Wednesday, March 28, 2012

CBC federal budget cuts

Rumours are that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is going to cut upwards of 10% to the CBC budget.  I say, why not 100%--all $1.1 billion?  It's not like anyone is watching the channel.  Don't believe me?

According to the BBM, here are the latest TV ratings.  CTV programmes dominate the top 30, with CBC only having 3, count 'em, 3 shows in this list with Hockey Night in Canada (East and West as the same programme), Dragons' Den (I love this show), and Republic of Doyle.

I don't mind CBC Radio2--I listen to it for maybe an hour a week tops for some classical music.  I like the Lang and O'Leary Exchange too, plus Peter Mansbridge One-On-One, but Power and Politics is annoyingly bias sometimes. 

And so much for Canadian content--why does the CBC play American programmes like The Simpsons, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy?

So anyone who says the CBC "keeps the country together" is simply ignorant.  Barely anyone watches it. Lefties also get in a huff when the government subsidizes big bad evil corporations, but why is the CBC any different?  It is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation isn't it?  And why is it trying to compete with other businesses in a marketplace like this?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yet the CBC comes on and says.."The # one broadcasting system". I would like to see them out of business. Nothing but news suppresser's and lefty propaganda system.
Give the money to Sun News...they report the news. CBC is a disgrace.I am sick to death of them and their LIES.

Anonymous said...

When I once worked for CBC a while back, I saw this coming. I'm not saying this out of anger towards this broadcast station, but the cuts are long overdue. The little time I worked for them, there were a lot of funds being wasted. 90% of everything reported in the media about the funds wasted at CBC is true.

As the access to information earlier this year confirmed, 750 of its staff make $100K or more & $1 billion of the CBC’s estimated $1.7 billion operating budget is tied up in salaries. Something needs to be done right there. They need to start by cutting down on the excess management in both Toronto & Ottawa. When I worked there, it was often confusing with all the multiple managers I had to report to just for one show or department project.

First, why should there be 5 managers operating one show or department? Also, the managers are doing a poor job keeping a productive team, especially on the "English Services Side". See this link about "Hell on the fourth floor" in the Main Toronto Bureau: http://www.theteamakers.com/tag/the-hub/

Another thing to take a look at is the type of folks they're hiring to oversee their finances. Their head accountant / senior director of CBC News was tied up in outside auditing flaws, which lead to eyebrow raising back in 2008: http://gawker.com/mona-venkateswaran/

Now is this the type of management team that CBC wants to continue spending taxpayers money on? If this person had eye opening flaws in that audit, who knows what type of false information they're reporting & projecting for CBC's past & upcoming budget as we speak.

Instead of cutting shows, they need to cut some of that excess, corrupt management team who are part of the 750 CBC Staff making $100K or more. This would save CBC a lot of trouble and money in the end!