CBC

Op-ed: Reporting or cheerleading - Donkin coal and the Nova Scotia media

Robert DeVet — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 21:07:14 +0000

KJIPUKTUK (HALIFAX) – The Donkin coal mine in Cape Breton may well reopen later this year, and that may eventually bring up to 120 new jobs to a region that needs jobs desperately.

Recent cuts to CBC Cape Breton are a major blow to the region

Robert DeVet — Wed, 28 May 2014 18:43:43 +0000

Rally to show community support for important local voice

K'JIPUKTUK, HALIFAX – Eliminating the positions of an award-winning reporter

Severe amnesia at CBC Radio?

Bruce Wark — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:19:56 +0000

It sure looks like CBC host Anna Maria Tremonte and her producers at The Current urgently need treatment for a nasty case of journalistic amnesia. Just last Wednesday, Tremonte introduced a one-minute clip of the Canadian rapper K'naan. The Somali-born musician talked about how the mainstream media are missing the real story about piracy off the coast of Somalia. According to K'naan, Somalis themselves see the pirates as a kind of Coast Guard trying to defend the country's territorial waters from illegal fishing and the dumping of toxic nuclear waste.

After the K'naan clip, listeners heard nothing more except the program theme. Maybe the CBC journalists thought K'naan was just joking. Today's program devoted its last half-hour to a discussion of the problems involved in prosecuting suspected Somali pirates. Illegal fishing and toxic dumping were barely mentioned.

If The Current's producers had checked into the story, they could easily have found evidence to support what K'naan had said. For one thing, the well-respected Pacifica Radio program Democracy Now carried a lengthy interview last Tuesday with the Kenyan journalist and consultant Mohamed Abshir Waldo who was born in Somalia.

He told host

CBC's funny phone-in

Bruce Wark — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:13:41 +0000

Today’s edition of the CBC Maritime Noon phone-in would have been hilarious if the topic hadn’t been so serious. For one thing, the question of the day — How should we fund public broadcasting? — seemed spectacularly beside-the-point given the fact that Maritime Noon itself will soon lose about two-thirds of its funding and half its air time. Maybe the question should have been: How can we save CBC?

CBC Vice-President Richard Stursberg, one of the phone-in guests, pointed out that the Corporation hasn’t received a significant budget increase for 35 years. “If I were to compare what it [CBC] has in real dollars now to what it had in 1990, it’s down about $400 million in terms of its current purchasing power,” he said. The failure of Liberal and Conservative governments to fund CBC adequately, combined with a drastic drop in ad revenues, triggered this latest round of job and programming cuts, including the elimination of Maritime Noon’s daily hour of current affairs programming,

Stursberg dropped a clanger however, when he claimed that CBC management tried to make cuts to programs “that were the least being listened to.” Maybe he wasn’t paying attention earlier when the phone-in’s other guest, Philip Lee, director of the St. Thomas J-School in Fredericton observed, “This show that we’re on right now is probably the most popular CBC show in the history of the Maritimes.”

Lee made a gaffe of his own however, when he argued self-servingly that CBC should spend less on TV arts programming, such as prime-time drama, and concentrate on journalism instead. “We should be protecting the journalism that the CBC does,” he declared. “This is really what sustains democracy.” Stursberg shot back that CBC’s all-Canadian prime time TV schedule “clobbered” Global's all-American shows in the ratings this year — the first time that’s happened in Canadian television history.

CBC Regional Cuts: Open Letter to Members of Parliament

Bruce Wark — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:22:13 +0000

Dear Members of Parliament,

Your help is urgently needed to defend our region from devastating cuts to CBC English-language programming. As you know, CBC is planning to eliminate at least 31 full-time positions in the Maritime provinces. These cuts would reduce original reporting on CBC morning radio programs in Cape Breton and southern New Brunswick. They would wipe out the stories, interviews and documentaries from all three Maritime provinces that we hear daily on CBC Radio’s Maritime Noon. Moreover, further cuts are pending which could weaken CBC Television’s already-understaffed, regional supper-hour programs.

