LETTER

Debate on CBC’s declining news quality

 

Thank you to Mr Spaniel for giving your readers instructions on how to listen to the radio. Obviously, he feels our tears (“bleeding hearts”) obscure our ability to coordinate turning the radio on with paying attention to the clock.

Mr Spaniel, no one is saying there is no news. But, frankly, who cares about a three-second mention of big hurricanes and then mainly about Ottawa residents stranded in their resorts -- while local people crash. We don’t want US State Department press releases about Venezuela and Brazil, we want news covering both sides. We don’t need extensive quotes of Pres. Trump, we’d like some other interviews as to why Trump is saying these things. What’s Trump covering up? That sort of news.

As for CBC’s sterling international reputation, I must assume Mr Spaniel travels only to all-inclusives on the Mexican coast.  Next time, he should check out some of the local media, even there. CBC is no longer even on the list of ‘quality news services’ of the world!  

CBC has some excellent programming, like The Current.  As for news, which we depend on in our rushed lives, CBC is little different from commercial radio with their dramatic headlines, repetition of one-line quotations, headlining grief-stricken parents, and recounting of “tragic” events with, lazily, no attempt to explain the whys and wherefores. That’s news. I’m sorry that we don’t get it from CBC.  

Andrew Black
Aylmer Nord