Heritage Minister James Moore has warned CBC executives that excessive spending on hotels, theatre tickets, and charity dinners “does not sit well” with Canadians, and has asked the Crown corporation’s board of directors to rein in the spending.
John Cruickshank has resigned from the top job at CBC News to take the position of publisher of the Toronto Star.
h/t to Dan C.
They must be crying over at Al Jazeera over missing Cruickshank.
Perhaps the gov’t can reign in about $1 billion from the CBC.
Baby steps. Positive, albeit small, developments at CBCPravda to be sure.
Perhaps he got the memo circulating in Cabinet circles about moving CBC corporate offices and studios to Moose Jaw in an effort to rein in spending 😉
If not Moose Jaw, then how about Kipp, Alberta? I challenge them to even find it on the map…
CRC
No openings at Al Jazeera?
Strange how a guy who is supposedly fair and balanced through news provision ends up going from Pravda to TASS.
Guess his ideology doesn’t turn itself off for professional obligations.
On the upshot, Redstar might be a whole lot smaller in the coming years…
The stench of Marxist nepotism.
Is he jumping from a sinking ship or going from the frying pan into the fire?
rebarbarian,
Why can’t it be both? Jumping from the Titanic to the Lusitania.
Privatize them. Make em leave the warm womb of government money paid by tax payers. Then they will learn how the world really works. At least they could learn to budget.
Why does Canada have to pay for a wholly owned Collectivist TV station where Marx is worshipped as the incarnation of a dead Trudeau with his living spawn?
Let them find out how truly National they are. Tired of paying for lousy totalitarian Toronto TV.
That along with its fascist mentality & cheap propaganda.
Excellent. Now James, can you do the same to the over-spending, entitled-to-my-luxury-flights-to-my-second-home Conservatives? And specifically get rid Deficit Jim and Spender Steve? It will feel doubly good for you too, because neither one of them have been acting like conservatives in a very long time.
Pay attention tomorrow, Ted, and you’ll see that Flaherty and Harper intend to lead by example. Of course, by then, you’ll have made something ELSE up to complain about.
If we can keep the bulldozers ,camp guards, & police away from the Collectivists. They will kill themselves by their own comedic suicide of errors. Backbiting , rating, with generally the sharks feeding on their own. One farce after another with these hoof rotted goats of opinion..
Wait a minute. Did the Torstar hire this guy because the CBC isn’t loosing money in these tough times? If that’s the case well they need to hire the Canadian taxpayer for the job. The CBC’s success has nothing to do with Cruikshank’s ability to run a company. It has very much to do with the bottomless pockets of the taxpayer. Just like running into anotheri iceberg,TitaniTorstar.
This is a perfect opportunity to install a new chief more sympathetic to fair and balanced reporting
No Christmas party for Hurricane Krista to doff her leather ware at?
The CBC and the Red Star are partners in left wing reporting. It is really sad the Conservatives have done nothing to change the culture at the CBC. Send as many e-mails as possible to your MP.
Aw shucks, that’s too bad. Remember the aftermath of the Heather Mallick fiasco? Cruickshank told us all that “they were listening” and would change CBC News to have a balance of views.
We waited. Nothing. We waited some more. Nothing. And we waited even longer. Not yet a solitary change was made, as he had promised.
Now he’s leaving. Hope he doesn’t let the door hit him on the way out … though I suspect that there’s a short tunnel connecting the CBC bldg in Toronto with that of The Star!
I know it’s only wishful thinking on my part, but maybe they’re getting nervous about rumours that may have a grain of truth to them. Is it possible that Harper is going to use the cover of harsh economic times and blatant high life spending of CBC to put forth some HUGE cuts. Especially after witnessing what arts funding caving bought him in Quebec.
Here’s hoping CBC is going private. Maybe Michael Moore and Al Gore will snap it up.
Just curious, how did the Canadian government ever get in the news business anyway?
What the heck is the history behind it?
Please cut th CBC budget.This is a challenge to a minority government but I do recall Libs{Martin?} doing some serious cuts once upon a time. Given the circumstances though the timing could be right,start with the TV end, time to tell all taxpayers,most who do not watch CBC how much it really costs them personally. Most people have no idea of the cost. Heck they don’t even have HNIC theme anymore and unless you are a leaf fan who cares. If it can not be done now at least the education process can begin.
crotchrocketcowboy at 5:38
Kipp, just west of Lethbridge, population 6 last time I saw the sign there!
At last a “hands-on” minister, and immediate results.
It’s so easy when you do the job properly.
This just proves that the Conservatives are knuckle draggers ….. doesn’t it?
I mean …. threatening to do something with the CBC!!!
Unheard of….
Perhaps when Flaherty was talking of selling off assets he was thinking of selling off the CBC palace in Toronto and relocating them to some abandoned strip mall in “gasp” Brampton.
The attrition that such a move would cause because it would place the employees further than walking distance from a good Thai restaurant and require them to get a driver’s licence so they could get to and from work should clip the CBC’s payroll by 60 to 70 percent…
Kate: BREAKING…
Flaherty says he’s going to cut funding to partys.