These cuts are especially serious at a time when privately owned media outlets in our region are being forced to slash costs and lay off staff because of dwindling advertising revenues associated with the current economic recession. The most dramatic example is in Nova Scotia where one of two Halifax papers has been shut down, while the other, a provincial daily, has laid off about a quarter of its journalists. Journalistic staff has also been cut to the bone in the regional newsrooms of Canwest Global Television. CTV Atlantic news and information programming too is under severe budget restraints because of financial problems facing its parent company, CTVglobemedia.

As Members of Parliament, there may not be much you can do in the immediate future to prevent layoffs and cutbacks at private media outlets, but you do have the power to oppose regional cuts at CBC, a federal Crown Corporation. As you know, the federal government is spending billions on a stimulus plan to offset the worst effects of the current recession. A small portion of that money could be allocated to support CBC operations, especially in regions like ours that need a strong CBC presence most.

CBC pulling out of smaller centres

Bruce Wark — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:14:45 +0000

CBC Radio journalist Kathleen Petty made a penetrating observation this morning during her on-air interview with James Moore, the federal cabinet minister responsible for broadcasting: "I went through the [local TV] stations that Global and CTV are closing or selling," Petty said, "and then the CBC has reduced operations in places like Windsor, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Quebec City, Moncton, Saint John, Sydney, Cornerbrook, Labrador --- Gander and Grand Falls." Petty paused to let that long list sink in, then made her point: "We're turning into a country of big city broadcasting."

"It's a concern of Canadians and it's true," Moore responded. "But I think you have to look at the entire spectrum because if you're just looking at television and radio, which is what that list describes, but I think if you're looking at media content, you have to add in the Internet." Moore's answer was a diversionary tactic designed to shift the focus away from the fact that local news sources are quickly disappearing. He went on to spout even more nonsense about the promise of new technologies. "I'm an optimist. I think this is actually an incredible opportunity for Canada who has always led the way, if you look at BlackBerry and RIM and LIONSGATE productions and new media. We have the capacity to lead the way in this country with new technologies that will allow people more choice, more freedom and how they want to live their lives and how they want to consume their media."

CBC's Maritime Noon fades away quietly

Bruce Wark — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:23:09 +0000

Costas Halavrezos, the veteran host of CBC Radio's Maritime Noon, read a 33 second message at the start of the Friday March 27 program thanking listeners for their support. He noted that many listeners wrote and called with "many kind words" after hearing that CBC will soon be axing the program's current affairs hour and cutting the jobs of four full-time journalists. When the change takes effect, Maritime Noon will become a one-hour phone-in.

"It's gratifying to hear that you regard the stories and interviews and documentaries we present every day as a worthwhile service," Halavrezos told listeners. His announcement was followed by 28 seconds of upbeat guitar music and that was it. No further coverage of a story that affects every one of the program's many loyal listeners. No investigation, no analysis, no nothing.

Unfortunately, that's how most mainstream journalists act when the axe falls. They stick rigidly to the unwritten rule that journalists should not "cover themselves." No matter that the CBC layoffs and program cuts will seriously weaken journalism in the Maritimes --- especially in New Brunswick where journalists at the three CBC morning radio shows are also being cut. As a result, New Brunswickers will be forced to rely even more heavily on the Irving family's English-language newspaper monopoly for coverage of local and provincial issues.

At least the Maritime Noon Web page supplies e-mail addresses in case listeners wish to voice their complaints to the CBC managers who made this disastrous decision. I'll paste them in here: President Hubert T Lacroix (ht.lacroix@cbc.ca ), Executive Vice President of English Services Richard Stursberg (richard.stursberg@cbc.ca ), the head of CBC Radio in the Maritimes Andrew Cochran (andrew.cochran@cbc.ca ), Executive Director of CBC Radio, Denise Donlon (denise.donlon@cbc.ca ) and the Senior Manager of News and Current Affairs in the Maritimes, Janet Irwin (janet.irwin@cbc.ca)