morrison said the loss of hockey at the CBC would be a “game changer.”

“All told, the loss of hockey would be much worse than the most recent round of cuts from the federal budget. It would be a game changer for our national public broadcaster,” he wrote.

Read the full story.

CBC President Warns Of Legal Showdown With Government

The CBC is warning the federal government that its efforts to control salary negotiations at the Crown agency could be at odds with the Broadcasting Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, leading to litigation.

Canadian Broadcasting Corp. chief executive Hubert Lacroix sent a letter to the Commons finance committee today, pleading for an amendment to the budget implementation bill to ensure the broadcaster's independence.

But when Liberal MP Scott Brison read parts of the letter to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, the minister stiffly dismissed any possibility of changes to the bill.

"The CBC may think it is a special, independent, Crown agency. This is wrong," Flaherty said.

"All Crown agencies have a responsibility through ministers, back to Parliament, to the people of Canada. They can't do whatever they want, particularly with taxpayers money. They can't just go off and pay their executives and pay everybody else whatever they want to pay them."

Read the full story.

CBC President - “only a judge can tell me what to release”

Last night we told you about the cozy, economically beneficial relationship between CBC and much of the consensus media.

They don’t report critically on this $1.1 billion government department because being nice to the state broadcaster is good for business.

We’ve also told you about CBC refusing to release details on how they spend that $1.1 billion that they get from you and I.

We’ve asked for information on how much we pay for absenteeism, how much CBC spent on finding a new theme song for Hockey Night in Canada, even what we will pay for the 75th anniversary party they are planning.

We know that they are spending because we can see ads like this one from the Globe and Mail, ads that run at the same time as the glowing articles on how great CBC, the biggest customer of a Globe owned business, really is.

But while you are told to pay for the party, CBC and their president Hubert Lacroix, say they are under no obligation to release costs.

But while Hubert “only a judge can tell me what to release” Lacroix won’t respond through official channels, he will respond to angry emails which call him Herbert and accuse CBC of acting inappropriately.

Read the full story.

CBC President hires person who has never worked in either radio or television programming

The president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation defended his decision on Wednesday to hire Heather Conway, an executive at the Art Gallery of Ontario who has never worked in either radio or television programming, to head up the public broadcaster’s English-language services.

Conway’s predecessor, Kirstine Stewart, who departed CBC in April to become the head of Twitter Canada, had deep experience as a television programmer, but Lacroix insisted that was not a prerequisite for a position that ultimately approves the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars on content.

Read the full story.

CBC should be sold - Canadian Centre for Policy Studies

The CBC is a money-losing state broadcaster that should be stripped of $1.16 billion in public handouts, says a new report.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Studies argues the broadcaster fails to deliver true dollar value to taxpayers, and it lacks neutrality in its news reporting and accountability.

“The CBC is a world-class broadcaster,” says the report written by David Krayden. “It is for that very reason that we believe that the CBC can survive without a yearly infusion of unearned income.”

Read the full story.

Why did the CBC say this was secret information?

The CBC has released a list of how many vehicles it owns - years after telling taxpayers the information was secret. 

The broadcaster controls a fleet of 728 vehicles, documents show.

That's a far cry from the lone Ford sedan it said it owned in redacted documents released two years ago that hid behind Section 68.1 of federal access laws.

Read the full story.

Cut the CBC - Letter to the Editor

The organization known as "Friends of Canadian Broadcasting" has descended to a new low in its effort to demonize Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Their "Free the CBC" advertising campaign is particularly distasteful in its portrayal of the PM as a Tony Soprano-like character who consigns opponents to the trunk of a car and the tender mercies of a pair of thugs.

I'm not of Italian decent but the stereotyping evident in this video is disturbing .

I support the government's efforts to control spending on its employees wages and benefits, and that includes the wages and benefits enjoyed by employees of crown corporations, including the CBC.

Read the letter here.

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Justin Trudeau gaffe - CBC mop up

There are two parts to a Justin Trudeau story.

The first part is the gaffe.

For example, two weeks ago Trudeau proposed a carbon tax.

That’s a shockingly bad policy. And announcing it at Calgary’s Petroleum Club made it clear, the tax wouldn’t be shared equally by Canadians. It would be an Alberta-centric tax, Liberal-style.

That was the gaffe. So then the Media Party did a mop up.

But part two of any Trudeau gaffe is the Media Party’s clean-up of it. Other than the National Post and Sun Media, Trudeau’s announcement was buried by the Media Party.

Trudeau says something that shows how poor his judgment is, how inexperienced he is, how clueless he is. And the Media Party ignores it – or goes to his rescue.

Call it a preview of the 2015 election campaign.


Read the full story.

A CBC less fluffy and more feisty

Some would say CBC-TV should be left alone to get on with the grim business of laying off staff and cancelling some shows. Others would say the situation offers an opportunity to breathe new life into the broadcaster.

“Our job is to adjust, take this in, and move on,” CBC president Hubert Lacroix said recently to journalists. And he’s right. Move on, move forward. A smaller, stronger CBC must be the goal. A CBC less fluffy and more feisty.

What the CBC needs is an emphatic style of its own. Not the CBC News Network as it is now, with its endless repetition of gee-whiz footage of a fire on a California highway.

If there is less money for news coverage, then what can be covered better with fewer resources? Don’t, for heaven’s sake, strike a committee to study the question and bring in outside consultants.

But if it is to thrive, it needs to find its style. And style doesn’t cost money. Just as money doesn’t buy taste.

Read the full story.

CBC - A Tale of Two Expense Scandals

CBC on the Senate scandal

Headline - Senate expense scandal: The Harper brand of politics

It’s the fault of the trio of senators he appointed who misused taxpayers’ money by claiming expenses they weren’t entitled to, he said, the same senators who must now be suspended without pay.

Click here.


CBC on CBC Executive expense scandal

Headline - CBC defends itself against report on expenses

Canada's public broadcaster says it takes the management of taxpayers' money "very seriously" and a recent report of overspending by one of its executives is largely a distortion of the truth by some of the CBC's competitors.

