LETTER

The CBC, sloppy?

 

I second your recent editorial on the CBC’s request for more money – and I agree we need some assurances that the real purposes and benefits of radio will be put into effect with that money. I don’t know how many times we hear the same news stories repeated on CBC, as often as two days past the event! That’s not news, it’s filling air space, and that’s sloppy journalism. Often we hear a news report and ten seconds later on ”local news” hear the exact same report again! Who does CBC think they are speaking to, or serving?  The brain-dead? Do they think about their audience at all? And are we to believe that on-air people don’t listen to each other’s on-air reports?

Lastly, and you didn’t mention this, CBC has put a lot of money into creating new channels, all of them music, as far as I can see. Is there that much demand for every sort of music, while little seems to go to such once-great shows like As It Happens (largely a joke, pun and trivia program now)? And must we really have 16 music channels – plus more music in prime time Radio One, Friday evenings, Saturdays, etc.? There are plenty of news junkies out here, and in today’s false-news world, we need more and better-researched news than ever. Not play-lists and nostalgia rock in prime time.  

Therefore, I also agree with your conclusion that the CBC should be supported as our one public broadcaster, but not without some performance guarantees by the board, managers and editors at CBC. We are not getting what we pay for right now.

P. Jacobs
Aylmer