Shinning A Light On The CBC's Flawed Decision Making

There are only two days remaining to vote in the webpoll for which CBC employee you think tested the worst with focus groups. As of right now Terry Milewski has a large lead over his colleagues, followed by Stombo, Mary Walsh, and Soloman. Now that the CBC has been ordered by the courts to hand over internal documents such as focus group data, we may finally get a chance to shine a light on some of the Broadcaster's inner machinations for evidence of flawed decision making at the programming level.

Many of us would also like to see what programs lose the most money so we can start trimming the fat. Meanwhile, there is at least one group fighting to save the CBC's tax payer subsidies. The "Friends of Canadian Broadcasting" are launching an ad campaign targeting the Tory government on the CBC issue. The objective is to protect the flow of tax money to prop up a public broadcaster notorious for putting untalented people on the air. Somebody needs to fight for the right of Mary Walsh to get paid to be on television, because otherwise no network would hire "artists" like her. Generally you have to be funny to get a gig as a comedian, unless that employer is the CBC.

Court Forces CBC To Hand Over Focus Group Results For TV Personalities

The CBC lost a court appeal forcing them to answer Access to Information requests that they had previously ignored on the grounds of protecting artistic secrets. Among the documents ordered be turned over are focus group results regarding CBC personalities, something that the CBC did not want to be made public. Many of us would love to see the results of this ATI request published in the media. Infact I hope that they have focus groups results for every single television personality, and that they become public information. If the CBC would like to keep this information private, they should stop taking money from the government.

This begs the question, which CBC personality has the most negative or damaging focus group results? On the news side it has to be Milewski or Soloman. The CBC repeatedly airs commercials for the Soloman Show with Evan pleading with viewers that he's "tough, but not unfair", over and over again. I wonder if that's what his focus group said? The most negative results probably come from their regular television programming, where they have some absolutely atrocious TV shows.

Which CBC TV personality has the most negative focus group results will be a future poll question, after a sufficient nomination period. Who do you think tested poorly, but kept their jobs anyway? The lead actor in Little Mosque is reportedly an alpha male within CBC ranks, so if he tested poorly it is plausible the results would be disregarded.

But even more than focus group results, the information I want to see the most is how much each show cost to make, and how much revenue each produced. Who made money, and who lost money? And how much?

CBC's O'Malley Mocks Government On Access To Information Diligence

It's ironic that a CBC journalist blogger would direct mocking criticism at the government for their diligence in responding to Access To Information requests; when her own public tax funded broadcaster frequently refuses to respond to ATI requests about how they spend those tax dollars. Perhaps it is as they so often say, "takes one to know one". Oh that's right I forgot, the CBC has the moral high ground because they are protecting their "artistic integrity" (I know, calling anything produced by the CBC "art" is objectionable).

Kady's original post mocking of the government on this matter came a few weeks ago after an ethics committee hearing investigating the CBC questionable practices regarding ATI requests. She was trying to deflect criticism away from the CBC by throwing mud at the Tory government under the title "OpenGovWatch", questioning the gov's sincerity on posting ATI request results online by the end of the year. Today the government announced they would do exactly that, so Kady re-posted her original negative post from a few weeks ago, scratched a few words out, and added an update at the bottom. Is that her way of printing a retraction? Or did she use the announcement as an excuse to re-post her original mocking criticism?

It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, but that's something we've come to expect from the journalistic blogging world of Kady O'Malley...

Should Rob Ford Sue The CBC?

This might seem like a ridiculous question, but one I'd like to ask; if the taxpayers didn't have to foot the bill, should Rob Ford sue the CBC? I'm not a lawyer, but between trespassing and blatant character assassination, there has to be enough to get a court date. If he were to sue the CBC, the taxpayers would be on the hook for the legal bill, so this is more of a hypothetical question. Home invasions are a little extreme even for the CBC, but I would really like to read the minutes from the meeting where they decided upon this new strategy. What was the dialogue between Walsh and her producer? Maybe I'll send an Access to Information request. They pushed the envelope farther than they ever have, and I suspect it was a deliberate attempt to force the Mayor into the most uncomfortable situation, impromptu left wing sketch comedy at his home in front of his children. Then he overreacted and called the police, prompting the CBC to ridicule him and then publish a negative story about the 9/11 calls that turned out to be totally false. That's damned near slander. You can get sued for that.

Message to anyone considering a political career, the CBC is breaking new ground where you need to be on high alert 24 hours per day. You won't be safe in your homes. Why the f**k anyone would want a career in politics with this ridiculous standard is beyond me. I guess this kind of attack is perpetrated more often against right wing politicians, who are vilified at every opportunity. Every Conservative is "the worst person in the world", right?

I have to give two thumbs up to Ezra Levant for this comedy sketch. It was brilliant and made me laugh out loud.

Ambush Comedy At Politician Homes?

Today's poll question; is it appropriate for a comedy troupe to film uninvited unexpected improv sketches at the homes of politicians? A maniacal CBC character and camera crew ambushed Rob Ford at his home on his driveway with his young daughter present, and the CBC has been hammering him all day for responding to the ambush by calling the police. Was calling the police necessary? Maybe not, but he should never have been put in that position. The loonie left has been sending death threats to the Mayor, and the CBC suddenly decides to jump this guy first thing in the morning outside his house when he's driving his young child to school? Seriously??? How long did they sit waiting outside his house for him to come out?

What the CBC did here was just stupid and wrong. If we permit this as acceptable we are setting a dangerous precedence. Who's going to want to get into politics if you are going to be harrassed in your driveway? The clowns on CBC Newsworld today were having a lot of fun with this story today, with one dude joking that he had to pour through many e-mails to find any supportive of Ford. The discussion of whether or not this home ambush was an appropriate decision was noticeably absent. Then tonight on the National, Mansbridge did a whole bit on why Rob Ford's 1st year was so terrible and the worst "mistake" they could name was him missing the Pride parade (meanwhile Christy Clark skipped the one in Vancouver and the media hardly made a whimper). Sure Ford has yet to cut the budget as promised (thanks in part to ardent left wing opposition), but nothing he's done can be classified as doing a bad job. Yet to hear some journalists talk about it, through one year he's the worst Mayor in the history of Canada. Some journalists and bloggers, like Marcus Gee at the Globe and Mail have pretty much dedicated their lives to attacking Ford.

Kelly McParland wrote a great piece on this story in the National Post which I strongly recommend reading.

"Hands Off Our CBC"

Today Bob Rae's Liberal Party announced a new campaign and online petition called "hands off our CBC" in an attempt to stop the government from reducing the billion plus dollars tax payer subsidize the state broadcaster annually. According to Jennifer Ditchburn the Liberals are "trying to tap a well of potential support". I'm not exactly sure who she thinks will make up this "well of support", unless she's talking about people who collect pay cheques from the CBC. Perhaps Bobby's plan is to try and get the folks at CBC Newsworld in their corner, as if they weren't already. The Liberals aren't picking up any support from their right by engaging in this policy, so this is likely a play for NDP votes. Most CBC jobs are unionized, so saving the subsidies should have some appeal to big labour.

Unfortunately for Bob, his announcement was overshadowed today by Mulcair entering the NDP leadership race.