It's going to take more than new anchors to fix the drifting CBC

CBC president Hubert Lacroix hit the nail on the head, though his eyes were probably tightly closed at the time: Public broadcasters, he said in a 2015 presentation, “risk being boiled to death.”

Correct. For their greed, mismanagement, badly outdated mandate, second-rate products and terminal arrogance.

Sadly, it didn’t take Hubert long to get back into whine mode. Speaking at an international public broadcaster’s convention in Munich, Lacroix belly-ached that budget cuts could threaten the continued existence of outfits like the CBC.

Ad-free CBC would send $158M in ad dollars to private media

If Canada’s public broadcaster went ad-free, private media in Canada would reap $158 million of its advertising revenue, a study commissioned by CBC/Radio-Canada found.

A position paper released by the broadcaster late Monday afternoon says that the CBC would lose $253 million in annual ad revenue if the broadcaster switched to an ad-free model — but two-thirds of that revenue “would migrate to other Canadian media.”

Bill Boyd, Saskatchewan Minister, Threatens Legal Action Against CBC

A Saskatchewan minister is threatening legal action against the CBC, after the news organization broke a story alleging that the minister made an inappropriate land deal in 2014.

According to a CBC story published Wednesday, Minister of the Economy Bill Boyd asked a government-owned corporation to buy a piece of land for two to three times more than the appraised value.

Melanie Joly, Heritage Minister, Vows CBC Help After Years Of 'Planned Demolition'

The NDP pressed the federal government over its platform pledge to boost funding to CBC/Radio-Canada, days after the heritage minister hinted Liberals could renege on the marquee campaign promise.

“For 10 years the CBC was attacked and needs some oxygen,” NDP opposition heritage critic Pierre Nantel said in question period Monday. “The government made promises it has to keep them now.”

Why Wouldn't a Public Broadcaster Air a National Election Debate?

Hubert Lacroix, the president of the CBC, recently placed the future of Canada's national public broadcaster on the electoral map with comments aimed at sparking a renewed debate on future funding models. Lacroix disputed claims that low ratings are to blame for the CBC's financial struggles, instead pointing to the need to consider alternative fee schemes, including new levies on internet providers or supplementary charges on television purchases.

CBC hits back at Stephen Harper over funding cuts

WINNIPEG—The head of the CBC is hitting back at Conservative Leader Stephen Harper over the national broadcaster’s funding.

CEO Hubert Lacroix says the CBC has healthy ratings, but is crippled by a broken funding model.

After the CBC’s annual general meeting in Winnipeg, Lacroix said Canada must look to other European countries for ideas on how to fund public broadcasting.

CBC President Hubert Lacroix: Public Broadcasters ‘Risk Being Boiled To Death'

The president of CBC/Radio-Canada says public broadcasters are caught in a “vicious circle” of budget cuts and service reductions that threaten their continued existence.

“First, we struggle with cuts to our funding,” Hubert Lacroix told an audience at an international public broadcasters’ conference in Munich, Germany, last week.

Rex Murphy, the oilsands and the cone of silence

CBC News is a secret service.

I used to be the Globe and Mail’s national security reporter and I wrote a book about Canada’s spy agency, CSIS. So I know something about secret services and how they treat pesky reporters who ask prickly questions about how they operate.

I had more success prying out information about CSIS’s dubious conduct than I have had recently delving into the questionable practices of CBC News and one of its high-profile and (usually) loquacious personalities, who has, in the face of some uncomfortable queries, suddenly and uncharacteristically taken refuge in the cone of silence.

Harper, the federal election, and the future of the CBC

Stephen Harper is already notorious for his obsession with information control and for avoiding contact with Canadian media, especially experienced political reporters, regardless of their political sensibilities.

And if the Conservatives win the election this October, we may never get the straight goods again about what’s going on in Canadian public affairs.

Senate Committee Studying CBC Nearly Crossed Line: Ombudsman

OTTAWA — A Senate committee studying the future of CBC/Radio-Canada came dangerously close to “political interference,” French-language service ombudsman Pierre Tourangeau said Monday.

In an interview with The Huffington Post Canada, Tourangeau said non-elected senators had no business calling him or his CBC counterpart, Esther Enkin, to testify. The “partisan” senators, he said, also had no business calling journalists in charge of news operations, such as Jennifer McGuire and Michel Cormier, to appear before them.

Why Was Peter Mansbridge Permitted to Support the Mother Canada Project?

"I decided that you can't cover a controversy by being in one."

That's Peter Mansbridge's revelatory explanation as to why his name no longer appears -- after many months -- as an Honourary Patron of the controversial Never Forgotten war memorial proposed for Cape Breton Island.

Apart from the fact that this is one of the basic tenets of journalism -- along with get your facts right, and don't misspell someone's name -- it avoids answering the really important question in this whole fiasco.

