CBC trying to force Canadians to fund their failing network

The failing network is desperate for more tax dollars. According to a new report by Blacklock’s, CBC is desperate for yet more money, amid collapsing ad revenue and horrendous viewership numbers.

The report indicates that CBC English-language TV ad revenue is down 37%, with less than 1% of Canadians watching local CBC newscasts at suppertime.

Clearly, Canadians aren’t enjoying the content being pushed by CBC. But instead of respecting the choice of the vast majority of Canadians who aren’t watching, CBC is trying to force Canadians to fund their failing network.

Instead of being forced to fund CBC, CBC should be stripped of public funding and rely on the private sector.

Read the full story here.

CBC pulls out of Omar Khadr speaking event in Halifax

The CBC has pulled its participation from an event featuring the convicted terrorist Omar Khadr at Dalhousie University in Halifax on Monday.

Omar Khadr is a former child soldier who was involved in a firefight with US soldiers in 2002, leaving one US soldier dead. Khadr was wounded in the firefight and captured—being taken to Guantanamo Bay where he was held without charge.

In 2017, Justin Trudeau’s federal government awarded Khadr a $10.5 million settlement. Khadr went on to purchase a strip mall in Edmonton with some of the money.

Khadr previously caused controversy early in 2019 when he appeared on CBC’s Tout Le Monde En Parle, a French-language TV show which gave him a hero’s welcome.

Read the full story here.

CBC’s TV Ratings Are A Disaster

CBC gets about $1.5 BILLION per year in taxpayer funding.

As if that wasn’t enough, they also get private sector ads just like their competitors.

So, they get public money and private money, leading to a totally uncompetitive playing field.

And yet, their ratings are still in the toilet.

To get a sense of how bad CBC’s ratings are, consider that not even one of CBC’s highly-funded programs could beat reruns of Border Security, or Wheel of Fortune.

Plus, this isn’t just about shows that are big in popular culture.

CTV evening News, CTV national news, CTV evening news weekend, CTV late news, Global news Hour, and Global national were all in the top 30.

CBC News or The National? Nowhere to be found on the list.

So, we are paying tons of money to a network that can’t even get people to watch it.

Read the full story here.

How low will CBC TV bosses go in search of ratings and ad dollars?

My friends, it’s time for a resistance. Specifically, a resistance against the direction that current management is taking CBC TV.

First came the news that CBC TV is investing heavily in the advertiser-friendly game show Family Feud Canada and bringing back the reality show Battle of the Blades. That’s bedrock commercial TV stuff, a craven move to get ratings and ad dollars. It’s fine, as long as the fluff is balanced by a plan to air substantial material. What CBC executives like to call “cerebral” content.

Read the full story here.

Erin O’Toole to cut all funding to CBC’s English-language digital operations

Conservative leadership candidate Erin O’Toole is promising to effectively end CBC’s English-language public broadcasting operation, except for radio. But he says he won’t cut Radio-Canada, CBC’s French-language division.

CBC is a popular target during Conservative leadership races, as multiple candidates in the 2017 race had also taken aim at the public broadcaster’s news division. In total, CBC receives $1.2 billion in operating and capital funding from the government each year, and adds about $500 million in advertising, subscription fees, and other revenue sources.

O’Toole released a video Friday morning where he promised to cut all funding to CBC’s English-language digital operations, slash the English TV budget by 50 per cent, and aim to privatize the English TV operation by the end of his first mandate in government.

Read the full story here.

CBC management thinks commercial sponsorship is right thing to do

Here is the good news: the CRTC has ordered CBC/Radio-Canada to end paid advertising on Radio 2 and ICI Musique. The ban begins immediately.

The bad news is that CBC management still seems to think it was doing the right thing when it opened the two radio networks to commercial sponsorship three years ago, with the CRTC's wary approval.

A corporate spokesperson said Wednesday the withdrawal of permission shows "a lack of understanding about the reality of public broadcasting," and "does not help CBC/Radio-Canada serve Canadians."

But the "reality" of public broadcasting, in principle at least, is that it exists precisely in order to provide a service that is not a commercial, for-profit undertaking. It is intended to be distinctive, to be free from the influence of vested interests either commercial or governmental, and to serve its audiences as citizens rather than as consumers.

Read the full story here.

CBC The National: Less News and More Propaganda

Has the cash-strapped CBC SOLD OFF editorial control of their flagship news program The National to the federal NDP? Or have they just GIVEN it to them?

Something has gone terrible awry with Canada’s public broadcaster, whose Journalistic Standards state:

“We are committed to reflecting accurately the range of experiences and points of view of all citizens. All Canadians, of whatever origins, perspectives and beliefs, should feel that our news and current affairs coverage is relevant to them and lives up to our Values.”

Not from what I’ve observed!

