Posted on 02/21/2005 6:25:19 AM PST by UpHereEh
OTTAWA -- The CBC will get a multimillion-dollar boost when the federal budget is tabled Wednesday, CP has learned. The extra cash will be enough to restore local programs, notably regional newscasts, a senior government source said on condition of anonymity.
Local supper-hour newscasts were slashed in 2000 amid deep budget cuts. Staff were laid off across Canada and more than 200,000 viewers tuned out when hour-long regional evening newscasts were shortened.
Critics assailed the CBC's effort to replace the popular local newscasts with Canada Now, a Vancouver-based show that includes regional inserts.
CBC president Robert Rabinovitch recently outlined a plan to restore regional content. It calls for sustained funding that would gradually increase from $34.4 million in the first year to $61.2 million in the second, levelling off at $82.8 million by the third year.
"Faced with massive government reductions in our funding during the 1990s, CBC/Radio-Canada was forced to make very difficult programming decisions," Rabinovitch told employees two weeks ago.
"But we are committed to rebuilding our local and regional service and this plan details how we would do that and what it would cost."
About $930 million of the CBC's $1.3-billion annual budget comes from the federal government.
Ian Morrison, spokesperson for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, hopes Ottawa will insist that any new funding must be used to boost regional programming. The non-profit, independent watchdog group promotes improved content across the country.
"We do not detect that the senior management at the CBC, president Rabinovitch and his senior people, are really committed to regional programming," Morrison said.
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT IN PROTEST OF THIS COMPLETE WASTE OF TAXPAYERS MONEY!!!
Instead, tell the government to get the hell out of the broadcasting business and let Fox News in.
Fox News is now being broadcast across Canada (pay only of course) which is a step in the right direction. The CBC however, is basically a tool for the libs to promote their own agendas, ie: gay marriage, abortion, anti-Americanism, anti-military, anti-war, etc... They spend unbelievable amounts of money on documentaries slamming President Bush and his foreign policy and promoting same-sex marriage. The government funding has to stop!!!
And they don't get what they pay for.
Disgusting ... period.
Two words... Fox News
I can't speak to the situation in southern Canada so much, but being an Alaskan and having driven extensively in neighboring Yukon and BC, I have developed an intense dislike of CBC. It seems to control the Yukon and BC.
Very few radio programming is as bad as NPR, except for CBC that is.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.