National news
CBC’s flagship gets update — will it float? Bill Brioux checks out the first broadcast.
Can four new hosts take the place of an anchor who led CBC’s The National for nearly 30 years? It will take more than one newscast to properly judge, but CBC demonstrated Monday that its new team approach to the nightly news at the very least looks different — and younger — than what rival broadcasters have to offer.
There’s no blaring theme song to open this new National, no showy, brightly coloured graphics off the top. Instead, three or four simple stills set the table for the day’s headlines. Viewers are then whisked to Toronto-based Ian Hanomansing and Adrienne Arsenault, Rosemary Barton in Ottawa and Andrew Chang in Vancouver. On opening night, they often appeared together on screen in separate, hockey card-shaped rectangles, leaving barely enough room for all their poppies.
The four anchors smiled but never got too chummy, like on The View. They also didn’t shout over each other, like on the old At Issue panel.
There never seemed to be any need for all of them. Barton, on this night, did not grill an Ottawa party leader in studio. And Chang was the Ringo of the group, the one with little to do who could have been paid less.
It was Hanomansing, the senior member of the quartet, who got the news started on Monday.
A rock-steady veteran and spry improviser, he brought gravitas to the proceedings as viewers were told a police officer had been slain in Abbotsford, B.C.
A map locating the city would have been helpful. So would more information about exactly what happened. A suspect was hurt and taken to hospital. We eventually learned he is in his 60s and from Alberta. But did this story just happen? Is that why it seemed quickly thrust to the top of the news?
Things soon pivoted to what was likely the original lead item: the aftermath of the mass shootings in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Here, real resources were activated, with veteran news contributor Paul Hunter gathering some very raw, emotional testimonies.
Keith Boag was brought in for a little editorializing. He pointed out that 14.5 million Americans now carry concealed weapons permits.
“The debate over gun control here is essentially over,” he said, “and the NRA won.”
A long commercial break then derailed the momentum. If the CBC really wants to distinguish itself from its rivals — and attract millennials who don’t watch network fare — it will have to deliver commercial-free news hours.
In the last half-hour, Arsenault moved front and centre with The Ruins of Raqqa, a daring, firsthand report from what was once described as the capital of ISIL.
“The wind still carries the stench of the dead,” reported Arsenault, who, guided by an armed escort, bravely walked into war-torn streets. A segment on a musical tribute to Leonard Cohen followed before the four hosts saluted the sparse, blueand-black Toronto set. In one corner is a stack of old cameras, microphones and artifacts from National newscasts past, a towering tribute to CBC’s heritage.
How far The National will extend into the future will depend on whether millennials will sit for an hour crammed with commercials — and whether their parents and grandparents will stick with this experiment long enough for four people to collectively find their feet.