The CBC: Often Annoying But Still a Vital Broadcaster

The CBC has many problems, just now.
 
 First among them is the CEO of the Corporation, Katherine Tait, who is brittle, and insensitive to the real problems the CBC is facing. Her appearance before a parliamentary committee in December, failing to understand the terrible optics of her announcing six hundred job cuts and two hundred vacancies left unfilled, at the same time as top CBC wage earners, including Tait herself, receive healthy end-of-year performance bonuses. Tait’s testimony prompted a torrent of virulent, on-line comments.
 
Tait is now a lightning rod, for those such as Conservative Leader, Pierre Poilievre, who is calling for defunding the CBC. Globe and Mail national columnist, Konrad Yakabuski, has referred to Tait’s tenure in the top job of the corporation as a “reign of terror.”  Yakabuski has noted that Tait, along with other failings, has not managed well the delicate balance between the English-language CBC and the francophone Radio-Canada.

Tait has overseen the failed handling of the replacement of the immensely calm and authoritative CBC news anchor, Peter Mansbridge, hailed by many as the “voice of it’s going to be okay.”  Instead of grooming over several years a new anchor for the seemingly irreplaceable Mansbridge, the corporation named four senior broadcasters to split the anchor duties in a revamped format for The National. This was a prime example of the corporation being unable to make a tough decision. Adrienne Arsenault has emerged very well as Chief Correspondent, while the careers of the other three candidates, Rosemary Barton, Andrew Chang, and Ian Hanomansing, have unfortunately been plateaued.
 
In the view of this writer and long-time reporter, journalism that does its job best is lean and mean. The constant parade of new talent at the CBC, belies this image. It makes it easy for enemies of the CBC to draw the conclusion that the corporation is flabby and over-funded.
 
All the above is on the negative side. But there is a huge amount on the positive side of Mother CBC. Here are but a few examples:
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• The wonderful reporting of Adrienne Arsenault, telling the story of Moshe and Munir, the one an Israeli contractor and the other a Palestinian olive farmer who became unshakeable friends living near each other in the occupied lands near Israel proper. Arsenault’s story demonstrates that even with the war in Gaza still raging, it may still be possible for Israelis and Palestinians to live peaceably together.
  
  
• The bravery of TV reporter Briar Stewart covering the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire as residents attempted to evacuate the city and the fire closing in on both sides of the only highway exit from the community.
  
  
• The always perceptive and compassionate Matt Galloway of CBC Radio’s The Current, such as his conversation with Dr. Jane Philpott, former federal minister of Health, about her time as a young doctor practicing in Central Africa. Holding her dying young daughter in her arms, Philpott tried desperately, but unsuccessfully, to reach a hospital in time.
  
  
• The gutsy questioning by Catherine Cullen of the CBC Radio programme The House of her boss, Ms. Tait, on why the CEO was not showing leadership by refusing to take the bonus for senior corporation employees.
  
  
• David Cochrane, the bright, well-researched and good-humoured host of CBC TV’s Power and Politics demonstrating the relevance of his show night after night on political issues facing the country.
  
  
• Veteran CBC TV reporter Paul Hunter has already distinguished himself numerous times on the international scene, but particularly in war-torn Gaza. In recent days Hunter and his crew were the only Western journalists reporting in the highly dangerous gang-war environment of Haiti. This coverage helps show the flag for Canada’s place in the region and the world.

 
Canada is a far-flung country that is difficult to govern. The national organization, Friends of CBC or now just “Friends” suggests that the CBC is “the thread that ties our country together.”
 
The CBC is particularly important in regions of the country, such as the Far North that are not well served by other media. Another part of the country that is very reliant on the CBC is Atlantic Canada and especially, New Brunswick.
 
As has been pointed out before in this space, New Brunswick was the last province in the country to have a free-standing CBC television station. Through its Radio and Television Commission (The CRTC) in the 1970’s, the federal government ordered the Irvings to sell their CHSJ radio and television stations in Saint John, thus clearing the way for a provincial CBC station in Fredericton, and three CBC radio stations in Fredericton, Saint John, and Moncton.
 
This was critically important for good journalism in New Brunswick, which has borne the burden of the province’s successive Irving and Post Media newspaper monopolies. Social media such as Facebook, have drawn advertising revenue away from traditional media across the country, but nowhere has this been more crushing than in New Brunswick, where gossipy, one-sided coverage of the community has become dominant.
 
Recently the near collapse of the Saltwire group of newspapers, with holdings in PEI, Newfoundland & Labrador and Nova Scotia has raised similar concerns to those in New Brunswick.
 
On May 13, Federal Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge named an advisory committee on the future of the CBC. She said it would “provide policy advice on how to strengthen and renew the public broadcaster so it can continue its important social, cultural and democratic function.”
 
This committee sounds like too little, too late given the current financial and political pressure on the Corporation. The federal government needs to take firm actions to defend the CBC, and these should include replacing the current CEO Katherine Tait.
 
But in addressing some of the annoyances about the current CBC, the federal government must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is so much good in the CBC that it must be saved