Click here.

Maybe a moral of this story?  People living in glass houses shouldn't be throwing rocks!

CBC doesn't know what they're talking about

Paul MacLean says Hockey Night in Canada is out to lunch. At least when it comes to its criticism of Bobby Ryan.

The Senators' high-profile signing was the subject of some negative comments Saturday night about his skating when the Sens took on the Leafs in the nationally telecast game.

"I'm fine with his skating," said MacLean. "I don't think the picture of him has a dimension of speed, no, that's not his dimension. But he skates more than fine to play in the NHL."

MacLean scoffed at the idea Ryan is out of shape.

"Whoever CBC is, or whoever they are, don't know what they're talking about. His conditioning level is fine."

Read the full story.

CBC rushing to where others fear to tread

The CBC refused Wednesday to say how big a slice of its $1.2-billion taxpayer handout it's spending to broadcast the 2014 Winter and 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

The decision to award the Canadian rights to the CBC raises questions about how level the playing field is between the taxpayer-funded broadcaster and private broadcasters.

"It's not a level playing field because the CBC gets more than a billion of taxpayer dollars while everyone else has to make it on their own," Greg Thomas, director of the Canadian Taxpayer Federation, told QMI Agency.

"We're seeing the CBC rushing to where others fear to tread. The Olympics have been a super disappointment as far as the ad revenue broadcasters are able to charge. Other broadcasters have had to back down because it's such a money loser."

Read the full story.

CBC Exposed is a book like no other - and today it's FREE!

CBC Exposed is a book like no other. This book takes on the holy grail of the Canadian media landscape and lays bare the truth about CBC. Reckless reporting at the state broadcaster has ruined lives and cost taxpayers millions upon millions in settlement costs yet no one has ever been held to account.

This book does what the consensus media cowards are afraid to do, tell the truth about CBC. From reporting driven by vendettas to outright biases against conservatives, gun owners, Israel and any other group that doesn’t fit their vision of Canada, CBC Exposed is a call to action to rein in this broadcasting giant. Once you read this book you too will be convinced that the only way to tame the beast is to sell it.

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CBC’s Atonement Falls Short After Maligning the Israel Defense Forces

On the October 20 broadcast of the CBC Radio program “The Sunday Edition”, host Michael Enright interviewed Dana Golan, described by the CBC as “a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces” and “former executive director of the Israeli NGO, Breaking the Silence (BTS), which compiled the stories of disillusioned Israeli soldiers in a new book called Our Harsh Logic.” The close to 25-minute radio segment not only indicted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for almost everything under the sun, it contained numerous errors, it lacked necessary context, and it unfairly maligned the IDF.

At no time in the interview did the CBC include a live or pre-recorded statement/response from Israeli officials to rebut BTS’ criticisms. The IDF were presumed guilty in the court of public opinion and the CBC was its judge, jury and executioner.

The resultant effect of the CBC’s errors and unfairness in the production of this interview, along with its failure to adequately atone for its journalistic lapses has led to the demonization of Israel’s armed forces. For which, no remedy is sufficient.

Read the full story.

Misconception was manufactured by the CBC

It’s been a battle between two giant Canadian institutional forces. In one corner the CBC and the labour left. In the opposing corner, RBC and the Canadian banking industry.

This a story bubble blown up by the CBC out of the mistaken impressions of one worker about RBC’s outsourcing program. That employee’s misconception was manufactured by the CBC into a temporary foreign workers scandal.

Their story–impossible to follow logically– was bolstered by a hyperventilating lawyer.

Read the full story.
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CBC eventually lost the lawsuit and spent close to $900,000 on lawyers from an outside firm

In addition to having 22 lawyers on staff, CBC also has three paralegals. Rather than using lawyers already on the payroll, CBC dinged taxpayers more by securing the services of Guy Pratte, one of the top lawyers in Canada.

Despite having 22 lawyers on staff, CBC spent close to $900,000 on top-flight lawyers from an outside firm to fight a lawsuit that could have been settled with an apology.

CBC eventually lost the lawsuit and paid the filmmakers $200,000 in damages, which drove the total cost well over $1 million.

Read the full story.

Selling CBC would be a bold step but the right one

In 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney did what many considered impossible and privatized Air Canada over the objections of those who thought the government needed to own an airline.

As a frequent flyer of many airlines, I can tell you that Air Canada is a much better airline today.

The same can be said of Petro-Canada, which was sold beginning in 1990.  The organization learned to operate more efficiently and satisfy customers.

That was a privatization that was started by Mulroney but finally completed by the Liberal government of Paul Martin in 2004.

If Liberals and old Red Tories like Brian Mulroney can privatize government businesses, why can’t Stephen Harper?

There really is no reason for the government to own a broadcaster in the 500-channel universe.

There are plenty of Canadian broadcasters telling Canadian stories. In fact, with the digital revolution, Canadians have become major content creators.

An analysis done by Google last year showed that more Canadian content has been uploaded to YouTube since it was launched in 2005 than has been created by CBC and CTV since the 1950s.

The government doesn’t need to own a broadcaster to make sure Canadian stories are told. Canadians will do that on their own.

For those still worried about not having Canadian sitcoms and dramas on TV, the government could take just a portion of CBC’s annual $1.1-billion annual subsidy and put it into a production fund that would go to producers.

That content would then be purchased by the private networks, CBC included.

Read the full story.

CBC begrudgingly releases records on overtime

It took CBC six years to respond to an access to information request on how the state broadcaster handles overtime payments.

After losing a court battle on what it could and could not withhold, CBC begrudgingly released the records on overtime.

Read the full story.

Longtime CBC staffer charged with voyeurism

A longtime CBC staffer, who works in an off-air role, is accused of voyeurism after a video surfaced online which shows naked images of a woman who rented a room in his downtown Toronto condo.

David Sealy, 56, was arrested Saturday and charged with voyeurism, mischief and defamatory libel.

