One of the difficulties I’m having in writing this blog about the CBC, and its news programming, is doing the basic research.
The place is losing me.
I’m finding it harder and harder to watch, and listen, and not think about how much more the CBC could be than it is at the moment. And so, I’m watching and listening less than I ever have before.
Which makes it hard to generate content.
It’s easy to write about the low points. Unfortunately they are legion at the moment. I think I watched about 10 minutes total of CBC News Network yesterday, and in those ten minutes I saw Canada’s public broadcaster take some TMZ footage of Mariah Carey at an awards show, and have Carole MacNeil pronounce her “hammered”. Later I saw Colleen Jones do a piece where she wondered aloud whether Stephen Harper meant perogies instead of prorogation. The bit she fronted may represent the lowest point yet in the history of Canada’s public broadcaster, but god love her, she’s still out there trying to best herself.
But writing about the low points is not only too easy, it’s kind of depressing and destructive as well. I’m writing about an institution I still feel tremendously passionate about, and want to see succeed and flourish. An institution that matters enormously to how this country, or your city, functions. As I’ve written before, the place is filled with talented journalists passionate about the work that they do. Many of them want the place to be better than it is at the moment. There’s a ton of people across the country who believe in the place and its possibilities far more than the senior managers at the CBC apparently do.
And so while I can’t promise I’ll never take another potshot at senior management and the damage they are doing to CBC News, I’m going to try and turn over a new leaf in the new year.
I want to focus on how we make CBC News better. What’s worth keeping? What should the CBC be doing differently? What does it mean to be a “public” broadcaster in this country at this time? I realize this is a tall order, but I’m going to peck away at it in the blog posts that follow. Again, I’d like to hear from you guys as well, both inside and outside the CBC. What are your thoughts on how we create a CBC that wants to be more than it is at the moment…that wants to be more than just popular, but relevant, interesting and different as well.
Keep those cards and letters coming…
