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 Thursday, 25 August 2005
The Globe and Mail: 'Don't you guys realize what's at stake?'  < 12:08:41 AM>. .
The CBC is meant to be our Canadian voice seeking a place in a sky teeming with American accents. It's ours, and every Canadian is a shareholder. The CBC's role is to showcase Canadian drama, music, sports, comedy, news, current affairs and documentaries, and to do things the private networks deem too risky, commercially unappetizing or lacking mass appeal. The CBC should not be burdened by an all-consuming lust for advertiser-driven audience tonnage. Audience size is certainly one of the measures of success, but it's not the only one, given what the Broadcasting Act outlines as the CBC's mandate.
Maybe political realities were such that this mandate was an impossible dream to begin with. But given today's bedlam in the air, with hundreds of TV channels, radio stations and the Internet -- mostly echoing American mores -- a clear, Canadian voice is needed more now than ever before. Otherwise, because of private-sector commercial realities, we'll be culturally overwhelmed by our neighbour to the south.
It may sound childishly naive, but the CBC is not, as some say, a business just like any other. The CBC is more a service than a business. That concept seems to be mislaid in the current firefight. It is, of course, critical to run the CBC with as much efficiency as possible, but, in the end, it is even more important for the CBC to be effective.
A lovely editorial from Knowlton Nash in the Globe today.
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