He has been at CBC for nearly 33 years and employed most recently as an associate director in the sports division, working on a variety of programs such as Hockey Night In Canada, which includes Coach’s Corner.

Patel said more than 150 voyeuristic video clips of women were also allegedly discovered on a computer. 

According to Sealy’s Linkedin profile, he’s also a union representative on the health and safety committee.

Read the full story.

That’s not a poll. That’s a CBC-David Suzuki press release

According to a new survey, David Suzuki is the most admired Canadian.

That’s what a press release from respected pollster Angus Reid said.

Who did Canadians put on their list of most-admired people?

Well, that’s the thing. No one. The list of names weren’t chosen by Canadians. They were chosen by someone named Shachi Kurl.

She’s not a pollster. She’s a former journalist who went into PR. She came up with the list of names. And then she asked Canadians whether or not they liked the names on her list.

Canadians weren’t allowed to choose their own names. They had to choose from Shachi’s list.

Shachi chose three journalists. But all of them were from the CBC. Why not the great Lloyd Robertson of CTV? (I asked Shachi if the CBC paid for the survey, but she didn’t answer.)

Why no real heroes, non-political people, like Chris Hadfield, the astronaut? Why no sports heroes like Sidney Crosby or even Wayne Gretzky?

Let’s recap: A PR hack with no training as a pollster, chooses a personal list of friends and enemies. She calls it a survey of Canadians, but Canadians aren’t allowed to select their own names. They’re forced to choose from her list, that’s padded with obvious stinkers — that pushes people to choose her friends at the CBC or left-wing politicians.

That’s not a poll. That’s a CBC-David Suzuki press release.

Read the full story.

CBC is infamous for skirting ATI laws

Canada’s $1.1 billion state broadcaster is infamous for skirting ATI laws and doing the bare minimum to get by. Simple information, like how many vehicles the CBC owns or the salaries of star CBC personalities like David Suzuki or George Stroumboulopoulos, should be readily available for as long as the CBC remains a government-owned agency. They were given an ‘F’ grade by Commissioner Legault for incredibly poor response times, the second-worst for a federal department.

When they were asked how many vehicles they owned, they claimed one: a 2007 Ford 500. They were later embarrassed when a House of Commons committee revealed the CBC actually owned 728 vehicles. Updated ATI legislation should provide punitive measures for departments that outright lie in information releases, or abuse the process because they think the information released will be embarrassing.

Read the full story.

There is less Canadian programming on CBC TV today than 15 years ago

According to CRTC, ad revenue from the two main CBC TV services was some $338 million in 2010. CBC has revealed to the CRTC in the past that in the mid-1990’s the two main CBC TV networks generated roughly $350 million in annual ad revenue, meaning that CBC sales has not grown revenues in well over a decade, not even keeping up with inflation. Canadianizing the schedule cannot be blamed because, if anything, there is less Canadian programming on CBC TV today than 15 years ago.

 Private conventional TV, which has been subjected to the same audience fragmentation and other economic pressures in the past decade and a half, has grown ad revenue by almost 30%, an indicator that CBC sales is not tightly managed and perhaps the strongest indicator that CBC management lacks necessary controls over the organization and is ill-equipped to deal with the $115 million-plus budget cut.

Read the full story.

CBC TV employs almost 50% of all the persons working in Canadian TV broadcasting

CBC Staff Numbers:

  • according to CRTC financial data, there were just under 9,600 full time employees at CBC for the year ending August 31, 2010, excluding staff working in unlicenced activities such as cbc.ca; CRTC data show in the years 2006 to 2008 total CBC staff was just over 10,000 people, meaning that there has been only a small reduction in CBC staff in recent years, despite the financial crisis in 2008-09. Preliminary data for the year ending August 31, 2011 show that the staff count was unchanged from the previous year. CBC claims that its resources have dwindled under both Liberal and Conservative governments, yet CRTC data show that the CBC has basically the same number of staff as it had in 1999. The average annual CBC salary in 2010 was just over $87,000, about $9,000 more than in the 2006-08 period 


  •  CBC Radio had 2,500 employees in 2010, while all commercial radio stations employed just over 10,000 employees in that same year. In other words, CBC Radio employed roughly 20% of all persons working in Canadian radio. The number of people employed in private commercial radio has been basically unchanged in the past 5 years 


  •  CBC TV had 6,200 employees in 2010, which represented about 50% of all the persons working in Canadian TV broadcasting. Commercial TV stations and networks (i.e., CTV, Global, CITY, TVA, V, etc.) had just under 6,300 employees that same year 
  • one striking trend in the CRTC data is that commercial TV stations have reduced the number of persons they employ by approximately 2,000 in the past 5 years (find details on commercial TV at this link to the CRTC data). That is, private TV, facing a more competitive media landscape and a recession, reduced its staff by about 25%, while CBC seems to have maintained its staff numbers basically at pre-recession levels
Read the full report.

How much are taxpayers on the hook for when CBC reaches a settlement?

CBC loves to ask questions but the state broadcaster’s president Hubert Lacroix has shown once again that he hates taking them.

Lacroix was asked about a release of documents — some 1,454 pages — related to harassment and inappropriate behaviour in just two CBC offices in Ottawa and Toronto.

What is the nature of the complaints at CBC? Are we talking about inappropriate jokes or sexual harassment?

How much are taxpayers on the hook for when CBC reaches a settlement? That would tell us how serious these issues are.

Read the full story.

CBC stepped in with a higher bid against private companies

News that the CBC has won the radio and TV broadcasting rights for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, raises the question why a state broadcaster is bidding against private companies. 

So far, CBC brass won’t say how much they paid for the Olympic rights, but whatever the amount is, it comes from the taxpayer, not private enterprise.

Perhaps Rogers and Bell who won the rights for the Vancouver Winter Olympics and Beijing Games (for $150 million) didn’t want the rights, since they lost money.

 But the word is that their $70-million bid for 2014 and 2016 was lower than IOC extortionists wanted, so the CBC stepped in with a higher bid — maybe as high as $150 million, but we don’t know.