The cuts would hammer the oppo parties the most esp the BQ (86% cut)
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081126/party_budgets_081126/20081126?hub=TopStories
via national newswatch
Manna from heaven… Duceppe must be beside himself.
“This is a perfect opportunity to install a new chief more sympathetic to fair and balanced reporting.”
I have already advised CBC Board Chairman Timothy Casgrain how to get George Stroumboulopoulous’s numbers to skyrocket.
I am waiting to see if he moves on my advice.
Mr. Cruickshank sees the righting on the wall?
Gord Tulk @ 9:07 pm, that’s excellent news!
Joe Molnar, I just read your suggestion to CBC. It’ll never work. Most of us on the conservative side quite watching Mother Corp a long time ago. We ain’t going back. Far too many leftists for far too long, the corporate culture just is too deeply ingrained to change. The only thing that will work is privatizing, but they still won’t get me back, cause I get all the news and entertainment I want via the web.
Now is the time for the Conservative Party to make all those hard decisions. Gutting CBC is the best one to start off with. All new governments start their new terms by hacking and slashing and when their terms are nearly up and an election is on the horizon, they offer up the goodies. With the Liberal Party in disarray, no one will want another election. Hell another election over the budget might just bring the Cons back in with a majority, if the budget cuts are where Canadians want them to be.
Hey that’s pretty good Noel now can you find Veldt Alberta? I think it would be a perfect place for the new CBC headquarters.
Well Louise, at the very least Casgrain has been made aware the contempt with which the top Canadian conservative blog’s viewers hold the biased CBC and where they have their TV’s tuned at
8:00 pm eastern – O’Reilly Factor on FOX cable.
Putting a true conservative voice on a regular basis might save their (CBC) sorry asses from privatization.
Here’s a poll question the Conservatives could ask – Should the federal government run a one billion dollar deficit or should it slash one billion dollars funding from the CBC?
To those who favour privatising the CBC – to hell with the political consequences might i offer an alternative that essentially puts the knife in the CBC’s hands and lets them cut there own financial and/or philosophical throats:
1. Promise the CBC that their budget will be cut at logarithmically (if that’s the right term)declining rate (i.e. 2% next year , 4% the next 8% the next etc.)adjusted for inflation for the next decade when it will be zero.
They will also lose all professional sports bradcasting rights – amatuer sports only and no olympics – we all know that that is largely a professional competition.
They also will not be able to buy programming from private production companies – BBC, PBS stuff are okay, Seinfeld is not.
They also will not be able to sell advertising. The shortfall would be made up for by the gov’t during the first ten-years.
BUT they will be able to fund raise just as PBS does in the US – for every dollar they get in charitable donations (i.e. the donor gets to write his or her contribution off) and the feds will match what they raise dollar for dollar. No corporate or union donations allowed. All funds during the ten-year cut back period they will get to keep so in the early years they may well be able to much more money to spend than they do currently.
IMO under such a system the CBC would have to drastically improve programming and change it politics. But CDNs will be happier and better informed and entertained – concepts foreign to the current CBC establishment.
Sorry for the crappy editing of the post above, I rushed hitting the “POST” button.
Maybe Jimmy Pattison could be enticed into taking over managing the CBC. 🙂
There are already some excellent Canadian digital channels available via the web. The original CBC had a monopoly way back when. Now that it has abundant competition, let it fend for itself. Those who want to watch/listen can pull the cash out of their pockets and subscribe.
Joe, why would anyone who even has a hint of a conservative streak in them watch big government/anti-business/Obama boot licking O’Reilly?
So AtlanticJim, what does a good “conservative” watch?
As far as CBC is concerned, many years ago, while still a young fellow, I realized that CBC was a boar’s nest of socialist culture, soft communists and even hard communists. (Carol Off, Avi Lewis, McKenna boys et al) in later years prime examples.
Why would a conservative Canadian watch O’Reilly?
O’Reilly maintains he is an independent.
Yet if you pay attention to his take on the American MSM he cuts it up constantly as leftist, exactly what we have for MSM here in Canada.
Canada does not have one single solitary staunch individual conservative voice on prime time National TV or for that matter corporately owned conservative newspaper such as the former Conrad Black owned National Post.
Zippo, nada, nothing (shemi – that’s
Hungarian for NOTHING).
They all tilt left.
That’s why I cling to American conservative voices like Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, oh yes – O’Reilly.
All we have in Canada is the internet, Kate McMillan and SDA.
Kapish?
WRT CBC : I really enjoy the LOCAL radio programme.
It’s when they go national that I have to get out the barf bag.
I’d almost be afraid if PM Harper made the CBC go private. Remember when scAir Canada went private? With a flourish of pens their debt disappeared allowing them to sock it to Canadian. The divorce decree and alimony would have the taxpayers by the …
Ever wonder how come CBC TV has as many commercials as CTV and Global but still needs 1 billion extra?
Trivia: Trans Canada Airlines was changed to Air Canada by government bill introduced by none other than the little fart from Shiwinnigate :Jean Crouton.