I
wouldn't necessarily advocate a privatization of the CBC, though I
would argue that their news content be placed into the
public domain (or at least licensed under a Creative Commons-type of license) given the amount of taxpayer subsidization they receive. Importantly, newspapers, which are in decline but yet produce so much, and arguably better, in-depth reporting than even the CBC have to reorganize their resources and allowing them to utilize CBC's content for "beat reporting" and newswire-type stories for free would allow them to use their own editorial resources for their in-depth features and analysis.
Also, CBC should
not be permitted to place ads online on its website - ads should be limited to TV and its CBC Music service. CBC Radio Three should be shut down and simply folded into its CBC Music Internet streaming service.
In the last, I would say, two years, their reporting has become increasingly biased, especially when it comes to US politics and the US election. This
could be due to a lack of experienced field correspondents in the US (they have pretty "green" reporters" there now whereas they previously had such high calibre names of David Halton, Neil Macdonald and Henry Champ). Keith Boag is pretty good but they increasingly "sideline" him in favour of relative "newbies" normally used to covering the Toronto city beat (i.e., Steven D'Souza) or other beats (Lindsey Duncombe), to name a couple. As a result, their coverage of the US election was an absolute travesty, following in the lines of the US mainstream media like good little "sheep" by reporting on what was actually manufactured outrage against certain Trump comments or supposed Russian involvement and possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia instead of on the collusion between the Clinton campaign and surreptitious paid political operatives like David Brock. That's the
real shame!
In short, I would like to see CBC News Network evolve into a "just the news, ma'am"-type network (for lack of a better word) that has a typical "news wheel"-type format but aired mostly live to allow for
actual breaking news (not some latest "news" of a Trump relative having met with a lawyer from Russia!!). An example of what I'd like to see, basically, would be some combination of the newscasts that CBC aired during the broadcaster's strike about a decade ago when management, non-union employees read the news and the French-language equivalent to CBC News Network, RDI.
The National in its current form should be cancelled and replaced with a 30-minute broadcast, at 11 pm local time (or the current 10 pm local time as an alternate option), called "CBC Nightly News". It
should be hosted by Diana Swain, Mark Kelley or
some outside broadcaster as they simply
no longer have the right talent beyond those two names to handle the task (i.e., Dawna Friesen would be a good one, as would Allison Smith, if they could bring her back to the CBC). Following the national newscast, if at 10 pm, would be various 30-minute programs, based largely on the former "segments" of "The National" but made into
separate programs, each with a
different host, in part to separate their news analysis & opinion portions from the actual
news. For instance, Thursdays at 10 pm could be "CBC At Issue" hosted by, perhaps, current "Power & Politics" host Rosemary Barton (who should remain in her current show as she does a decent job) and would make sense (in her absence, either of Terry Milewski or Chris Hall would sub in on either program). The panel should be slightly altered, removing Althia Raj as she is from
HuffPost, which is a blatantly partisan shop masquerading as a news outlet. Either of Paul Wells, Jennifer Ditchburn or Susan Delacourt, who've all been among the leading, and I
hate to use this over-used term, "thought leaders". Fridays at 10:30 pm could show "CBC Money This Week," (instead of "The Bottom Line") hosted by whoever hosts CBC News Network's nightly "On the Money" program (currently, Peter Armstrong) but this program would be primarily a brief synopsis of the week's business stories followed by panel discussion but
not a fixed panel with panelists that have expertise to the subject matter at hand (and
please, less Preet Banjeree and other personal finance bloggers!!
). "CBC News: The Investigators" could be done by the their investigations team, which
should be "beefed up," and hosted by whoever hosts "CBC Nightly News" or Diana Swain, should she remain in the investigations team, and could air Tuesdays at 10:30 pm. On Mondays and Wednesdays, a new 30-minute program called, "CBC News: In-Depth Monday Edition" and "CBC News: In-Depth Wednesday Edition," hosted by the feature reporter for that particular broadcast's in-depth report would feature their various long-form news stories.
If "CBC Nightly News" airs at 11 pm, then the local CBC newscasts should air at 11:30 pm. The above-named programs
could still air at 10:30 pm, as a lead-in for the "CBC Nightly News" following similar-themed but non-news programming (i.e., "Marketplace" at 10 pm, even though I despise their tabloid-style reporting), "Rick Mercer Tonight" could move to 10 pm on its night as could each of CBC's stand-up comedy program, "Still Standing," "This Hour Has 22 Minutes," and others to round out the week.
Solid plan, eh?
Cheers,
Doug