Read the full story.

CBC has censored me way more than Fox has. Now that’s “scary.”

In some circles, he’s considered “The Godfather of hipsterdom”. In 1994, Gavin McInnes co-founded an infamously edgy Montreal alt-punk zine, which eventually grew into Vice Magazine – now a global brand (behemoth?) that still somehow manages to be a harbinger of "cool".

Canada has a lot of misconceptions about America. They see it as a “scary” (they always use that word) republican empire that is ruled by guns and religion. The real threat down here is the same as Canada, and that’s the politically correct word police. People are losing their jobs for saying something that someone else thought was offensive, even when it wasn’t. I think Red Eye does so well because it’s on at 3 a.m. and can get away with more shit. The CBC has censored me way more than Fox has. Now that’s “scary.”

Read the full story.

Health and dental benefits at CBC/Radio-Canad

If you work as a permanent employee of CBC or if you are contracted to work 13 weeks or longer, you are eligible for the full range of health benefits.
 
Supplementary Health Care: includes prescription drugs, hospital care, eye glasses, hearing aids, ambulance transportation and much more. In some cases the benefits “top up” provincial medicare plans. In others it provides coverage for items not covered under provincial plans.
 
Dental: 90% coverage for basic care (“drill and fill”), including fillings, extractions, cleaning, and inspection every nine-months. As well, there is 50% coverage for such things as major restorative (bridges and crowns) and orthodontia (braces). There are no employee-paid premiums
 
Short-Term and Long-Term Disability: covers wages lost by employees who become ill or disabled. Short-Term Disability (STD) is paid for by the CBC and covers the first 85 days of illness. Long Term Disability (LTD) covers all periods of longer than 85 days and can be in place until an employee retires or dies.
 
Supplementary health plan details


  • Prescription drugs are covered 100%
  • Semi-private hospital rooms and Outpatient Services are 100% covered and there is no deductible charges for these services.

Read the full report.

PS - this is your tax money.  Are YOUR benefits this good?

The cost of propping up the CBC pension plan

The federal government recently announced cuts to the CBC budget of $27.8 million this year increasing to $115 million by 2014-15. The CBC budget for 2011 was $1.1 billion.

These cuts, however, pale in comparison to the costs of propping up the CBC’s pension plan. How will it fund its current pension solvency deficit of $801 million (2010) up from $382 million the previous year?

In 2010, CBC employees contributed $26.9 million to their pensions, but $51.2 million was added by taxpayers. While the split is supposed to be 50/50, CBC has chosen to ask taxpayers to fund the deficit without asking employees to contribute more. To properly fund the pension solvency shortfall, the CBC, under normal accounting rules, would be required to fund an extra $160 million each year over the next five years.

Read the full story.

Selling CBC would save Canadian Families money

If Stephen Harper wants to leave his mark on Canada, I have some advice for him: Sell the CBC.

I say that not only would selling CBC save Canadian families money, it would be the kind of change Stephen Harper came to Ottawa to accomplish.

Selling CBC would be a bold step but the right one.

It would help taxpayers by removing the $1.1-billion subsidy and it would also take government out of a line of business it has no right to be in.

Read the full story.

Selling CBC would be a bold step but the right one

The PM and the rest of the MPs return to Ottawa next week for the start of a new session of Parliament and a new speech from the throne. We've heard plenty about how the government will focus on families and consumers with small pocketbook measures to make Canadians happy and lower our bills.

I say that not only would selling CBC save Canadian families money, it would be the kind of change Stephen Harper came to Ottawa to accomplish.

Selling CBC would be a bold step but the right one.

It would help taxpayers by removing the $1.1-billion subsidy and it would also take government out of a line of business it has no right to be in.

Read the full story.

An employee of the French CBC also worked for the NDP

An employee of the French CBC also worked for the NDP for more than six months in 2012 (from May to November).

Those of us who are familiar with the CBC’s left-leaning bias were not surprised, just disgusted.

It was only the latest on the long list of our Crown Corporation’s double standards in terms of political partisanship.

What is most disturbing with the CBC is that there seems to be an ethical code for their employees on the political left and another one for those on the right.

Read the full story.

CBC paid big bucks to party with Suzuki

CBC used taxpayers' money to gain access to a movie premier for a film they co-produced and owned the rights to, documents show.

"As a partner in David's career, we would like to ask that CBC participate in this celebration by purchasing a table sponsorship at the event," an e-mail from the foundation to CBC reads.

The offer presented to CBC required an investment ranging from $10,000 for two tickets to $100,000 to sponsor the head table. CBC refused to release the amount they paid to the foundation but the contract shows they purchased a table of 10 plus two single tickets.

Read the full story.

CBC should apologize to the black community in Toronto

Immigration minister Jason Kenney says he won't back down from comments he made about the CBC and what he said were attempts by the state broadcaster to block a black radio station from launching in Toronto.

Asked if he would reconsider his comments about CBC, Kenney was blunt.

"I think the CBC should apologize to the black community in Toronto for trying to block their station from going on the air," Kenney said.

Read the full story.

The CBC is a money-losing state broadcaster and should be sold

The CBC is a money-losing state broadcaster that should be stripped of $1.16 billion in public handouts, says a new report.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Studies argues the broadcaster fails to deliver true dollar value to taxpayers, and it lacks neutrality in its news reporting and accountability.

“The CBC is a world-class broadcaster,” says the report written by David Krayden. “It is for that very reason that we believe that the CBC can survive without a yearly infusion of unearned income.” 

The right-wing think-tank says, despite its annual handout from Heritage Canada and other revenue streams that total $1.8 billion in net revenue, the CBC still managed to report a loss of $24.7 million in the last fiscal year.

Read the full story.

CBC employees earn on average 39% more than the average Canadian

CBC employees earn on average 39% more than the average Canadian, according to information obtained through access to information from the state broadcaster.

 An access request to CBC in 2007 asked the broadcaster to release how much money was spent in several areas, including salaries, equipment, programming, and the total cost of producing news and travel expenses. 

