The National - A Poll

News from the world of Television

When, if ever, did you last watch The National on at least a weekly basis?

Never
3
23%
More than 50 Years Ago
1
8%
40-49 Years Ago
0
No votes
30-39 Years Ago
1
8%
20-29 Years Ago
1
8%
10-19 Years Ago
0
No votes
6-10 Years Ago
3
23%
Within the Last 5 Years
4
31%
 
Total votes : 13

The National - A Poll

Postby jon » Sat Jun 24, 2017 1:20 pm

With Peter Mansbridge's upcoming retirement from CBC Television's The National, and his near fixation on allowing it to be reworked for a younger audience, I have to wonder if it is even holding on to its existing audience.

The Poll asks about Weekly viewing. If it helps, think of that as 50 or more times a year.
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby tuned » Mon Jul 10, 2017 11:16 am

This is a very well written opinion piece on The National by former BCTV reporter Harvey Oberfeld. I don't think anyone could accuse him of being right wing and if I recall he was involved in the union at his former job.
http://harveyoberfeld.ca/blog/
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby ThisIsNotCBC » Mon Jul 10, 2017 5:52 pm

I read Harvey's blog earlier and it showed exactly why I don't watch The National. Left-wing SJW propaganda disguised as "news" is sure to turn off a lot of viewers and drive them away from the show.

It also demonstrates why the CBC needs to be privatized, and fast - taxpayers shouldn't have to be paying for an entity that serves as little more than the joint media wing of the Liberals, the NDP, the Greens and the PQ/BQ.
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby Dan Sys » Tue Jul 11, 2017 7:07 am

Only seriously uninformed individuals would advocate the privatization of the CBC. I don't know much about the television side of things, but one only has to look at the most recent Numeris ratings to see the impact that CBC Radio One services have across the country.....and it's huge. Not to mention that CBC radio outlets have become the most reliable sources for local news and emergency situations in this day and age of corporate radio cutbacks, as we have found out with the wildfire crisis in B.C. in recent days:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27417
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby tuned » Tue Jul 11, 2017 7:28 am

CBC Radio is even worse in pushing SJW propaganda. They have large audiences partially because they run zero ads thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars in handouts from taxpayers. People that listen to CBC radio should pay for it, either by subscription or listening to ads. The entire CBC needs to be forcibly removed from the taxpayers teat.
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby Dan Sys » Tue Jul 11, 2017 9:10 am

Tuned.....I think you have been listening to and believing the unfounded propaganda that comes from organizations like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation or from irrational politicians such as Andrew Scheer. The amount that taxpayers direct towards funding the CBC is minuscule in the overall scheme of things. I for one have no objections whatsoever for a portion of my taxpaying dollars going towards funding the wonderful programming available on the CBC. I'm sure that the vast majority of Canadians agree.
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby tuned » Tue Jul 11, 2017 10:45 am

It's one billion dollars PER YEAR from taxpayers Dan, ONE BILLION. That's not including amounts extorted from viewers through cable TV packages that include CBC Newsworld. So don't accuse me of being influenced by "propaganda" when you are the one swallowing great big dollops of it.
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby Dan Sys » Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:31 am

Whatever Tuned. That one billion eventually finds its way back into the economy anyways, so who what's the big deal? What comes around goes around. I am so glad that people that think along your lines are a minority in this country or we would be in deep trouble. One only has to look south of the border to see the mess that narrow minded philosophies have created.
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby Heard It On The X » Tue Jul 11, 2017 2:35 pm

I have never quite understood the push to privatize the CBC.
Most nations have a well-funded government broadcaster with a mandate to cover news and highlight aspects of the country the private for-profit broadcasters are either unable or unwilling to do.
The wildfires here in BC are just another example of the CBC's mission and continued relevance.
With bureaus in every corner of the province, no-one is better equipped to cover those stories and relay the information to the rest of us like them.
While some outlets are happy peeling footage off of YouTube or getting reports by phone, the CBC has actual boots on the ground in the areas being evacuated by wildfires.
Can the CBC be improved? Should it? Yes, of course.
But to sell it off because you think it is biased against your particular political worldview?
That would be throwing the baby out with the proverbial bath water.
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby tuned » Tue Jul 11, 2017 5:59 pm

I don't have a problem with the CBC providing service to communities that are too small for a commercial broadcaster but they should be providing a balanced editorial point of view if they are going to be taking taxpayer money. That service could be provided for a heck of a lot less than a billion dollars a year. CBC Newsworld shouldn't get a dime from taxpayers because if they can't make it on their own like other news channels they should go out of business just like Sun TV did. Canadians were sold down the river by both Liberal and Conservative governments that allowed the media consolidation.
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby jon » Tue Jul 11, 2017 8:08 pm

tuned wrote:CBC Newsworld shouldn't get a dime from taxpayers because if they can't make it on their own like other news channels they should go out of business just like Sun TV did.