The National newscast, I have found, always leaned a bit left, but these days, it has become increasingly difficult for a fair-minded viewer to watch without being concerned … even if you lean left.

I find it is now filled with far too many stories that I would describe as totally one-sided: “advocacy” journalism pushing a particular point of view …. ie. propaganda.

But remember, it is paid for by ALL Canadians! And read that statement of principles again about what it is SUPPOSED to do.

I would describe The National now as more of a sophisticated attempt to brainwash Canadians to support left-wing political and social policies and ideology … rather than truly cover/canvass multiple sides of important issues … as real journalists should.

Read the full story here.

Cut off digital revenue to CBC says public-policy group

A public-policy group has issued 12 recommendations to revive the Canadian news industry, including cutting off digital revenue to the public broadcaster.

The report by the Public Policy Forum maintains that the decline of traditional media, audience fragmentation, and fake news are undermining faith in Canadian democracy.

"Free cbc.ca of the need to 'attract eyeballs' for digital advertising, which can run contrary to its civic-function mission and draw it into a 'clickbait' mentality," the report states.

As things stand now, the CBC generates about $25 million in annual digital revenue, according to the report.

Read the full story here.

CBC broadcast was devastatingly defamatory

                        Leenen v. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation et al

Defendants produced television program about safety of certain heart medications–Program implied that plaintiff doctor and research scientist supported prescribing of killer drugs, was in conflict of interest, received pay-off from pharmaceutical company and acted negligently or dishonestly as chairman of ad hoc advisory committee of Health Canada’s Health Protection Branch–Aggravated damages of $350,000, general damages of $400,000 and punitive damages of $200,000 affirmed on appeal.

The trial judge found that the words complained of did actually bear those meanings and that the broadcast was devastatingly defamatory of the plaintiff. He found that the defence of justification failed because many of the facts alleged by the defendants were not true. He rejected the defence of qualified privilege, concluding that, while the program was “of public interest”, it was not “in the public interest”, and was contrary to the public interest because of its real potential for harm by inciting a panic amongst patients suffering from high blood pressure.

Read the full judgement here.

Ban the CBC from digital advertising

An ominous silence has fallen over the demands to save Canada's newspapers, even as more of their employees take the long walk into the abattoir of the industry's ambitions.

It was only 18 months ago that the Public Policy Forum report authored by Edward Greenspon - The Shattered Mirror: News, Democracy and Trust in the Digital Age - made a number of recommendations designed to halt the slaughter.

Chief among the recommendations was the establishment of a fund of as much as $400 million supported by a 10 per cent withholding tax on advertising purchased in foreign digital media.

Additional recommendations included - and some of us have long campaigned for this - banning the CBC from digital advertising and making its content available without charge to its domestic competitors.

We all know the age of print is over and that it would be foolish to subsidize it. But we know just as well that the cornerstone of democracy is freedom of speech. And freedom of the press to verify and disseminate that speech is necessary in order to discern what's true within an otherwise cacophonic maze of opinion and manipulation.

Yet by refusing to balance the online playing field by banning the CBC from selling digital advertising and eliminating its domestic copyright protection on news content, Canada is sustaining a public policy that can only end with private sector failure and a government-funded news aristocracy bordering on monopoly.

Read the full story here.

CBC host literally left stuttering with confusion

CBC stunned by foreign media view of Liberals’ NAFTA incompetence.

On Friday’s episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Frank H. Buckley, Foundation Professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, joined me to discuss his recent appearance on the CBC where he criticized the Liberals' incompetence during the NAFTA negotiations.

There were no fireworks or hysterics or arguments - the CBC host was literally left stuttering with confusion at a perspective that those in Canada’s media party, have never heard.

See the story and video here.

CBC slapped with with a $282 million defamation lawsuit

Subway’s Chicken Is Still Half-Fake: TV Network Stands by Its Investigation.

In March, all of North America collectively cringed when an investigative media report found that the chicken served in Canada’s Subway sandwiches and salads was made of only 50 percent chicken (along with 50 percent filler and additives). Since then, Subway has slapped the Canadian Broadcasting Company with a $282 million ($210 million USD) defamation lawsuit and vehemently denied all claims, counteracting the damning laboratory results with lab tests of their own.

Read the full story here.

Should Taxpayers keep funding the CBC?

Join the discussion on Reddit  ...

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

level 1

Valiant_Hoser

24 points·7 months ago

Personally I think yes.

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

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

level 1

Biggreedybastard

1 point·7 months ago

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

level 2

Arch____Stanton

2 points·7 months ago

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

level 1

Eleutherlothario

-2 points·7 months ago

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

Read even more comments on Reddit here.

CBC continues to report their competitors’ scoops often without credit

The public sees the slow dance between legacy media like the CBC and the Trudeau government. It’s right there in plain view, under a spotlight. It’s almost romantic.