On the salary side, CBC spent $507,290,389 on salaries for full-time, temporary and contract personnel. 

Full-time employees at CBC earned an average of $55,712 in 2007, compared to an annual income of $40,092 for employed Canadians - meaning CBC employees were paid 39% more than the average Canadian.

Read the full story.

CBC defends losing millions of dollars to set up a free music service

CBC defends losing millions of dollars to set up a free music service even as it cancelled other programming and laid off staff.

Last February the state broadcaster launched CBC Music, an online music service that gives away for free what other existing private music services charge money for. While CBC doesn't charge users to listen to the latest Rihanna, Katy Perry or Aerosmith, the artists must be paid.

Now it is reported that CBC is expected to lose close to $6 million in its first year of operation and there is no break even point on the horizon.

Stephen Taylor, with the National Citizen's Coalition, said CBC's decision to use tax dollars to compete with the private sector is troublesome.

Read the full story.

CBC wants censorship

The CBC is throwing a tantrum — using your tax dollars.

They had a lawyer send a letter to us here at the Sun, complaining because we criticize their wasteful spending, their lack of accountability, and their bizarre broadcasting decisions, like their big foray into Internet porn.

The CBC lawyer was really mad because on the Sun News Network, we showed a video of one of their senior executives, Kirstine Stewart, alongside a video of a France-produced porn show on CBC’s new online channel.

Here’s a quote from their letter: “Placing Ms. Stewart on the same screen as graphic sex scenes is indefensible morally and legally.”

Just to be clear, the graphic sex scene their lawyer referred to was from a program on a CBC website. But to show that program, associated with a CBC executive, is apparently illegal and immoral in their eyes.

Read the full story.

PS - what do YOU think about this?

CBC spins quite a tale ... Whole truth?

Whole truth? Hardly: Media Party spins quite a tale about its two latest heroes

The Media Party has two new heroes: Tarek Loubani and John Greyson.

A search of the CBC’s website shows more than 5,000 stories on the two men. By contrast, lowly Nelson Mandela only has 2,000 mentions.

So, who are these saints? The Media Party says Loubani is a doctor and Greyson is a filmmaker, and they’re being held in an Egyptian jail without charges. That’s part of the story. Here’s the rest:

Read the full story.

New Video - CBC Exposed

CBC pollster advising federal Liberals?

The president of the Conservative Party has accused a CBC pollster of advising federal Liberals to incite a "culture war" that pits Canadians against Canadians.

Conservative Party of Canada president John Walsh sent a letter Thursday to the CBC's Ombudsman charging that EKOS pollster Frank Graves' comments reported in the Globe and Mail that day raise "serious questions about the impartiality of Canada's publicly funded national broadcaster."

"Why is a pollster who conducts polling for Canada's national broadcaster, the CBC, also giving partisan advice to the Liberal Party of Canada?" Walsh writes in a letter obtained exclusively by QMI Agency.

"Is the CBC aware they were sharing resources with the Liberal Party of Canada, if so, how long have they been aware? Can the CBC assure us that data collected at the expense of taxpayers is not shared with the Liberal Party of Canada?

Read the full story.

suing the Fifth Estate for plagiarism

Bob McKeown has an obvious thesis. He claims, quite correctly, that Fox News has aided in the division of the United States into Red and Blue. He calls it “a very un-civil war”. Ironically he uses Al Franken and his Air America to confirm his thesis that Fox News is conservative (and thus quite evil). Yet, he ignores that by appealing to Franken he becomes unfaithful to his original thesis of media division of opinion as unfavorable.

I’d venture to guess that Bob took a lot of notes when he saw the Democratic Party funded documentary on Fox News: Outfoxed. All of the points were there. If I produced Outfoxed, I’d look into suing the Fifth Estate for plagiarism.

There is something quite ironic about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation identifying media bias when the American news channel itself will compete directly with CBC for viewers.

Consider that these powerful positions are appointed by the government and that state media should of course be unbiased.

The CBC documentary on Fox News dreads a division of opinion in the news media concerning the stories that are reported, the facts which are selected, and the tone of the broadcast.

Read the full story.

CBC will be the only game in town after they shut down your local newspaper

CBC is no longer just a radio and TV broadcaster. They are turning themselves into a major media machine ready to take on one and all in the new digital age. And they are using your tax dollars to do it.

The newest target — your local newspaper.

CBC and their supporters love to talk about how they are the public broadcaster, keeping the public airwaves open for Canadian stories.

That’s part of their justification for picking your pocket and mine to get their billion-dollar-per-year subsidy. But now that billion-dollar subsidy is being used to take on an industry that CBC was never meant to be part of — newspapers.

CBC.ca is more than a website, it is a newspaper, magazine and wire service all in one and it is completely free.

Consumers may like getting their news for free, but if things don’t change, then CBC will be the only game in town after they shut down your local newspaper.

Read the full story.

Are YOU ok with this?

It took CBC six years to respond to an access to information request

It took CBC six years to respond to an access to information request on how the state broadcaster handles overtime payments.

A request was submitted in October 2007 asking for details on the top 20 overtime earners in both French and English CBC. A reply was received on September 5, 2013.

Access to information requests are supposed to be answered within 30 days.

Read the full story.

The secret deal called for CBC to provide a documentary segment

Only in the wacky world of the government would it make sense for one government agency to pay a Crown corporation money to do the job that they are already funded to do.

But that's what happens here in official Ottawa.

Last year, Parks Canada was headed to Arctic waters to look for the sunken ships of the ill-fated Franklin expedition. Sounds like a great story, the kind lots of Canadians and lots of Canadian broadcasters would be interested in.

But Parks Canada struck a secret deal with CBC to grant it the exclusive rights to the search and then paid CBC to take those broadcast rights.

Broadcasters normally pay and pay big to get exclusive broadcast rights. From CBC paying millions of taxpayer dollars to get the rights to NHL hockey, to bidding wars for events such as the Olympics or Super Bowl, broadcasters pay for the right to air a program.

