CBC News makes a stupid decision
In times of crisis, most news organizations step up their efforts to keep their readers, listeners and viewers as upto-date and informed as they possibly can. Often at an extra expense.
They do this out of a sense of duty and a sense of responsibility to their audience.
The CBC took a different tact regarding the coronavirus crisis. It decided to reduce its coverage by shutting down all its local supper-hour news shows across the country, with the exception of two supper-hour broadcasts in northern Canada.
The decision was taken by CBC news management in Toronto with little or no consultation with any of the programs, local or regional management. One might well ask if the supper-hour shows are not needed in times of crisis, are they needed at all? Hopefully, these closures aren’t a precursor of the future.
For years CBC television news was one of the strongest national news organizations in the country. Its nightly newscast, The National, was the most popular news program in Canada with a regular audience well in excess of a million viewers, even more in times of crisis.
Today’s television news service is a pale imitation of what it once was, and The National’s audience has shrunk to the point that it is only about 20 to 25 per cent of CTV’s leading newscast.
These same managers who are struggling to run the national news service are the ones who decided to do away with the local newscasts across the country. The CBC is apparently claiming that because of COVID-19 they don’t have the staff to put on the supperhour shows. But, there has been no mention of any shortage of personnel on P.E.I.
Susan Marjetti, who is billed as the CBC’s general manager of news, current affairs and local (local what?) issued a written release about the cancellation of the local news shows.
“We are needed now more than ever and will work together across the organization to serve Canadians night and day with the trusted news and critical information they need for the duration of the pandemic while keeping our teams safe. Simply stated, extraordinary times require extraordinary measures.”
If she truly believes the CBC is needed, why are they reducing the local news content?
It is doubtful that anyone sitting in Toronto has any grasp of how important Compass
is to many Islanders, particularly rural Islanders. Having supper and watching Compass to find out what happened in the province and the world, is a part of their culture.
To think that a four or five-minute interview by the national host with the host of Compass will somehow compensate for an hour-long program is bizarre.
Most of what appears as news on Compass wouldn’t even be considered by a national editor in Toronto. Even if she wanted to, the Compass host is not going to get a chance to deal with most of these purely local stories.
All news is local, but for a large national audience, all local events are not news. A serious car accident may be an important local story, but for a national audience, it’s just one of many accidents across the country and wouldn’t be news unless there were a lot of fatalities.
Premier Dennis King is well aware of the importance of Compass and he was quick to make his views known to the CBC president, Catherine Tait. He also spoke to a number of federal cabinet ministers.
However, the CBC is an arms-length federal agency and the government cannot dictate policy, so there is little the cabinet can do.
However, that is not to say nothing can be done. If the people of PEI care about Compass, they should, by letter or any other means they can think of, let Ms. Tait and other executives of the CBC, know how wrong this decision was.