Over the last few years, the organization seems to have moved more towards becoming an America obsessed news and entertainment platform hungry for advertising-driven content, rather than a wholesome public broadcaster out to tell the Canadian story.

As a result, I would even argue, the CBC has become destructive to the media ecosystem as a whole. Even with a $1 billion in annual grants, the CBC continues to report their competitors’ scoops often without credit, according to Canadaland.

When mistakes are not being made, and scooped competitors not going uncited, the CBC appears to be stuck making content which simply fails to grab the imagination of most Canadians.

Read the full story here.

Absenteeism rife at CBC

Canadians paid nearly $18 million in one year for CBC employees who failed to show up to work.

According to the document, CBC employees were absent from work an average of 16.5 days. Statistics Canada figures in the report show public sector workers took an average of 12.6 days off while private sector workers took 8.9 days.

The report cites mental disorders as the leading cause of absenteeism (31% of all short-term absences and 44.6% of all long-term absences). The second leading cause was listed as "musculoskeletal problems."

Read more here.

CBC numbers tell the story

Just before election day in 2015, CBC’s then-president whinged that the public broadcaster was at risk of “extinction,” quote unquote. Justin Trudeau got the message. Once installed in power, Trudeau forked over $115 million to CBC. For good measure, it threw in another $35 million.

But despite that, CBC’s national impact continues to shrink. Its flagship news program — the one that used to literally determine what topics were covered in Question Period — is failing. In the past two years alone, its viewership has nose-dived a mammoth 24%.

Despite being the recipient of millions in tax dollars — and despite being allowed to use that unfair advantage to compete in major markets with private-sector media competitors — the CBC simply isn’t breaking big national stories like it used to.

At the most recent Canada’s Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) awards, Global won a dozen awards for excellence. CTV, which regularly clobbers The National in the ratings game, picked up the RTDNA’s best national newscast award. CBC radio and its regional stations won some RTDNA awards, but none were for national political stories.

Read the full story here.

Is CBC the enemy of local media

CBC’s CEO says public broadcaster is not the enemy of local media.

Thinking of the CBC as strictly a government-funded institution isn’t exactly the whole picture, says the president and CEO of the public broadcaster.

“CBC is a business,” Catherine Tait said during an interview Monday at CBC’s Halifax headquarters.

The notion of CBC not being allowed to pursue advertising is occasionally floated, especially by small digital publishers of news. Tait argues that the real enemies are much bigger.

“A couple of key facts, important to know: In the conventional advertising space, CBC/Radio-Canada represents just around eight per cent of all conventional advertising dollars. Not that huge a number.

Tait said her response to some local news companies that she recognizes as suffering has been to partner with them. She cited collaborating with Torstar on investigative news.

In 2016, the federal Liberals increased funding of the CBC by $675 million over five years. In that year’s budget, the government invested an additional $75 million in CBC/Radio-Canada for 2016-17, rising to $150 million in the following years.

Read the full story here.

Commission calls on CBC to gut advertising

A new report by a federal commission is calling for the CBC to completely gut advertising and to force streaming services to offer Canadian content.

The report, which recommends various regulatory reforms, was released by the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel.

Among its suggestions was for the CBC to eliminate all advertising from across its platforms. The move would cut into the public broadcaster’s diminishing revenue.

Recent figures show that the CBC reported an ad revenue loss of 37% since 2018. In 2019, the public broadcaster only managed to pull in a total of $112.5 million from its advertising, which was considerably less than 2018’s $178 million figure.

Along with declining profitability, an abysmally low number of Canadians tune into the CBC’s evening TV news programs. In 2019 only 319,000 Canadians watched the evening news on the channel, making up less than 1% of Canada’s population.

The CBC receives well over $1 billion in taxpayer dollars from the government each year.

Read the full story here.
 

CBC wants more for less

Imagine that you ran a business where you gave a key employee a raise — not a small one but a significant pay hike — and the worker turned around and said that he or she should do less work for more money.

That is what CBC is doing to the Canadian taxpayer right now.

After getting a boost from taxpayers under the Trudeau Liberals, the state broadcaster is asking to broadcast less Canadian content. Or, as I like to say, they want to do less of what we pay them for while taking more of our money.

Read the full story here.

CBC provided clear evidence of an appalling bias

... the CBC — along with their newsreader Rosemary Barton, and Parliamentary Bureau reporter Jean-Paul Tasker — sued the Conservative Party of Canada. For real.

Their complaint: on the Internet, the Tories used 17 seconds of CBC video. About the Tories.

The CBC has said it was the “driver” behind the lawsuit, not the journalists. And it plans to remove the journalists from the lawsuit.

Whether they intended it or not, the CBC and Barton and Tasker have provided clear evidence of an appalling bias. They have shown they are utterly disinterested in being fair.

Read the full story here.