Monthly Archives: June 2009

Patrick Watson: A dream realized

Newsworld dribbles while Iran burns: “[W]hen I gave up on CNN and turned to CBC Newsworld… they were talking about – was I dreaming? – community soccer.”

Headline of the year

“Drabinsky promotes Triple Sensation as he awaits sentencing.” In an unethical practice that even the writer – yes, it’s Bill Brioux – admits was “a deal with the devil,” Drabinsky got final cut on his own quotes. Perhaps TV need not go quite so far to feed Brioux’s family. Meanwhile, the kétaine, unwanted Quebec import returns […]

Cricketers!

Steven D’Souza captains the CBC cricket team in the Mayor’s Trophy, Toronto, June 27. Of course we’ve got one!

Peer-to-peer: It ain’t just for torrenting porn anymore

CBC (actually Radio-Canada) is using a new peer-to-peer system (from Simon Fraser University) to distribute radio programming, starting with Bande à part. The shows are the same; just the method of getting them to you changes.

‘Variety Lives on CBC Radio’

Another gem from the Canadian Design Resource. (Typeface, incidentally, is Dynamo.)

‘CBC no longer should be considered a TV network’

In an indirect quote, Dick Stursberg perpetuates the right-wing-asshole misapprehension that CBC is CBC Television. (Why are we spending a billion dollars if all we get is Wheel of Fortune?)

KanKonKwizâ„¢

NOW WITH SOLUTION For a fun diversion as we head into a long, hot summer of pogey, “blockbuster” Hollywood movies, and high-UV-index Saturdays pretending to give a shit about Toronto FC, take the Tea Makers’ fun new KanKonKwizâ„¢! (First in a series!) Can you spot the distinctive, legal-mandate-conformant CBC Television series hidden in plain sight […]

Andrew Nichols shakes your cocktails

…at Pride soirée Starry Night, June 26. (Oh! And Gavin Crawford [q.v.]!)

Journo with solid gig gets second gig

Kate Taylor of the Globe won the Toronto Star’s Atkinson Fellowship to study “Canadian Cultural Sovereignty in the Digital Age.” “Taylor will also study the duelling philosophies that plague the CBC – highbrow or populist?”

Go and assist Christine Wilson

Hiring freeze? Layoffs? Don’t be silly. Christine Wilson needs an assistant.

Private-broadcaster secrets now easier to read than ever

Canada’s new government held sessions with the Privates to talk funding and policy and basically dish! dish! dish! Your government then published transcripts with nearly every point of interest blacked out (“redacted”). But now you can enjoy this government censorship of government documents on behalf of private for-profit broadcasters in superconvenient Web format. CBC-related content? […]

Said with a straight face

Susanne Boyce to the Grey Lady: “We believe we’re making Canadian shows for Canadians.”

‘We are in an unprecedented position of strength at CBC News’

J. McGuire puts a brave face on “renewing” the news on a budget of negative a hundred and seventy. But Dick Stursberg’s fiancée is quite safe.

‘Impregnated with good faith’

How’s the Access to Information office running? “The corporation has been ‘nothing but coöperative, diligent and impregnated with good faith’ â€ – despite missing 388 of 389 deadlines from one applicant. (Yeah, it’s Michel Drapeau, revealed now as a hired gun for the Sun.)

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