Unless Parks Canada is involved.

The secret deal called for CBC to provide a documentary segment for The National, segments for the nightly news on CBC English and French and web content in both languages.

In return, Parks Canada would pay CBC $65,000 cash, plus tax. They would also pay for travel, including $10,000 to transport one part of CBC's crew up north.

Why would they agree to do this?

Read the full story.

CBC, with 22 lawyers, spent almost $900Gs on outside help to fight lawsuit

Despite having 22 lawyers on staff, CBC spent close to $900,000 on top-flight lawyers from an outside firm to fight a lawsuit that could have been settled with an apology.

CBC's legal costs to defend a lawsuit brought by filmmakers Claude Fournier and Marie-Jose Raymond topped $1 million. But new documents released by the state broadcaster show the legal firm Borden, Ladner, Gervais billed $871,769.03 for its services.

CBC eventually lost the lawsuit and paid the filmmakers $200,000 in damages, which drove the total cost well over $1 million.

The three-year legal ordeal could have been wrapped up if CBC executives had uttered a simple phrase: We're sorry.

Read the full story.

Parks Canada struck a secret deal with CBC

Only in the wacky world of the government would it make sense for one government agency to pay a Crown corporation money to do the job that they are already funded to do.

Last year, Parks Canada was headed to Arctic waters to look for the sunken ships of the ill-fated Franklin expedition. Sounds like a great story, the kind lots of Canadians and lots of Canadian broadcasters would be interested in.

But Parks Canada struck a secret deal with CBC to grant it the exclusive rights to the search and then paid CBC to take those broadcast rights.

The secret deal called for CBC to provide a documentary segment for The National, segments for the nightly news on CBC English and French and web content in both languages.

Now this looks like CBC is being paid for news coverage, and quite frankly it is.

Read the full story.

The CBC’s president, Hubert Lacroix, lost his temper ...

The CBC is throwing a tantrum — using your tax dollars.

They had a lawyer send a letter to us here at the Sun, complaining because we criticize their wasteful spending, their lack of accountability, and their bizarre broadcasting decisions, like their big foray into Internet porn.

The CBC’s president, Hubert Lacroix, lost his temper and wrote to the entire board of directors of Quebecor, the company that owns the Sun.

Read the full story.

CBC president Hubert Lacroix admitted there was sexual harassment

CBC president Hubert Lacroix didn’t let facts get in the way of a good rant Tuesday at a House of Commons committee looking into sexual harassment at the state broadcaster.

Lacroix accused Lilley of attacking the broadcaster after he was given 1,454 documents under access to information that were mostly blacked out.

Lilley requested information on incidents of sexual harassment or inappropriate behaviour in Ottawa and Toronto dating back to January 2010.

At committee, Lacroix admitted there was one case of sexual harassment in one of the cities, but didn’t explain why the CBC redacted it.

Read the full story.

CBC conflict of interest ...

One of the NDP's strongest advocates for the CBC is being paid tens of thousands of dollars a year by the state broadcaster while voting on the CBC's funding and debating its future.

Liberal and Conservative MPs now say NDP MP Andrew Cash should resign his position on the House of Commons heritage committee for violating conflict of interest rules.

Read the full story.

CBC was the subject of 71 new complaints ...

CBC may not be adhering to the law and is still handing out blank pages on a frequent basis but that was good enough for the state broadcaster to get an A in a report card from federal information commissioner Suzanne Legault.

In her report two years ago, Legault gave CBC an F for their refusal to respond to requests in a timely manner. The Access to Information Act allows Canadians to pay $5 to find out details about government business. The law requires a response in 30 days, while CBC's average response time is 36 days.

CBC was the subject of 71 new complaints over the last year including 55 for refusal to disclose information. A recent request for information on a contract with Microsoft saw most information stripped out with CBC claiming it was against the economic interests of Canada to release it.

Read the full story.

CBC - Breaking news or breaking rules?

Breaking news or breaking rules?

One of the public broadcaster's news vans was spotted parked in a disabled spot in downtown Toronto Monday.

Jim Murphy said he was in the Bay-Grosvenor Streets area around 9 a.m. Monday when he noticed the CBC van parked in a parking spot reserved for the disabled. It was located in front of the YMCA, on 20 Grosvenor St., he added.

Murphy said the location is frequently used by people who drop off passengers with disabilities.

The van was parked in the spot from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., according to Murphy.

Read the full story.

It's in the public interest to have CBC undergo media scrutiny

It's in the public interest to have CBC undergo media scrutiny, Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau told MPs at a House committee Thursday.

Peladeau said numerous requests put into the broadcaster by newsrooms in his media company were meant to hold it accountable for the $1.16 billion it gets from federal coffers.

"We believe our demands are not only legitimate and in the public interest, but that they are also in line with the law," he said.

Peladeau decried the delays over demands for search fees and complaints related to filed access requests that eventually resulted in little information actually being released by the CBC and its French-language equivalent, Radio-Canada.

Read the full story.

As a taxpayer who funds CBC, what do you think?

"Sunshine List" for CBC employees ...

Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber's bill would create a "sunshine list" to make public which civil servants and CBC employees make more than $188,000 annually, and would allow the information commissioner to investigate complaints that the CBC is too secretive in its responses to Access to Information requests.

Good or Bad idea?  This is YOUR tax money.

Read the full story.

CBC president Hubert Lacroix didn’t let facts get in the way

CBC president Hubert Lacroix didn’t let facts get in the way of a good rant Tuesday at a House of Commons committee looking into sexual harassment at the state broadcaster.

Lacroix attacked two Sun News Network personalities — Byline host Brian Lilley and The Source host Ezra Levant — for “deliberately misleading” Canadians for reporting on sexual harassment at the publicly-funded CBC and host David Suzuki’s demands when he’s on speaking tours.

Read the full story.

CBC demonstrates how "deeply out-of-touch the network has become."

The CBC has commissioned a study to determine whether its news is biased, the president of the public broadcaster told the Senate finance committee this week.

