Almost every day, Conservative MPs rise in the House of Commons calling for the de-funding of our national public broadcaster. Some are sponsoring petitions and trumped up “polls” on their websites to attack the CBC. Currently, Rob Anders, the Conservative MP for Calgary West, is circulating an online petition to the House of Commons calling on the Conservative government to "end public funding of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation".

And, the fundraising wing of the Conservative Party has also launched a loaded survey which asks financial supporters "In recent years, CBC funding has exceeded a billion dollars per year. Do you think taxpayers receive good value or bad value from the CBC?" The fundraising pitch goes on to say that "This survey is very, very important to our legislative planning".

Conservative MPs have not stopped there. With the head of SUN Media cheering from the sidelines, the Conservatives have also launched offensives against the CBC at two Parliamentary Committees.
- http://www.friends.ca/smackdown/more.php

Quality journalism must be *promoted to ensure a well informed citizenry.

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Tuesday, November 29th, 2011 9:27am PST - promote requested by notarobot.

I think the CBC needs changes. It should produce educational content, children's programming, news and nothing else. There's no reason it should compete to show sports and general entertainment.

Especially the latter.

It has demonstrated a tremendous lack of skill in making the kinds of entertainment programs Canadians want to watch, despite aiming pretty low. Why, as a taxpayer, should I be paying for sub-par sitcoms and reality shows?

A public, independent news network without ads? Good purchase. Rick Mercer? He's great, but I think he'd get the ratings to survive elsewhere.

A few more daytime cooking shows - and still pressure from advertisers? Doesn't sound like a good use of taxpayer money.

Mostly with you. I feel CBC TV still needs to present hockey. Not sure why I do, just do. And our comedy heritage is in sketch comedy, and the CBC is the only place supporting that. If there were no CBC TV anymore, I wouldn't actually be upset. It's non-essential, especially considering most of the programming these days is indistinguishable from other channels -- Rick Mercer being one of the exceptions, but captured under sketch comedy.

But man, Canada without CBC Radio would be a whole different country. Just about everything there is a precious gem -- As it Happens, Wiretap, DNTO, Tapestry, Vinyl Cafe, Writers and Company, and old shows like Morningside, Richardson's Roundup (Sad Goat), and The Inside Track. It's also the only source of serious criticism of the government from people who are not just talk radio blowhards.

If for no other reason, Canada needs to have at least one broadcaster less unbalanced than the others towards corporate interests. Without that balance, the other broadcasters have no check.>> ^jmzero:
I think the CBC needs changes. It should produce educational content, children's programming, news and nothing else. There's no reason it should compete to show sports and general entertainment.
Especially the latter.
It has demonstrated a tremendous lack of skill in making the kinds of entertainment programs Canadians want to watch, despite aiming pretty low. Why, as a taxpayer, should I be paying for sub-par sitcoms and reality shows?
A public, independent news network without ads? Good purchase. Rick Mercer? He's great, but I think he'd get the ratings to survive elsewhere.
A few more daytime cooking shows - and still pressure from advertisers? Doesn't sound like a good use of taxpayer money.

Wow, what happened to Canada? It used to be so progressive!

What's all that about, eh?
Lately, it seems that our conservatives are becoming more like american republican senators, which is a shame since there are very few people in Canada an MP with an American republican political stance could accurately represent.

I do agree that the TV shows such as Wild Roses, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Insecurity, Republic of Doyle, Being Erica do not deserve public funding. They aren't worth much at all as far as entertainment goes.

I don't think CBC television should be terminated completely; CBC in the past has brought us Kids in the Hall and helped keep SCTV on the air. This Hour has 22 minutes used to be funny, but that was a long time ago, and not much has come since. More recent canadian comedy successes were not a result of CBC, Corner Gas, for one.
I don't think most Canadians would oppose a budget cut to CBC TV, but definitely would to termination of funding full stop.

And don't touch CBC Radio!!!!


>> ^kymbos:

Wow, what happened to Canada? It used to be so progressive!

1) That guy somehow didn't sound like an American. And I think the average Canadian sounds like an American. Maybe he was trying to sound like an action star or something.

2) Do Canadian weather maps really look like that (i.e. cropping the top half of Canada, showing all of the US)?

The CBC provided most of what you just asked for (though they covered sports too) before their budgets were slashed a number of years ago. This forced them to cut back on the number of Canadian programs and air syndicated American reruns. The CBC isn't better than it is because we don't give them enough funding to be better.>> ^jmzero:

I think the CBC needs changes. It should produce educational content, children's programming, news and nothing else. There's no reason it should compete to show sports and general entertainment.
Especially the latter.
It has demonstrated a tremendous lack of skill in making the kinds of entertainment programs Canadians want to watch, despite aiming pretty low. Why, as a taxpayer, should I be paying for sub-par sitcoms and reality shows?
A public, independent news network without ads? Good purchase. Rick Mercer? He's great, but I think he'd get the ratings to survive elsewhere.
A few more daytime cooking shows - and still pressure from advertisers? Doesn't sound like a good use of taxpayer money.

So how does CBC differ from the BBC? I thought BBC was also a public funded television network.

I like the Insecurity show from Canada. Being Erica is OK. I think there was also a show based around a high security science lab that kind of solved problems for other science fields, but I can't recall the name of it at the moment. That was an interesting show as well.

As for UK television I think of Misfits and Dr. Who, most other stuff has been kinda miss.

Although as an American I don't know how the television in either country works, beyond knowing that they were government funded. I think the government owns BBC, not sure on CBC case.

The CBC provided most of what you just asked for (though they covered sports too) before their budgets were slashed a number of years ago. This forced them to cut back on the number of Canadian programs and air syndicated American reruns


Meh. I've watched 30 years of CBC - it was one of two channels we got when I was growing up, and often the only one that came in clearly. I don't see any big difference in quality over the years - they've always found a few hits and a lot of unambitious, uninteresting misses. Now that people have so many more options about what to watch, the value of that unambitious crap is really low.

We give them $1, and they make "Being Erica" and the "The Ron James Show". Why the hell would I want to give them another dollar? Why should we expect them to change philosophy if they had more budget? I mean, if it was unusual crap or an odd idea that didn't quite work out or a project that was too ambitious for its budget, then that would be one thing - that's the kind of problem you can solve with more money. But their lineup is full of cooking shows, generic sitcoms, and crap. There's no reason for public funding of any of that.

Public television is a great idea. There's all sorts of innovation, education, and general public interests that can be served that aren't served by a for-profit station. CBC needs to focus on those things. Also, hockey. I don't watch hockey - but it's undeniably important and the CBC should go way, way overboard covering things like the World Juniors. It makes people happy and brings the country together.

And I'll also agree with another poster above: CBC Radio is generally really good. It focuses on exactly the kind of stuff a public broadcaster should. It's hits and misses, but it's interesting, valuable hits and misses.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

I don't watch much TV but I'd be pissed if the ABC was cut - mostly because commercial TV in Australia is really, really bad.