I am reading the National Post Saturday edition and, lo and behold, there is an article on how the CBC has hired a PR firm that specializes in disaster cases--Exxon, etc. the CBC is going to try to 'correct' the public's impression that it is fatally infected with all the notions and politically correct attitudes of the elites. There was even an admission by Ruth-Ellen Soles (related to old CBC warhorse Paul Soles, by any chance?) that "the company would not just help them deal with criticism, but with a a broad variety of issues."
The major 'issues' that Canadians have could be rectified very quickly. Dump the lefty programmers, ditch Judie Van Dusen, Mansbridge and their ilk, and present a balanced view of social and political issues. A simple idea that unfortunately leaves only Carla Robinson to report the news--minus the raised eyebrows, dismissive tones, and the rest of the announcers' bag of tricks. I noticed that Carla disappeared for a number of months. Must have been sent off for advanced training to reach Allison Smith's level of indoctrinaire perfection.
Within an hour of writing this, I catch Inside the Media, usually hosted by Anna Maria-Tremonti -- an arch-assassin of all things conversative. But first, some acolyte is interviewing Mark Starowicz, CBC head of documentaries. Mark is defending his reality TV series, which shows kids pretending to be political candidates. He argues that this is not selling out CBC values, but rather bringing them to the street. But lest the hoi polloi think that CBC will host a Queer as Folk series, he assures the viewer that, while TV's next frontier is pornography, his network will never stoop to that. Tremonti is interviewed and suggests that a little more skin might perk up the CBC schedule. Since they have toned down the T & A shots on Fashion File and started to feature more "men's street punk gear", she might be right. God forbid that they might lose 50% of their the male segment.
Actually, I suspect that CBC would love to have hosted Queer as Folk, to give them street cred amongst their constituency. I think there is a hierarchy of concerns with CBC. In no special order, but all at the top of their agenda, is how we are screwing the native peoples ('First Nations People in CBC speak) -- while the average Canadian believes it is the exact opposite. Then there are the gays. Years of not being allowed to marry is their root concern for the CBC; not, mind you, the new AIDS epidemic that will decimate their ranks. The Palestinians cause much gnashing of teeth in CBC news. Some poor Palestinian, who was only throwing gasoline bombs at an Israeli tank gets blown away, and it is highlighted--grieving family, morons shooting their guns in the air, the whole shebang. It supposedly equals a dozen kids and mothers getting blown away in a pizzaria in Tel Aviv. I hate to say this, but the CBC just doesn't get it yet. As long as they can suck on the government tit, and avoid the streets outside Toronto, they never will.
