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.
cbcexposed is all about exposing the waste of the CBC ... over 1 billion dollars a year of taxpayer money funds the cbc and a lot of that taxpayer money is wasted.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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/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.
“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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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