With all this love for the CBC, you’d think the audience share for its flagship news program would be better than the low single-digits. But the CBC is like women’s professional sports - a great many people champion the value of it. Just not enough to actually, you know, watch it.
The CBC isn’t in the pocket of the Liberal Party. But its editorial stance certainly isn’t representatives of the breadth of public opinion in Canada either. Comparisons to the BBC are risible. On contentious issues, the CBC takes an advocacy journalism approach: identify a victim, identify a villain, and frame the issues in an emotionally-charged and handwringing manner. That’s far less true of the BBC. Compare clips of the two organizations covering the same subjects - night and day in tone and framing.
CBC Radio still does some good stuff. Quirks and Quarks, Spark, the Debaters, Tapestry, White Coat Black Art. But their flagship current event programs - As it Happens and the Current - have become an embarrassment. If the York University students union took over editorial control, would anybody even notice?
CBC’s TV news is in worse shape. The National desperately changes format every year or two, trying to stem the collapse of its audience. Which can’t just be chalked up to the move away from broadcast TV - CBC’s news programs have half the audience share of CTVs programs. Even former CBC TV icons have remarked on the sad decline.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...i-go-for-news/