CBC Newsworld was started with no increase in funding from the federal government. As a "must-carry", they got paid by every cable subscriber in the country.

On the other hand, Sun TV could not get "must-carry" status and went broke as a result.

Feel free to correct me if my recollection is wrong on either of these cable channels.

tuned wrote:It's one billion dollars PER YEAR from taxpayers Dan, ONE BILLION.

I've always agreed with one of my former CBC Station Managers, when he rose up the ranks after I worked for him, he was asked what he thought should be done with CBC Radio: he suggested that the money it would take to do solid local AM and PM Drive programming in major markets was little more than rounding error in the overall CBC budget, given how much more expensive TV is than Radio.

In other words, any talk of killing the CBC would be better divided into separate discussions of TV and Radio. Because of the huge differences in Costs.
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby Doug » Mon Jul 17, 2017 6:09 pm

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? ;)

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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby ThisIsNotCBC » Tue Jul 18, 2017 8:45 am

Dan Sys wrote:Only seriously uninformed individuals would advocate the privatization of the CBC. I don't know much about the television side of things, but one only has to look at the most recent Numeris ratings to see the impact that CBC Radio One services have across the country.....and it's huge. Not to mention that CBC radio outlets have become the most reliable sources for local news and emergency situations in this day and age of corporate radio cutbacks, as we have found out with the wildfire crisis in B.C. in recent days:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27417


At the very least, CBC Television should be cut loose and be told to sink or swim on its own as a commercialized private entity. Government may have had its place in getting television established in Canada back in the 1950s, but government's time and place for being involved in the broadcasting business has come and gone. The Alberta and Saskatchewan governments realized this when they respectively privatized Access (now CTV Two Alberta) and SCN (now City Saskatchewan), so if they can do that, then Ottawa can do the same with CBC Television. As for CBC Radio, what could be done with it is like what was done with CKUA in Alberta (and like how NPR operates in the States) - spin it off into a non-profit, listener-supported venture (which would have to be renamed if CBC Television kept the CBC name).

The amount that taxpayers direct towards funding the CBC is minuscule in the overall scheme of things. I for one have no objections whatsoever for a portion of my taxpaying dollars going towards funding the wonderful programming available on the CBC. I'm sure that the vast majority of Canadians agree.


That billion-plus dollars the CBC gets in funding each year from Ottawa comes right from the taxpayers. Considering the left-wing slant in its news coverage and unapologetic SJW propaganda which most folks would rather not be watching (and The National's sinking ratings bear that out, as even Global National has since surpassed it to take #2 behind CTV National News), most Canadians would rather not see that money wasted for that purpose.
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby Jack Bennest » Thu Jul 20, 2017 6:55 am

social justice warrior SJM

boy I must be out of touch - didn't see that one coming and had to google it. I must be from the Bill Hughes generation

until you see all the expenditures of the federal government by category - I think we should hold off killing one of the finest broadcast services (radio and tv) in the world

I will miss Peter's clacking false teeth sound - but love him just the same. Agree with Dan CBC radio has taken the lead in many markets over the crappy side of commercial jukeboxes.
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Re: The National - A Poll

Postby Doug » Thu Jul 27, 2017 6:32 pm

Jack Bennest wrote:social justice warrior SJM

boy I must be out of touch - didn't see that one coming and had to google it. I must be from the Bill Hughes generation

until you see all the expenditures of the federal government by category - I think we should hold off killing one of the finest broadcast services (radio and tv) in the world

I will miss Peter's clacking false teeth sound - but love him just the same. Agree with Dan CBC radio has taken the lead in many markets over the crappy side of commercial jukeboxes.


That's his false teeth? I thought it sounded more like he was always chewing on something or "pursing" his lips together. And, if that's the sound you mean, it's my #1 Mansbridge irritant. ;)

Still, I think CBC needs to get out of digital advertising and out of advertising on news & documentary program, save those limited ad dollars for the private sector (specifically, the fine media print media outlets that run leaps & bounds ahead of CBC in terms of in-depth reporting! :)). I actually miss the CBC's simplistic red & black on-screen graphics. They should bring that back, bring back "no name" on air personalities and adopt the model utilized at RDI in terms of "just the news, please," and less opinion commentary, on CBC News Network.

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