Evan Solomon isn’t the only one at the CBC who should be fired

As they say in Newfoundland, the arse is out of her. The CBC has hit the reef.

Evan Solomon — more the face of the Corporation than Peter Mansbridge, if only because he was heir-apparent to the big chair on The National — has been caught dead to rights steering contacts to an art dealer.

That art dealer, Bruce Bailey, paid Solomon a 10 per cent commission on art sold to rich and powerful people like BlackBerry co-founder Jim Balsillie and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney — or the “Guv”, as Solomon referred to him in chummy emails to Bailey.

Harper Brings CBC to Heel

The thing about public broadcasters is that governments too often get confused between "publicly-owned" and "state-owned."

Technically, of course, there is no difference. Both are funded with tax dollars.



But the former suggests that citizens get a public good like, say, when they fund public transit or public roads. Public broadcasting should, as a result, serve the public interest. That translates to journalism and programming of social and cultural benefit, with as much good as possible for as many people as possible.

Amanda Lang Blasts 'Haters' Amid Criticism Of Speaking Gigs

CBC News correspondent Amanda Langhas continued to do paid speaking engagements for companies that "lobby or otherwise influence public policy" after the broadcaster introduced a guideline that banned its journalists from doing so.

And in the middle of criticisms of the gigs, she blasted the "haters" on Twitter.

Why I Left The CBC And Its Toxic Atmosphere

More than 50 years ago I became a "journalist" by the simple act of riding an elevator to the third floor of an office building in Halifax. I was shown to a desk in the far corner of a large newsroom and presented with the tools of my new trade -- a rotary dial telephone, an ancient typewriter, a massive roll of carbon-separated copy paper, and the largest ashtray that I'd ever seen.

The atmosphere was unique -- the reek of printers' ink and fresh newsprint and cigar smoke (my desk was on the edge of the sports department where everybody seemed to smoke cigars and wear suspenders). And there was noise -- typewriters, people shouting, the clatter of teletype machines, bells ringing, and the regular bang of pneumatic tubes that were the vehicles for delivering copy from the third floor news desk to the composing room upstairs where everything was set in type. By noon that day I was addicted to the atmosphere and I remember someone telling me to go home when I'd over-stayed my shift by a couple of hours.

CBC and Radio-Canada fans fight for stable, long-term funding

The CBC has its supporters in both French and English Canada, but these days the French supporters are more ardent and much more vocal.

This past weekend the public broadcaster's supporters throughout Quebec and in New Brunswick took to the streets.

The tens of thousands of demonstrators were particularly concerned with the continued vitality of services in French -- and especially those services provided to francophone communities outside of Quebec.

And yet, when the CBC comes up in Parliament, the Conservatives seem to think there is nothing more to it than the English-language, main-network television service.

Was Hubert Lacroix Hired To Dismantle The CBC

CFN – It seems that there’s a move a foot to kill the CBC.  And it’s coming from within.

Hubert Lacroix, the reigning President of our Nation’s broadcaster looks like Gordon Gekko a business guy/bureaucrat brought in to dismantle the CBC one block at a time.

He didn’t work his way up the broadcaster, but was appointed by Stephen Harper who clearly is no fan of public broadcasting.

The big question is why are the staffers so quietly walking the plank as layer after layer of lay offs occur?

Alain Saulnier, Ex-CBC Exec, Says Broadcaster ‘In Danger Of Disappearing Forever'

As protesters marched on Sunday to oppose funding cuts to CBC/Radio-Canada, a former executive at the broadcaster is warning it’s “truly in danger of disappearing forever.”

Alan Saulnier says years of successive governments playing politics with the CBC’s budget has left the broadcaster vulnerable.

In an editorial in the Toronto Star, Saulnier says both Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Prime Minister Jean Chrietien in their day used threats to the CBC’s funding to pressure the network into more favourable news coverage.

Radio-Canada Supporters March In Montreal Ahead Of CBC Job Cuts

MONTREAL - Supporters of CBC's French-language service Radio-Canada have a message for the federal government: no more cuts.

Thousands marched through downtown Montreal on Sunday as part of a series of protests across Quebec as well as in Moncton, N.B.

Nicolas Bedard, who organized the Montreal event, said Quebecers value Radio-Canada and want to ensure it gets adequate funding. He said the public broadcaster is vital for a healthy democracy.

CBC Cuts Will Hit Evening News, In-House Production, Jobs

TORONTO - The CBC is slashing some 20 per cent of its workforce over the next five years, while cutting back evening newscasts and in-house production and raising the possibility of selling its flagship headquarters in Toronto.

During a heated town hall with employees Thursday, the broadcaster announced its five-year strategic plan. President Hubert Lacroix unveiled sweeping changes designed to shift the CBC's priorities from radio and television to digital and mobile services.