Senators Grill CBC

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Senators Grill CBC

Postby jon » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:14 pm

Top CBC brass to face senators' grilling on recent controversies
By Jordan Press
Ottawa Citizen
February 17, 2015 9:18 AM

The top three executives at CBC, including president Hubert Lacroix, will likely face sharp questions Tuesday from a Senate committee about the public broadcaster’s plans for dealing with troubling behaviour from some employees.

Although specific questions about Jian Ghomeshi – currently facing seven charges of sexual assault – are likely to be ruled out of order by the committee chairman, his name is expected to come up as senators question Lacroix, Heather Conway, the head of English services, and Louis Lalonde, the head of French services.

The executives may also be asked about Amanda Lang, who was recently at the centre of a controversy about speaking fees and conflict-of-interest. The CBC announced last month that it was banning its journalists from paid speaking engagements.

“Is the question about process? Is it about culture? It’s not about individual issues. It’s not our job as a Senate committee, and it’s not in our terms of reference … to deal with those issues,” said committee chairman Sen. Dennis Dawson. But he added, “I can’t stop senators from asking questions.”

Conservative Sen. Denise Batters said she was planning to ask questions on “significant areas of concern” that “impact on the national credibility of the CBC.” (Batters asked about the Ghomeshi affair when CBC board chairman Remi Racine testified in December.)

“We’ll see how things go on Tuesday morning,” Batters said. “I’m hopeful and optimistic that we’ll receive fulsome answers.”

The meeting comes one year after Lacroix was last before the committee, answering questions at the time about repayment of his own improper expense claims, and days after five senators from the committee returned from London, England, where they met with British parliamentarians, officials from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and that country’s broadcast regulator. The committee is studying the challenges faced by Canada’s public broadcaster in an evolving media landscape.

Twice before, top officials at the CBC have testified before the committee, and the committee has been left with unanswered questions. About two weeks ago, the CBC quietly posted to its website the latest response to questions the committee asked when board chairman Remi Racine testified on Dec. 10.

In the six-page response, Racine outlines the CBC’s share of the primetime audience, and the high viewership for some shows such as “The Book of Negroes” – 1.7 million Canadians in its first airing – and “Schitt’s Creek,” which pulled in 1.35 million for its debut. Racine also notes that another CBC drama, “Strange Empire,” drew an average of 302,000 viewers, a level that were (sic) “disappointing.”

Although senators have asked questions about how the CBC decides what to air, Racine argues in his response that numbers shouldn’t be the whole story.

“If audience measure was all that mattered, CBC television could purchase and simulcast the same (cheaper) American programs that English private networks do,” Racine wrote. “That would call into question why the public broadcaster exists.”

The letter was published on the CBC’s corporate website before some senators had seen the response. Some saw that as a slight by CBC brass; there have been tensions between the committee and CBC executives, including a public battle over salary disclosure for on-air talent.

Some senators have also posed sharp questions about how the CBC uses its government funding, set this fiscal year at $913 million.

Documents given to the committee ahead of Tuesday’s meeting make the argument that, when adjusting for inflation, the CBC has watched its government funding stay almost the same as it was when Brian Mulroney was prime minister. A 90-page presentation given to the CBC board of directors in November says that CBC funding has flatlined, while spending at other government departments, agencies and Crown corporations has increased over the same period.

“A generation ago, advertising was the largest source of revenue in the broadcasting industry and public funding was significant,” reads one slide. Today, government funding on “public broadcasting trails other public priorities.”

Since the Senate started its study, the CBC has lost broadcast rights to National Hockey League games, announced 657 job cuts to cope with a $130-million shortfall, has grappled with the Ghomeshi scandal, and changed its policy on paid appearances for its journalists.

“That was not planned when we started the study. So we have been adapting,” Dawson said.

By the numbers

$1.02 billion: Amount spent by CBC in 2013 on Canadian programming (radio and television)

$700.8 million: Amount spent by CBC in 2013 on Canadian content for television

$4: Amount the CBC generates for the Canadian economy for every $1 in government funding

8,030: Number of full-time equivalent positions (combination of full-time and part-time workers) that make up the CBC workforce

30: Number CBC retirees who were rehired on short-term contract work that lasts, usually, no more than 12 months

8.2%: CBC’s share of prime time viewership in English Canada

18.5%: Radio-Canada’s share of prime-time viewership in Quebec

(Source: CBC letter dated Jan. 30, 2015, sent to Senate communications committee; Presentation to CBC board of directors dated Nov. 19, 2014; June 2014 report by accounting firm Deloitte on economic impact of CBC/Radio-Canada)
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jon
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Re: Senators Grill CBC

Postby Jack Bennest » Tue Feb 17, 2015 7:00 pm

You can BBQ the CBC anytime

how about grilling corps. private

most reasonable people I know want CBC and find the corps. private wanting.

lets face it in Ottawa they have nothing better to do :partyguy:
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Re: Senators Grill CBC

Postby jon » Tue Feb 17, 2015 7:26 pm

I used to feel that way about the Senate.

After watching how Tommy Banks worked when he was a Senator, I had to change that opinion. He worked hard. He did his job. And he made a difference.

I cannot speak for anyone else. Especially after the Sense of Entitlement Set started to abuse their Expense Accounts like they had previously got in the habit of from when they worked in private industry.
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Re: Senators Grill CBC

Postby pave » Wed Feb 18, 2015 6:48 am

Meanwhile, I still wonder why The Sun News Network was not allowed a reasonable spot on the dial. The CRTC decision made the demise of the network a foregone conclusion.

Yes, they were rude, crude, inflammatory and technically unsophisticated. But, I believe, they were also a voice that needed to be heard. I miss them already.
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