CBC's Late-Life Crisis

Nearly 75 years old, the public broadcaster is facing budget cuts, a quickly changing media environment, and the goons at Sun News.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is counting down the days to its 75th anniversary (just 76 days away), giving the country a great opportunity for one past-time it does better than any other – soul-searching over national identity. The Edmonton Journal's editorialists wonder what the future has in store for the Ceeb's television division, given that more and more people are watching programs online and the “rapidly changing demographics” that are “making it almost impossible for one institution to stitch this country together as the CBC was able to do in the past.” Will the public broadcaster keep up its current trends of paying for American gameshows, airing Hockey Night in Canada, and producing cheap, albeit widely watched competition shows such as Battle of the Blades, or is there room for more distinctly Canadian dramas and comedies and arts programming? Regardless, “now that government funding is more precarious than ever, the CBC needs to get the public on its side.” Galvanizing support for an institution with an increasingly foggy mandate won't be easy, particularly with one large media organization devoted solely to its destruction. Not making a coherent case for its existence only serves to hamstring CBC's prospects for a future of relevance.

The Globe and Mail's always insightful John Doyle questions what happened to CBC's commitment to arts programs, especially since the broadcaster practically invented the format in Canada. “As the CBC reaches its 75th birthday, it seems to have reverted to the giddiness of teenage tastes and inclination. Pop music, yes, the arts, no,” says Doyle, a dig at the upcoming karaoke contest, Cover Me Canada. No other network in the country has any interest in airing, say, footage from the Ottawa International Chamber Festival, or the Edmonton Fringe Festival, or a symphony performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra simply because the eyeballs aren't there. CBC is “mandated to offer an alternative to commercial TV and are meant to serve all citizens, not just those who live in large urban areas,” and bringing culture that can only be found in major cities to Moose Jaw and Kenora surely falls under that umbrella. Granted, airing more arts programming seems tailor-made for a philistine Sun News Network smear campaign, but it would at least let CBC say it's doing what it was founded for.

On a semi-related note, the National Post's Kelly McParland takes issue with Radio-Canada hiring former Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe as a political commentator. “Pretty much everything Gilles Duceppe has was paid for by Canada, even though he’s never quit beefing about it,” says McParland, noting that Duceppe already had numerous election campaigns funded by taxpayers, plus a well-appointed pension that will look after him 'til he heads to the Great Referendum in the Sky. We'll agree that there are probably better ways to spend whatever stipend CBC is sending Duceppe's way, even if he's endlessly entertaining (for a federal politician, at least). But CBC/Radio-Canada can't really be blamed for bringing in a diversity of opinions, especially ones intrinsic to political issues in Quebec. It just makes Duceppe appear like even more of a hypocrite than the rest of the country already thought he was.

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Read MP John McCallum's criticisms of the Conservative's ideologically driven cuts.