The announcement came as Conservative senators grilled him Wednesday demanding to see contracts proving CBC wasn't sharing polling data with the Liberal Party of Canada.

Sen. Doug Finley, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former campaign manager, said it was "totally unacceptable" for CBC to use a pollster who had advised the Liberals to "bring on a culture war" based on information paid for by taxpayers.

Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said if CBC needs a study to determine the appropriateness of using a Liberal Party donor as a pollster, it demonstrates how "deeply out-of-touch the network has become."

Read the full story.

Time for the CBC to leave the nest

The verdict is in: after 75 years of government handouts to the CBC, Canadians want to take the training wheels off, and let the state broadcaster fend for itself without its $1.1-billion annual cheque from taxpayers. 

That's the word from a major new public opinion survey conducted by Abacus Data Inc. Funny enough, the hundreds of polls paid for by the CBC never asked those questions - or if they did, the results were never made public.

 Abacus asked 1,003 Canadians to give their views about the best way to finance the CBC. Fifty-three per cent of Canadians said it should continue as a non-profit organization - it should sell ads if it can, and make the rest up through contributions from viewers. That's similar to the PBS model in the United States, a public broadcaster that has regular telethons where people who like their brand of programming (and politics) can prove it by cutting a cheque.

Read the full story.

CBC tells Parliament 'no' ...

CBC has told parliamentarians, the people who vote for their $1.1-billion annual subsidy, that they cannot know how the state broadcaster spends its money.

At an appearance before the Senate finance committee last May, CBC president Hubert Lacroix was asked how much is spent on Newsworld, CBC's all-news channel.

Lacroix told Senator Fred Dickson those figures were confidential.

Read the full story.

CBC has built an empire unto itself ... with our tax dollars!

Canadians vastly underestimate the amount of money the federal government gives to the CBC each year and most say it's too much money, according to a new poll done exclusively for QMI Agency.

More than 80% of a group surveyed by research firm Abacus Data did not know the CBC will get $1.1 billion from the federal government this year. Only one-quarter believe the CBC get only about one-tenth of what the broadcaster actually receives.

Most Canadians - 60% - also thought the CBC gets too much money, including a majority of participants who vote Conservative or NDP. Abacus Data conducted a poll online with 1,003 Canadians from Aug. 12 to 15.

"It seems like the CBC has built an empire unto itself within the expenditures of the federal government. Who are they accountable to? They're ultimately accountable to us, but they're not showing it," said Stephen Taylor, who works for National Citizens Coalition.

Read the full story.

CBC employee Greg Weston is shocked!

CBC employee Greg Weston is shocked that other departments act just like CBC.

If Greg Weston thinks the Privy Council Office is bad at releasing documents through access to information then he should try filing requests for documents on his employer.

Weston, who spent years writing about government waste for Sun Media before getting his nose in at the trough at CBC, is expressing shock and outrage that “not an email, memo or even a sticky note” has been released by PCO in the Senate expense scandal.

Read the full story.

“This is false. They (CBC) should retract this piece of shoddy journalism”

The opposition used what the Tories called a “false” news report Friday to accuse the Prime Minister’s Office of controlling a $1-million secret party slush fund and using it to pay off Sen. Mike Duffy’s ill-gotten housing expenses.

The Conservative Party, Tory MPs and the PMO categorically denied the existence of the stash the state-owned broadcaster said was administered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright.

“This is false. They (CBC) should retract this piece of shoddy journalism,” party spokesman Fred DeLorey said in a statement.

“All Conservative Party expenses are paid by one account, controlled by the Conservative Party. All funds are properly reported to Elections Canada and audited annually,” he said.

Read the full story.

CBC shelled out $60Gs on 9 meetings -- many near its own headquarters

CBC's top executives spent more than $60,000 over six months holding meetings in luxury hotels and resorts and expensing such items as sparkling wine and limousine rides.

Documents released under Access to Information show the CBC spent at least $61,500 on nine meetings between January and June 2006.

The meetings were held according to CBC/Radio-Canada guidelines, CBC spokesman Marco Dube wrote in an e-mail. When face-to-face meetings are required, "off-site meetings are usually better to avoid disruptions."

Stays in expensive resorts topped the bill. More than $21,600 was spent sending 21 CBC and Radio-Canada human resources managers and senior executives to the ritzy Chateau Beauvallon in Mont-Tremblant, Que., for two days. The limo costs alone for one vice-president amounted to $1,009.94.

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The CBC supposedly exists to tell Canadians their story

The CBC supposedly exists to tell Canadians their story in ways for-profit networks would not. But the state broadcaster is anything but an old-style, non-commercial public radio and television company. Its tentacles now extend everywhere in the media universe except perhaps print, and it uses its huge public subsidy to compete unfairly in countless areas where the government has no excuse for intruding.

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At CBC some expenses are never questioned

It never ceases to amaze me how big corporations can be so oblivious to what is happening on the streets just outside their fancy headquarters.

So why are we surprised to learn that the CBC is sending twice as many people to a TV and media festival in Banff than any other Canadian network? That’s the way the CBC works. Some will go as a form of bonus or reward. Others will go to raise the CBC flag. A few will even go to Banff to do some valuable work. Heck, at the CBC they probably think they are saving money because they are likely sending fewer people than they sent in the past. While the profligacy boggles our minds, the CBC brass will be truly surprised by the mild uproar. It’s how they have always done their business. What’s new?

For years I traveled to conferences, markets and conventions all over the world. A few when I was with CTV, a few more at CBC, and regularly when I helped run a private company that produced television programs. Several things became obvious to me on my travels: first of course, was that CBC always had the largest contingent of any of the Canadian broadcasters or producers, most of whom were there for reasons that I, as a participant, could not fathom. For years I traveled to conferences, markets and conventions all over the world. A few when I was with CTV, a few more at CBC, and regularly when I helped run a private company that produced television programs. Several things became obvious to me on my travels: first of course, was that CBC always had the largest contingent of any of the Canadian broadcasters or producers, most of whom were there for reasons that I, as a participant, could not fathom.

In all my years at Global and CTV I do not remember even one study bought and paid for by the broadcaster. That’s what they paid their execs to do: make decisions based on experience and intelligence. Yet to Stursberg it is normal. He sees it as part of his job. He never once puts two-and-two together to come up with the possibility of saving money for programming by shutting down the useless studies he is commissioning. To be fair, the CBC has been doing studies since long before Stursberg showed up. When I was at CBC local news we received the results of a study that said the viewers wanted more international news. There was another study that said The National should be moved to seven p.m. Yet another study told us that our viewers were slightly older than those of CTV, Global and CityTV. All of this was “cover-your-ass” information. It meant CBC bosses could say decisions were not based on their ideas, a study said they should do what they did.

At CBC some expenses are never questioned.

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CBC: Failure at the top

Thank you very much Hubert Lacroix!

From the performance I have seen over the past week from CBC brass I find it near impossible not to believe that Lacroix, Kirsten Stewart and French V.P. Louis Lalonde appear to be far more interested in keeping their jobs by making the government like them, than they seem to care about the future of the CBC. It’s too bad really, just when the CBC needs strong leadership most, it becomes obvious that the folks running the corporation are petty bureaucrats whose only interest is self-preservation. Past CBC presidents have resigned their posts over far less.

As far as the actual cuts are concerned, there is little specific information available at this time. Lacroix and his hench-people promised more information soon. What is clear is that $43 million is going to be cut from English programming. Kirsten Stewart refuses to say, at this time, whether that will come from entertainment, sports, or news. We do know that the doc unit is gone, at least as far as making documentaries is concerned. CBC will basically become a buyer of docs in the future. We were also told that 10% of managers will be cut. We were not told whether this referred to salary or numbers. CBC is still massively over managed. Few managers have been cut over the years. I, and almost anyone who has ever worked for more than one network in Canada, am amazed that CBC honchos can’t cut far more from management to protect programming and the people who actually make the shows. Lacroix estimates that 81% of the cuts will come from the networks (French and English) and 19% from the regions.

All-in-all a sad time for the national broadcaster: unloved by government and un-led by it’s bosses.

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Without hockey, the CBC would lose as much as $175-million annual advertising revenue

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has one month to lock down the broadcast rights to Hockey Night in Canada for another decade. But with the asking price expected to double to $200-million a season, the country’s public broadcaster could be hard pressed to keep its 60-year lock on Saturday night hockey.

The stakes are high for the public broadcaster, which relies on the Saturday broadcast to promote the rest of its schedule. Without hockey, the CBC would lose as much as $175-million from its $450-million of annual advertising revenue. 

But finding potentially another $100-million a year is a challenge at time when its annual budget is in decline – the federal government said last year the CBC would need to cut $115-million within three years as part of broader spending cuts. It has already made drastic changes such as cutting hundreds of employees from its staff, closing services and introducing advertising on its CBC Radio 2 network.

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Parasitic sensationalists should not be allowed to reap personal benefit from their irresponsible actions

Ontario Supreme Court
Richard G. Dearden and Alan P. Gardner, for plaintiff.
M. Philip Tunley and David E. Leonard, for defendants.
CUNNINGHAM J.:—

INTRODUCTION

[1] On February 27, 1996, the CBC aired a one-hour documentary on the fifth estate called “The Heart of the Matter.” This story dealt with a controversial heart medication known as nifedipine, a product which had been on the Canadian market since 1981. By the early 1990s, a longer acting, slow-release formulation of nifedipine had been developed and introduced to the Canadian market. By the time of broadcast the older version of nifedipine was rarely being used. In March 1995, Dr. Bruce Psaty, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington produced an abstract of a case control study which seemed to suggest that nifedipine, in its short-acting formulation, rather than helping heart patients, might be endangering their lives.

[219] In light of the defendants’ reprehensible conduct towards this plaintiff, I have concluded that a message must be sent to the defendants. Parasitic sensationalists should not be allowed to prey upon society’s obsession with scandal and to reap personal benefit from their irresponsible actions. The malicious, offensive, cruel and insensitive conduct on the part of the defendants from the very beginning was such that I have little hesitation, on the facts of this case, in concluding that punitive damages are warranted.

(vii) Summary of Damages

[220] The plaintiff is entitled to general damages of $400,000, aggravated damages of $350,000 and punitive damages of $200,000. Accordingly, he will have judgment for $950,000, together with prejudgment interest in accordance with the Courts of Justice Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.43.

Read the full ruling here.

CBC president talking litigation to federal government ...

CBC's president is vowing to fight a bill that would make the state broadcaster more accountable to taxpayers on how its $1 billion per year subsidy is spent.

In a memo to all CBC staff, Hubert Lacroix said he has pressed government officials for an amendment to exempt CBC from the new rules.

"This could potentially embroil the government, CBC/Radio-Canada and its unions in litigation - not necessarily added value to Canadians," Lacroix wrote in the memo.

The finance minister noted that CBC receives plenty of taxpayers' money each year and they must be accountable for what they pay their employees and executives.

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Media Companies Form Coalition in Hopes of Shutting Down CBC

As if the CBC didn't already have enough to deal with in light of the recent budget cuts, the organization has now come under fire from a coalition of media companies who have taken exception to its recently launched CBC Music streaming service and aim to shut it down.

The Globe and Mail reports that this group includes major financial players such as Jim Pattison Group, Golden West Radio, Cogeco Cable Inc., Quebecor Inc. and Stingray Digital. Other companies like Rogers Communications Inc. and Corus Entertainment Inc. are also expected to join to coalition soon.

These organizations don't support CBC Music's free streaming service, which includes 40 web-based radio stations, plus live concerts, playlists and on-demand music from a host of artists. According to the members of the coalition, the CBC is taking listeners away from their own private radio stations and for-pay websites. They reportedly claim that the public broadcaster should not, under its mandate, compete with private companies for online music dominance. 

The coalition will likely file a complaint with the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

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